"Bulbs" | ||||
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Single by Van Morrison | ||||
from the album Veedon Fleece | ||||
A-side | "Bulbs" | |||
B-side | "Cul de Sac" | |||
Released | November 1974 | |||
Recorded | March 1974, Mercury Studios, New York City, United States | |||
Genre | Folk-Rock | |||
Length | 4:19 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Songwriter(s) | Van Morrison | |||
Producer(s) | Van Morrison | |||
Van Morrison singles chronology | ||||
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Veedon Fleece track listing | ||||
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"Bulbs" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1974 album Veedon Fleece. It was chosen as the 'A' side single from the album.
"Bulbs" was first recorded with different lyrics at the recording session for the 1973 album, Hard Nose the Highway, released in 1973. After the first recording session for Veedon Fleece, "Bulbs" was re-cut at Mercury Studios in New York City in March 1974, along with "Cul de Sac" to give it a more rock feeling. According to Jef Labes this was "cause he (Morrison) didn't feel they had the right feeling... It was me, Van and a bunch of other guys that he'd never played with." Bass player Joe Macho had previously played on the 1966 Bobby Hebb hit song "Sunny".
"Bulbs" has been described as "a pleasant, catchy country ditty, a Dire Straits song before its time" by biographer John Collis. As with many of Morrison's songs, "Bulbs" does not have a clear story line, but in part focuses on immigration to the United States as in the lines:
In an interview with Morrison, Tom Donahue said, after he had listened to "Bulbs": "You always make great noises. The other things you do in songs beside the words."
In a Stylus Magazine review for the album Veedon Fleece, Derek Miller says of the song:
"Of course, the best and most immediately memorable song on Veedon Fleece is "Bulbs". Coming about as close to laying down a groove as he does on the album, the song quickly makes dust of its acoustic start, leaping headstrong into a Waylon Jennings' style bass-roll, rump heavy and plush, pianos shimmering and fingerdense."
Morrison played the song on the German television show Musikladen on 13 November 1974.