T.B. Sheets
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| “T.B. Sheets” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song by Van Morrison | ||
| Album | Blowin' Your Mind! | |
| Released | 1967 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 9:44 | |
| Label | Epic/Legacy | |
| Writer | Van Morrison | |
| Composer | Van Morrison | |
| Producer | Bert Berns | |
| Blowin' Your Mind! track listing | ||
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"T.B. Sheets" is an early blues influenced offbeat song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his first solo album, "Blowin' Your Mind!" recorded with the Bang Records label in 1967. The version recorded on the album was over nine and a half minutes long. The story as told in the song takes place in a hospital room where a young girl lies dying of tuberculosis and is visited by the singer. The overwhelming pain and guilt he feels leads to a desperate feeling of wanting to escape from the closed in room with the smell of death and disease.
After performing the song in the studio Morrison reportedly sat down on the floor in a slump and burst into tears, completely spent emotionally. [1]His mother, Violet Morrison said that the song originally had emerged from a nightmare her son had and that he had felt it so strongly that he couldn't tell it to her but sang it instead with verses lasting for an hour.[2]
The music is best described in the words of Brian Hinton:[3]
Here is a Dickensian tale of death and decay in a big city. Organ and drums go free form, then a stately groove, fitting Van's voice like a garrotte, led by nagging lead guitar. Van's harmonica hurts the ear, then he's like a terrier, lecturing his girfriend, "Julie" about it not being natural her staying awake at night, dying.
The All Music Guide review concludes: "Although somewhat disturbing, it certainly describes the term realism with one bold masterful stroke".
Contents |
[edit] Covers
[edit] In the media
"T.B. Sheets" was the opening song and featured prominently in the 1999 movie Bringing Out the Dead that was directed by Martin Scorsese.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X
- Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison:No Surrender, London:Vintage Books ISBN 9780099431831
- Turner, Steve (1993). Too Late to Stop Now, Viking Penguin, ISBN 0-670-85147-7
