Van Morrison Why Must I Always Explain

Unlike other songs where Morrison has denied partly or wholly that the material was autobiographical, he has always admitted that this song is his answer to press, critics and fans about the demands of his life as a musician. He has explained that the song was "about these people who are non-producers, and who set themselves up as authorities on the people that are doing the work, like me...They become authorities, even though they know nothing about it."


Why Must I Always Explain from the Album Hyms To The silence
Live at the Barbican York 10 Jan.2003
Big hand for the band!!
Mat Holland -Trompet,Mat Winning -Sax,David Hays-Bass,Bobby Irwin-Drums,Ned Edwards-Gitaar,Gavin Povey-Organ

In an interview with Victoria Clarke in 1993, he expressed that: "I don't really want to have to explain myself because I'm not really interested in doing that. If I was I would be somebody else. I'd be a politician or a celebrity. What I'm saying is, I'm just me. I make the records, I make this music and that's it, you know." The song contains the lines: "It's not righteous indignation that makes me complain/It's the fact that I always have to explain".


Why Must I Always Explain.
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Have to toe the line, I've got to make the most
Spent all the years going, from pillar to post
Now I'm standing on the outside and I'm waitin' in the rain
Tell me why must I always explain

Bared my soul to the crowd eh but oh what the cost
Most of them laughed out loud like nothing's been lost
There were hypocrites and parasites and people that drain
Tell me why must I always explain

Why, why must I always explain
Over and over, over again
It's just a job you know and it's no sweet lorraine
Tell me why must I always explain (alright)

Well I get up in the morning and I get my brief
I go out and stare at the world in complete disbelief
It's not righteous indignation that makes me complain
It's the fact that I always have to explain

I can't be everywhere at once, there's always somebody to see
And I never turned out to be the person that you wanted me to be
And I tell you who I am, time and time and time again
Tell me why must I always explain

Well it's out on the highway and it's on with the show
Always telling people things they're too lazy to know
It can make you crazy, yeah it can drive you insane