After a young Van Morrison left his Belfast R&B-pop band Them following a couple of U.K. hits in "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night," American producer-songwriter Bert Berns brought him to New York for 48 hours in early 1967 to record the tracks that would become Blowin' Your Mind! Berns died shortly thereafter, but the tracks he cut included the song that launched Morrison's solo career--the U.S. top 10 hit "Brown Eyed Girl." Most of these songs have been released on early Morrison compilations, including some on this same label. But this is the original album (plus alternate takes) in its original format with the great psychedelic artwork, and it contains some youthful vocal magic on the soul standard "He Ain't Give You None," the stark and graphic "TB Sheets," and the strange and wonderful "Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)." This was undoubtedly Morrison's first period of transition. After the release of Blowin' Your Mind! he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work on his next album, the landmark Astral Weeks. --John Sutton-Smith
1. Brown Eyed Girl
2. He Ain't Give You None
3. T.B. Sheets
4. Spanish Rose
5. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
6. Ro Ro Rosey
7. Who Drove the Red Sports Car L
8. Midnight Special Listen Listen
9. Spanish Rose [Alternate Take]
10. Ro Ro Rosey [Alternate Take]
11. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
12. Who Drove the Red Sports Car
13. Midnight Special [Alternate Take]
It was a brand new day for Van Morrison when the Belfast, Ireland legend cut Blowin' Your Mind!, his spellbinding 1967 debut solo album! Fresh from a string of smash singles fronting British Invasion heroes Them, Van rode "Brown Eyed Girl,"—one of the all- time great teen-angst tales— to the top of the charts, then sailed off into the mystic with haunting, slowed-down classics like "He Ain't Give You None," "T.B. Sheets" and "Who Drove the Red Sports Car." Blowin' Your Mind! is a hypnotic tour de force that ranks with the very best material Van Morrison ever recorded. (Sundazed)
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. Songs like "Who Drove the Red Sports Car" look to that song cycle, even as "Midnight Special" nods to Morrison's R&B past. But it's the agonizing "T.B. Sheets" -- all nine-plus minutes of it -- that dominates this record and belies its trendy title and pop association. "T.B. Sheets" takes the blues and reinvents it as noble tragedy and humiliating mortality. It's where Van Morrison emerges as an artist. William Ruhlmann (AMG)
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