Van Morrison: your views please

xp (not "Domino" but "Living in Paradise," adding the joke "maybe (Van)'ll sue me.")a

I think Greil Marcus was right about Roll with the Punches, it's a pretty excellent album. I wasn't taken by Keep Me Singing but Roll with the Punches somehow came off like a great afterhours show where he just did as few new songs and a lot of old standards. On paper I never would have expected it - "it's over an hour (probably too long) and he's already released covers of some of these songs" - but I loved the entire album.

I liked Keep Me Singing actually...Three Chords and Truth is pretty good, Magic Time from 05. I guess I always find a few gems, not that I go back to them often.

I get the impression a lot of fans like Keep Me Singing - a lot them single it out as his real comeback, but something about it felt kind of lifeless to me, like he was sapped of energy. I'll give it another try though.

I love “out in the cold again” from keep me singing

“In between the times where it feels alright
To the dead of the cold black night”

i once saw van walk off stage in the middle of a song, not to return, after he had done his contractual 45 minutes. he didn't punch anyone afaik but the bandmembers he left vamping looked mighty perplexed. luckily rockpile had done a killer opening set so i didn't feel too ripped off.

Re: the conduit reading of Van. Okay I guess but I just want to have this mystique applied consistently.

Musicians like him don't have a monopoly on soulfulness / spirituality / mysticism.

Like, if Van Morrison gets to be a "conduit," then so does Paula Abdul or Garth Brooks or Morris Day or Johannes Brahms or Erykah Badu or whomsoever.

He's always been a fairly disagreeable little troll and it's a minor miracle that the universe decided to channel that magic through him. I don't really feel like his music has anything to do with him or even belongs to him

Sums up my feelings as well. It’s even more remarkable that he has recorded some of the most joyous music around.

I've been having a bit of a problem with Van lately myself. I likely will get over it, but it's been harder than I realized.

Really? Maybe because of the brass.

That, and the vocal style is very Morrisonesque.

Okay, I can see that, in the shouts growled chorus.

Elvis is like five times as smart as Van, not that it does him any good

finally getting around to some 80s van and damn how the fuck was i even living before i heard "beautiful vision"????

yuuuup

I taped a King Biscuit concert of his, about 1991, off the radio. Unfortunately my boombox was wonky and recorded at the wrong speed. Consequently that was the only machine on which I could play that recording.

Van was, in my view, at the height of his mid-career powers, and he had an an excellent backing band. Basically the "Wavelength" album, plus the way he was performing his earlier material in exactly that moment.

Exquisite. Before that, he was underbaked. After that, too much. It was exactly right.

gotta love Vanlose Stairway

90s Van rules ok too, I have a particular weak spot for The Healing Game

the wind in the willows…AND THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

Van's pandemic turn has made it much harder for me to enjoy his work.

As someone suggested in another thread, I kind of pretend he's been dead since 2019 and indulge in the work of a man who (while still a colossal dick) hasn't gone all-in into vile conspiracy theories.

Similar to Eric Clapton (dead since the end of 1974) and I guess Kanye West (dead since the end of 2010) when I'm ready to listen to him again.

Yeah bird I tuned Van out a long time ago. Pretending he died is perhaps the best way to enjoy his early work while ignoring his subsequent rancid dickishness.

I put Van Morrison into a Chinese translator and I feel like I'm going insane pic.twitter.com/0TuPUQKEb8

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) November 24, 2023

New episode of the 500 Songs podcast is on Van

https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-170-astral-weeks-by-van-morrison/

ooh interesting!

that chinese translation is wild

Underappreciated track from otherwise nothing-special record, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghOffQ-BrI