My Favourite Van Albums, Number 13,Wavelength.

Wavelength will always have a special place for me in my collection of Van albums because it reminds me of the very first time i saw Van in concert in 1979.Although i had been a fan for six years i didn't get to see Van live until one fine spring afternoon my friend Fred and i got on his motorbike and set off for the Colston Hall in Bristol. We didn't have tickets but that didn't stop the likings of us.We were first in the queue waiting for the doors to open and passed the time chatting to a lad who had travelled all the way from Belfast.He had been a fan since Vans early days playing in the Maritime Hotel.As soon as the doors opened we made a bee-line for the box office and managed to get seats with restricted view at the right side of the circle,right above the stage but we wouldn't be able to see the keyboard player.The support act was called Earl Okin who wasn't very good.Then it was time for Van!.

From our vantage point we could see Van in the wings waiting to come on.He looked really nervous which i thought was quite surprising considering that he had already been a performer for over 15 years.The tour was called the 'Taking It Further' tour from a line in 'Checkin' It Out', a song on his new album 'Wavelength'.I can't remember a lot about which songs he sang that night.I know he did a few from 'Wavelength' including 'Natalia'.Another friend who was there tells me he did Moondance,Tupelo Honey and Cypress Avenue. I definitely remember Gloria and Brown Eyed Girl. I also recall Katie Kissoon Singing a great version of Crazy Love while Van took a break.Band members i can remember besides Katie were Toni Marcus, violin, Pete Bardens Keyboards , Bobby Tench guitar. I cant remember who else.There was one humourous moment during the show when a girl left her seat in the stalls and walked down to the front of the stage and reverently left a rose onn the stage at Vans feet.He promptly kicked it off the stage.I bought my first Van T Shirt that night.It was to be three long years before myself and Mr Morrison were to cross paths again.
After the indifferent reception that 'A Period Of Transition' received from fans and critics alike Van was astute enough to realise he had to come up with a more commercial album next time out and he delivered just that with Wavelength which was his most upbeat poppy album in years.The opening song 'Kingdom Hall' is very upbeat.Vans mum Violet was a Jehovahs Witness for a while and that is where this song came from.Its quite amazing really with all the sectarian divide in Belfast between Catholics and Protestants the Morrisons were Jehovahs Witnesses.Trust Van to be different.Apparently Mrs Morrison used to go from door to door in the neighbourhood spreading the word and she would take Van with her and Van would say to people "Have you ever considered letting Hank Williams or John Lee Hooker into your life?" (Only joking!)

I love 'Checkin'It Out', it is brilliant.I like the bit about 'there are guides and spirits on the way who will befriend us'.A lot of people don't believe in pixies and goblins and sylphs and dryads etc but i do because i have seen them.One night i was walking home down Park Road in Peterborough from a party totally of my face and a police car stopped and the policeman asked my name and i was so out of it i couldn't remember my own name. I looked up in a tree and there was a little man sat on a branch smoking a pipe and he said,"It's Pat",Another time in Ireland i saw three leprechauns stealing a bicycle from outside a pub.Mind you that was in County Kerry where anything is possible.'Natalia' is next,one of the more lightweight songs on the album with the guitar and female backing singers playing quite a part.'Venice USA ' follows and i don't like this much really now i come to think about it.The chorus is quite banal.The backing singers go Dum derra dum dum diddy diddy dah dah Dum derra dum dum diddy diddy dah dah.Oh shut up!
The next song though more than makes up for it, 'Lifetimes' is supurb in my humble opinion.I used to read a lot of books by Hermann Hesse and the lyrics really remind me of his novel 'Siddartha' with suggestions of reincarnation,boatmen, and sitting in silence and listen to the river.This song is a precursor to the spiritual quest that Van was to carry through the 1980's.

The title track 'Wavelength' follows and it is excellent.Pete Bardens synthesiser is used to good effect here and i love the hand claps.The song is a celebration of young Vans love affair with the radio when all the magical sounds floated through the ether to his room in Hyndford Street.He even mentions his lover in the grass which recalls Brown Eyed Girl..
'Santa Fe' is a co-written song with Jackie De Shannon and is more than a song to sing and merges into 'Beautiful Obsession' which suggests meditation and contemplation.Themes that Van would develop later when such songs as 'When Heart Is Open ' became less like music and more like meditations.
'Hungry For Your Love' is a more carnal affair with Van fancying a bit of hows your father.'I love you in buckskin', let the cowboy ride indeed! It is a good song though.'Take It Where You Find It' is a song that has had mixed views of the critics.Some have derided it whilst others have rated it highly.I am listening to it at this very moment and i find it a very uplifting song.It brings the album to a close on a high note.

