Fair Play (song)

"Fair Play" is a song by Northern Irish artist Van Morrison. The opening track on the 1974 album Veedon Fleece, it derived its name from Morrison's Irish friend, Donall Corvin's repeated use of the Irish colloquialism "fair play to you" as a wry compliment. The 3/4 ballad name checks Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe and Henry David Thoreau.[1], and according to Morrison, the song derived from "what was running through his head", and marked a return to the stream of consciousness channeled song-writing that had not been evident since several of the songs contained in his 1972 album Saint Dominic's Preview.[2] "Fair Play" was included on the 2015 compilation The Essential Van Morrison. [3]

"Fair Play"
Song by Van Morrison
from the album Veedon Fleece
ReleasedOctober 1974 (1974-10)
RecordedNovember 1973
Genre
Length6:14
LabelWarner Bros.
Songwriter(s)Van Morrison
Producer(s)Van Morrison

Reviews

Allmusic describes the song as "a jazzy folk song which opens the album with soft strains of an acoustic guitar, upright bass, and natural-sounding piano that slowly start to come to life". The aforementioned sounds were described as "the kinds of sounds that bring to mind an autumn Sunday morning, when things seem rested, meditative, solid, and complete". As Veedon fleece is often overlooked in favor of critically lauded Van Morrison's first major artistic breakthrough Astral Weeks, the album still picks up where the former record left off and more fully realizes the spiritual and musical quests set forth on Astral Weeks. The song is also described as deep, and "a soul number in the literal sense of the term".[4]

Live performance

"Fair Play" was performed 56 times totally (three times in medleys).[5]

gollark: - I think markets are a reasonably good resource allocation system, and to ensure liquidity would support requiring any property someone owns whatsoever to be put up for auction if someone requests it.
gollark: - I believe our country should construct its own god to reduce reliance on foreign imports, and maintain a stock of reality anchors to remove other gods if necessary.
gollark: - I think that consumption, possession, distribution and production of all drugs should be legal everywhere for everyone at all times.- I support an improved tax system, where everyone in the country is directly billed `country's yearly operating expenses / population` each year, to increase fairness.
gollark: - I believe we should end racial discrimination by replacing computer monitors with 1-bit black and white displays so race cannot be distinguished.
gollark: - As eating meat places suffering on millions of innocent animals, I believe animal meat should be replaced with human flesh from donors, as humans are able to meaningfully consent to this while animals are not (and don't get a choice in practice anyway).

References
  1. Rogan, No Surrender, p. 298
  2. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p.279
  3. "The Essential Van Morrison - Van Morrison | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  4. "Fair Play - Van Morrison | Song Info | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  5. "Van Morrison Tour Statistics | setlist.fm". www.setlist.fm.
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