![]() ![]() Kate St John – tenor saxophone, cor anglais.Georgie Fame – Hammond organ, backing vocals.John Lee Hooker – vocals, electric guitar on “Gloria” and “Wasted Years”.Van Morrison – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, harmonica.I don’t know about Hook, but Van’s just jiving–when he wanders “In the Forest,” it’s never a safe bet that he’ll get out. ![]() And especially, on three cuts, his old soulmate John Lee Hooker, who doesn’t come close to sounding overexposed on Them’s “Gloria” and Sonny Boy’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and something new by Van called “Wasted Years,” about how the dumb stuff is behind them now. Now getting on to grizzled, he seeks guidance from the kas of Doc Pomus and King Pleasure and “The Lonesome Road,” an unutterably sad spiritual recast as an upbeat vibraphone feature. All on account of those “Bigtime Operators” who bugged his phone back when he was green. You know, exile–like Joyce and Shaw and Wilde and, oh yeah, Alex Haley. Blues is improvisation, it’s like jazz, so it’s always going to be different. This newer version with guest vocals and guitar from blues legend John Lee Hooker was released as a successful single charting at #31 in the U.K. It was one of Morrison’s most commercially successful albums in years, due in part to a cover of “Gloria “, one of his own songs originally recorded by Them. Too Long in Exile is the twenty-second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1993 as his first album on Polydor Records, a sister label to his previous label Mercury Records. Some wonderful songs & as always loads of interesting lyrics. Too long in exile I love this album and I dig John Lee Hooker’s presence. ![]()
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