Re: Market Research

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>(Re:"Brown Eyed Girl"):
>I think the 2 versions of the song go back to the
>Sixties. Some stations might have been too nervous
>to run the version with the "making love..." line,
>substituting "laughing and a-runnin'" instead.
>
>The single version (the "laughing and a-runnin'")
>is on The Best of Van Morrison, I believe.

Yep, that's why it was done.  It was definitely a splice job, pulling
the "laughing and a-runnin'" phrase from an earlier verse.  Supposedly,
Van knew nothing of the change until afterwards, and was horrified at
what they'd done.

Don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that the splice was
actually done *on the master tape itself*, thus making it impossible
to obtain a clean copy of that recording the way Van intended.

Just goes to show that "the good ol' days" weren't necessarily all
that good, either...

- -Shawn Mamros ("look what they've done to my song...")
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu

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