"You've Got the Power" is an outtake from Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

's 1972 album, Saint Dominic's Preview

Saint Dominic's Preview

Saint Dominic's Preview is the sixth solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in July 1972 by Warner Bros. Records...

. It was released as the B-side to "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)

Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)

"Jackie Wilson Said " is a song written and performed by Van Morrison and featured as the opening track on his sixth studio album, Saint Dominic's Preview. It was released by Warner Bros...

" in 1972.

Composition

The song features the same personnel as on "I Will Be There

I Will Be There (Van Morrison song)

"I Will Be There" is a song featured on Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison's sixth album Saint Dominic's Preview . The song is also the B-side to Morrison's single "Warm Love", released in 1973....

" from Saint Dominic's Preview

Saint Dominic's Preview

Saint Dominic's Preview is the sixth solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in July 1972 by Warner Bros. Records...

, but with Tom Salisbury on Hammond organ as well as piano and Jules Broussard doubling up on flute. Biographer Peter Mills comented that "The ensemble performance on 'You've Got the Power' is a mighty-sounding thing, righteous and powerful in its proclamation." The song uses staccato

Staccato

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...

 organ over the horn section

Horn section

In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...

.

The song contains lines from two other previously released Morrison songs: "Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing (Van Morrison song)

"Sweet Thing" is one of the songs included on Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison's 1968 acclaimed second album Astral Weeks. It was on the first side of the album, that was under the heading: In the Beginning...

" and "I've Been Working

I've Been Working

"I've Been Working" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison appearing on the album His Band and the Street Choir, released in 1970. The song was first an outtake from Morrison's well received album Astral Weeks of 1968...

". The line, "Baby with your saint like smile" was originally used at the end of "Sweet Thing" just before the song faded out. "Set my soul on fire" was first used in "I've Been Working". There is also an out-take, recorded in 1969 from the Moondance

Moondance

Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on Warner Bros. Records on 28 February 1970 and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart....

sessions, entitled "Set My Soul on Fire".

Highlights

"You've Got the Power" was to feature in a compilation of outtakes called Highlights in 1977, but the album was never released. Clinton Heylin says "The fourteen-track album Warners compiled only included two songs that pre-dated Hard Nose the Highway

Hard Nose the Highway

According to Ritchie Yorke, who published his biography, Into the Music in 1975, the album enjoyed rave reviews at the time of release. He cited one dissenting critic Charlie Gillett, who wrote in Let It Rock: "The trouble with Hard Nose the Highway is that although the music is quite often...

: 'I Shall Sing' from Moondance

Moondance

Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on Warner Bros. Records on 28 February 1970 and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart....

sessions and a 1972 non-album B-side, 'You've Got the Power'."

Response

Peter Mills has said that this song is "one of the best examples we have of Morrison's voice working in a fully integrated way with the superb band that blasted on to the concert stages in the 70s".

Personnel

• Van Morrison
  Van Morrison
  Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
  
   - vocals
• Jack Schroer
  Jack Schroer
  John Henry "Jack" Schroer was a saxophonist, pianist and arranger best known for his work with Van Morrison in the 1970s as a member of his band The Caledonia Soul Orchestra....
  
   - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Jules Broussard - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  , flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
  
• Doug Messenger - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Tom Salisbury - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , Hammond organ
  Hammond organ
  The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
  
  
• Bill Church
  Bill Church
  William 'Bill' Church , started out playing bass in a band called Sawbuck in 1969, with Mojo Collins, Starr Donaldson, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff. As the band was beginning to record their first album, Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Van Morrison on his Tupelo Honey album...
  
   - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Gary Mallaber
  Gary Mallaber
  Gary Mallaber is a Los Angeles session drummer, percussionist and singer. He got his start playing drums in a band from Buffalo, New York, known as Raven....
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....