With this song I did a bit of research but I couldn’t really find conclusive evidence as to who Van Morrison was talking about in this song. The passion that is portrayed in this  makes me feel so sure that this is a personal experience that he went through.

I’ve searched on Google, read his wikipedia page but still there is no real answer as to who this song is actually referring to.

Tuberculosis took the lives of many people in the post-world war two era.  Maybe Van felt guilty that with a fledgling music career that so many of his friends and family were dieing of TB and there was nothing he could do. Or maybe people would tell him the countless stories of people dieing from T.B. and he just felt incredible empathy for them. I don’t know.

Whatever the story is behind the song and whether Van decides to tell the story behind the song one day or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But its Inigo’s song of the week choice and one that has a nice step to it.