Ivory Tower (Van Morrison song)

"Ivory Tower" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1986 album, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. The song was also released as a single with the B-side "A New Kind of Man", from his previous album A Sense of Wonder. It charted at #21 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1986.

Clinton Heylin writes this about the song "A chorus about how tough "It really must be/ To be me, to see like me, to feel like me" threatens the spirituality self-effacing mood he had previously maintained."^[1] Biographer John Collis takes the same viewpoint by saying "Ivory Tower, totally breaks the mold - it's an r'n'b shaker just like those produced by the Van Morrison of old, though now he suffers from self pity: "Don't you know the price I have to pay/Just to do everything I have to do..."^[2]

Personnel on original release

• Van Morrison - vocal
• June Boyce - backing vocals
• Richie Buckley - tenor saxophone
• Martin Drover - trumpet
• David Hayes - bass
• Rosie Hunter - backing vocals
• Jeff Labes - piano
• Chris Michie - guitar
• John Platania - guitar
• Bianca Thornton - backing vocals
• Jeanie Tracy - backing vocals
• Baba Trunde - drums

Notes

References

• Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
• Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0