To me, without a shadow of a doubt, the best artist to have come out of this Island of ours is the man from Hyndford Street, East Belfast, Van Morrison. he may have turned 61 on August 31st last, but he is going stronger than ever, still travelling the four corners of the globe, year in year out, playing to packed houses all over the place.
I was 16 when I got my First Van Morrison album. My sister was travelling to New York to visit some cousins, and asked me if I wanted her to pick me up anything over there. I had just heard a very good song on the radio from an artist the DJ said was called Van Morrison, so I asked her to look and see if this guy had a Greatest hits Collection, and if so to buy it for me.
I thought nothing of it until about two weeks later when my sister came to pay us a visit, and she told me that the last time she was over after coming back from her trip, that she had forgotten to bring the CD I asked for with her, but that she was giving it to me now.
So I went upstairs and pressed play on the CD player, and sat on the bed. What I spent the next hour or so listening to just blew my mind away. I was particularly taken aback by the tracks 'Sweet thing' 'Warm Love' and 'Wild night' in particular.
Thus a musical love affair was well and truly born.
So I was listening to this new CD intently for about 2 months, when upon visiting the local Shopping Centre to get stuff for School, I spotted a new Van Morrison album on display in HMV.
I resolved that when I got my pocket Money that weekend I would buy it, and did.
This album gave me a taste of a different Van to the one I had initially become accustomed to. Though it sounded different to the stuff on the 'Greatest Hits' Album I had been listening to, it was still a masterpiece all in itself.
'Rough god goes Riding' 'This Weight' and 'The Burning Ground' particular highlights for me.
Since then I have bought many of his official albums, and tonnes of bootlegs too.
As far as I remember, I have 4 different versions of Moondance, and 3 Different versions of 'Have I told you lately' between the legit albums, and the Live bootlegs. Most ordinary Music fans would not see anything in the different versions, but intricate and separate nuances in each have intrigued me no end. Each one complete with his wonderful melodic distinctive voice, some versions slow in tone and other a fast higher pitched enthusiasm is present.
I am a big fan of Van for his music, and I believe he is a songwriter par excellence. The poetry in a lot of his songs are just magical. It's like finding a book, and when as you read through it all these fantastic images seem to come to life. Just now I have rediscovered what I would personally class definitely a 'lost gem' from Van Morrison - The song 'Country Fair' Track 10 on the grossly underrated 'Veedon Fleece Album' Twas just going through my collection on my computer, and decide just to click on it as a hunch, and it is infinitely beauty and calmness personified.
Just to hear Van go into one of his trance like chants with just a flute and guitar or Piano in the background is truly a joy to behold. - Actually I would love to see, and I'm sure many other Van Morrison fans too, a 'Sean Nos' Van Album, featuring Van's voice and nothing else!
But sadly a fair whack of my friends and acquaintances look at me with abject horror if they are in my house, and I stick on a Van Morrison CD in my Hi-fi, or select one of his tracks in a Juke Box in a pub and so forth. They just pass a remark that 'he would put you to sleep' or that 'My Grandad listens to him, but he's like 50 years older than you for Christ's sake!'
And then inevitably another of the group I'm sitting with pipes in 'Actually you would not BELIEVE what I read in the paper the other day about him!' I simply reply 'Whatever it is I don't wanna know'; 'But I thought you were a big fan of his' I would here coming at me from my left. 'Yes indeed I am a fan of his, Van's music is magical and mystical, but unless you are going to tell me you read he is releasing a new album soon, or is playing a gig in Ireland within the next 6 months, I don't wanna know'
It saddens me that so many journalists and what have you, simply see the lyrical genius as nothing more than something to ridicule. As Louis Walsh would tell you, you would have to be an artist of immense talent to be able to remain strong in the music business for ten years, never mind for over 30 as Van has managed. So what if he gets a bit stroppy at times, or likes to have a bit of a laugh in some hotel bar in Dublin - Who doesn't like to have a good time with his mates down the local, or gets p*ssed off if he is stuck for the past 20 minutes on the Grand Canal, having only moved 200 yards in his car??
Some journalists constantly go on about how the new album he has brought out that they were reviewing is 'nothing like Astral weeks/ is nowhere near the standard of Astral Weeks' etc. But that album will still sell loads of copies around the world. Check out David Bowie's first album, and his last, do the same for Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton and so forth and you would find significant differences in both albums, but at the same time they both, in the musical sense, are both equally good albums. Yes you might suddenly remember an album he released an 1974 that surpasses everything else he produced before or after it, yet you still still there thoroughly enjoying the Bowie/Clapton CD he released in 2006.
I just wish Van would be given the credit he genuinely in the fullest sense deserves, and instead of knocking him 24/7, that even just now and again, people acknowledge the major contribution that Van has made to the Music scene over the last 30 years and more.
I have no doubt that when Van passes away (Which hopefully will be a very, very long time away!) they will almost certainly erect a monument and the like to him in Belfast, and other places around the world. But why wait until then? He deserves fulsome recognition for for the joy he has brought into many peoples ears and hearts, but sadly it my well end up being whenever God shines his light oin him, and lift him and turns him around towards heaven, that many begin to truly appreciate what they had in their midst...
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