If you say that Van Morrison is a bore, a grumpy bore
even, I am not gonna argue. His vast catalogue of recorded music gives
plenty of good reasons to fall asleep. His output during the 80’s and
90’s is a wasteland of snores, the music so slow it stops moving and
turnes into a picture that you can hang on the wall. Hard to imagine
that this huge, unsmiling sleepwalker with his hats and sunglasses once
was a fast moving, red headed fire cracker with a voice that could split
the darkness, fronting a scruffy and hardt hitting Belfast-band that
gave the Stones a run for their money. They called themselves Them, a
short name with an attitude, and they looked just as cool on the cover
of their first album as the Stones did on theirs.
Them’s wild concerts at Club Rado at the Maritime
Hotel in Belfast quickly turned the band into local cult heroes, and by
July 1964 they were in London recording for Decca. Their breakthrough
came in December that same year when their second single, “Baby Please
Don’t Go” / “Gloria” started picking up steam.
Unfortunately they were not the musketeers from
Belfast anymore as Decca kept insisting on using hired hands on their
recordings - “Baby Please Don’t Go” got Andy White (drums), Phil Coulter
(keyboards) and Jimmy Page (rhythm guitar) on it. And it would get
worse. Resulting in numerous line-up changes and mounting to bad
feelings. On the second Them-album, “Them Again”, recorded in late ’65,
Van Morrison was more or less backed by a bunch of sessions musicians,
it didn’t go down well with the actual band of course, and during their
U.S.-tour in 1966 Them broke up.
Maybe Decca shouldn’t have interfered so blatantly
with the band’s recordings. They were a blazing powerhouse on stage, and
you can hear traces of that greatness on their first album. Like the two
and a half minute snippet of the “Mystic Eyes” that originally started
out as a spontaneous and hypnotic instrumental jam, they were seven
minutes into it when Van suddenly started singing the lyrics to a song
he was working on. Unfortunately Decca decided to cut the instrumental
part, so ten minutes of boiling excitement were reduced to two and a
half. But even at that, “Mystic Eyes” is awesome.
The album also offers the song that would become the
ultimate garage band classic, “Gloria”. Them’s live versions of this
could last up to 20 minutes, leaving the audience gasping for air. The
studio version is tight and infectious, but you wish it would have
lasted longer. Other favourite tracks: “I Gave My Love A Diamond”,
“Don’t Look Back” and that piece of howling loneliness, sorrow and
desperation called “I’m Gonna Dress In Black”.
The album is an inspired piece of potent rhythm &
blues, electrifying, angry, triumphant and longing. It’s a night record,
and it should be played loud. The best tracks match anything the Stones
and the Pretty Things were doing at the time. And no contemporay white
singer could pour his heart out with more fire and more convincingly
than Van Morrison. He even outclassed Eric Burdon.
Released: June 11, 1965
Produced by: Tommy Scott, Bert Berns (“I Gave My
Love a Diamond”, “Go On Home Baby”, “My Little Baby”), Dick Rowe
(“Gloria”)
Side 1:
1.”Mystic Eyes” (Van Morrison) – 2:41
2.”If You and I Could Be As Two” (Morrison) – 2:53
3.”Little Girl” (Morrison) – 2:21
4.”Just a Little Bit” (Ralph Bass, Buster Brown, John
Thornton, Ferdinand “Fats” Washington) – 2:21
5.”I Gave My Love a Diamond” (Bert Berns, Wes
Farrell) – 2:48
6.”Gloria” (Morrison) – 2:38
7.”You Just Can’t Win” (Morrison) – 2:21
Side 2:
1.”Go On Home Baby” (Berns, Farrell) – 2:39
2.”Don’t Look Back” (John Lee Hooker) – 3:23
3.”I Like It Like That” (Morrison) – 3:35
4.”I’m Gonna Dress in Black” (Gillon, Howe) – 3:34
5.”Bright Lights, Big City” (Jimmy Reed) – 2:30
6.”My Little Baby” (Berns, Farrell) – 2:00
7.”(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" (Bobby Troup) – 2:22
Personnel:
(April 1964 – January 1965):
Van Morrison – lead vocals, saxophone
Alan Henderson – bass
Billy Harrison – guitar
Ronnie Millings – drums (until 12/64)
Eric Wrixon – keyboards (except 6/64-12/64)
Pat McAuley – keyboards (after 6/64), then drums
(after 12/64)
(January 1965 – April 1965):
Van Morrison – lead vocals
Alan Henderson – bass
Billy Harrison – guitar
Jackie McAuley – keyboards
Pat McAuley – drums
(May 1965 – July 1965):
Van Morrison – lead vocals
Alan Henderson – bass
Billy Harrison – guitar
Pat McAuley – drums
Peter Bardens – keyboards
