120. Van Morrison, "Moondance"

 


Beloved of acoustic-strumming bros at waterfront-adjacent bars and jukeboxes worldwide, this album, Morrison's third as a solo artist, contains probably (well, besides "Brown-Eyed Girl") the best-known songs of his career.  I mean, you know "Moondance," of course, and "Caravan," and maybe "And It Stoned Me" and "Everyone."  After the less-than-inspiring sales of Astral Weeks, Morrison's record label pretty much said "You better come up with some hits," and damn if he didn't.

What struck me on this relisten was just how unique and personal a style he had, especially for 1970, the year of Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin II, and Cosmo's Factory.  It's this weird blend of folk, rock, jazz, soul, and blues that I'm not sure anyone has done the same way before or since.  "Everyone," for example, starts with a harpsichord and is driven along not by guitar but mostly by flute.  It sounds like a merry band of gnomes dropped in at Ye Olde Pub and Van invited them up on stage.

The spiritual center of the album is "Into the Mystic," a gorgeous, contemplative, gentle song about the transitions of life:

We were born before the wind
Also, younger than the sun
'Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic
Hark now, hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic
Yeah, when that fog horn blows
I will be coming home
Yeah, when that fog horn blows
I wanna hear it
I don't have to fear it

More than one person has noted, like Tranquility Funeral Services has, that it's a good funeral song.  Like a lot of the songs on this album, it's moody and atmospheric and makes you feel like you're in a movie, standing on a windswept beach, staring into middle distance.

Morrison was always interested in matters spiritual and metaphysical.  "And It Stoned Me" is not about what you think, but rather what Morrison described as an almost out-of-body experience he had as a child drinking water from a cold stream proffered by an old man.  

Later in life, this kind of innocent wide-eyed wonder at the world curdled into a sneering contempt.  Morrison is famously prickly and difficult, and this rep seemed to culminate in his 2021 album Latest Record Project, Vol. 1, which was immediately and roundly mocked for containing such songs as (not making this up) “Where Have All the Rebels Gone,” “Why Are You on Facebook?,” and “Stop Bitching, Do Something."  There's also some nasty implied anti-Semitism in “They Control the Media” and just flat-out racism in "Western Man" ("Western Man has no plan/They stole it while, while he was dreamin'").

Yuck.  So we're back to separating the art from the artist.  I tried, with some success, when listening back to this one, but it's hard, not gonna lie.

Is this album in my personal Top 500? If nothing else, just for "Mystic."

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