Van Morrison: your views please

Wastrel Eeks ... did anyone say that yet?

There's a podcast called Late Era that deals with...obviously, late period work by big names, and they're apparently discussing whether to devote an "emergency episode" to VM's latest outburst...

Thanks for the link. Looks like Sam Sodomsky is a participant, which makes sense - he's regularly tapped to review stuff like Springsteen's new album for Pitchfork.

It's a good idea for a podcast, but I wish the selections were better. Greendale and Under the Red Sky are interesting to discuss, but they don't make the best case for good, compelling work by older recording artists either. BAM in NYC once did a great program on late films (mostly final films) of celebrated auteurs, and a lot of them were truly great films - Luis Buñuel alone arguably did his best films at the end of his long life. I'd like to hear something along those lines, and now that rock music is no longer burdened by the same baggage (being the center of youth culture, etc.), it could probably get more traction.

Ah, I did hear the title track, it was OK but annoyingly catchy I do not want to hear it again.

I could listen to “call me up in dreamland” on repeat for the rest of my life

Sounds even worse than I expected:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/06/van-morrison-new-record-project-volume-one-review

laughed at this bit: "It seems a miracle there aren’t songs called These New Speed Bumps Outside the Primary School Are a Disgrace, The People I Got In to Do My Patio Were a Couple of Bloody Cowboys, and Have You Seen The Repair Shop? It’s the Only Thing Worth Watching These Days."

If anyone hears the track ‘They Control The Media’ please be kind and let us know who Mr Morrison suspects...it’s been bugging me for ages and would love a definitive answer cos I can’t think for the life of me who it could be...

I like how he complains about people only listening to his old music, and complains about people posting second-hand rants on Facebook on a whole album full of second-hand rants.

“I’m a targeted individual”

is Van being gangstalked?

this turn is bumming me out. he'd made some late-career gems in recent years, he was always a crank but he's also one of my faves. this won't make me like his great stuff less but, it's still just a drag. a double fucking album of kvetching about bullshit.

This American Songwriter review is stunning.

VAN MORRISON/LATEST RECORD PROJECT/(Exile/BMG)
Four and a half our of five stars

Known as both a chameleon and a curmudgeon, at age 75, Van Morrison shows no sign of slowing down. A Woodstock rambler, a bluesy balladeer, a Celtic soul singer, a country crooner, he’s continued to carve his own creative niche over the course of his 55-year career. More recently, he’s played the role of a revivalist of sorts, one seemingly content to pay due reverence to earlier musical traditions, mostly of the classic blues and jazz variety.

Consequently many Van fans have continued to harbor the hope that the so-called Belfast Cowboy will find a new surge of inspiration and come up with a work comparable to earlier albums like Astral Weeks, Tupelo Honey, Moondance, or the other immortal efforts that helped define his indelible persona. For those who hope for a definitive return to form ought to find some sort of consolation with his latest offering, a sprawling set of signature style songs—28 in all—that take their cue from blues, rock, jazz, R&B, and the other traditional templates Morrison’s shared over the course of his career. Rather than simply sharing standards, the new album finds him using those formats as leaping-off points for more melodic intents.

The result is a series of singular songs as distinctive as his earlier efforts. Indeed, “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,” “Tried To Do The Right Thing,” “Duper’s Delight,” and “My Time After Awhile” rank among Van’s best offerings of the past 30 years, with his rich, robust vocals still in fine form. Recorded while in lockdown, the album finds Morrison railing on any number of current cultural contradictions—life in isolation as described via the desultory “Deadbeat Saturday Night,” the overwhelming influence of social media decried in “Why Are You On Facebook?” or his insistence to “put up or shut up” on “Stop Bitching, Do Something.”

Some 42 albums on, Morrison remains as emphatic as ever. This Latest might not be his greatest, but in many ways it clearly comes close.

hmmm

This Latest might not be his greatest, but in many ways it clearly comes close.

This Latest might not be his greatest, but in many ways it clearly comes close.

This Latest might not be his greatest, but in many ways it clearly comes close.

life in isolation as described via the desultory “Deadbeat Saturday Night,”

we all know how much Van loves getting out there on a Saturday night, cutting it up socializing and meeting people

he was always a crank but he's also one of my faves. this won't make me like his great stuff less but, it's still just a drag.

Van has such a yawning gap between the joy and wonder of his best music and his absurd tedious dickishness.

yeah I usually roll my eyes at the "I'm just channeling these songs from the universe" but it might be true in his case, cuz he's such an oarfish little dickhead

wow - that title/cover:

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4ef51850b93a8bcf75197ba4af154ea8ea870f4c/0_0_4000_4000/master/4000.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a782a20d6b82fdb68cb9ce4d328261fb

(Is the lone square in the field of circles meant to represent his individuality or something?)

Next year he'll release I Have an Album Out.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, December 4, 2017 7:25 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

To be followed up by "$16.99 At Barnes & Noble"

― Never Learn To Mike Love (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, December 4, 2017 8:12 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Van's done both!

Van taking the piss with that title & cover. At least it's not another one with his mug on the cover.

