Released July 1972 Genre Folk rock, R&B Label Warner Bros. Records | Recorded Winter/spring 1972 Length 6:30 Writer(s) Van Morrison | |
"Saint Dominic's Preview" is the title song on the 1972 sixth album of Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Gary Mallaber (from the Moondance album) plays drums on this song and Morrison's then wife, Janet Planet, is one of the back-up vocalists. The horns were arranged by Tom Salisbury, pianist on the song. Salisbury came up with the intro too. Doug Messenger, who played guitar, suggested the Hammond organ that comes in as Morrison intones, "...across the street from Cathedral Notre Dame." John McFee, of group Clover, added the pedal steel, to bring instrumental Americana into the recording.
Contents
Recording and composition
It was recorded during one of the Saint Dominic's Preview recording sessions that took place in the Wally Heider and Pacific High Studios in San Francisco and the Church in San Anselmo, California in late winter-early spring 1972. St. Dominic's, the song, was recorded exclusively at Wally Heider's.
It is said to contain Morrison's most Dylanesque lyrics. The words form images but not a complete story as they are mixed with a variety of subjects such as cleaning windows, Edith Piaf's soul, Yeats and Hank Williams. Touching on the Belfast situation at that time (The Troubles), there are references to "orange" boxes, "flags and emblems" and people determined "not to feel anyone else's pain."
Perhaps referring to his personal life and successful career at this time in his life are the lines:
All the restaurant tables are completely covered And the record company has paid out for the wine You got ev'rything in the world you ever wanted And right about now your face should wear a smileMorrison has said the song came to him in a stream of consciousness and that he later picked up a newspaper and read an announcement of a mass that was being held in a St. Dominic's church in San Francisco for peace in Belfast. As he told John Grissim:
I'd been working on this song about the scene going down in Belfast. And I wasn't sure what I was writing but the central image seemed to be this church called St Dominic's where people were gathering to pray or hear a mass for peace in Northern Ireland. A few weeks later I was playing at a gig in Reno, Nevada. I picked up a newspaper, and there in front of me was an announcement about a mass for peace in Belfast to be said the next day at St Dominic's Church in San Francisco. Totally blew me out. Like I'd never even heard of a St Dominic's Church.
Other releases
"Saint Dominic's Preview" was one of the live performances recorded and included on Morrison's 1974 acclaimed live album, It's Too Late To Stop Now. It is also one of the songs performed in 1979, on Morrison's first video Van Morrison in Ireland, released in 1981. The original recording was remastered in 2007 and included on the compilation album, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits.