Van And Jack.

I just thought i'd write a piece about Van Morrison and the Beat Generation authors who i think were quite influential on young Morrison.As you know Van mentions Jack Kerouac in two of his songs, 'Cleaning Windows' and 'On Hyndford Street'.I think that as a young teenager in Belfast Van would have probably have read the Giant Pan paperback editions of 'On The Road' and 'The Dharma Bums' which i have illustrated here.I can imagine him reading a dog-eared copy while munching a Paris bun and swigging lemonade in his lunch break.I wonder which of Van's friends in Belfast turned him on to Jack Kerouac?.I love the words of 'On Hyndford Street' in particular where Van describes the sights and sounds of his native city as well as Jack describes his native Lowell in such books as 'Doctor Sax' for instance.You can see Beat influences in lots of Van songs.In 'Stepping Out Queen' Van sings "Well you go through the drama and you work in the dharma'. I can see key words that crop up in Jacks books and Van songs.Words like Visions,Visions Of Gerard,Visions Of Cody by Jack,Beautiful Vision, Childlike Vision by Van. or Angel, Desolation Angels, Old Angel Midnight,Angel Of Imagination,Contacting My Angel etc etc .(Incidentally and by the by 'Desolation Angels' by Kerouac was published in 65 and had a huge impact on Vans friend Bob Dylan.In his song 'Desolation Row' Dylan sings "Her sin is her lifelessness" and mentions 'Up on housing project hill', both these are lifted straight from Kerouac's book.Dave Moore provided that bit of info.)Kerouac was very much influenced by James Joyce and the 'Stream of conciousness' writing and Vans masterpiece Astral Weeks could be said to be a 'Stream of conciousness' type of album.Reading On The Road induces the same type of feeling as listening to Astral Weeks.Jacks style of writing he called Spontaneous Bop Prosedy and the best of Van is like that where he improvises and lets the music go where it wants to go.


Jacks books with their descriptions of America with all that road going must have had a profound effect on young Van in post-war industrial Belfast who heard the voice of America calling and scarpered over there the first chance he got. Jack had a great love of music especially jazz,you could say he was a jazz musician and his instrument was the typewriter, Van would have recognised a kindred spirit there.One of the best sections of On The Road is an account of Sal and Dean seeing Slim Gaillard playing in a small club and meeting him afterwards.Many years later Van was to meet Slim and was filmed by the BBC reading from On The Road while Slim accompanied him on the bongo's, arooni! The film of that encounter was on you tube but sadly its not there any more.Anyway it must have been a real thrill for Van to meet Slim.
Jack was also very into Buddhism as shown in such works as Scripture Of The Golden Eternity and Some Of The Dharma and may have influenced Van in that respect.In Vans song 'Enlightenment' which is a very Buddhist song at the end Van shouts 'Wake Up', Wake Up is a book by Jack which tells the story of the Buddha.It has been published in serial form in a Buddhist magazine called Tricycle but i think its being published in book form in 2008 so look out for that.
Jack didn't like being famous either,when he was asked what fame was like he said,"Its like old newspapers blowing down Bleeker Street".I think Van has a similar attitude to being famous.


Another of the Beat writers was Lawrence Ferlinghetti,the poet and founder of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco.In 1958 he published his best known work 'A Coney Island Of The Mind'. In the late 80's Van took part in a TV documentary of the same name in which he explored the roots of his poetic lyrics. Coney Island is also a track on his Avalon Sunset album but i think its a bit spurious to link that to the beats.Alan Watts was another writer associated with the Beats who also inspired a great Van song 'Alan Watts Blues'.Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown' being the title of a book by Watts.I am getting a bit bored now because i have covered all this stuff before and i don't think though we should overestimate the influence of the Beat writers on Van.I think i read an interview once with Van in which he said something like 'Sure i was influenced by Kerouac and Ginsberg but who wasn't'.At the end of The Dharma Bums Jack says-


“…as I was hiking down the mountain with my pack I turned and knelt on the trail and said “Thank you, shack.” Then I added “Blah,” with a little grin, because I knew that shack and that mountain would understand what that meant, and turned and went on down the trail back to this world.”
Van himself has often in live performance been known to sing 'Blah, Blah, Blah' so as i am running out of steam i think i'll end now by saying 'Blah'.

Just in case you have never heard of Slim Gaillard here he is in 1946. Laguna O'rooni!