Jan

14

Van tribute evokes Bay pride

January 14, 2008 |

The Plant StudiosUlsterMusic.com contributor Nick Fitzsimons writes on Van’s lasting transatlanticism: Oh Yeah’s recent - and well-received - homage to Astral Weeks has kicked off quite a bit of reminiscence about Van Morrison’s music and influence. And nowhere outside of Belfast has there been quite as much reminiscing as in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1971 Van moved to Fairfax, California - some 15 miles from San Francisco - and in 1972 he released (what many claim to be) his most Astral Weeks-esque album: in classic 5-track St. Dominic’s Preview.

West coast album-mastering legend John Cuniberti recalls days like that. His parents owned and ran Fairfax’s Caledonia Records for many years, and he also recorded many landmark albums in Sausalito, at California’s famed recording studio The Plant - an establishment which breathed into being world Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life .

John Cuniberti, owner and founder of The Plant Studios, spoke of Van’s lasting influence on the Bay Area: “He was Irish, but he was always one of us. He spoke as lyrically of the bay, of Caledonia, of San Francisco on [St. Dominic’s Preview] as he did of the Belfast of his boyhood on Astral Weeks. He was a mystic in an area where mysticism was, and still is, revered.“


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