Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1970
Blue Money
Buy Blue Money now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Blue Money'" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was the second of two Top Forty hits from his 1970 album, 'His Band and the Street Choir' (the other being "Domino"), reaching No. 23 on the US chart. The US single featured "Sweet Thing", from the album 'Astral Weeks', as the B-side. It was released as a single in the UK in June 1971 with a different B-side, "Call Me Up in Dreamland". The song became Morrison's third best selling single of the 1970s, remaining on the charts for three months.Dewitt. The Mystic's Music. p.87
The lyrics have the singer promising his girl that they will paint the town together with 'her' "blue money". Critic Maury Dean states that the theme picks up from Lefty Frizzell's 1950 No. 1 song "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time". In a 1972 Rolling Stone interview with John Grissim Jr., Morrison commented about the popularity of "Blue Money" in cities like Boston and New York City: "Out here I get asked to play 'Blue Money' all the time. All the kids love it, the kids in the street. It's their favorite number."
Critical response
Robert Christgau, writing in the 'Village Voice' in 1971, described "Blue Money" and "Domino" as "superb examples of Morrison's loose, allusive white r&b." Writer M. Mark described it as "a pun-filled song about time and cash."'Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island', Greil Marcus, ed., p.10 (1979) Biographer Brian Hinton compared the song's sound to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames: "boozy horns and a nonsensical chorus."Hinton, 'Celtic Crossroads', p.123 Dean praises the song's "snarly, snappity sounds" and Morrison's "jazzy baritone."
Covers
Cristina covered "Blue Money" on her 1984 album, 'Sleep It Off' and The Flying Pickets included an a cappella version as the title track on their 1990 album, 'Blue Money'. The song was also featured throughout the 1985 British television film Blue Money, starring Tim Curry
Personnel
*Van Morrison guitar, vocal
*Alan Hand piano
*Keith Johnson trumpet
*John Klingberg bass
*John Platania guitar
*Jack Schroer baritone saxophone
*Dahaud Shaar (David Shaw) drums
'The Street Choir:'
*Larry Goldsmith
*Janet Planet
*Andrew Robinson
*Ellen Schroer
*Dahaud Shaar
*Martha Velez
Charts
Notes
References
*Hinton, Brian, 'Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison', Sanctuary (1997).
*DeWitt, Howard A., 'Van Morrison: The Mystic's Music', Horizon Books (1983).
Category:1970 singles
Category:1971 singles
Category:Van Morrison songs
Category:Songs written by Van Morrison
Category:1970 songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Van Morrison
Category:Warner Records singles
Buy Blue Money now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1970