Van's next EP will be "Gents Needs a New Bog Roll"

well I guess we're talking about it. need one of those galaxy brain memes.

kover konnections:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/714jpf%2BHufL._SX466_.jpg

yeah I usually roll my eyes at the "I'm just channeling these songs from the universe" but it might be true in his case, cuz he's such an oarfish little dickhead

I do believe in that, sort of, but I think of it as meaning "I'm channeling these songs from a part of me that I cannot access in any other way and often cannot access at all."

The thing about Van is that the two sides of him aren't really at odds with each other, even though they're so different. It's not like Astral Weeks and the rest of the great albums contradict anything we know about Van Morrison's actual personality; there's joy and communion and transcendence in them, even love and friendship, but do I get a sense of "this is a fundamentally generous and decent person" from them? Was I in any way surprised or disappointed when I figured out that Van Morrison was a querulous, self-involved little prick? Not really. He's great at making me feel what he feels, down to the tiniest details and gradations of emotion; he's never claimed to care how anyone else feels.

But those songs were genuinely beautiful, and joyful, and hopeful, and for a while that artistic vision was strong enough and compelling enough that it didn't matter what the rest of Van Morrison was like. Now it's like the tide's gone out for good, and there's stuff left behind that was always there, but everything that gave it life is gone. And that isn't going to hurt Astral Weeks any - the gulf between Current Van and Early Van is too great for anything he does now to touch his early work - but it's terribly depressing.

A Woodstock rambler, a bluesy balladeer, a Celtic soul singer, a country crooner

He plays his music in the sun

There are artists whose work does nothing for me, but I wish it did, for one reason or another, so I have tried over and over again. I spent years trying to like Lou Reed, for example, because people I thought were smarter than me and knew more about music than me loved him, so I figured he was a course I needed to pass in order to be a for-real music writer. I was wrong. I've given the Grateful Dead far more chances than they deserved, and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen too. Then there are artists whose work does nothing for me, but I feel no obligation to keep trying. Van Morrison is in the latter category, and always has been. I first heard his music when I was a child, on the radio, and there was just never anything there, to my ear. Every time I've heard a new song it's been even less interesting than "Domino" or "Moondance" or whatever else. So this new record doesn't even diminish him slightly in my eyes. People who've decided they hate him now that he's lost his mind can get to the back of the line. I've been here for 40 years.

People surprised by the new Van Morrison must have never spent time with this bootleg of his live outtakes called, Who’s Grumpy, featuring the classic track, “For Those On The Internet - Fuck You.” pic.twitter.com/SCHfwYe8B5

— Ben Chasny (@6organs) May 7, 2021

Townsend must be pissed that one’s taken.

lol that art, incredible. feel like "FW:FW:re:FUNNY!fwd:RE:HILRIOUSFWD:fwd:" should be included somewhere on it

After being strictly a listener of his Veedon Fleece and earlier work, I finally dipped a toe into current Van Morrison with Three Chords & the Truth, which I was really surprised to enjoy as much as I did. But with that I'm gonna nope right back into the comfort of his old stuff.

Commmon One from 1980 is the one I'd most suggest checking out after the post-peak years

I pretty much nope out after Wavelength

but I love Wavelength

pic.twitter.com/vZMjY0a6A4

— Iain Montgomery (@H0raceWimp) May 7, 2021

why did the font in this thread change(?)

for mysterious astral reasons this thread has always had a different font

ah – guess I only viewed it in Zing previously

The “targeted individual” thing is really weirding me out - I have only seen that phrase in the context of deeply delusional paranoia.

Yeah, that's pretty disturbing, though he's always been paranoid to some degree, right? I mean, The Great Deception is from almost 50 years ago, and that's got a pretty strong "the world is out to get me" vibe.

Inarticulate Speech of the Heart is a top 3 van album for me, fight me

no guru, poetic champions, he still had it in the80s!

xxp its weird because for all of his internet & social media hate a lot of the terms like that hes throwing around are right out of the right wing conspiracist social media brainworm echo chamber

What's extra frustrating is that he could just keep doing his gardens-wet-with-rain, falling leaves/transcendence/healing bit and it would be so welcome after a year of lockdown.

Poetic Champions Compose is my favorite mellow music by anyone, as peaceful as it comes. Even had it on last night.

the title track to Latest Record Project is a hilarious fuck you to the audience

Here's hoping his audience says fuck you back.

Fuck what I did was your fault somehow
Fuck the presents, I threw all that shit out
Fuck all the cryin', it didn't mean Jack
Well guess what yo, fuck you right back

forgot he got divorced a few years a back, taking it well I see

Play "No Good Deed Goes …"
on Amazon Music Unlimited (ad)
No good deed goes unpunished
When it starts to unravel on you
You think the person is gonna be sorry
And they’re gonna take the time to say thank you

Booked her to the top restaurant table
But she said she didn’t like the meal
I got her tickets for the opera
But she complained about the VIP seats

Gave her a million Euro
Said that it wasn’t enough
How come when she’s still fit and able
She’s still too lazy to go out and work

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that "Play 'No Good Deed Goes...' on Amazon Music Unlimited" was the actual opening line from a song on this record.

hahahaha totally

i'm howling at this whole revive. everything about it is perfect. this is my album of the year and i have not heard a single note, nor do i intend to.