"Bulbs" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was the only single to be taken from his 1974 album Veedon Fleece, with a B-side of "Cul de Sac" for the US release and "Who Was That Masked Man" for the UK release.[2][3]
| "Bulbs" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Van Morrison | ||||
| from the album Veedon Fleece | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | November 1974 | |||
| Recorded | March 1974, Mercury Studios, New York City, United States | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:19 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Van Morrison | |||
| Producer(s) | Van Morrison | |||
| Van Morrison singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Bulbs" on YouTube | ||||
Recording and composition
edit"Bulbs" was first recorded, with different lyrics, at the recording session for the 1973 album, Hard Nose the Highway, released in 1973.[4] After the first recording session for Veedon Fleece', "Bulbs" was re-cut at Mercury Studios in New York City in March 1974, along with "Cul de Sac", to give it a more rock feeling. According to Jef Labes this was "cause he (Morrison) didn't feel they had the right feeling... It was me, Van and a bunch of other guys that he'd never played with."[5] bass player Joe Macho had previously played on the 1966 Bobby Hebb hit song "Sunny".[6]
"Bulbs" has been described as "a pleasant, catchy country ditty, a Dire Straits song before its time" by biographer John Collis.[7] As with many of Morrison's songs, "Bulbs" does not have a clear story line, but in part focuses on immigration to the United States as in the lines:
- She's leaving Pan American
- Suitcase in her hand
- I said her brothers and her sisters
- Are all on Atlantic sand
Critical reception
editRecord World called it "Something like a performance from his Astral Weeks days with a graft of pedal steel" and said that "Van benefits from a renewed power surge."[8]
In an interview with Morrison, Tom Donahue said, after he had listened to "Bulbs": "You always make great noises. The other things you do in songs beside the words."[9]
In a Stylus Magazine review for the album Veedon Fleece, Derek Miller says of the song:[10]
"Of course, the best and most immediately memorable song on Veedon Fleece is "Bulbs". Coming about as close to laying down a groove as he does on the album, the song quickly makes dust of its acoustic start, leaping headstrong into a Waylon Jennings' style bass-roll, rump heavy and plush, pianos shimmering and fingerdense."
Morrison performed the song on the German television show Musikladen on 13 November 1974.[11]
Title
edit
The title might come from the lines:
- And her batteries are corroded
- And her hundred watt bulb just blew
- or the repeated chorus:
- .. she's standing in the shadows
- Where the street lights all turn blue
Personnel
edit- Van Morrison – vocals, acoustic guitar
- John Tropea – electric guitar
- Jef Labes – piano
- Joe Macho – bass
- Allan Schwartzberg – drums
Other releases
editA live performance of this song is featured on the 1974 disc of Morrison's 2006 issued DVD, Live at Montreux 1980/1974. Morrison used a stripped-down band on this Montreaux Jazz Festival appearance consisting of:
- Van Morrison – vocals, guitar
- Pete Wingfield – piano, background vocals
- Jerome Rimson – bass, background vocals
- Dallas Taylor – drums
Covers
edit- Australian blues and root band The Revelators covered the song on their 2000 album, The Adventures of The Amazing Revelators.
- Ellis Hooks performed a cover version of "Bulbs" on the 2003 released tribute album, Vanthology: A Tribute to Van Morrison.[12]
- "Bulbs" was covered by Jason Boland & the Stragglers on their 2018 album "Hard Times Are Relative."[13]
Notes
edit- ^ Segretto, Mike (2022). "1974". 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Minute - A Critical Trip Through the Rock LP Era, 1955–1999. Backbeat. pp. 301–302. ISBN 9781493064601.
- ^ "Van Morrison – Bulbs" – via www.45cat.com.
- ^ "Van Morrison – Bulbs" – via www.45cat.com.
- ^ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence? p. 521
- ^ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence? p. 284
- ^ "Soul Hits from NYC". soul60scodified.wordpress.com.
- ^ Collis, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, pp. 140–141
- ^ "Single Picks" (PDF). Record World. 28 September 1974. p. 12. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
- ^ Hinton, Celtic Crossroads, p. 179
- ^ "Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece". stylusmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
- ^ Van Morrison - Bulbs on YouTube
- ^ Hal Horowitz (5 August 2003). "Vanthology: A Tribute to Van Morrison – Van Morrison | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- ^ Stegall, Tim. "Jason Boland & the Stragglers: Hard Times Are Relative Album Review". The Austin Chronicle.
References
edit- Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0
- Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
- Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074-169-X