Van Morrison: No Surrender

by Johnny Rogan

In Van No Surrender , Johnny Rogan has produced a provocative and revelatory biography of the musician, analysing the sense of place in his work and the tortuous journey that took him from local fame in Belfast to international success. Set against the cultural and political backdrop of Belfast, before, during and after the Troubles, No Surrender offers a unique and penetrating perspective on Morrison’s long career and the times that made him.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

640 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very puzzling and ultimately frustrating book.

I used it for an ill-starred project I did on "Astral Weeks" awhile back.

The thing is, it's meticulous as all hell. Rogan did much much research and it shows. He leaves no stone unturned when it comes to documenting pretty much everything The Belfast Cowboy ever committed to tape. This is a good thing, certainly, and well worth doing, but....

It's also extremely irritating that he would decide to frame his Morrison narrative with the cause of militant Protestant activism in Belfast, starting from the title of the friggin' thing.

The problem is, well, one quick thing....VAN MORRISON ISN'T POLITICAL~!

I mean, yeah, I went to grad school too- there's no such thing as a truly apolitical artist, everybody's a product of his environment, invisible social pressures guide the hand of the muse, etc etc, but trying to braid Van Morrison's life and work in with militant Protestant political agendas is just WIGGIDY WIGGIDY WHACK.

So far as I'm aware (and I feel like I know my stuff in the Morrison department) Van has never publicly acknowledged his participation with any political group, let alone this one. He's never written or sang a song that could be (mis)interpreted to be social commentary or sloganeering. It's not a good thing or a bad thing, mind, it's just the sheer fact of the matter. A lot of 'poetic' singer/songwriters do get down and dirty with the social contract, certainly, and it's all to the good that they do.

But aside from Dylan and Cohen or Townsend or the brothers Davies, there's also dudes who pretty much just keep it mystical and aren't particularly interested in social commentary and are more than content to stick with the rivers and the lakes that they're used to, songwriting-wise.

I mean, sure, Morrison was a public figure during some pretty discordant times but even as a nominal Protestant he hasn't focused on very much else but his private world of memories, dreams, reflections, visions, etc. He's waaay too navel-gazing for that kind of thing. Furiously private, near aphasic in interviews, Morrison's disinterest and disdain for the general run of humanity, whoever they are, is legendarily well-known and documented. It seems bloody obvious that, given his druthers, the cat would much rather hole up somewhere with some whisky, some John Lee Hooker records, and the collected works of William Blake. He's one a' them searchin' cats, y'see, and really doesn't have much of a role to play in bloody sectarian conflict other than the fact that he tended to hang his hat in the area for some part of his career.

And it would be fine if Rogan sort of made the connection one or twice and got on with it but I mean whole chapters (plural) in this quite long and consistently extensive book begin and end with the cause of Protestant nationalism and there are painstaking accounts of the political world of Belfast and speeches given by one side and so on, all while we hear all we might want to know about Van's output from "Gloria" to whatever he was up to around 2006.

It was just so very strange so encounter this that I had to read the thing. It would be similar to reading about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a biography of Harpo Marx or about Cambodian death squads in the middle of the Nick Drake songbook.

Bonkers. Two stars, and that's being generous....the WTF factor (there's no original interviews with the man either, not a rare occurrence for Van fans of course, let alone biographers, but I'd rather have seen the all-fired necessity of Rogan's approach from something his exhaustively researched subject might have actually SAID or DONE)...actually knocks it down another star, on further reflection.

Also, as some other reviewers have pointed out, it's seethingly, unceasingly negative towards its subject. This is sort of a whatever issue for me, I think, but it also begs the question: why the fuck would some one do all the yeoman's work on a book like this, listen to the hours of tapes, talk to so many people, etc, about someone whom one clearly can't stand?

