Singer Van Morrison a Witness

MarchOn

Hi guys,
Do any of you know if Van Morrison was ever a JW or studied with the JWs? I was listening to Howard Stern the other day and his daughter was on the show. A guy called in and asked her about a song he sings, "Kingdom Hall". So I went to Kazaa and looked it up and sure enough it was there. It is on his 1978 album, Wavelength and they show the album cover with what looks like him smoking a cigarette (lol). At any rate, the song is about swinging and singing down at the KH. Swingng? The only swinging I ever heard about had nothing to do with dancing. I was thinking maybe he had not ever really been to a KH until I read his biography at Kazaa, here is a small part of it:

< Morrison mounted his first tour in close to five years in support of 1978's Wavelength; his performances became more and more erratic, however, and during a 1979 date at New York's Palladium, he even stalked off-stage in mid-set and did not return. >

He must of been a JW huh?

dissedsis

Never heard that about ol Van but my hubby came home the other day and said that he read in a (nonother) Penthouse that Prince was either a Witness or studing with the witnesses. Do you know any truth about that???

Never leave the ones you love...but..Never love the ones that left. ;)
dissedsis

Brymichmom

I really doubt he had anything to do with the JW's but here is a link to a bio: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bio.asp?oid=1463&cf=1463

deddaisy

March,
that blows me away that I logged on and here is this thread about Van Morrison...it's weird because less than an hour ago I was in the car and they were playing alot of old songs and "Moon Dance" came on...it was storming and dreary out and "moon dance" was this upbeat, cool kind of song...
I would be highly shocked if he was ever a witness, but you never know.....maybe witnesses coming to his door and waking him up while he was nursing a hang-over inspired him to write "Kingdom Hall."

Brymichmom

Here are the words to that song:

Kingdom Hall

(Van Morrison)
So glad to see you
So glad you're here
Come here beside me now
We can clear inhibition away
All inhibitions
Throw them away
And when we dance like this
Like we've never been dancin' before

Chorus:
Oh, they were swingin'
Down at Kingdom Hall
Oh, bells were ringin'
Down at the Kingdom Hall
A choir was singin'
Down at the Kingdom Hall
Hey, liley, liley, liley
Hey, liley, liley, low
Do do do do do do, do
Do do do do do do
Do do do do do do, do
Do do do do do do

Good body music
Brings you right here
Free flowin' motion now
When we're shakin' it out on the floor
Good rockin' music
Down in your shoes
And when we dance like this
Like we've never been dancin' before

Repeat Chorus

Down at the Kingdom Hall
They were havin' a party
They were havin' a ball
Bells were ringing out
And the choir was singin'
Hey, liley, liley, liley
Hey, liley, liley, low
Do do, do do, do do, do do
Sugar was there
Did you see Sugar
Down at the Kingdom Hall
Sugar was tough

Sounds like too much fun here to be a JW in a Kingdom Hall! LOL!

Cygnus

Van Morrison's mother was a JW and he attended meetings as a child. He was never baptized.

Some say that Prince is baptized. I do not know for sure. Prince did marry a JW girl from Minnesota last year. In a Kingdom Hall.

crawdad2

sounds like he knew nothing at all about kingdumb halls.

GinnyTosken

From Steve Turner's Too Late to Stop Now

The Morrisons were a fairly secular household, Protestant only insomuch as they were not Roman Catholic. Van could go to Sunday school at the Brethern Gospel Hall in the street, or to the slightly more middle-class St. Donard's, which was Church of Ireland. Then suddenly his mother became a Jehovah's Witness.

No one seems sure exactly how her conversion began or how long it lasted, but what is certain is that she became an ardent member of the local Kingdom Hall sometime during the 1950s. Some of the older members can still remember Van attending morning services with her, but George Morrison never made an appearance.

Her sudden conversion must have had an effect on her son, because if she was sincere in her beliefs she would have read the Bible to him regularly, and issued stern warnings about the dangers of leading a life outside the Lord. It also compounded his feelings of being an outsider: who else in Belfast had a father who played Jelly Roll Morton records, and a mother who indulged in doorstep evangelism?

"I was just on the periphery", he says of his contact with the local Kingdom Hall. "My mother went for a few years. We didn't go to church all the time, but it was a very churchy atmosphere in the sense that that's the way it is in Northern Ireland."

from http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/glossary/kingdom.html

singsongboi

sounds like he had a narrow escape !!!!

but love his kingdom hall song...

wish it had been in the purple songbook!!!

DocBob

Van Morrison also did a song called "Cleaning Windows" :)

Singer Van Morrison a Witness

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