Van Morrison : Saint Dominic's Preview

Saint Dominic's Preview

 is the sixth

 studio album by

 Northern \

Irish singer-songwriter 

Van Morrison

 It was released in

 July 1972 by

 Warner Bros. Records. 

Rolling Stone declared it

 "the best-produced, 

most ambitious

 Van Morrison

 record yet released."

The diversity of the material

 on the album highlighted 

Morrison's fusing of 

Celtic folk, 

R&B, 

blues, 

jazz 

and the

 singer-songwriter genre.

 "Jackie Wilson Said 

(I'm in Heaven When You Smile)"

 and the title track 

were blends of

 soul and folk, 

while lesser known 

tracks such as 

"Gypsy" 

and

 "Redwood Tree"

 continued to display a

 lyrical celebration of

 nature's beauty. 

Also on the album 

were two lengthy tracks,

 "Listen to the Lion" 

and the closing

 "Almost Independence Day" 

which were given primal, 

cathartic and intense

 vocal performances 

from Morrison. 

These tracks were 

similar to the songs

 on his 1968 album,

 Astral Weeks.

The album reached 

number 15 

on the Billboard 200

 when it was released.

 This would remain 

Morrison's best ever

 US success 

on the Billboard 200

 until 2008 

when 

Keep It Simple

 came in at 

number 10 

on the 

Billboard chart.

The album was

 recorded during

 late winter 

and spring in

 1971/72 at 

Wally Heider Studios

 and Pacific High Studios 

in San Francisco 

and at 

The Church in San Anselmo. 

The fourth track

 on the album, 

"Listen to the Lion" 

was recorded during the

 Tupelo Honey sessions

 in 1971 at

 Columbia Studios

 in San Francisco. 

Ted Templeman 

was co-producer

 on the album. 

Several of the musicians 

who played on the album

 were newly recruited: 

Jules Broussard, 

saxophonist 

and previously from 

Boz Scaggs, 

pianist

 Mark Naftalin 

who had previously played 

with the

 Paul Butterfield Blues Band, 

guitarist 

Ron Elliott

 from the Beau Brummels

 and 

Bernie Krause 

played

 the Moog synthesize

The album was

 originally planned 

to be titled

 Green 

but it was changed

 after Morrison 

wrote the song 

"Saint Dominic's Preview"

 and used it as

 the title song.

 A Rolling Stone profile

 of Morrison in

 June 1972 

quoted him as

 saying that

 the song had evolved 

from a dream about a

 St. Dominic's church gathering 

where a mass for peace

 in Northern Ireland

 was being held. 

Rolling Stone

 then commented

 that later while Morrison

 was in Nevada he read

 in a newspaper article that

 a mass was being held

 the next day for peace 

at a St. Dominic's church

 in San Francisco

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