VAN THE MAN`S FORGOTTEN DEBUT BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE ON A $2 BOOTLEG CD

https://youtu.be/WHJhTCavGUM?si=U3dZvzQzT4LWPYhJ

Occasionally when you buy a cheap discount compact disc, you know, the ones which are supposedly made up of disposable bootleg songs which come with a CD case which doesn't even have any information on the inside of the sleeve, you can be lucky by discovering some gems that you have never heard before in your life. 

About a month ago, I bought a $2 Van Morrison CD at Target on impulse, mainly because I love the song BROWN EYED GIRL and I wanted a second CD besides Van the Man`s Greatest Hits which had this song on it. The reason for that is I often buy a player so I can keep the good CD in storage. 

As it turned out, this el cheapo Van Morrison CD ended up being most of a classic lost album which I didn`t know existed called BLOWIN` YOUR MIND! from 1967.

 
It was Van Morrison`s unofficial 1st solo album, officially the more experimental and muddled ASTRAL WEEKS was his first.

All up, there is 8 songs on BLOWIN` YOUR MIND, I actually do have 7 of them on this bootleg CD, the only one I am missing is the 9 minute plus T.B SHEETS, which from all reports is a real inspirational blues fired jam. The 7 I do have are very bluesy typically broadscape psychedelically tinged numbers which sound so vitally late 60`s.

GOODBYE BABY GOODBYE and RO RO ROSE are two screamers in my opinion, souped up blues rock which is both powerful and elegant. 

Van the Man does an excellent job of MIDNIGHT SPECIAL in the more traditional form, while SPANISH ROSE and WHO DROVE THE RED SPORTS CAR, a slow thumping Chicago blues inspired mini-epic, rounds out the underated set.

 
For reasons which are too complex to bother explaining on this blog, Van Morrison completely disowned the album right from the start, according to what Wikipedia says a man by the name of Bert Burns compiled and released the album without Van Morrison`s consent, and the choice of album cover image also peeved him off as well, which portrayed him as being `psycho` and influenced by mind altering drugs. 

Van the Man and his then wife totally denied he had ever used any drugs. But regardless of Van Morrison`s disregard for this accidental debut album, BLOWIN` YOUR MIND! is a real corker. Makes so much of Van the Man`s later material sound insipid and unbluesy.