Video hit Van Morrison

Van Morrison - Days Like This

"Days Like This" is a popular song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and the title song of his 1995 album. Morrison has often performed this song in concert appearances including his 2006 appearance at the Austin City Limits Festival.

"Days Like This" was recorded during the 1993-1994 sessions at Wool Hall Studios, Beckington and the Real World in Bath, Somerset.

Scott Thomas best explains the theme of the song in his review: "The title song turns a common expression and famous pop song chorus on its head. Usually, the phrase "My momma told me there'd be days like this" is something you say to make yourself feel better at the end of a tough day: the implication is that a good day might be just around the corner. The singer, steeling himself against disappointments and letdowns, does not want to feel too good on the good days: 'When all the parts of the puzzle start to seem like they fit / Then I must remember there'll be days like this.'"

Legacy

It became the official anthem of the peace movement in Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Office used it along with "Brown Eyed Girl" as theme music for a television advertisement promoting the cease fire. Morrison performed it for an audience of 60-80,000 people when President Bill Clinton visited Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 30, 1995. Clinton, himself a saxophonist, had shown an appreciation for Morrison's music and had wanted to perform but was advised against it by security officers.

In the media

In 1997, "Days Like This" was featured on the soundtrack of the film, As Good as It Gets. In 2007, it was one of the songs used on the soundtrack of the film, Eye See Me. It was played several times in the 2007 film, Because I Said So. It has also been used in a Channel 7 Australia ad campaign.

The lyrics:

When it's not always raining there'll be days like this

When there's no one complaining there'll be days like this

When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch

Well my mama told me there'll be days like this

When you don't need to worry there'll be days like this

When no one's in a hurry there'll be days like this

When you don't get betrayed by that old Judas kiss

Oh my mama told me there'll be days like this

When you don't need an answer there'll be days like this

When you don't meet a chancer there'll be days like this

When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit

Then I must remember there'll be days like this

When everyone is up front and they're not playing tricks

When you don't have no freeloaders out to get their kicks

When it's nobody's business the way that you wanna live

I just have to remember there'll be days like this

When no one steps on my dreams there'll be days like this

When people understand what I mean there'll be days like this

When you ring out the changes of how everything is

Well my mama told me there'll be days like this

Oh my mama told me

There'll be days like this

Oh my mama told me

There'll be days like this

Oh my mama told me

There'll be days like this

Oh my mama told me

There'll be days like this

Video hit Van Morrison

Van Morrison - Have I told You lately

Have I Told You Lately is a hit song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and recorded for his 1989 album Avalon Sunset.

It is a romantic ballad often played at weddings although it was originally written also as a prayer.

"Have I Told You Lately" has become a classic song and has received acclaim by winning a Grammy Award and a BMI Million-Air certificate.

In 1993, Rod Stewart's version charted at number five in the US and UK.

Composed as a love ballad and built on the framework of "Someone Like You", it is preceded on Avalon Sunset by the song, "I'd Love to Write Another Song" proclaiming "In poetry I'd carve it well/ I'd even make it rhyme."

Then, in the words of Brian Hinton what follows is: one of the finest love songs of the century, which I remember devastated me when I first heard it, as it seemed both something never quite said before, and yet a song I felt I had known forever. Earthly love transmutes into that for God, just like in Dante, "there's a love that's divine and it's yours and it's mine". The morning sun has set by the end of the song, suggesting love shading into death, but subtly.

Filmed performances of the song include a version recorded in 1989 that was featured on Morrison's video album Van Morrison: The Concert the following year. In 1997 Morrison performed the song in a duet with Sinéad O'Connor on Late Show with David Letterman; this version was subsequently released on the Live on Letterman: Music from the Late Show CD.

In the media

"Have I Told You Lately" was featured in the movie and soundtrack from the 1996 film, One Fine Day, starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, and at the end of the Amanda Bynes 2003 film, What a Girl Wants, covered by Matt Acheson.

Impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner included the song as one of his eight Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on April 20, 2003.

Television and radio presenter Gloria Hunniford also included the song on her list on December 24, 2006.

The lyrics:

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you there's no one above you

Fill my heart with gladness

Take away my sadness

Ease my troubles, that's what you do

Oh the morning sun in all it's glory

Greets the day with hope and comfort too

And you fill my life with laughter

You can make it better

Ease my troubles that's what you do

There's a love that's divine

And it's yours and it's mine

Like the sun at the end of the day

We should give thanks and pray to the one

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you there's no one above you

Fill my heart with gladness

Take away my sadness

Ease my troubles, that's what you do

There's a love that's divine

And it's yours and it's mine

And it shines like the sun

At the end of the day we will give thanks

And pray to the one

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you there's no one above you

Fill my heart with gladness

Take away my sadness

Ease my troubles, that's what you do

Take away my sadness

Fill my life with gladness

Ease my troubles that's what you do

Fill my life with gladness

Take away my sadness

Ease my troubles that's what you do.

Video hit Van Morrison

Van Morrison - Into The Mystic

This is about a sailor at sea thinking about returning to his lover, who is back on land. Normally a foghorn signals danger, but in this case it means he is close to home and his love.
There is room for interpretation beyond the superficial meaning.

It might be interpreted as expressing an understanding that life is finite (the ship sailing on its round trip) and must be lived to its fullest ("I want to rock your Gypsy soul"), and an acceptance of its inevitable end ("We will magnificently float into the mystic, when the foghorn blows I will be coming home"). When you have seen the world and loved someone, you should have no reason to fear the end because you have lived your life to the fullest.

The original title was "Into the Misty."

According to Morrison, he couldn't decide whether the first line should be "We were born before the wind" or "We were borne before the wind."

This was played in the 1989 Mary Stuart Masterson movie Immediate Family. She played a woman who was young and pregnant and planning to give her baby to Glenn Close and James Woods, who couldn't have a baby of their own.

According to a BBC survey, because of this song's cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations.

Jen Chapin, the daughter of Cat's In The Cradle singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, covered this on her 2008 CD Light of Mine.

"Into the Mystic" has featured in several movies beginning in 1971 with Sweets McGee and two movies in 1989: Dream a Little Dream and Immediate Family. It was one of the songs played in the 1998 movie, Patch Adams and again in the 1999 movie, Kate's Addiction.

It was played as Jim and Michelle's first dance as a married couple in the 2003 movie, American Wedding, along with a cover version of the song by The Wallflowers.

The song most recently can be heard on the soundtrack of the HBO television show "The Newsroom" in the 2013 Season 2 premiere.

The lyrics:

We were born before the wind

Also younger than the sun

Ere the bonnie boat was one as we sailed into the mystic

Hark, now hear the sailors cry

Smell the sea and feel the sky

Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

And when that fog horn blows I will be coming home

And when the fog horn blows I want to hear it

I don't have to fear it

And I want to rock your gypsy soul

Just like way back in the days of old

And magnificently we will fold into the mystic

When that fog horn blows you know I will be coming home

And when that fog horn whistle blows I got to hear it

I don't have to fear it

And I want to rock your gypsy soul

Just like way back in the days of old

And together we will fold into the mystic

Come on girl...