Linden Arden POLL the Highlights--ILM Van Morrison Poll Results

That was the last of the ties, and albums with just one vote.

oh i did not know them was eligible! not sure it would have changed my albums ballot tho

i think common one is gonna place way higher on ilm than it would anywhere else

http://i.imgur.com/abJjJAX.jpg

Irish Heartbeat
9th place
Two votes, 71 points

unbelievably gorgeous album that i didn't vote for no. 1

I nearly voted no guru. the title track live in 1990-ish was IMMENSE for me.

i think common one is gonna place way higher on ilm than it would anywhere else

not sure if true but I don't know one Van Morrison head who doesn't rank it high

http://i.imgur.com/KwJ0Lnb.jpg

His Band and the Street Choir
8th place
Six votes, 191 points

whoa

When an album as strong as Street Choir is only considered your 8th best, you know you're good.

going to enjoy this rollout, I'm a Van fan but i admit that i don't know much of his music beyond some early cuts and Astral Weeks/Moondance/Tupelo Honey -- the latter of which is the one i listen to the most, kinda surprised and intrigued by its low placement here.

really love Irish Heartbeat too

i was weirded out by the low placement of tupelo honey as well, but i didn't vote for it so lol

yeah i almost feel bad but you can only pick 5!

Yes. If it was a top ten albums, I think Tupelo would have fared better. It's safe to say that domesticated Woodstock lover man Van is not ILM's favorite.

Mild shocker ahead...

http://i.imgur.com/EZ6lLEI.jpg

Into the Music
7th place
7 votes, 200 points

big vote jump with the last two

into the music is perfect from start to finish

Yes. I included every album that got votes.

I figured Into The Music would be higher.

yeah, figured top 5 for sure

Without giving too much away, Into The Music is probably not weird enough for ILM Van voters.

idk man those last two tracks are p weird

i almost voted "steppin' out queen" as my no. 1 track bc it's just a perfectly-arranged, everything-in-its-right-place van song

yeah "you know" is v weird

http://i.imgur.com/iZXgDPh.jpg

It's Too Late To Stop Now
6th place
8 votes, one #1
277 points

way too low, best live album i've ever heard

was my #2, has grown even more in my estimation after the recent expanded version

I generally don't listen to live albums and have never listened to that one, though in the past year I've reversed course but I still only really listen to live albums by FM rock bands like UFO & Rainbow

(I do listen to live jazz albums tho)

i guess i should have referred to it as the best live rock album i've ever heard bc once you include jazz, yikes. but joan if you are ever feeling it it's too late is a master class in bandleading, and in also having the best band in the fucking world

The Cyprus Avenue on Too Late to Stop Now is so great I could plotz.

http://i.imgur.com/grD91Lh.jpg

Common One
5th place
10 votes, one #1
306 points

i was the no. 1, a few years ago i finally scored a copy of this record and it became sort of a ritual to zone out to it once a week; the bookends are so meditative that you feel like you're sinking into something incalculably vaster than yourself

also afaik van never got this fusion-y again so it's v singular in his catalog

It definitely represents the apex of weird Van. I'm usually OK with that but When Heart Is Open is where I get off.

I'm going to be curious to hear the Van fans' take on the last couple decades once this poll is complete. I'd only owned Days Like This (not sure why, and it was vv forgettable) and the Mose Allison tribute w/Georgie Famr and Ben Sidran, Tell Me Something.

nah man that's the deepest region of the mystic! xp

That one was pretty decent albeit probably too faithful to the source material.

ilm turned me onto Common One maybe a year ago, and I soon found a copy while stuck in san clemente for a few hours. I play it more than any other van album lately, and I am in love with harmonica Van on When Heart Is Open.

Van fans' take on the last couple decades once this poll is complete

Born To Sing No Plan B was a great discovery for me thanks to this poll.

Here's a surprise...

Magic Time is really good, Keep Me Singing is solid if not particularly notable

http://i.imgur.com/OPzqxea.jpg

Moondance
4th place
13 votes, five #1
452 points

great album that probably suffers from "led zeppelin IV" disease a bit

Yes. Plus side 2 is nowhere near as good as side 1. But not much is.

