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Any Bad Musicologist worth his or her salt knows about the Bang Records contractual obligation session recorded by Van Morrison in the mid-to-late 1960s. So the story goes, Van owed the label a new record, so he went in and recorded about 30 one-minute-long tracks of lyrics he made up off the top of his head. The songs that came out of that session have titles such as "Ringworm", "Up Your Mind", "Blow InYour Nose", "Nose In Your Blow", and "Hang On Groovy". "Chickie Coo" is one of my personal favorites, because there's no lyrics at all.

The joke was eventually on Van, of course, because these songs WERE eventually released, in varying degrees of legitimacy. You can now purchase the complete session as part of a two disc Bang Records compilation. And since these are a legitimate release, of course the lyrics have been transcribed by Van Morrison fans. Here's the lyrics for "Chickie Coo", if you want to follow along.

Personally, I don't think you need to give the record company any more money. If you're actually interested, and willing to hunt around, you'll probably be able to find all 31 tracks online.

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