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

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

's 1972 album, ''

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 y ...

''. 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)" 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 July 1972 as the f ...

" in 1972.

Composition

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

'', but with Tom Salisbury on Hammond organ as well as piano and Jules Broussard doubling up on flute. Biographer Peter Mills commented 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 (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...

organ over the

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the term ...

.Mills. ''Hymns to the Silence'', p.162-163 The song contains lines from two other previously released Morrison songs: " Sweet Thing" and " I've Been Working". 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 An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music Video recording, recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appe ...

, recorded in 1969 from the ''

Moondance ''Moondance'' is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 27 January 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album '' Astral Weeks'' (1968), Morr ...

'' sessions, entitled "Set My Soul on Fire".Heylin. ''Can You Feel the Silence?'', p.519

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'': 'I Shall Sing' from ''

'' sessions and a 1972 non-album B-side, 'You've Got the Power'."Heylin. ''Can You Feel the Silence?'', p.314

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

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

s *Jack Schroer -

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

*Jules Broussard -

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 and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

*Doug Messenger -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Tom Salisbury -

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

*Bill Church -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

Gary Mallaber Gary Mallaber (born October 11, 1946, in Buffalo) is an American musician from Los Angeles, mostly known as a drummer, but plays percussion, vibraphone, and keyboards. In addition, he is a songwriter, arranger, composer, producer, engineer, a ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Covers

Roy Head Roy Kent Head (January 9, 1941 – September 21, 2020) was an American singer, best known for his hit song "Treat Her Right". Head and fellow high school student Tommy Bolton founded musical group The Traits in 1957, with the band, billed as Roy ...

on ''Dismal Prisoner''

Notes

References

* Heylin, Clinton (2003). ''Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography'', Chicago Review Press *Mills, Peter (2010), ''Hymns to the Silence: Inside the Words and Music of Van Morrison'', London: Continuum, {{ISBN, 978-0-8264-2976-6 1972 songs Van Morrison songs Songs written by Van Morrison