Little did i realise at the time but the following album which Van would unleash was to be one one of the finest ever made.I'm talking about change, Van would walk down the street until the shining light came over him.

My Favourite Van Albums, Number 14, Hard Nose The Highway

I bought 'Hard Nose The Highway' in the summer of 76.It was secondhand and i bought it at Andys Record Stall on Cambridge Market.I was at a low ebb at the time and had moved back to Peterborough because i had nowhere else to go.I used to sit in the front room and play my records for hours on end,my Melanie,Cat Stevens, Quintessence, Ravi Shankar and my Van.All music suitable for the bewildered.
The cover of this album is quite striking.The great thing about the old days of vinyl was that album covers became art forms in themselves.There is this old Chinese chap in a straw hat and a cowled figure dressed in a sheet and some cows covered in stars (The milky way!) and a couple of dodgy looking geezers who are up to no good and Van being the observer who is observing it all.What does it all mean? I dont know.
Lets move swiftly on to the music.Van had a great band on this album.It is amazing to think that David Hayes is still in Vans band today after all these years.I also see that the lovely Jackie De Shannon is on this album as well.She and Van seemed to work together really well.'Snow In San Anselmo' is a great opening track with Van painting an aural sketch of the unusual event of Snow in San Anselmo.I think Van was once asked in an interview what this song is about and he replied, "Its about snow in San Anselmo".You do get the feeling though that its about a lonely person going through some sort of a crisis who doesn't know what to do with himself.'And if you suffer from insomnia You can speed your time away',

'Warm Love' is one of my favourite Van songs and i think he must have written it at a time when he was feeling quite content with his lot in life.Here we see Van the hippy,'It's just warm love,It's just warm loveAnd it's everpresent everywhere,And it's everpresent everywhere,That warm love'.The lyrics of this song are a far cry from a lot of Van songs where he is world weary and cynical.
'Hard Nose The Highway' is a bit like that with Van being scornful of Frank Sinatra,i don't think Van thought a lot of Frank.Van also makes reference in this song to paying dues in Canada which he also does in a song on the Moondance album.What is that all about?.
'Wild Children' is one of my all time favourite Van songs .I love the name dropping in this song ,Tennessee Williams gets a mention and i particularly like the images Van conjures up of the film On The Waterfront with Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger which was one of the best films ever made in my opinion.

'The Great Deception' isn't one of Vans greatest songs but i really like the sentiment of the song with Van raging against all the hypocrisy in the music business and plastic revolutionaries etc but all the time-

Did you ever see the people

With the tear drops in their eye

Just can't stand it no how,

Living in this world of lies.

I don't really care for 'Being Green' much.Van had recorded a bunch of great songs in this period as evidenced by the songs that appeared on the Philosophers Stone album so why he recorded this song from Seseme Street is mysterious.'Autumn Song' is a long meandering stroll through what appears to be Vans favourite time of year.Golden Autumn days and leaves a falling down crop up quite regularly in Vans songs.'Purple Heather' is a Van remake of Wild Mountain Thyme which was first made famous by the McPeake family who came from Belfast and Van might have known in his youth.That brings to an end my review of Hard Nose The Highway which contains some weak songs in my opinion but also some truly great ones as well.

My Favourite Van Albums, Number 15,Tupelo Honey.

At the very end of the 1970's i was living in Breda in the Netherlands and that was the first time i got into Tupelo Honey.Warner Brothers had bought it out in a double package with Street Choir and i pursuaded my friend Rens to buy it.I played it all the time until one day i accidentally set fire to Rens stereo.That brought an end to that!.
The cover shows Van and Janet and a horse and portrays a picture of domestic bliss and contentment that is also the theme of many of the songs on the album which has a distinctly country feeling to it.The album opens with a real rocky belter, 'Wild Night' which has Van off the leash and heading for the heart of Saturday night.Ooo-woo-wee!,Wild night is calling, alright.Van says all the girls walk by dressed up for each other and the boys do the boogie-woogie on the corner of the street.Not where i live they don't,they are more likely to be kicking someones head in.Lets cross the street and move quickly along.Wild Night is a great song though.

