Them - Mystic Eyes (1965)

Formed in Northern Ireland in April 1964, this short-lived band is primarily remembered as the group that launched the career of Van Morrison. Their classic garage song “Gloria,” which was covered by countless bands after them, was their first taste of success, released in November 1964 (initially as a B-Side). After scoring a few more hits in the UK in 1965, the band was marketed in the United States and thus became a part of the first British Invasion. While touring America, the group had residency at famous Whisky a Go Go club in Los Angeles from the end of May until the middle of June 1966. In their final week at The Whisky, they were being opened by a group which they had been heavily influencing, The Doors. After finishing up in L.A., the band played The Fillmore in San Francisco before leaving to tour Hawaii. While in the Aloha state, the band argued over money and broke up on the spot. Morrison went on to great solo success, while the rest of the band regrouped through 1972 until finally calling it quits after a lack of the public’s interest in their new material.

This song, which featured session guitarist Jimmy Page, came about when members of the band were just messing around in the studio. While jamming, their producer Tommy Scott thought what they were doing was going to make for a great instrumental track. But seven minutes into the jam, Morrison started singing impromptu lyrics to a song he had recently been inspired to write from a trip past a cemetery where some children were playing. The ten-minute track, with its long instrumental intro, was reduced to a little less than three minutes and the song was complete. It became the opening track to the band’s first album, The Angry Young Them, released in November 1965; and, in the same month, it was released as a single in the US and UK, only charting in the US, reaching number thirty-three.



Them - Mystic Eyes (1965)

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Lyrics:

One Sunday mornin'
We went walkin'
Down by the old graveyard
The mornin' fog
I looked into, yeah
Those mystic eyes

Her mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Oh, the mystic eyes
Oh!