Saint Dominic's Preview (song)
| "Saint Dominic's Preview" | |
|---|---|
| B-side to "Redwood Tree" and "Gypsy" by Van Morrison from the album Saint Dominic's Preview | |
| Released | July 1972 |
| Recorded | Winter/spring 1972 |
| Genre | Folk rock, R&B |
| Length | 6:30 |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records |
| Writer(s) | Van Morrison |
| Composer(s) | Van Morrison |
| Producer(s) | Ted Templeman, Van Morrison |
| Saint Dominic's Preview track listing | |
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"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.
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:
Morrison 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:
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