This morning I have been listening to one of my favourite Van
Morrison albums. I hadn't played it for ages. It inspired me to dust off a review I wrote a long time ago..........
1982 was a bad year for me in many ways but there was
something to cheer me up. A new Van album called Beautiful Vision. I liked the cover design so much I framed the
record sleeve and put it on my wall. Wherever Van has lived is an influence on his
music and for a short time in the early 80's Van lived with his northern muse
Ulla Munch in the Vanlose district of Copenhagen. This inspired a number of
tracks on Beautiful Vision such as Vanlose Stairway, Scandinavia, She
Gives Me Religion and the title track. Celtic Ray the opening song
is very Irish, with Van yearning for home. Van says in the song that he has
been away too long. Lots of Irish people move away to places not greener, but
meaner. They never move away spiritually, always thinking about returning
someday. This theme is continued on Northern Muse, Solid Ground. The
line 'If you see her say hello' is the title of a Dylan song from Blood on The
Tracks.
 |
| Alice Bailey. |
The words of Dweller On The Threshold and part of Aryan
Mist were inspired by a book published in 1950 called Glamour, A World
Problem by Alice Bailey and show Van’s interest in Theosophy at the
time. He would mention theosophy again in his song Rave On John Donne. This is
what I read in Wikipedia- Her book discusses the New Age ideas of
"glamours" or "mental illusions", which formed a fog that
covers the "spiritual warrior" and the "Aryan race" from
the world. When the "dweller on the threshold" was covered with the
light of the soul or "Angel of Presence" illumination came. In 1982 Morrison revealed in an interview: "I've read Glamour
four or five times, and I get different things out of it each time. Alice
Bailey's saying a lot of things. Its depth reading. You might read it on
Wednesday and on Thursday you pick it up again and get an entirely different
thing. I don't feel qualified to speak about what it's about - you really have
to read it yourself ... because there's so much in there. Beautiful Vision and
She Gives Me Religion are two love songs probably inspired by Ulla. I particularly
like the imagery of church bells chiming on a Sunday afternoon and girls
walking by dressed in the summer fashions.
What’s my line?' sings Van in the next song. What’s My Line
was a popular panel show on the television when I was a kid. It was hosted by
Eamon Andrews and the panelists had to guess what the contestants did for a
living. Van tells us his line was Cleaning Windows. This is a song
unlike anything else on the album and Mark Knopfler plays guitar on it. In the
song Van talks about buying 5 Woodbines cigarettes and I did actually find a packet of 5
woodbines at work under some floorboards. Van the name dropper is in evidence
here with Jimmy Rodgers, Jack Kerouac and Christmas Humphreys getting a mention
among others. Van likes to get his
listeners into things he is into. 'Baby don't let it slide' sings Van at the
end. I think he was a bit worried about
climbing up the ladder.
Vanlose Stairway is a
song about the apartment where they lived in Copenhagen. It is in quite an
ordinary looking building, but Van can make anything romantic, because this
stairway reaches right up to the moon. Georgie Fame also does a great version
of this song on the Van Morrison Songbook album. Aryan Mist is
another song inspired by Alice Bailey and her Tibetan friend. Apparently, the
railway carriage charm is a reference to amphetamines.
Across The Bridge Where Angels Dwell is a
very contemplative evocative song. It was co-written with the albums engineer
Hugh Murphy who also co-wrote two other songs with Van. Hugh sadly died in
1998. which leads us in to the instrumental Scandinavia which features
Van on piano. I remember him performing this track at my second ever Van
concert in 1982.This technique of the quiet song leading into the instrumental
is also used on other Van albums in the
early 80's.The idea is that the music leads the listener into a meditative
state. Van would continue to explore spirituality in music throughout the 1980’s
which I think was one of the most creative periods of his career.
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