"Ivory Tower" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

 and included on his 1986 album, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

This album was hailed by most critics as a return to form and gave Morrison his best reviews of any of his albums in the eighties. John Wilde in Sounds remarks, "the crescendos here are never dampened by their subtle nature and never fall short of blinding. The whole album aches with a steady...

. The song was also released as a single with the B-side "A New Kind of Man", from his previous album A Sense of Wonder

A Sense of Wonder

A Sense of Wonder is the fifteenth album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison released in 1985. When first released original pressings had to be recalled when the W. B. Yeats estate refused to allow Morrison's musical version of the poem, "Crazy Jane on God" to be included on the album,...

. It charted at #21 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks

Mainstream Rock Tracks

Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...

 in 1986.

Clinton Heylin writes this about the song "A chorus about how tough "It really must be/ To be me, to see like me, to feel like me" threatens the spirituality self-effacing mood he had previously maintained." Biographer John Collis takes the same viewpoint by saying "Ivory Tower, totally breaks the mold - it's an r'n'b

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 shaker just like those produced by the Van Morrison of old, though now he suffers from self pity: "Don't you know the price I have to pay/Just to do everything I have to do..."

Personnel on original release

• Van Morrison
  Van Morrison
  Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
  
   - vocal
• June Boyce - backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
  
• Richie Buckley - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• Martin Drover - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• David Hayes
  David Hayes (musician)
  David Hayes is an American bass guitar player.Hayes has worked with Van Morrison, The Rowans, Terry & The Pirates, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Country Joe McDonald and others....
  
   - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Rosie Hunter - backing vocals
• Jeff Labes
  Jeff Labes
  Jef Labes is an American keyboardist, best known from his work with Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. He has also arranged for string and woodwind instruments on numerous albums.-Career:...
  
   - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Chris Michie - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• John Platania
  John Platania
  John Platania is a well-known session musician, guitar player, and record producer.Platania was born in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, in Ulster County, near Woodstock....
  
   - guitar
• Bianca Thornton - backing vocals
• Jeanie Tracy
  Jeanie Tracy
  Jeanie Tracy is a female African American R&B, Dance-pop, Hi-NRG and house singer-songwriter and actress, born in Houston, Texas and raised in Fresno, California.-Career:Growing up Tracy sang in a church choir in addition to studying opera and piano...
  
   - backing vocals
• Baba Trunde - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....