Gotta be easier ways to get a book written. Morrison is a legendarily well-known dickbag and doucenozzle, but I honestly don't get why Rogan would be so pathetically masochistic or so mono-maniacally fixated on shitting all over the dude.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have pondered a while between two and three stars for this biography. In the end I have leant to my generous side and given it three. Johnny Rogan's 'Van Morrison No Surrender', published in 2005 is some five hundred pages with a further hundred of notes. Rogan is no stranger to this genre having written or contributed to more than twenty biographies from The Byrds, The Kinks to Neil Young.
The crux of this work is summed up on the first page of chapter one..."Any commentator attempting to understand the complex psychology of Morrison is inexorably drawn back to Belfast. Morrison's sense of place, his spiritual unrest, his granite obduracy, his Presbyterian-like pragmatism and that peculiarly insular 'No Surrender' Ulster mentality that dominates his every public utterance and action all testify to the profound influence that Belfast has had in shaping his psyche and determining his world view."
In order to put flesh on the bones of his 'No Surrender' Morrison psyche, Rogan has inflicted his readers with both barrels of the sectarian histories of Northern Ireland, back to Gladstone's nineteenth century Liberals, Easter 1916, de Valera to Paisley and Adams, U.V.F. and I.R.A.
Perhaps Rogan's psychoanalysis could have been pursued closer to home as..."Young Morrison was a preternaturally quiet boy whose lack of siblings meant that he had no immediate role models on whom to practice his social skills. Introspection was an easier option." Or..."As an only child, Morrison's isolation, (where have I heard that before?) was heightened when his father left the family to find work in America." The author also provides many examples of female intuition from Morrison's teen years to put him on the right track, "Offstage he had very little going for him, and that's the sad thing. I felt he was fairly morose and depressed of nature." Also, "I thought he was always so wretched back then. We used to find this funny because at 17 you have no insight into psychology or any understanding of the sadness of life. I just thought he was pathetic and a really sad man." Again, "Van was a mess, a lot of the time he was drinking far too much and was clearly very unhappy." Or, "He always reminded me of a soul in torment. Not a happy chappie."
And more, "He didn't want to know anybody. He shunned everyone, was very rude to me and nobody really bothered with him." Also, "He emerged in the Sixties when everyone was beautiful and he wasn't. He had nothing that made him beautiful. He didn't even have a beautiful personality. When Them came back home Van was still the wee,fat,ugly man. He had this great chip on his shoulder about his looks." And there's more..."He's a very troubled person and always was." Again, "He was really grumpy. He was one of the grumpiest people I'd ever known. Everybody loathed him. He was the most disliked person I can ever remember. I can remember everyone saying 'what a wee naff he is. Who does he think he is? Not only did he have hang-ups but it was made worse by the fact that he was so disliked by people and he had no way of communicating at all."
These opinions are repeated throughout by business managers and agents, press reporters, ex-wives and girlfriends, ex-friends, fellow musicians ad nauseum.
Sure, there's a very detailed and well written biography of Van the Man here, however I question the title 'No Surrender', perhaps more accurate a description is 'No Personality'.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most informative, detailed and salacious of all the Van biographies I've read. Apart from a couple of errors -'Edith Piaf soul' misheard as 'PF Sloan', getting Brian Kennedy confused with his brother, Bap - it's well researched and entertainingly written. Van really does come across as a wholly objectionable git, putting even Sinatra in the shade when it comes to his treatment of people, but Rogan also gives credit where credit is due when it comes to the music. When the old curmudgeonly Belfast cowboy eventually kicks the bucket there may be consequent revelations that will cast him in an even worse light but they'll have to be of Savillesque proportions to put me off listening to those works of wonder like Veedon Fleece, St Dominic's Preview, Astral Weeks etc.

[Phil Griffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made me wish that Goodreads had a no "star rating". It is without doubt the most negative biography I have ever read. The author has virtually nothing good to say about this subject and the level of vitriol is beyond comprehension. Most of the concentrates on the political background of Ireland rather than the musician. There are numerous interviews or quotations from musicians, friends and colleagues of Morrison. None of them contain anything that is remotely kind about the musician most of them are incredibly negative. I am aware that there are evil people on the planet, but I do not think that Morrison fits into that category.

Critiques of his recordings sent concerts throughout the book are universally negative with the exception of the "Astral"album, which the author seems to feel worse than Morrison's pinnacle of success and only point to which he should return. I acknowledge that I am a fan of Van Morrison in that some of his recordings are inconsistent. I have had the opportunity to see him in concert three times. I believe his musicianship is unparalleled. Nothing in this book would lead into the opinion that his music is worth listening to. I have rarely read a book that was as much of a waste of my time.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS BOOK.

[David Jennings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Rogan as a rock biographer and historian. Once again his depth of research is impressive, particularly on the early Belfast years which are covered at length (to give an idea of the emphasis, by half way through the book Van has only recorded his first solo album, Astral Weeks). But I can't avoid the feeling that this is a mean-spirited portrait of its subject, which fails to convey what's special about him. We get Van in the 1970s as a curmudgeon in New York and California, in the '80s as a curmudgeon on a vague spiritual quest, and in the '90s as a curmudgeon flirting and then withdrawing from the Dublin social scene. Few people from any stage of his career have a good word to say about him. Rogan's criticisms of the man all seem to be viewed through the same narrow lens; he is unimpressed by all but two or three of his albums, dismissive of his pretensions as a writer/poet/teacher/mystic. In search of a hook to hang this picture on, Rogan alights on the comparison with Ian Paisley: he sets this up at the beginning of the book, but manifestly fails to make it stick in the rest of the narrative (Rogan's Catholicism is central to his identity, so the Paisley comparison is not chosen to be favourable). So Van is a conceited, socially awkward and titanically stubborn curmudgeon... What makes him stand out among other curmudgeons? How has he won such a following, and built such a long career despite pissing off everyone he meets? These are questions that No Surrender leaves begging.

