Van Morrison - Poetic Champions Compose (1987)

Completing my posts of 80s Van Morrison (there's three from the decade missing that I'm not as big a fan of) is this 1987 effort.  First conceived of as a wholly instrumental record, Van got as far as three instrumental tracks before retreating from the idea.  Those three, which appear as bookends and a midpoint to the album are all great contemplative pieces, with Van's sax playing suitably mellow and atmospheric.

Poetic Champions Compose came out to mixed reviews; by this point, you were either on board with Van Morrison's introspective, new-age period or not.  In hindsight, it comes across either as a warmer version of Inarticulate Speech or an advance on No Guru with the edges slightly smoother again (all links below).  For me, Poetic Champions is just a beautifully meditative rumination on Morrison's usual spiritual concerns (the declaration of 'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher' seemingly reneged on, with among other things a catchy tribute to Zen writer Alan Watts), and makes particularly good Sunday afternoon listening.  Or indeed any other day of the week, for the Watts tribute and other highlights like Queen Of The Slipstream, the live favourite Did Ye Get Healed and a decent, heartfelt workout for the traditional Motherless Child.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Saint Dominic's Preview
Common One
Beautiful Vision
Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision (1982)

A late December-early January favourite of mine, and Van Morrison's most accessible album of his 1980-87 period that we've dug into in recent months.  Musically and structurally, Beautiful Vision was an obvious step back from the epic meanderings of Common One, and gifted Morrison's live repertoire with some of its most enduring classics.  While live versions would lift up the tempo on some of these (go seek out Glastonbury 1987 for a turbocharged Northern Muse and many other wonders), they're equally good here as sedate/midtempo Caledonia Soul healers.

In the lyrics, Morrison celebrates life with his Danish girlfriend of the time (Vanlose Stairway), delves into the occult writings of Alice Bailey (Dweller On The Threshold), and not for the first or last time looks back to his formative salad days (Cleaning Windows).  Several instrumentals were recorded for Beautiful Vision, but all bar one were held over for future albums.  The one that deservingly made the cut was the sublime Scandinavia, which closes the record with Van on piano and Mark Isham on synths.


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pw:sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Saint Dominic's Preview
Common One
Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

Van Morrison - No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986)

If Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart was a bit synth-heavy for some Van Morrison fans in the 80s, they needn't have feared - by 1986 he had fully returned to a more natural sound, and released one of the greatest albums of his career.

Morrison's lyrical preoccupations were more grounded too - after spending the early part of the decade looking into theosophy and the burgeoning New Age (especially Anglo-American writer Alice Bailey), the title of this album could be read as a statement of intent.  With Ray Charles named as one of his earliest sources of rapture within the opening lines, No Guru is an album that primarily looks back, but still finds spiritual wonder everywhere.

Musically, it's a largely relaxed and meditative listen, only breaking a sweat a couple of times, and the closing Ivory Tower is the only decisively upbeat track.  Elsewhere, six out of ten tracks break the five-minute barrier (nothing approaches Common One status, though!) as the extended meditations on love, nature and art take jazzy and folky forms.  Some reviewers have even posited No Guru as an 80s sequel to Astral Weeks, and if you listen to Tir Na Nog, or the "gardens wet with rain" callbacks on In The Garden, you can see their point.  A massively underrated career highlight from a singular artist.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Saint Dominic's Preview
Common One
Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart

Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (1983)

Some more 80s Van, still with Mark Isham on board (the latter sticking overwhelmingly to synths here), and seeking enlightenment in an even more introspective and meditative realm than on Common One.  Foregoing even words at times - clearly encouraged by the reception of Beautiful Vision (1982)'s closer Scandinavia - four of the tracks here are instrumentals, and the rest of the album is more lyrically sparse than any other in his canon.  Inarticulate Speech is a Van Morrison record consisting entirely of deep cuts - even the 'live favourite' is a mostly spoken-word catalogue of the poetic strive for the transcendent throughout history.  But like Common One, if you give such a sleeper album a nudge, it'll repay with sublime listening experiences from then on.

The opener Higher Than The World opens on clouds of Isham synth, with Morrison sounding initially overawed by some meditative state/spiritual experience before rejoicing in it.  This is followed by the first instrumental, Connswater; if it sounds a bit too Riverdancey for some ears, fear not - each subsequent instrumental will just get more and more wonderful.  The first part of the title track is (paced like most of the album) a sedate piano-led piece with only some wordless backing voices, and the second part's lyrics are mostly the title plus "I'm a soul in wonder".

On the fully-sung tracks, Van balances his metaphysical interests (in the album's first half) with evocations of home and childhood, and the power of memory and belonging (on the trio that sit together on side two).  With the stunning album closer September Night, he hits on a moodpiece so evocative that his voice becomes a primal cry.  Grab this album for these September nights and beyond, and it'll paint them in colours as stunning as nature.

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Van Morrison - Common One (1980)

For the second Friday in a row, some magnificently mellifluous Mark Isham - this time in a supporting role to the living legend that is Van Morrison, on possibly his most ambitious album ever.  Common One kickstarted a seven-year run of albums that were deeply spiritual, meditative and sometimes esoteric, even difficult to get in to - but never less than hugely rewarding.  It's fast becoming my favourite Van era, so may well be posting more.

Common One starts off with the slow, gentle Haunts Of Ancient Peace, ushered in with a plaintive Isham performance.  Following this are the epic fifteen and a half minutes of Summertime In England - seriously, how to even describe one of Van Morrison's greatest epic tracks of his whole career?  Just listen to these joyous evocations of Wordsworth, Coleridge, T. S. Eliot, William Blake, Yeats et al, as Morrison pursues his red-robed muse through the jazzy uptempo sections and heart-rending waltz time sections, and you will realise it ain't why, why, why, why, why, why (etc), it just is.

As a comedown from this lengthy transcendent journey, the album continues with three shorter, much more conventional songs.  The self-explanatory Satisfied, the mellow loveliness of Wild Honey and Spirit with its quiet-verse, uplifting chorus structure are all great tracks, but there's still one more epic to come.  The second fifteen-minute track on the album, and its perfect, meditative closer, is When Heart Is Open, a beautiful experiment in ambient formlessness.  Even more so than the earlier Saint Dominic's Preview, Common One largely stands or falls on the strength of the two longest tracks that dominate its running time, and for me they make it an indispensable classic.  It's an album that might take one or two goes to get its hooks into you, but once it does it'll never let go.

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Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)

With my trans-Irish Sea parentage, Van Morrison was always going to be part of the musical staple diet growing up - and this album remains a favourite.  Recorded in late '71/early '72 at the height of Morrison's California period, Saint Dominic's Preview is perfectly balanced between short, zippy soul/blues classics (straight off the blocks with the breathless acapella euphoria of Jackie Wilson Said) and two 10 minute+ epics.

Of the latter, Almost Independence Day drifts in a stream of Krause-synth consciousness and two chord 12-string guitar, giving it a striking resemblance to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here title track from three years later.  But the  definite highlight of this great record is Listen To The Lion - for me, it's simply one of the greatest, most unreserved and fearless vocal performances Morrison ever accomplished.  Gives me chills every time once he really lets rip in the middle section, before things calm down again.

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