Songs Of The Day 9/28/2013: Van Morrison - "Ring Worm" + "Have a Danish" + "You Say France And I Whistle" + "The Big Royalty Check"

"You've never heard Van Morrison like this before!"

These four recordings were made by Van Morrison in 1967 as a legendary act of vengeance against Bang Records, the label that released his first solo album Blowin' Your Mind and his single "Brown-Eyed Girl." After label founder Bert Berns died suddenly, Bang kind of went south with Morrison by trying to control his artistic direction. (Neil Diamond left Bang for much the same reason.) Morrison was still on the hook for 36 songs to Bang, though, so he did the thoughtful thing and recorded 31 of them in one session.

Well, to be slightly more accurate, he made them up and recorded them on the spot. This meant he didn't have a lot of time for the muse to work its slow magic through him, so without that creative impetus he came up with songs called "Twist and Shake," "Shake and Roll," "Shake it Mable," "Blow in Your Nose," "Nose in Your Blow," and the hugely appropriate "Freaky If You Got This Far." The four songs presented today are perhaps the most revered of the session. "You Say France And I Whistle" shoulda been on Astral Weeks, man!

After receiving this album, Bang Records contacted Mr. Morrison, thanked him for his service, and relieved him of duty.