All about Van Morrison's "Moondance"

This is a fan page devoted to the song "Moondance" by Van Morrison.

Moondance is one of the greatest pop songs of all time. Seductive and sincerely romantic, with gorgeous music and great singing by Morrison. When you hear Moondance, you feel like you're right there, on a warm autumn night, falling in love.

The previous Moondance video I had posted here was taken down by YouTube, but the person who posted this one has a caption thanking a bunch of corporations for allowing the song to be shared, so I'm hoping that means that this one is legal. We'll see how long it stays up.

Words and music by Van Morrison

Recorded at A & R Studios, New York City, in 1969.

Featured musicians:

* Van Morrison - vocals, guitar

* John Klingberg - bass guitar

* Jef Labes - piano

* Gary Mallaber - drums

* John Platania - guitar

* Jack Schroer - alto saxophone

* Collin Tilton - tenor saxophone, flute

Producers - Van Morrison and Lewis Merenstein

Released on the album Moondance in 1970, Warner Brothers Records label.

Released as a single in 1977, Warner Brothers Records label.

Wikipedia has this quote from Brian Hinton's profile of Morrison:

"With 'Moondance' I wrote the melody first. I played the melody on a soprano sax and I knew I had a song so I wrote lyrics to go with the melody. That's the way I wrote that one."

Moondance is in the key of A-minor.

What gives the song its feel is the chord progression that opens the song and repeats through the major part of the verse. It goes back and forth between an A-minor chord and a B-minor chord. In music theory lingo, that's a 1-chord and then a 2-chord (in the key of A, the A note is scale tone number 1, and B is scale tone number 2). This pattern is played on the piano, accompanied by bass and drums.

It struck me that this very same minor-mode, 1-chord-to-2-chord pattern is also used in another iconic song, Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. But, obviously, the two songs get very different emotional effects from the same progression. Jackson uses it with a stark beat and a lot of echo to give it an eerie feeling, while Morrison's warm acoustic instrumentation and swingy 6/8 beat make it feel comfortable and sexy.

The main melody stays in the natural minor scale, with a gentle flowing line that feels like a spontaneous, natural expression. A little more musical tension builds at the end of the verses, leading into a more boisterous feeling in the chorus before returning to the main groove.

The easy melody, with its comfortable, syncopated rhythm is very adaptable to bending and improvising, which we hear in the great piano and saxophone solos. These are followed by Morrison's vocal "solo" where he plays around with the first verse and then just riffs his way through to the end of the song.

_{"Self-Portrait14 Van Gogh" by Van Gogh - VG Gallery.}

_{Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons}

LOTS of people have done cover versions of Moondance. There are two versions that Van Morrison mentioned he really liked, one by Bobby McFerrin and one by Grady Tate.

The Grady Tate version is not available through Amazon US, but it is at Amazon UK. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moondance/dp/B001N19SSU

This instructional video is in two parts

How do you feel about this song? When did you first hear it? Have you ever performed it? Danced to it? Made out to it?