Tupelo Honey - the song

[Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical]

What the heck is Van Morrison talking about in this song?

At first I thought it might be a Who Do You Love thing but it doesn’t fit. Anyone know?
Thanks.

[Wee_Bairn]

This source opines it is just a love song, no hidden meaning.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I’ve always through of it as three songs set to the same music.

Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey lyrics | LyricsFreak

Some variants to the lyrics which might help:

A posting to the van mailing list may/96 notes the existence of a lost verse to this song, here transcribed from a performance on the van morrison in ireland concert video:

Theres a rose pressed inside a bible
That she reads on the balcony
Shes sweet in slumber and Ive got her number
For the beginning of the century.

Van list member art siegel comments in nov/97 that I dont think the rose in the Bible is a true lost verse, but rather one that van added to his live performances years after the origin
Here is, though, a true lost verse which is in the original sheet music:

Ill tell a tale of old manhattan
Adirondack bus to go
Standing waiting on my number
And my numbers gonna show.

The dusty springfield cover version on the van morrison songbook cd has a variant of this:

I heard a tale of old manhattan
Ive never been there but I want to go
Standing waiting on my number
And my numbers gonna show.

[Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical]

Maybe the “men in granite” is a reference to Mount Rushmore? But I don’t know what that would have to do with love in the romantic sense.