"Bulbs"
Single by Van Morrison
from the album Veedon Fleece
B-side	"Cul de Sac" (US) "Who Was That Masked Man" (UK)
Released	November 1974
Recorded	March 1974, Mercury Studios, New York City, United States
Genre	Folk rock soul[1]
Length	4:19
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Van Morrison
Producer(s)	Van Morrison
Van Morrison singles chronology
"Ain't Nothing You Can Do" (1974) "Bulbs" (1974) "Caldonia" (1974)
Official audio
"Bulbs" on YouTube

"Bulbs" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was the only single to be taken from his 1974 album Veedon Fleece, with a B-side of "Cul de Sac" for the US release and "Who Was That Masked Man" for the UK release.^[2][3]

Recording and composition

"Bulbs" was first recorded with different lyrics at the recording session for the 1973 album, Hard Nose the Highway, released in 1973.^[4] After the first recording session for Veedon Fleece, "Bulbs" was re-cut at Mercury Studios in New York City in March 1974, along with "Cul de Sac" to give it a more rock feeling. According to Jef Labes this was "cause he (Morrison) didn't feel they had the right feeling... It was me, Van and a bunch of other guys that he'd never played with."^[5] Bass player Joe Macho had previously played on the 1966 Bobby Hebb hit song "Sunny".

"Bulbs" has been described as "a pleasant, catchy country ditty, a Dire Straits song before its time" by biographer John Collis.^[6] As with many of Morrison's songs, "Bulbs" does not have a clear story line, but in part focuses on immigration to the United States as in the lines:

She's leaving Pan American

Suitcase in her hand

I said her brothers and her sisters

Are all on Atlantic sand

Critical reception

Record World called it "Something like a performance from his Astral Weeks days with a graft of pedal steel" and said that "Van benefits from a renewed power surge."^[7]

In an interview with Morrison, Tom Donahue said, after he had listened to "Bulbs": "You always make great noises. The other things you do in songs beside the words."^[8]

In a Stylus Magazine review for the album Veedon Fleece, Derek Miller says of the song:^[9]

"Of course, the best and most immediately memorable song on Veedon Fleece is "Bulbs". Coming about as close to laying down a groove as he does on the album, the song quickly makes dust of its acoustic start, leaping headstrong into a Waylon Jennings' style bass-roll, rump heavy and plush, pianos shimmering and fingerdense."

Morrison performed the song on the German television show Musikladen on 13 November 1974.^[10]

Title

"Bulbs" – Intro

26 seconds of "Bulbs"

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Problems playing this file? See media help.

The title might come from the lines:

And her batteries are corroded

And her hundred watt bulb just blew

or the repeated chorus:

.. she's standing in the shadows

Where the street lights all turn blue

Personnel

• Van Morrison – vocals, acoustic guitar
• John Tropea – electric guitar
• Jef Labes – piano
• Joe Macho – bass
• Allan Schwartzberg – drums

Other releases

A live performance of this song is featured on the 1974 disc of Morrison's 2006 issued DVD, Live at Montreux 1980/1974. Morrison used a stripped-down band on this Montreaux Jazz Festival appearance consisting of:

• Van Morrison – vocals, guitar
• Pete Wingfield – piano, background vocals
• Jerome Rimson – bass, background vocals
• Dallas Taylor – drums

Covers

• Australian blues and root band The Revelators covered the song on their 2000 album, The Adventures of The Amazing Revelators.
• Ellis Hooks performed a cover version of "Bulbs" on the 2003 released tribute album, Vanthology: A Tribute to Van Morrison.^[11]
• "Bulbs" was covered by Jason Boland & the Stragglers on their 2018 album "Hard Times Are Relative."^[12]

Notes

References

• Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0
• Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7
• Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074-169-X