Van Morrison’s enjoyed a long and prolific career. Like Neil Young, he’s continued to released a new studio album almost every year, even long past retirement age.
Such is the breadth of Morrison’s discography, the two albums he made with Them in the mid-1960s only represent a small portion of his output. Solo records like Astral Weeks, Saint Dominic’s Preview, and Into The Music get more attention than his formative albums with Them.
Their albums were padded out with covers, but Them are beloved for their singles. Recording their first sessions in 1964, they helped contribute to the rapid evolution of rock music in the 1960s. Their blend of blues, R&B, and garage rock influenced plenty of garage bands.
Surprisingly, ‘Gloria’ was originally a b-side, slipped out on the reverse of their cover of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. It was later added to their 1965 debut album, Angry Young Them, but it spent six months as a non-album b-side, so I think it qualifies for this series. Morrison was only 18 when he wrote ‘Gloria’. But it’s gone on to enjoy recognition – you could easily argue that it’s the second-most popular garage rock song after ‘Louie Louie‘.
It’s a simple song, based around a three-chord progression, but Van Morrison’s vocal performance is magnetic. They way he spells out the title is exquisite. The band were noted for their bad manners – one reporter noted that they were “the most boorish bunch of youngsters I’d come across in my short career.”
Jimmy Page, later of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, played on the a-side, and is rumoured to have played on ‘Gloria’ as well.
‘Gloria’ is included twice on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock. Although, neither version is from Them – instead they selected the cover from American garage band Shadows of Knight from the mid-1960s. The cover was a top ten hit on Billboard, thanks to a tamer vocal performance and a sanitised lyric (“She comes to my room” was replaced with “She calls out my name”). Patti Smith’s cover was combined with her poem ‘Oath’, and opened her acclaimed 1975 album Horses.
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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
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I can’t believe Gloria wasn’t an A -side. I think Baby Please Don’t Go was one of those songs that everybody used to do back then . I like every version of Gloria that I ever heard. It must be an easy song to cover because no matter who does it, it sounds good. I think I actually heard the Patti Smith one before I ever heard the Them one and Shadows of Knight one, which I actually like a little better cuz of the way the guitar kind of just rolls along in a cool way. You know what, when did Van Morrison leave Them? Cuz I listened to their version of that song that the Electric Prunes did by Carole King, but somebody else was singing on it and not Van Morrison. Did they have two singers? Or did someone else start singing after Van Morrison left? I think it was from 67. He might have been gone already. I don’t know.
It was an a side eventually, but it essentially spent the first six months of its life as a non album bside.
It’s certainly an easy song to play on guitar.
It sounds like Them soldiered on without Van Morrison, but he was 90% of their appeal – he wrote the songs and was the most distinctive element.
Gloria is a true classic, including the vocals. While the cover by Shadows of Knight isn’t bad, it’s a weaker version of Them’s original. As such, it doesn’t make any sense to me that Shadows of Knight made it on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock” but Them did not. Patti Smith, on the other hand, made the song her own, so the inclusion of her version in the list is more justifiable than Shadows of Knight.
Yeah, absolutely. Smith deserves a place, but no reason to pick Shadows of Knight over Them.
Probably they didn’t want to have too many songs by the same person on the list, unless you’re the Stones or the Beatles or something. Cuz I’m sure Van Morrison had other songs on there. I bet Moondance or something else from that album. I should check it out. I would have put Wild Night because that’s my favorite one by him.
Looks like he has three – but none from Them:
Van Morrison, “Brown Eyed Girl”
Van Morrison, “Madame George”
Van Morrison, “Moondance”
https://www.infoplease.com/culture-entertainment/music/500-songs-shaped-rock
That list is a zillion times better than the Rolling Stone one. Or at least it’s more to my own taste. It’s like the lists that I make with practically all the same songs. The Rolling Stone one seems like it was trying to pass a political correctness test or something. Nobody in the world would ever come up with their own list that was anything like that one. Lol. But this one is more like a list that an average person would make.
I think it’s easier if you stick to 20th century or whatever – much more consensus over older music. Everything is in little niches now. Plus modern rock music is pretty irrelevant to the mainstream now IMO, so you have to venture into pop and hip hop for recent entries.
Them was like my “Big Star” in the 80s. I read everything I could plus ordered some albums from the UK because you couldn’t get them here….no pun intended.
Mystic Eyes, Baby Please Don’t Go (which is the definitive version to me), Gloria, Here Comes The Night, Richard Corey, and most of the covers they did.
Are the albums good. I look at the tracklist full of covers and dismiss them as a singles band, but maybe that’s unfair.
I love Here Comes the Night cuz it’s such a great song. To tell the truth I never heard the Them version until kind of recently, but I always loved the David Bowie one. It is so great.
The Them version was all over classic hits radio when I was growing up. So was ‘Gloria’.
I just got complilations not their real albums. With Bert Berns i doublt they would be any other kind of album than a package of singles and B sides.
I remember seeing concert footage of The Doors playing “Gloria.” I never knew the history behind the song.
There’s also a lot of versions of Gloria on all of the Doors’ live albums and reissues that have come out in recent years. I’ve heard about five or six different ones at least. Most of them are great, and a few not so great cuz he didn’t seem to be in very good voice even though the band still sounded great.
I didn’t realise that – hard to imagine Jim Morrison throwing his voice round quite like that. I guess they have the same surname…
Ha ha. Funny that I never connected their names before. I think Gloria must have been their favorite encore number. Maybe that’s why he sounds out of breath sometimes by time they get to it.
Yeah, I was just reading that they were a big influence on The Doors. I’ve never connected them much.
Replying to Aphoristical’s “are the albums good? question – here are my reviews.
https://thepunkpanthermusicreviews.blogspot.com/2023/05/them.html
Oh cool – I had a look the other day.
Essential no matter what side it’s. Early Them is solid stuff.
Have you heard the albums? Obviously some great singles.
Yes I have. Thats what i listen to. Good stuff with more of an edge and you find out where exactly their influences were coming from. Pretty timeless for me.
Those singles have certainly endured. Van Morrison stayed good for a long time – most of his 1980s was worthwhile.
I’ve stuck with him and still get lots out of his music. He has a pretty high standard with me. His 80s stuff certainly was “worthwhile”.
I haven’t checked in for a while, but lots of magic. Tupelo Honey is my favourite Van song.
Yes yes and yes. It’s a special song. So much to like. The sax solo the background singers come (so does CB) Up there with Waterloo Sunset and Makes no Difference.
“She’s an Angel”
I was locked into a cover of his ‘And it Stoned Me’ by Widespread Panic. Also your fave has that sound that Springsteen had real early on. Good stuff Aph.
I have never really liked this song for whatever reason, but I am surprised that it was a B side.
Apparently “brown eyed girl” was originally titled “brown skin girl”, and then the record company made him change it.
That may or not be an urban myth, I can’t say for sure.