Brand New Day (Van Morrison song)
| "Brand New Day" | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Van Morrison from the album Moondance | ||||||||||||
| Released | February 1970 | |||||||||||
| Genre | R & B/Country rock | |||||||||||
| Length | 5:09 | |||||||||||
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | |||||||||||
| Writer | Van Morrison | |||||||||||
| Composer | Van Morrison | |||||||||||
| Producer | Van Morrison and Lewis Merenstein | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
"Brand New Day" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and featured on his 1970 album Moondance.
The song is described on the album as one of Morrison's "classic compositions", along with "Moondance", "And it Stoned Me", "Caravan" and "Into the Mystic". It features improvisation on Jack Schroer's alto saxophone and a backing vocal trio.
Recording
Morrison first recorded the song in the summer of 1969 at the Warner Publishing Studio, New York with producer Lewis Merenstein. The track was rerecorded in the sessions from September to November of the same year at the A&R Recording Studios, 46th Street, New York to be released on Moondance.[1]
Composition
"Brand New Day" is composed in the key of G major with the chord progression of G-F#m-Em-C-D-G-D in the verses and G-D-G-C in the chorus. The song is written in a slow 4/4 time.[2]
Morrison described his inspiration for the song:
"Brand New Day" expressed a lot of hope. I was in Boston and having a hard job getting myself up spiritually...Then one day this song came on the FM station and it had this particular feeling and this particular groove and it was totally fresh. It seemed to me like things were making sense....I didn't know who the hell the artist was. It turned out to be The Band. I looked up at the sky and the sun started to shine and all of a sudden the song just came through my head. I started to write it down, right from "When all the dark clouds roll away"....The song (on FM radio) was either "The Weight" or "I Shall Be Released".[3]
Personnel
- Van Morrison - vocals, guitar
- Jeff Labes - piano
- Gary Mallaber - drums
- John Klingberg - bass guitar
- John Platania - guitar
- Jack Schroer - alto saxophone
- Jackie Verdell - background vocals
- Judy Clay - background vocals
- Cissy Houston (Emily Houston) - background vocals
Covers
"Brand New Day" has been covered by Dorothy Morrison,[4] Esther Phillips,[4] Frankie Laine[5] and Miriam Makeba.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Heylin. Can You Feel the Silence?, p.519
- ↑ Van Morrison Anthology, pp.45-47
- ↑ Hinton. Celtic Crossroads, p.110
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Van Morrison: The Rolling Stone interview". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
- ↑ "CMT.com: Frankie Laine: Album". cmt.com. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
References
- Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074-169-X
- Heylin, Clinton (2003), Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, London: Viking, ISBN 0-670-89321-8
- Van Morrison Anthology, Los Angeles: Alfred Music Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-7692-8967-3