Quiet Days: 03/27/2022

Saturday, April 02, 2022

Van Morrison's Best Songs Of The 1970's

After the warmth of the sun last week a wintery chill has returned. There have been flurries of snow here for the past few days. I don’t think the cold weather will last long, but while I have been indoors it has given me the opportunity to listen to Van Morrison’s albums from the 1970’s and try and decide on my favourite songs from that decade. I think the 70’s was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for Van because he began the decade with some of the greatest work ever produced in the history of popular music, then had a mid-decade hiatus before returning with some of the finest music of his career. Moondance was released in January 1970 and in my humble opinion is one of the best albums ever made by anybody. There isn’t a bad song on the album. If I had to choose my four favourite songs I would say Into The Mystic, And It Stoned Me, Crazy Love and Brand New Day. All the other songs deserve honourable mentions. Maybe I should have included Moondance, but I have tired of hearing it at almost every Van concert I have attended.

Later that same year in November Van released Van Morrison, His Band, & The Street Choir. Although it is a very worthy album, I don’t feel that it has stood the test of time as well as Moondance and many other Van albums. This opinion alone shows what a great body of work Van has produced. I wish the album had been called Virgo Clowns because I always thought the title was a bit unimaginative and unwieldy. Domino was the hit single in the USA, but I think my favourite songs are I’ll Be Your Lover Too, and If I Ever Needed Someone. Although I don't think it is one of Van's best albums, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it, nothing could be further from the truth. I think of Moondance, Street Choir and Tupelo Honey as a trilogy of Janet Planet inspired albums because Janet was muse, editor, and contributor during this period and had input with sleeve notes and as a backing singer. I think I rate Tupelo Honey alongside Street Choir as another very enjoyable album which isn’t one of Van’s greatest albums, although It does contain one of his best songs which is the title track Tupelo Honey. Wild Night is another song well worth mentioning.

St Dominic’s Preview released in July 72 was a much stronger album which I would rate in Van’s top ten albums of all time. Jackie Wilson Says is a great soul pop song. Listen To The Lion is a tour de force, one of his best ever songs which I wish he would return to the live set-list again soon because I have only seen Van sing this song once. I think I actually prefer the version on It’s Too Late To Stop Now which I consider as the greatest live album ever made. The title song St Dominic’s Preview is also a classic masterpiece which I have been fortunate to see performed live on several occasions. Redwood Tree always reminds me of a later song Enlightenment. I have always been fond of Hard Nose The Highway. It is a very underrated album and Warm Love is one of his best songs in my view. Another song which I really like that isn’t mentioned very often is Wild Children. It is very evocative and nostalgic. A song that I have grown to like even more as I have got older and jazzier in my tastes is Autumn Song which is just perfect for certain moods. Veedon Fleece came out in 1974 and I must confess that I was one of the people who didn’t like it at first. I thought it was boring and samey. Over the years though I have come to realise what a great album it is, almost comparable to Astral Weeks. How do you decide on favourite songs? because of the consistency of mood and greatness there is no song which really stands above the others. Therefore, I am going to cheat and class Comfort You / Come Here My Love / Country Fair as one song because I feel that they flow effortlessly into each other. I will also put Fair Play and Streets Of Arklow forward for consideration as well.

Van took a sabbatical from recording for nearly three years. It was only his stunning performance of Caravan in the film The Last Waltz which kept him in the public eye. When he did return in 1977 with A Period Of Transition it was a bit of a disappointment for most people including me. I have warmed to the album in recent years, and it does compare favourably with some subsequent offerings. I know a lot of people love this album, but I don’t consider it among his best work. After the disappointing reception for and sales of A Period Of Transition I think Van felt he needed to come out with a commercial hit album next. This he achieved with Wavelength which was popular with the public and me. He also got another great new band together which I think he had struggled to find after the demise of the Caledonia Soul Orchestra. This album coincided with my first ever Van gig in early 79 which might be why this album has good memories for me. I don’t rate it as one of his greatest albums though. Personal favourite songs for me are Checkin’It Out, Santa Fe /Beautiful Obsession, Lifetimes and Take It Where You Find It.

Van had a lucky break in 1979 when Pee Wee Ellis was suggested to him to work on Into The Music. It was the beginning of one of the most fruitful periods of his career. The success of the pop orientated Wavelength gave Van the confidence to be more adventurous on the next album and express his interest in the healing power of music, which he was to follow all through the following decade. Van has made some great albums since 1979, but I think Into The Music from that year is the last album where I can honestly say that I liked every single track on first listening to it. The last four tracks Angelou, And The Healing Has Begun, All In The Game and You Know What They’re Writing About are among the best of his entire career, and the other songs are excellent as well.