No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
| No Guru, No Method, No Teacher | ||||
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| Studio album by Van Morrison | ||||
| Released | July 1986 June 2008 (Reissue) |
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| Recorded | 1985, Studio D & Record Plant, Sausalito, California & Townhouse Studios, London, England |
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| Genre | Celtic, folk rock, jazz | |||
| Length | 50:50 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
| Producer | Van Morrison | |||
| Van Morrison chronology | ||||
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| Singles from No Guru, No Method, No Teacher | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Hot Press | 11/12 |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Village Voice | B− |
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is the sixteenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1986 on Mercury.
Upon release in 1986, it was well received by critics and charted at number twenty-seven in the UK and number seventy on the Billboard 200.
The album was recorded at Studio D and Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California in 1985 with Jim Stern as engineer. The basic takes were recorded at Studio D with Chris Michie, Jef Labes, Babatunde Lea (credited as "Baba Trunde"), David Hayes and Morrison. Overdubs, guitar solos, strings and back-up vocals were added at the Record Plant with the masters taken to Townhouse Studios in London. Overdubs with Ritchie Buckley on saxophone, Martin Drover on trumpet and oboe played by Kate St. John were added in the London studio.
The song "In the Garden" was a favorite fan concert performance for years. Morrison told Mick Brown in 1986 on the Interview Album: "I take you through a definite meditation process which is a form of transcendental meditation. It's not about TM, forget about that. You should have some degree of tranquillity by the time you get to the end. It only takes about ten minutes to do this process." There are references back to Astral Weeks with gardens wet with rain and a childlike vision. The words are poetic as in the line "you are a creature all in rapture/You had the key to your soul".
"Got to Go Back" features Kate St. John's oboe and reminisces of school days back in the singer's childhood in Belfast. "Oh, The Warm Feeling" is also a song of feeling the safety of family and love in childhood.
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