Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cloonmore (talk | contribs) at 04:43, 23 December 2008 (+recording). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"T.B. Sheets" is a blues-influenced song written and recorded by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, recorded for the Bang Records label in 1967 and included on his first solo album, Blowin' Your Mind!. It later appeared on the Bang compilation, T.B. Sheets. The story as told in the song takes place in a hospital room where a young girl lies dying of tuberculosis and is visited by the storyteller. The overwhelming pain and guilt he feels leads to a desperate feeling of wanting to escape from the closed-in room smelling of death and disease.

"T.B. Sheets" was the opening song and featured prominently in the 1999 movie Bringing Out the Dead, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Recording

There is a longstanding but perhaps apocryphal story of Morrison's emotional state during the song's recording. Michael Ochs, in the liner notes for the 1973 album T.B. Sheets, wrote that "after 'T.B. Sheets' was recorded, the rest of the session had to be cancelled because Van broke down in tears." Likewise, according to John Collis,

Morrison could later joke about this song. "I’m writing 'T.B. Sheets Part II' now," he said in 1972. "Keeping the same riff, the same groove." However, it’s on record – though the story could be exaggerated – that after laying down this track he broke down in tears, unable to continue the session.

Critical interpretations

The Allmusic review states, "The listener is placed in the room. Although somewhat disturbing, it certainly describes the term realism with one bold masterful stroke".

John Collis describes the song's theme thusly:

First of all, the singer chides the terminally ill invalid for crying. "It ain't natural," he says. The woman cries all night and the observer, trapped in the death room, is embarrassed and helpless. Later in the song, the sun bouncing off a crack in the window pane "numbs my brain",...And then there's the crushing claustrophobia of the sickroom - "Let me breathe," he demands of the woman whose breath is failing, bubbling in cheesy lungs. There is a street below, a street she'll never walk in again, and he is getting desperate to be down there, to rejoin the living, because "the cool room is a fool's room".

Brian Hinton described the song's music as follows:

Here is a Dickensian tale of death and decay in a big city. Organ and drums go free form, then a stately groove, fitting Van's voice like a garrotte, led by nagging lead guitar. Van's harmonica hurts the ear, then he's like a terrier, lecturing his girfriend, "Julie" about it not being natural her staying awake at night, dying.

Cover versions

John Lee Hooker

Ghostface Killah samples "T.B. Sheets" heavily on his song "Greedy Bitches". The opening riff and rhythm section are lifted seemingly note for note into the rap song.

Notes

1. Michael Ochs, liner notes, T.B. Sheets, 1973
2. Collis. 1996. p85
3. "T.B. Sheets review". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
4. Collis. 1996. p84
5. Hinton. 1997. p81

References

• Collis, John (1996). Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Little Brown and Company, ISBN 0-306-80811-0
• Hinton, Brian (1997). Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison, Sanctuary, ISBN 1-86074169X
• Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press, ISBN 1-55652-542-7

External links

• Van Morrison - The Official Website Discography/Bang-Blowin Your Mind! lyrics
• AllMusic Review: T.B. Sheets

• 1967 songs
• Van Morrison songs