Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl” is one of those classic rock songs that’s become such a part of pop culture that it’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing all the words.
It’s been in countless movies and TV shows, played at an infinite number of proms and parties…and there’s truly no telling how many newlywed couples have chosen “Brown-Eyed Girl” for their first dance. In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked it at #110 on a list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” But who was the “Brown-Eyed Girl” in Morrison’s life?
Morrison nicknamed her “Janet Planet,” but her name was really Janet Rigsbee. When she met Morrison in 1966, she was a 19-year-old actress and single mother living in California.
It was behind a concert hall in San Leandro that she and the 20-year-old singer first crossed paths, though Janet had already heard his voice on the radio. Morrison was about to play one of his first shows in the U.S. as frontman for the Irish band Them.
“I looked at him, he looked at me and it was alchemical whammo,” Janet told the Los Angeles Times in 1998.
The couple was “poor as church mice” when they got married in New York City in 1968. The next year, the pair moved to Woodstock, N.Y., along with Janet’s young son Peter. Morrison was hoping to strike up a friendship with Bob Dylan, who also lived in the town.
“Van fully intended to become Dylan’s best friend, but the whole time we were there they never met,” Janet said. “Every time we’d drive past Dylan’s house — Van didn’t drive, I did — Van would just stare wistfully out the window at the gravel road leading to Dylan’s place. He thought Dylan was the only contemporary worthy of his attention. But back then, Bob just wasn’t interested in him.”
Janet served as both her husband’s creative muse and practical assistant.
“Van would sit in front of a two-track reel-to-reel recorder with a guitar in our living room for hours upon hours upon hours,” she said. “Then I’d go back and meticulously transcribe his roughed-out lyrics. Slowly but surely, those tapes were honed and refined into beautiful songs.”
Morrison’s time in Woodstock was productive in more ways than one; Janet gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Shana, in April 1970. The family only stayed in the increasingly crowded area for another year, however, before moving to Marin County in 1971.
“By then, our life together was very traumatic and horrible,” Janet said. “I couldn’t stand any more of his rage as my daily reality. I worried about its impact on the children.”
In 1973, Janet left her home with Morrison, driving away in his Mercedes.
Related: 1970 Rock Classic, Ranked Among the ‘Best Songs of the ’70s,’ Was Inspired by Music From a Radio That Didn’t Exist
“I would have done anything for the man who wrote those songs, who whispered in the night that they were true,” she admitted. “I wanted more than anything to make him happy. But I just couldn’t do it.”
As Janet explained, her mistake was “confusing the music with the man. The music was everything you could hope for as a romantic. The man was a prickly pear.”
Morrison’s supporters weren’t particularly understanding at the time.
“When I left, everybody got real mad at me because I had become an important cog in a music industry machine that was starting to make so much money,” Janet said. “On the other hand, I just had to find peace and my own voice.”
In the years after her divorce, Janet eventually pursued a career as a songwriter. At first, she tried not to talk about her connection to Morrison, but eventually had a change of heart.
“A lot of water has passed under a bridge,” she said. “But any doubts as to the heights of that romance, and the power it seems to continue to speak to the secret longings of others, can be answered by going back to the songs. Always, the songs.”
Related: 1964 Garage Rock Anthem, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time,’ Was Written by an 18-Year-Old
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