Blowin' Your Mind!

Blowin' Your Mind!
Blowin' Your Mind!
Studio album by Van Morrison
Released	September 1967
Recorded	28–29 March 1967
Genre	Rock, R&B, blue-eyed soul, blues
Length	35:32
Label	Bang
Producer	Bert Berns
Van Morrison chronology
Singles from Blowin' Your Mind!
	"Brown Eyed Girl" b/w "Goodbye Baby"; "Ro Ro Rosey" b/w "Chick-A-Boom"; "Spanish Rose" b/w "Midnight Special";

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]
Tom Hull	A^[2]

Blowin' Your Mind! is the debut studio album by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, released in 1967. It was recorded 28–29 March 1967 and contained his first solo pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl". It was included by Rolling Stone as one of the 40 Essential Albums of 1967.^[3]

Recording and release history

Morrison does not regard this record as a true album, as Bert Berns compiled and released it without his consent. A few months previously, Morrison had carelessly signed a contract that he had not fully studied and it stipulated that he would surrender virtually all control of the material he would record with Bang Records. The songs were recorded in March 1967, intended to be released on four separate singles.

Months later, Morrison recorded another batch of songs to fulfill his contract with Bang Records, which were never planned to be released, and were largely nonsensical joke songs.^[4] This session was widely bootlegged and eventually given an official release in 2017 as part of The Authorized Bang Collection.

The album jacket's psychedelic design was strongly disliked by Morrison and his fans, who felt it misrepresented his musical style. Greil Marcus described it as a "monstrously offensive, super psychedelic far out out-of-sight exploding" design.^[5] Morrison's then-wife, Janet Planet, said "He never has been, never will be anything approaching a psychedelic user – wants nothing to do with it, wants nothing to do with any drug of any kind".^[6] As the singer recalls, "I got a call saying it was an album coming out and this is the cover. And I saw the cover and I almost threw up, you know."^[7]

Songs and reviews

Of the eight songs on the album, all were composed by Morrison except "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)" and the last song, "Midnight Special". Clinton Heylin contends that the first side of the album "makes for one of the great single-sided albums in rock",^[6] whereas Greil Marcus, the album's most hostile critic, found it "painfully boring, made up of three sweet minutes of 'Brown Eyed Girl' and... the sprawling, sensation-dulling 'T.B. Sheets'".^[8] "He Ain't Give You None" is an urban tale of "lust, jealousy and sexual disgust." It references Notting Hill Gate and Curzon Street in London, England, places Morrison would have been familiar with when he lived there during his earlier touring days. It contains the words, "You can leave now if you don't like what is happening." Brian Hinton compares "the delighted contempt of the singer, the song's graveyard pace, the stately organ and stinging guitar" to the Highway 61 period of Bob Dylan.^[9]

Reception

Allmusic gave the album a 3-star rating and wrote that "Although Van Morrison's first solo album is remembered for containing the immortal pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl," Blowin' Your Mind! is actually a dry run for his masterpiece, Astral Weeks."^[1]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Van Morrison, except where noted

Side One
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Brown Eyed Girl"	3:03
2.	"He Ain't Give You None"	5:13
3.	"T.B. Sheets"	9:44

Side Two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Spanish Rose"		3:06
2.	"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)"	Wes Farrell, Bert Russell	2:57
3.	"Ro Ro Rosey"		3:03
4.	"Who Drove the Red Sports Car?"		5:35
5.	"Midnight Special"	Traditional; arranged by Bert Berns	2:51

1994 CD reissue bonus tracks (alternate takes)
No.	Title	Length
9.	"Spanish Rose"	3:38
10.	"Ro Ro Rosey"	3:09
11.	"Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)"	2:39
12.	"Who Drove the Red Sports Car?"	3:49
13.	"Midnight Special"	2:46

Personnel

Musicians

Van Morrison - vocals, guitar, harmonica on "T.B. Sheets"
Eric Gale, Al Gorgoni, Hugh McCracken - guitars
Russ Savakus - bass
Paul Griffin - piano
Garry Sherman - organ
The Sweet Inspirations - backing vocals on "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Midnight Special"
Gary Chester - drums

Production

Vic Anesini – mastering
Brooks Arthur – engineer
Bert Berns – arranger, director, producer, liner notes
Adam Block – project director
Bob Irwin – liner notes, reissue producer
John Jackson – project director
Garry Sherman – actual arranger, conductor, musical supervisor
Rodriguez of Los Angeles - cover photography

Charts

Album

Billboard

Year	Chart	Position
1967	Pop Albums	182

Singles

Billboard

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1967	"Brown Eyed Girl"	Pop Singles	10

References

^ ^a ^b Allmusic review
^ Hull, Tom (June 2016). "Rhapsody Streamnotes (June 2016)". tomhull.com. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
^ "40 Essential Albums of 1967". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
^ "Van Morrison Millennium Collection". starpulse.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
^ Hinton. 1997. p78
^ ^a ^b Heylin. 2003. p158
^ Rogan. 2006. p204
^ Hinton. 1997. p79
^ Hinton. 1997. p80

Sources

Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074-169-X
Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison: No Surrender, London:Vintage Books ISBN 978-0-09-943183-1