You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push the River
| "You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push the River" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Van Morrison | |
| from the album Veedon Fleece | |
| Released | October 1974 |
| Recorded | November 1973 |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 8:51 |
| Label | Warner Bros. Records |
| Songwriter(s) | Van Morrison |
| Producer(s) | Van Morrison |
| Veedon Fleece track listing | |
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"You Don't Pull No Punches, but You Don't Push the River" is a nine-minute song by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It appears on the album Veedon Fleece, released in 1974.
The song was written on Morrison's three week trip to Ireland in October 1973, along with seven other songs that would feature on Veedon Fleece.
Biographer Clinton Heylin wrote that Morrison admitted—that "aside from 'flashes of Ireland'—the song had 'other flashes on other kinds of people. I was also reading a couple of books at the time...[there's] a bit of Gestalt theory in it, too." (A book entitled, Don't Push the River (It Flows by Itself) by Barry Stevens about her use of Gestalt therapy was published in 1970.) In the song's lyrics are Morrison's first referral to William Blake, and the Eternals from Blake's The Book of Urizen. The Sisters of Mercy, also mentioned in the song, is a religious organisation of women founded in Dublin, Ireland.
According to Morrison biographer Johnny Rogan, the song begins as a love song celebrating a young girl's childhood and then goes into a journey along the west coast of Ireland and then suddenly goes into a mythological search for an object he calls the "Veedon Fleece".
Musically, it combines a woodwind section and strings, both played in blocked chords. The song is played at a moderate tempo in the key of G major. The Em-C chord progression features throughout the duration of the piece. The song's introduction consists of Ralph Wash's acoustic guitar playing chords on the upper registers of the instrument, with James Trumbo playing the legato melody on piano in 12/8 time. Morrison then starts to scat, repeating the same melody twice. The second time is accompanied by Jim Rothermel's flute, playing the same rhythm. The transition between the real and mythological phases is transmitted in a dramatic fashion with the use of flute and strings.
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