'Straight To Your Heart (Like ACannonball)' is next which isn't all that great but is quite catchy.I like 'Old Old Woodstock' a lot better with Van swaggering along and his woman waiting by the kitchen door.'Starting A New Life' probably came about because Van and family moved from Woodstock to California.Its quite pleasant with the acoustic guitar strumming along with the harmonica.
You're My Woman' is a celebration of Van's happiness with his new family life.I think though that a contented Van doesn't make for his best music.It's when he is a lost soul trudging across a barren desolate landscape trying to make sense of it all that he has produced his best music.
The title track 'Tupelo Honey' is next and now you're talking.This is more like it.One of the best songs of Vans career.I have heard a great version of this by Richie Havens as well and Dusty Springfield.You know when Van sings'You can't stop us on the road to freedom'.I wonder if that's a reference to the 'Roads To Freedom' trilogy by Jean Paul Sartre?.I know Van has mentioned Sartre in other songs and existentialism.'The Age Of Reason' by Sartre is one of my favourite books ever.

I Wanna Roo You is next and Van helpfully puts in brackets ( Scottish Derivitive).Thanks Van,and there was me thinking roo was Australian derivitive!.Talking about cover versions i have an album compiled by Simon Gee 'The Van Morrison Songbook' which has some supurb covers of Van songs but there is a cover of this song on it by Goldie Hawn.It is terrible.In the song Van says its the 23rd of December and there is a snowstorm on the way and they will be stranded for a week.Well that's Christmas bollixed then! I'm only joking,its quite a good song.'When That Evening Sun Goes Down' is more of the same domestic bliss stuff.It is nice though that somebody who was a famous singer by this time made an album celebrating the simple life away from it all.The life of premieres and glitzy rock star lifestyles wasn't for Van.

Moonshine Whiskey brings the album to a close and i can't think of much to say about it.On reflection, after playing this album twice today although Tupelo Honey is a really good album containing two of his best songs i don't think it has stood the test of time as well as some other early Van albums.

My Favourite Van Albums,Number 16,Irish Heartbeat.

Van has collaborated with quite a few artists during his long and illustrious career,such people as Lonnie Doneghan, Mose Allison,Linda Gail Lewis (what?) to name but three.The results have been mixed and often not popular with the fans.There is one collaboration though which was a triumph artistically and critically.Van's 1988 album with the Chieftains called Irish Heartbeat.
I am the great rememberer,i remember clearly the day i bought this album on vinyl.It was one Saturday afternoon in June 1988.We went for a drive to Avebury which is quite near here and on the way back stopped in Devizes and i bought the album.When we got back to my sad little bed-sit we watched Wimbledon,Jimmy Connors was involved in a titanic battle in the 4th round in one of his last appearances on Centre Court.Then i put on me new album which i instantly loved.

It was a complete departure for Van from the New Age type music that had preoccupied him during the 80's, i think Van just fancied a bit of a change and a bit of fun.I think the album came about through Vans friendship with the late Derek Bell the harp and piano player with the Chieftains.Van had met him due to a mutual interest in the healing power of music.Irish music had always been treated as a bit of a joke by the English and it was the Chieftains who had been largely responsible for by- passing the English and putting the Irish music on the world stage where it belongs.I had always liked their music since i bought their Chieftains 5 album so i was pleased when Van got together with them.
There are no new Van songs on the album although there are excellent reworkings of Celtic Ray and the title track Irish Heartbeat.The opening track is 'Star Of The County Down' which is all about Rosie McCann from the banks of the Bann and it really is good fun.Then we have a version of 'Irish Heartbeat' with the Chieftains effortlessly complementing Vans great song.Ta Mo Chleamhnas Deanta (My Match It Is Made) is a traditional song with Van translating the Irish words into English.I must say it is a testament to Vans genius that somebody who is steeped in the R and B tradition can take on another totally different genre of music and make it his own.I expect though that Van heard this music a lot as a youngster in Belfast so it wasn't totally alien to him.

The next song 'On Raglan Road' is one of my all time favourite Van songs.Last year i said this about it-
One fateful night in 1966 the great Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh met Luke Kelly of The Dubliners in a Dublin pub.Patrick asked Luke to turn one of his poems into a song.The next day Luke returned with the music, the traditional air 'Fainne Gael an Lae' (The Dawning of the Day). and so a great song was born.This song will still be sung in hundreds of years time.I have heard many versions of this song,Lukes has to be the greatest version.Sinead O'Connor sings it really well,Mark Knopfler not so well but Vans version accompanied by The Chieftains is sublime.'