Moondance, you deserve more discussion but we need to move on.

http://i.imgur.com/u9tAJyL.jpg

Saint Dominic's Preview
3rd place
15 votes, one #1
474 points

straight fire beautiful album

This was my #1. Even though I Will Be There, Gypsy and Redwood Tree are minor Van, the others are about as major as he gets.

Yes. Plus side 2 is nowhere near as good as side 1. But not much is.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, August 3, 2017 1:10 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk i think side 2 is nearly as good and the tracks don't suffer from the same overexposure. it's a classic album and earned a deserving #1 vote from me

less a definitive ranking than maybe a potentially useful order for people trying to get into van's '90s records:

the healing game
enlightenment
back on top
hymns to the silence
days like this
too long in exile

the first five are basically all variously great, days like this ends with two of van's best songs ever. too long in exile is a real mess though, maybe my least favorite van record ever, and yet the title track is still so awesome

i always feel like i underrate keep me singing when i'm listening to it bc the first five tracks are all so gorgeous

Let me step in for some fair play...to you.

Excellent. But I will always remember this poll for introducing me to No Guru...my god what an album.

you inspire me to check the wavelength album more closely (i am sold on the song).

Not a great album, but with Morrison it's especially hard to distinguish mediocre from good or good from great

wavelength has a great title track

oh which has been covered, lol

alfred have you heard all of common one

shhh I'm about to exercise while listening to "Got to Go Back."

Yes! Good work with ranking Saint Dominic number one. That's my favorite.

I need to hear Veedon Fleece. I like the rest of the top 4. Probably would have ranked Tupelo higher.

Maybe you've addressed this elsewhere but no Moondance?

I thought, stupidly, he released it in 1969, but it worked out because I prefer every album on my list.

preferring wavelength to moondance is absolute nonsense

Alfred preferring synthy outlier to canonized classic shocker

:P

Veedon Fleece is so good, one of my faves by Van.

^agree about Veedon Fleece. Anyway, here's a great version of Bulbs from a German TV show in the mid 70s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFc7uVEYAsw

Jesus, I just got cut nearly in half by Tir Na Nog. I've been reading Peter Matthiesen's The Snow Leopard, which is partly a travelogue of a trek in the Himalaya to study bharal, partly a discourse on the origins of Buddhism, and partly a gentle prayer of devotion for his wife who had died the year before, and it's an incredibly moving book, full of the white light of understanding and humility. The song dovetails so neatly with those themes of finding solace in eternity (albeit from a different mythological viewpoint) and the possibilities inherent in the idea of reincarnation - let alone Van's open, enveloping deliver - it reduced me to tears. Ach.

Regard as one, this life, the next life, and the life between - Milarepa.

^Beautiful post. I read The Snow Leopard many years ago - this is making me want to revisit it. One of the great things about ILM.

I would like to thank this poll for turning me on to Veedon Fleece, what an album

^^^ what sleeve said, this thread made me discover veedon fleece which by now i prefer to astral weeks.

^^^ what sleeve said, this thread made me discover veedon fleece which by now i prefer to astral weeks.

^^^Though I would say a lot of it may be that Veedon Fleece is fresher, whereas I’ve had 20+ years with Astral Weeks.

You came into my life
And you filled me and you filled me
Oh, so joyous by the clear cool crystal streams
Where the roads were quiet and still
And we walked all the way to Tir Na Nog

http://i.imgur.com/5gHutpK.jpg

51. Coney Island
2 votes, 48 points
One #1 vote

One voter otm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn2CeHlKrTw

After all the Covid nonsense, I couldn't really stand to listen to Van any more, but then a few days ago this came up on my YouTube feed and I was conquered one more time. There's actually lots of awesome live Van footage on YT, from loads of different eras, and I've begun to see certain similarities between Van and Miles Davis, especially their brilliance at putting together and leading bands (and of course their wary, guarded, unsmiling public personas). Anyway what a group he's got here - and doesn't this version completely SMOKE the studio recording - and I've never seen a clearer view of his osmotic tongue pressure in full effect, especially on the 'Voice of America' line - he's a master at making the deliberate seem spontaneous. Love the moment when he catches a cameraman moving around behind him and gives him a brief but deadly stare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6oZK004AWM

I don't know this chap Glen Hansard's music (might be for the best) but this is an incredible story, worth sticking to the end to hear Van's final kiss-off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29abxJgCyOI