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MAGESReviews Music
GUIDE
The king of the
Irish soul singers
— from teenage
garage-rocker
to Sixties folk
mystic to hippie-
soul shaman
and beyond
By HANK SHTEAMER
Must-
Haves
Astral Weeks
1968
After fronting Belfast ga-
rage-R&B crew Them, a
21-year-old Morrison scored a
Top 10 hit with 1967’s “Brown
Eyed Girl.” But the Irish singer’s
second LP showed how little he
cared for glossy pop conci-
sion. Shadowed by a spare,
jazz-steeped backing band,
Morrison blasted into free-
folk nirvana on songs like the
blissfully ragged title track
and the 10-minute speaking-
in-tongues epic, “Madame
George,” breaking through
the barriers of conventional
song form into pure
ecstatic sound.
Saint Dominic’s
Preview
1972
“Kind of rushed,” Morrison said
of his sixth LP, “but I thought it
was a good shot.” It’s a sample
platter of everything he does
well: celebratory R&B belting, on
“Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heav-
en When You Smile)”; laid-back
blues, on “I Will Be There”; spir-
itual folk grandeur, on “Almost
Independence Day.” The title
track is one of his most moving
moments, a California transplant
looking back on how far he’s
come from his Belfast youth.Blowin’ Your Mind!
1967
In many ways, Morrison’s entire
career is a reaction to his first
LP, a pop-soul set that spawned
“Brown Eyed Girl.” (He “almost
threw up” when he saw its lame
psychedelic cover.) In fact, it’s
full of versatile songwriting —
see the hard-driving “Ro Ro
Rosey” and the Astral Weeks-
like “T.B. Sheets.” An extended
reissue, The Authorized Bang
Collection, includes pissy non-
sense songs like “Ring Worm”
and “Want a Danish,” which he
recorded to get out of his con-
tract, and studio banter like
“We put an album together....
It’s called Blowin’ Your Nose.“Tupelo Honey
1971
Morrison’s fifth LP took the
romanticism of Moondance
and distilled it into a suite of
supremely chill folk-infused
soul. The album’s best songs
— inspired by life in Wood-Moondance
1970
If Astral Weeks showed how
brilliantly Morrison could
break with radio-friendly tradi-
tion, Moondance proved how
easily he could master it. “That
was the type of band I dig,”
Morrison said of the Moondance
sessions. “Two horns and a
rhythm section — they’re the
type of bands that I like best.”
The result is a transporting
evocation of romantic rapture
— from “And It Stoned Me,” an
easy-rolling ode to nature and
innocence, to the jazzy come-
on “Moondance” to “Into the
Mystic,” a cosmic love song to
end all cosmic love songs, where
Morrison invents his own dream-
scat vocabulary. It’s his most
durable, listenable LP.Further
Listening
Into the Music
1979
Morrison wasn’t as prolific in the
latter half of the Seventies as he
was during his stellar run at the
beginning of the decade. But
everything clicked on this hand-
somely varied set. Complement-
ed by tasteful horns, strings
and backing vocals, Morrison
gives each track exactly what it
needs, from joyous R&B-meets-
gospel shouting on “Bright
Side of the Road” to heartfelt
praise-singing on “Troubadours.”
The highlight is “And the Healing
Has Begun,” which makes horni-
ness seem holy.,Veedon Fleece
1974
Morrison went on an incredible
roll during the early Seventies,
cranking out a string of stellar
LPs. After
1974’s Veedon
Fleece,
he didn’t
record
another
one for three
years, and in
many ways it feels
like a culmination, perfectly
bridging his Sixties-soulman side
and Celtic folk-mystic side. The
molasses-paced opener, “Fair
Play,” sets the gracious, medita-
tive tone, and on “Linden Arden
Stole the Highlights,” he makes
a hazily sketched tale of bygone
violence feel like street-corner
remembrance. “I think I was
picking those songs out of the
air,” Morrison said. “Psychic air.”It’s Too Late
to Stop Now
1974
He can be a legendarily surly
performer, avoiding audience
interaction like the flu and often
forcing hits-hungry crowds to sit
through sets of obscure blues
covers. But Morrison can also
be rock’s most electrifying old-
school showman. The irrefutable
proof lies on this classic double
LP, recorded at a series of
shows in the spring and summer
of 1973 with his impeccably
drilled 11-piece band called the
Caledonia Soul Orchestra. (“He
had these signals behind his
back,” guitarist John Plantania
later told ROLLING STONE. “We
knew instantly we had to bring
it down, and then we’d build it
up again.”) Morrison serves up a
fiery, clap-along “Gloria” and a
brisk, horns-and-piano-drenched
“Domino,” climaxing with a mara-
thon take on the Astral Weeks
classic “Cyprus Avenue.”