Legendary Concert: Van Morrison @ Fillmore West, San Francisco – April 26th 1970

As an avid music fan, and someone who has multiple Van Morrison cds and records, I knew what I had to do when this task was assigned – find something related to music that overlaps in theme or concept to Company. Now, this very same week “ABC” by the Jackson Five, followed by Simon and Garfunkel’s  “Bridge over Troubled Water” lead the billboard top 100, but even more coincidentally, Van Morrison held one of his most legendary concerts, featuring songs such as, “Moondance,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Crazy Love,” and the list goes on. All of this music, interestingly paints a unique image of relationships and marriage that coincides with Company.  Furthermore, they are all from the position of the man. “Brown Eyed Girl,” is the same sentiment and fond, authentic regret as we see  expressed through Bobbie, a song that changes meaning from the lens you see it. At times a happy song, at times the saddest song in the world. Then, we have “Moondance,” a spectacle of romantic intrigue, a convincing of a man to a woman, but not for marriage, purely for the physical aspects of the relationship. A pollution of the expectations of marriage, physical intimacy, for one more night, over the long ephemeral love. However, this song, in pop culture, holds high brow as an anniversary and wedding song for marriages, a marriage of old pushed forth by the man, but the decision ultimately still lay with the woman of whether she will offer the moon dance, contrary to Company  where only the male has the choice. I think the general popular music of the time is in heavy conversation with the more stereotypical scholarly works.

That’s all for now! Let me know what y’all think. Thank you!

Zach Sahin

11 Replies to “A Major day for Van Morrison Fans – For the Single People and the Couples”

  1. Zach! First I want to say that this post was really fun to read and I loved that you picked music. In response to your thoughts I did a quick search of concerts that took place on October 17th, 2018, and found that Twenty One Pilots put on a concert in Chicago, and preformed two of their new songs at the time, jumpsuit and Nico and the niners. The songs you looked from the 70s all have ties to Company, and I found that the songs by Twenty One Pilots also heavily relate to the musical. Now my interpretations of the songs may be a stretch, but the songs are still from the perspective of a man, although that may just be because it’s a man singing and not because of the gender gap or implicit sexism. After all, artists sing what they know. Secondly, the songs seem to hint at feelings of pressure and independence. I linked the feeling of pressure to the pressure young people feel to get married and start families, and I linked the independence to how although people still feel pressure, the whole concept of marriage is still evolving into two people being partners instead of serving as one married entity. Although in 2018, marriage was a whole different institution than it was back in 1970, the pressures of marriage still remain largely the same.

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