[Bojana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have known better but was swayed by the fascination (over Morrison) to buy a biography of a man who is very secretive and basically hates to be in the lamplight. So what do I get? A one-sided, embarrasingly petty portrayal of a talented artist, who’se biographer more than obviously HATES him, and I must conclude, also envies him. I’ve made it through half of this book and it’s making me nauseous. Johnny Rogan here pans his subject as this extemelly socially awkward guy, which is all fine but the amount of vitriol he uses to fish and point out sometimes absolutely gross details that no one is interested in (I would rather spare you the examples) is making me wonder if it payed off for him to spend all this time and research to only talk to people who have a chip on the shoulder about the guy and then scribble 600 odd pages of twisted nothings. He goes to ridiculous lenghts to paint even the most throw-away details as signs of weakness and failure in some half-assed attempt at psychoanalysing the musician, which gets real old real quick - as does calling him “fat”, “sulky”, “morose” and “ugly”. I don’t recommend anyone to get this book, even if it offers a chronology of Morrison’s life, there must be something better out there.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly detailed warts and all biography, Van the musician and Van the troubled man make for mixed feelings and help you understand how artists can be flawed as people and yet create such moving work.

[Richard Kirkner]

Very well researched bio of an ornery singer with a very enlightening parallel history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the Sunday Times's ho-hum pseudo-plaudit on the cover of Johnny Rogan's book on Van Morrison: "No biography is likely to tell you more about Morrison." Okay then, interesting endorsement; can it be "more," but in a mediocre way? Apparently yes, as Rogan delivers a great flood of facts without much perspective. I don't know if this is the way of celebrity biographies in general, but it seems almost everything except for the prologue and the epilogue is disposable gossip.

Van Morrison is a five-decades-deep Irish rock poet -- 33 albums, 71 singles, 45 years -- as well as a frustrating, uncompromising, weird asshole. Rogan's thesis is that the politics of Northern Ireland (most notably Ulster belligerents' "No Surrender") can illuminate and clarify that long career. Begun in the privileged but tense environment of Belfast, Morrison's whole life might be shaped by unionist/Protestant loyalty.

A wonderfully thoughtful premise, but delivered (in the bulk of Rogan's work) mostly in stark and empty juxtaposition, rarely in anything like comparison or connection. Whether Morrison is just a cranky Irishman, just a silly New Age hack, or just a simple curmudgeon, the story he lived is, here, rarely anything but a dumb parallel to the Troubles.

One of the principal characters in the book (unseen to Morrison) is Ian Paisley, an omnipresent religious radio man turned superstar political critic (like Charles Coughlin in '30s America) who filled Belfast with a lot of anti-Pope screeds during Morrison's life. Just a coincidence, or the religious/political complement to Morrison's artistic work? It might be clearer from Rogan's work, honestly, if there were less blunt quotation and more incisive analysis. The Paisley descriptions are a good example of page-by-page "stand politics next to art, and see if anything ever comes together" ineffectiveness.

And, aside from political/religious ideas, the predictable material (went to this school, was this kind of person, worked with these people) is not that great. A lot of it, yes, and put together in a decent way, but not much great. Rogan builds the biography from seemingly exhaustive research to bland and predictable results.

The prose is usually awkward, careless, not well edited, and the perspective usually cloudy-eyed and asinine. Just tied-together quotes a lot of the time, and sudden jumps into editorializing, whether single-word ('50s BBC was "staid," '60s West Germany was "permissive") or multi-paragraph (an uncomfortable riff on one Morrison tryst after his mid-'90s split from trophy wife Michelle Rocca).

The end, and to a certain extent the beginning, depart from enough of these weaknesses to make Rogan's book worthwhile. In the epilogue, he can relax from completely reporting Morrison's life and return to pondering it, including Morrison's shift on the definition of "rock" and a quicker, more effective layout of his entire career: the slog of Them, the false breakthrough of "Brown Eyed Girl," the quieter but truer genesis of Astral Weeks, the sylvan '70s, the scandals and disgrace of the '80s and '90s, and beyond.

[Kiof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who's to say- is van the man really a huge grumpy asshole. I think the answer is probably yes. I don't think Rogan set out for a hatchet job, it's just that Van has rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way. Very sad book to read, if you like the music, which I think everybody does.