The listener could be forgiven for thinking this song is a traditional song hundreds of years old.It is quite amazing that its only 40 years old but its place in the great canon of Irish traditional songs is assured.'She Moved Through The Fair' is another great song that has been recorded by many different artists.I first heard it on the album 'What We Did On Our Holidays' by Fairport Convention sung by the great Sandy Denny.'I'll Tell Me Ma' is a very jolly romp through another well known tune.'Carrickfergus' is a very sad ballad which only the Irish can do.Vans former side kick Brian Kennedy also does a very good version of this song.
'Celtic Ray' is a reworking of a song from 'Beautiful Vision' but the lyrics are changed slightly with Brittany replacing England.'Maries Wedding. brings the album to a very lively close.

I don't play this album all that often these days but it always gets played on St Patricks Day for sure.I did actually meet Matt Molloy the Chieftains flute player in his pub in Westport County Mayo a few years ago and i said that it was high time we had a Irish Heartbeat volume 2 album.I think the Chieftains would do it but maybe Van just saw it as a one off. Its a great album though.

My Favourite Van Albums,Number 17, The Healing Game.

Is it really ten years since this album came out?.It seems only yesterday that Kim went away for a week to Torquay with her residents from work.While she was away i redecorated the living room and put a shelf up in the kitchen and bought a new fridge.I was really pleased with myself. When she returned she had bought me Van's new album.
I associate this album a lot with Vans performance at Glastonbury 97.It had rained non stop since Friday and the site was a quagmire,it resembled the Battle Of Ypres in World War 1.The sun came out on Sunday afternoon though in time for performances by Sting, Beck and Van.Van started his performance with Rough God Goes Riding,the opening track on this album.The lyrics seemed strangely appropriate refering to the 'mud splattered victims' which was us.I remember that performance vividly because during Van singing 'Its A Mans Mans Mans World' he stopped and asked the audience "Who is the godfather of soul?".Quick as a flash i shouted out "JAMES BROWN!","Thats right",said Van.Lots of people looked at me and i felt really brainy.Van closed that show with a great slowed down version of 'Burning Ground',lifting the mike stand above his shoulders before finally smashing it down on the stage and walking off in triumph with the applause of at least 50,000 people ringing in his ears.Another thing i remember about Glasto 97 is that this girl Sherie asked us if we would look after her cat for a fortnight.We still have the cat 'Murphy' 10 years later.
Anyway, that is by the by,i digress.About the album.I think the rough god refered to in the opening track has something to do with a Yeats pome.I find the lyrics of a lot of the songs on Healing Game a bit esoteric and i'm not sure what Van is banging on about sometimes but this song seems to be about the day of judgement being at hand but it might be about Van having a go at the press who gave him a hard time the previous year.
'Fire In The Belly' has the same title as a book by Sam Keen,i don't know if thats where Van got the idea from but its a more cheerful song than the opener and has the famous refrain 'Gotta get through January,gotta get through February'.'This Weight' is Van complaining about the weight of being famous and all he wants is anonimity.'The Waiting Game' is another of the songs where i am not sure what the lyrics are about.I can't make head nor tail of them with references to the brother of the snake etc.Its a great song though even if it is an enigma inside a mystery.It also incorporates one of Vans favourite images of leaves coming tumbling down.
'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' is a great song based as you know on Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame.It is very Irish in flavour featuring Vans old friends Phil Coulter and Paddy Moloney.I think Van was commisioned to write this song for a filum but it never worked out so it ended up on this album and makes a nice contrast to the heavier songs.'Burning Ground' is a really powerful song driven along by some awesome sax playing by Pee Wee and Leo Green.I have read lots of discussion of the meaning of the lyrics and what dumping the jute means etc but i can't be bothered to enter into all that now thank you.'It Once Was My Life' is one of the more light weight songs on the album and i find it a bit repetitive.
Then we get to one of Van's all time great songs 'Sometimes We Cry'.This is a masterpiece.From Alec Dankworths opening notes on the bass to Pee Wee's exquisite sax solo and Robins piano playing it is faultless.I am listening to it at this very moment and its supurb.I find it personally a very poignant song because i had a friend Sara who died in 97 and whenever i play this song it reminds me of her.On a more cheerful note i met Pee Wee in a pub in Bradford On Avon a couple of years ago and he signed my Healing Game CD booklet on the Sometimes We Cry page and he put 'Thanks, Pee Wee Ellis'.Why did he say thanks?,it is a sign of his great humility, what a great person he is.
'If You Love Me' is another quite light song before the tour de force of the title track 'The Healing Game' which is another of Vans greatest songs.I first heard it a year previously at Wembley Arena when Van appeared with Ray Charles.It brings a great album to a close in style.That brings my review of the Healing Game to a close.I am now going to the pub because it is thirsty work reviewing.Cheerio!.