The great, and I mean great, Van Morrison had a lyric in a song that sort of became a catch phrase in my life.
It goes like this: ‘It ain’t why why why, it just is.’
Van the man is a spiritual man, or, at least he was some years ago when he released the album Common One, an underrated work from the artist.
Some, me included, felt like this lyric took a load off our backs, trying to carry the weight of the world. Sometimes that’s not even as overbearing as carrying the weight of your own life. Others I think dismissed Van Morrison’s delving into Christian spirituality as an excuse to thwart those who continue to search for meaning on this third boulder from the sun.
Taken the wrong way, ‘it ain’t why why why, it just is,’ sounds a little like shut up and sit down.
But I won’t shut up. I’m going to keep asking why, knowing that the answer will come in time, or when time ends.
ALBUMS: Astral Weeks (1968 ); Moondance (1970); Tupelo Honey (1971); ): St. Dominic’s Preview (1972 ); Hard Nose the Highway (1973); T.B. Sheets (1973 ); Common One (1980); No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986); World of Them (1973)
MVC Ratings: Astral and Moondance get top scores with 5. Both come with $$$$, but it might be hard to find in good condition under $20. Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic’s and No Guru comes in at 4.5 with $$$$ for Tupelo and St. Dominic’s; and TB Sheets at $$$; World of Them is 4.0 with a $$$.
Just after I learned of my illness, my wonderful friends and colleagues raised several thousand dollars to fund a trip to Europe. Ireland was one of four countries we visited on this ‘bucket list” trip. We went in this order: Spain, Scotland, Ireland, England and back to Spain where my daughter was living.
In Dublin, Ireland , I had to go see the Irish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a small-ish building, having moved into a place that used to be a pub. I loved it but I had one major criticism, and told the museum people — who were good folks — about it. There was not enough Van Morrison. One could argue that he should have dominated that museum, based on artistry, talent and influence on the music.
They had lots of Thin Lizzy and U2. Don’t get me wrong I love both of those Irish artists. Check one of the streaming services for the Phil Lynot/Thin Lizzy documentary. He had an interesting life growing up mixed race in a 90-plus percent white population. His mother, the museum folks told me, still comes by the museum and visits, occasionally bringing memorabilia to display. There could be couple of things going on here. First, Morrison is considered ‘Dad-music.’ Not many under 30 could name three songs by Van the Man, or any at all, for that matter. Also, Morrison grew up in Belfast not Dublin meaning Morrison’s family and possible sources of memorabilia are in another part of the country.
In the United States, Morrison had a home north of San Francisco in Marin County. He said it was the place in the US that reminded him most of the rolling green hills of Ireland. I lived in that county some called paradise for a decade in San Anselmo. Van even wrote a song called ‘Snow in San Anselmo’ on one of his lesser known albums called ‘Hard News the Highway.’ The song says it hadn’t snowed there i n 30 years. It did not snow the 10 years I was there as the ocean moderated what was essentially a Mediterranean climate.
One morning in 2006, I came to play my usual pick-up basketball on Saturday morning at the Lagunitas elementary school. It was a game that had been ongoing for long time before I wandered up one day. On this day, a couple of players said they had seen Morrison the night before in a secret word-of-mouth event at this place in the San Geromino Valley called Rancho Nicasio — not far down the road where I played hoops every week. Damn, I said, why didn’t y’all call me! (I still broke out the y’all in California.) The Marin Independent Journal — a newspaper I had written for — said Morrison concert was the worst kept secret in Marin. Well, I didn’t know about it. Of course I’ve always had this feeling I was the last to know.
I don’t know what else to say about Van Morrison. He’s a rocker, a great writer. His songs are equally imbued with the blues and jazz. He always has great musicians around him. He sings a little like Mick Jagger if Jagger ventured deeper into jazz.
I’m not going to give a history here, that would be long. But he was in a band called Them in the beginning. He wrote a song called ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ whose opening riff is one of the most recognizable in rock. He journeyed through mystical observations. In the mid-to-later part of his career, he became a little more overt with use of Christian language wrapped around his deep spiritual explorations in words and music. Albums representing this would be ‘Common One‘ and “No Guru no Method no Teacher.’ And actually, thinking back, he’s always had that philosopher/poet quest that shape songs like “Into the Mystic,” or the whole album Astral Weeks, for that matter.
He’s still putting out music. I saw that an album is about to be released in November. Lastly, I’d like to make bring out some teaching points for lyricists and poets. I’m not saying I am that good at it, but I know good when I see it and hear it. Morrison’s style was to weave in and out of mystical explorations with repetitive chants and jazzy excursions. But he often wrote plain slices of scenes. a little portrait or a scene that draws you to a place so you can begin to feel what Van feels.
On the song ‘And it Stoned Me’ from the Moondance album, see how Van sets the scene without over describing.
Half a mile from the county fair And the rain came pourin’ down Me and Billy standin’ there With a silver half a crown
Hands are full of a fishin’ rod And the tackle on our backs We just stood there gettin’ wet With our backs against the fence
Oh, the water Oh, the water Oh, the water Hope it don’t rain all day
Oh the water, let it run all over me
He drops in detail but with a deft touch leaves a little wiggle room for you, the listener, to put in your own details: These kids, adolescents, had just been to the fair? Or were going? Had a silver half a crown.
I don’t know what the song is about. Or, wait, maybe I do: Life.
I remember buying this 1983 compilation soundtrack for one song. Van Morrison’s ‘Wonderful Remark.’ A great great song that at that time appeared on no other albums; it was written explicitly for this movie.
Yet I believed it was as good as anything Morrison has done — and that’s alot.
Now there are other good songs on here, some like the Pretenders’ ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ I already had (and loved). Since then the ‘Wonderful Remark’ cut has been on several compilation albums.
Listening to the soundtrack, I almost want to see the Martin Scorcese movie starring Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro. A black comedy it was blistered by critics at the time but now seems to have fallen into the good graces of some critics.
Here’s Van Morrison video. This song was worth the admission for me, esp. because it was unreleased at the time. but as you can see there’s other good songs here.
