Тупеловый мёд: История альбома Вана Моррисона

the song

Tupelo Honey is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs in Woodstock, New York, before his move to Marin County, California, except for "You're My Woman", which he wrote during the recording sessions. Recording began at the beginning of the second quarter of 1971 at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco. Morrison moved to the Columbia Studios in May 1971 to complete the album. The namesake for the album and its title track is a varietal honey produced from the flowers of the tupelo tree found in the Southeastern United States. The album features various musical genres, most prominently country, but also R&B, soul, folk rock and blue eyed soul. The lyrics echo the domestic bliss portrayed on the album cover; they largely describe and celebrate the rural surroundings of Woodstock and Morrison's family life with then wife Janet "Planet" Rigsbee. Tupelo Honey received most of its success in America; it charted at number 27 on the Billboard charts, and in 1977 it was certified gold by the RIAA. It failed to reach any of the European or other worldwide charts. The album yielded two hit singles, the hymn like title track, and the R&B flavoured "Wild Night". The third released single, "(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball", was less successful and did not enter the Billboard Hot 100. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics at the time of its release, but Morrison's biographers were less favourable towards it in later years.

Prior to the Tupelo Honey recording sessions, Morrison had recorded demo tracks in Woodstock for an upcoming country music album. Some of the tracks planned for Tupelo Honey did appear on the album, but other more traditional country songs like "The Wild Side of Life", "Crying Time" and "Banks of the Ohio" were abandoned. Morrison decided to move from Woodstock when the lease on his house expired and the landlord wanted to move back in. He explained to Richard Williams in Melody Maker that the release of the 1970 film Woodstock about the Woodstock Festival had altered the quaint character of the community: "Everybody and his uncle started showing up at the bus station, and that was the complete opposite of what it was supposed to be." In April 1971, before he began recording on the planned album, Morrison and his family moved to Marin County, California, where his wife, Janet Planet, had family living close by. The Morrisons' new home was in a rural setting situated on a hillside close to San Francisco amid redwood trees. With the move, Morrison abandoned the idea of a full country album and exchanged some of the intended material for songs he had written earlier. Morrison was under pressure by Warner Bros. Records to produce chart singles and two albums within a year.

Due to the location of the recording sessions of Tupelo Honey, having moved from New York to California, the only musicians from Morrison's previous band that could work with him were saxophonist Jack Schroer and his wife Ellen (who contributed backing vocals). However, two of the three percussionists on the album had recorded with him in the past; Connie Kay contributed drums to Astral Weeks, and Gary Mallaber played drums and vibraphone on Moondance. On this album, Kay played drums on four songs, and new recruit Rick Shlosser was used for the remaining tracks, while Mallaber played percussion and vibraphone. Biographer Howard DeWitt was convinced that Morrison's music benefited from his move to California, as he comments that "the musical explosion in Marin County also added a great deal to Van's music. In particular, Ronnie Montrose's guitar work made Tupelo Honey a rock classic." Mark Jordan and John McFee made up the rest of the rhythm section. The first recording sessions took place in the spring of 1971 at the Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and continued for three weeks. Only four of the songs recorded were chosen for Tupelo Honey: "Wild Night"; "Moonshine Whiskey"; "I Wanna Roo You" and "Like a Cannonball". Rick Shlosser and John McFee played on these tracks, but were dropped from the second sessions. Engineer Stephen Barncard remembered that "We'd get the band rehearsed, then Ted Templeman would go to the hotel, pick up Van We did one or two takes, he'd go back to the hotel and the band would go on to the next tune." Morrison relocated in the late spring of 1971 to the Columbia Studios, San Francisco to record a second session of tracks for the album. The vocals on the album were always live after rehearsing each song five or six times, according to saxophonist and flautist "Boots" Houston, who further commented that when Morrison and the band went into the studio: "we would then just play a whole set straight through without repeating anything. We would have played maybe twenty songs and Van would go back and cut out the songs he didn't want. The only time we'd go back would be to overdub backing vocals or horns." Ted Templeman remarked that he had to go through three engineers during the recording of the album, due to Morrison's "ability as a musician, arranger and producer": "When he's got something together, he wants to put it down right away with no overdubbing I've had to change engineers who couldn't keep up with him."

In 2009, music journalist Erik Hage wrote that Tupelo Honey "has become one of Morrison's most likeable albums, but the very elements that make it appealing to many—the homey feeling, the personal odes to married life—also make it a complacent album for an artist who had been pushing forward and challenging boundaries for the past few years." Morrison was expected to tour to promote the album, but at this time he had developed a phobia about performing that was especially problematic when appearing before large audiences. John Platania was playing in concerts with Morrison and spoke of noticing his confidence ebbing away: "There were many times when he literally had to be coaxed on stage. His motto was 'The show does not have to go on'. He would create the choice of whether he would go on stage or not." Morrison announced before an impending performance at a larger venue that he was retiring from performing live. After regaining his confidence by making regular and informal performances at a small club near his home (the "Lion's Share" in San Anselmo California), he began to tour coast to coast again in 1972.

Year Single Peak positions US 1971"Wild Night" 28 24 1972"Tupelo Honey" 47 —"(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball" 119 — "—" denotes releases that did not chart.