Making Love in the Green Grass

Driving down the 405, I hear Brown Eyed Girl twice on two different radio stations. Here’s the history behind the song if you don’t already know it ... It’s 1967. The Supreme Court rules in favor of Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving (pictured). The historic decision strikes down all previous U.S. laws that made it illegal for different ethnic groups to marry each other. That same year, Van Morrison releases a song originally titled Brown Skinned Girl about a clandestine love that includes Morrison “hiding behind a rainbow's wall” with a brown-skinned woman. The love affair in the song remains secret. The two part. Van sings that he sees the girl years later and thinks about their past: “Sometimes I'm overcome just thinking about it. Making love in the green grass, behind the stadium with you. My brown-skinned girl. You’re my … brown-skinned girl.” A wee bit too racy for the 1967 radio-listening crowd, the record label puts the heat on Morrison. He eventually re-records the song and it’s released with the title Brown *Eyed* Girl. In 1975, Morrison admitted that the original title was indeed Brown Skinned Girl, but for whatever reason (read: his probable reluctance to bite the hand that was feeding him -- at the time, the song was arguably his biggest hit), he claimed that he “spaced out” and accidentally changed the title without noticing it. A mere oversight on his part. Yeah, right.