Van Morrison, Born To Sing: No Plan B. (Revisited)

I don't think I will be going out today. It looks like rain is on the way. I have been listening to a Van Morrison album which was released almost exactly ten years ago. This is what I said about it back then. In hindsight I think I was a bit over-enthusiastic......................................

It has been a long  four and a half year wait for Van Morrison's 34th  studio album since Keep It Simple was released on St Patricks Day 2008. That is the longest gap between albums for Van since he arrived in New York to begin his solo career way back in 1967. Apart from Van, Paul Moore on bass is the only musician from Keep It Simple to play on the new album Born To Sing,No Plan B. I must say that it has been worth the wait. As on Veedon Fleece and Astral Weeks Van has managed to capture a mood on Born To Sing and hold it for most of the album. I think on some of Van's previous albums although they contain some great songs they are a bit disjointed in terms of mood, but I find this album very consistent and a valuable addition to Van's fine body of work.The opening track Open The Door (To Your Heart)  is the weakest track on the album, but it is the most radio friendly, so i can understand why it was chosen as the first single from the album. Van's voice sounds wonderful. At 67 years of age the voice is intact. Other singers who have been around as long as Van are shot away vocally. The melody is fine and the arrangement, but what lets the song down badly is the lyrics which are poor by Vans high standards.The lyrics are mainly a string of clichés which are unconnected with each other. Van often takes a song title that he likes, for instance Have I Told You Lately That I Love You and then writes a totally different song to the original. American soul singer Darrell Banks recorded Open The Door To Your Heart in 1966, although Van may be more familiar with the version by Jackie Wilson. In the title Van puts 'To Your Heart' in brackets maybe to stop confusion with the earlier different  song. Although it isn't a great song by any means it does draw the listener in to the mellow groove of the album.

Track two is a vast improvement, Going Down To Monte Carlo which Van informs us is only 25K from Nice.Here he paints an aural sketch of a man escaping from some diabolic pressure, sitting in a restaurant while some awful pseudo jazz plays in the background. Van has used this technique of painting a picture of a moment in time before in songs like Snow In San Anselmo.I like it..The protagonist in this quasi-autobiographical song is trying to escape from people who are driving him mad. Those words hark back to Vans Why Must I Always Explain?. Van also mentions Sartre in this song as he did on his previous Blue Note album What’s Wrong With This Picture.Van and Jean Paul go back a long way, back to Tupelo Honey and 'they can't stop up on the road to freedom'.This is a great song of existentialist dread.The listener is rewarded with repeated playing.The jazzy instrumental ending is very nice indeed.

The next song the eponymous Born To Sing is more immediately accessible. Van was born to sing thats for sure, he had no choice.As Leonard Cohen might have said he was born with a golden voice.I think this song could be a contender for the next single from the album. Radio 2 listeners would love this song. The young brass section of Alistair White and Chris White make an outstanding contribution to this album.They have been in Vans band for two years now and considering their youth they seem to have an intuitive feel for where Van wants to go with a song.

End Of The Rainbow is one of the strongest tracks on the album with a world weary Van sadly reflecting on the state of the world to a  lilting jazz accompaniment. Some may say that the lyrics are bleak and miserable but the song reflects the times we live in.There is no gravy train stopping here.I like music director Paul Moran's  piano playing on this song.

I don't know why Van has revisited Close Enough For Jazz. It appeared on the Too Long In Exile album as an instrumental. Maybe Van thought as he was back on the Blue Note jazz label he ought to make the album jazzier. Here he adds vocals.It reminds me of his work with Georgie Fame. It is pleasant enough,  but i think it is one of the lesser tracks on the album. Mystic Of The East is one of my favourite tracks. As you know the word mystic has appeared throughout Vans long career.Mystic Eyes, Into The Mystic, Mystic Avenue etc. The title slightly reminded me of his song Aryan Mist which mentioned gurus from the east and gurus from the west. I didn't like this song as first but it guru on me!. Van is the mystic of the east, East Belfast that is.There is some very nice organ playing on this track. The protagonist is deep in the heart of down.Would that be County Down?.He can't find his brief. Those words also remind one of the Hymns To The Silence album.

Another song that reminds one of an earlier Van song is Retreat And View. Van used those words in Beside You on the Astral Weeks album 'And you roam from your retreat and view'. What does he mean by that?. In 1967 Van spent a short time in a monastery which is a retreat i suppose, and recently Van has spent a long time retreating from the world and now he has reappeared and views the world anew. This is another great track that grows with each playing. The instrumental passages are wonderful.If you like songs such as When The Leaves Come Falling Down then you will love this song after a few plays.

If In Money We Trust is totally different and is a scathing indictment of the values of modern society. Van quotes Friedrich Nietschze who said God Is dead.Like Sartre Van also mentioned Nietschze on his previous Blue Note album. I read that Van said he thought of the song when looking at a dollar bill and trying to work out what it all meant. It is certainly a strange thing to have as your god which it certainly is to the bankers and the other beasts with their noses in the trough. Musically the track is quite funky compared to the others.

 I really like Pagan Heart which is the most different of all the songs. I bet Van would have loved to have dueted this song with his friend John Lee Hooker. There is great blues guitar and piano on this track. References to Robert Johnson and the crossroads. A really nice blues jam which dies away to a whisper.

The last track is Educating Archie in which Van lets rip with venom against the modern world. Where he sings 'What happened to the individual and what happened to you?' reminds me of an earlier song  'What ever happened to PJ Proby and what ever happened to me?'.Van must have been in a really bad mood when he wrote this one. Educating Archie as you know was a BBC radio show of the 50's featuring a ventriloquist. Van must have listened to it as a kid.In a way i suppose it is the equivalent song to Carry On Regardless on the Magic Time Album. 

In conclusion,  this is a very satisfying album indeed. It knocks spots off Keep It Simple which although it had a couple of great songs such as Behind The Ritual and the title track, in hindsight was very uneven.This album holds the attention throughout. I know some of the veteran Van fans will say "Its not a patch on Astral Weeks or St Dominic's Preview". Well, that was breakfast, this is dinner. Others will say that its just more of the same, there is nothing new here. Well in a way that is the story of Van's career, he has revisited the same themes and images many times. Monet painted the same water lilies over and over, each time showing different shades of light and dark. Van is the same, he has matured. He has the finest body of work of any solo artist in music and this is a fine album from a mature artist for adult  people not for people who are trying to recapture their spotty youth when they sat around in student bedsits listening to Moondance.