Van Morrison & Literature.

The big news today in the Van Morrison fan world is that Van has a new double album imaginatively titled Latest Record Project: Volume 1 coming out in May. A new album by Van is always something to look forward to. As well as listening to the music, I like poring over the lyrics looking for meanings in them. One thing I have noticed over the years is how well-read Van is. His lyrics are strewn with literary references. Thinking about that today reminded me of a piece that I wrote ages ago and I thought I should revisit it, update it, and hopefully improve it. This is it. 

I bought a book on eBay called The Dweller On The Threshold by Robert Hichens. It was published in 1909. I bought it because it had the same title as a song by Van Morrison from his 1982 album Beautiful Vision and I thought that it might help towards my understanding of Van's music. I thought this book might be where Van got the inspiration for his song from, but I have found out since that the expression Dweller On The Threshold was first used in 1842 in a book by Edward Bulwer-Llyton called Zanoni which was his interpretation of an ancient Rosicrucian manuscript. The Dweller is an invisible and possibly malevolent spirit that attaches itself to a human being. It is also mentioned in books by Rudolf Steiner and Madame Blavatsky who was a big influence on Van in the 1980's. Madame Blavatsky who was a theosophist said that the Dweller On The Threshold was separated from the angel of the presence by the burning ground, so I think we can see where Van got his song The Burning Ground from.

All this got me wondering how many more songs of Van are also the titles of books, and I was surprised to find that there are quite a few. Haunts Of Ancient Peace is the opening track on the Common One album and it is also the title of a book by Alfred Austin published in 1902. Alfred Austin was appointed Poet Laureate following the death of Lord Tennyson. I am not sure if Van read the book or just liked the title.

 Avalon Of The Heart from the Enlightenment album is also a book by Dion Fortune which was first published in 1934. I am sure that Van read this book because of his huge interest in Glastonbury and Avalon which is the New Jerusalem. Dion Fortune described Glastonbury as one of the green roads to the soul and I’m sure Van was inspired to write much of his music after visiting the Abbey, The Chalice Well and The Tor. Avalon was the source of some of Van's greatest work in the 1980's. Dion Fortune died in 1946 and she is buried in Glastonbury. I have previously written a story on this blog page about the time I visited her grave. 

Another book that I am quite confident that Van has read is Don't Push The River (It Flows By Itself) by Barry Stevens. I am sure it inspired his song You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River from the Veedon Fleece album of 1974. This album is full of literary references such as Poe, Wilde and Thoreau, and Van has acknowledged that this particular track was influenced by his reading of Gestalt therapy. The author of the book Barry Stevens was a gestalt therapist who also investigated the writings of Jiddu Krishnamurti another huge influence on Van and gave Van the title of his No Guru, No Method, No Teacher album. It is in the lyrics of this song that Van first mentions William Blake whose name occurs many more times in Van's subsequent career. There is a book called A New Kind Of Man which is a biography of Blake by Michael Davis. I wonder if Van has read it because it is the title of one of his songs on the Sense Of Wonder album. Ancient of Days on the same album is taken from a painting by Blake.

Van has said that his song Fire In The Belly from his album The Healing Game was inspired by the book of the same name by Sam Keen. He is an American writer, professor and philosopher who has written many books on life, love and being a man in modern society. Van has also definitely read Cloud Hidden Whereabouts Unknown by Alan Watts because he called A song on Poetic Champions Compose Alan Watts Blues and uses the book title freely in the lyrics of the song.

Green Mansions is the best-known novel by W.H. Hudson published in 1904.It was made into a film in 1959 starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins and flopped at the box-office. It is also the title of one of the lesser-known songs on Van’s Hymns To The Silence album. I don't know if Van has read the book or seen the film but he got the title from somewhere. Whilst on the subject of film there is a film called Cold Wind In August. made in 1961 from a novel by Burton Wohl starring Lola Albright and also the title of a song on A Period Of Transition.

One of my favourite songs on the Into The Music album is Angelou. I have never heard of anyone with that first name. I have sometimes wondered if Van got it from the famous author Maya Angelou. The Beat Generation writers have always been an influence on Van, especially Jack Kerouac who he has mentioned more than once in his lyrics. More recently on his 2016 album Keep Me Singing in the song In Tiburon he says, ‘Across the bay in San Francisco, Where city lights and Ferlinghetti stay, North Beach alleyways and cafés, Kerouac and Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Neal Cassady all held sway’.

The song Meaning Of Loneliness on What’s Wrong With This Picture? mentions Dante Sartre, Camus, Nietzsche and Hesse. This is equaled by Rave On John Donne which along with the metaphysical poet of the title also name-checks Walt Whitman, Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, and W.B. Yeats. Let's not forget Lord Byron and Rimbaud in the song Foreign Window and Rimbaud also provides the title for one of Van's greatest songs Tore Down A La Rimbaud. I am sure I could find even more literary names if I really searched. I think with all this name-dropping Van is encouraging the listener to check these people out. It is the same with his musical influences who he often draws our attention to in his lyrics.  If they did a course at a University in Van Morrison studies, I think any student would receive a first-rate education.

Beat Writers, Bob Donlon, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Robert La Vigne and Lawrence Ferlinghetti