My Favourite Van Albums, Number 19, A Sense Of Wonder.

I don't think 'A Sense Of Wonder' got a lot of publicity when it came out.I think i just went in a record shop and there it was.I can't remember where though.I can usually remember exactly where i bought a Van album.The cover is amazing.How Van who is usually shy of having his picture taken agreed to pose wearing this strange garb is beyond me.Especially the photo on the back cover where he looks like Zorro or some character from Saturday morning pictures.The cover also contains a short story that Van wrote called Boffyblow And Spike that reminds me a bit of a story that Bob Dylan wrote for the cover of one of his albums,i think it was John Wesley Harding.
To the music,'Tore Down A La Rimbaud' is one of my favourite Van songs.Rimbauds influence in modern literature, music and art has been pervasive. His life in Paris was dramatized in a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio called Total Eclipse.Rimbaud influenced the following artists: French poets in general, the Surrealists, the Beat Poets, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, William S. Burroughs, Bob Kaufman, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, Klaus Kinski, Patti Smith, Bruce Chatwin, Penny Rimbaud, Jim Morrison Bob Dylan, Richard Hell, Joe Strummer, John Lennon and many more.As you know Rimbaud was a great poet who developed writers block at the age of 20 and gave up being a poet and moved to Africa to become an arms dealer.I think the point Van was making in this great song was that he was also struggling with writers block.

Tore down a la Rimbaud

And I wish my writing would come

Tore down a la Rimbaud,

you know it's hard some time.

you know it's hard some time.

All great writers have the same problem .Thats why i wish the so called fans were a bit more sympathetic sometimes.It can't be easy thinking up new songs all the time.

'Ancient Of Days' is next and the lyrics of this song appear quite vacuous and repetitive but as this time Van saw lyrics as secondary to the mood of the song which was to lead the listener into a meditative state which we get with track 3 which is purely instrumental 'Evening Meditation'.He got the title Ancient Of Days from a painting by William Blake who was a big influence on Van in the 80's.Beautiful Vision, Inarticulate Speech and Sense Of Wonder can be seen as a trilogy of albums where Van uses songs as a device for lulling the listener into a contemplative mood.'The Masters Eyes' is a nice song but who was the master?. The mood is continued brilliantly with Van adapting the Ray Charles song 'What Would I Do' to exactly fit the vibe of this album.The next two tracks feature the Irish folk band Moving Hearts.I am a big fan of Christy Moore who was in Moving Hearts but i'm not sure who was in Moving Hearts at this time.Anyway, thats neither here nor there.'A Sense Of Wonder' is a great song with Van fondly recalling images of Ireland and mentioning Soplia the goddess of wisdom.

Didn't I come to bring you a sense of wonder

Didn't I come to lift your fiery vision bright

Didn't I come to bring you a sense of wonder in the flame.

It's easy to describe the leaves in the Autumn

And it's oh so easy in the Spring

But down through January and February it's a very different thing.

The instrumental 'Boffyblow And Spike' i'm not that keen on,it seems out of place with the mood of the album.'If You Only Knew' is a Mose Allison song that was put on the album to replace 'Crazy Jane On God' when permission was refused for its inclusion.That was a real shame.'Let The Slave' is quite brilliant with Van again showing his Blakean influence by reciting the words of the great man.'A New Kind Of Man' brings the album to a close with an excellent self penned song by Van.As i sit here on Sunday morning typing these words and listening to this album twice i must say to myself "This is a great album!".