Rolling Stone - USA (2019-07)

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July 2019 | Rolling Stone | 89

stock with his first wife, Janet

“Planet” Rigsbee — capture a

distinctly rural kind of domestic

bliss. The album cover shows

Morrison leading Planet on a

horse through sun-dappled

woods, and songs like “Old

Old Woodstock,” with its

postcard descriptions

of small-town living,

exude tranquility. Mean-

while, the ballads “You’re

My Woman” and “Tupelo

Honey” show how

much feeling he could

wring out of well-worn

musical styles.

The Healing Game

1997

“Here I am again/Back on the

corner again/Back where I

belong/Where I’ve always been,”

Morrison sings on the title track

from his 26th LP. His Eighties

and Nineties output didn’t

measure up to his astonishing

Seventies heyday, but Morrison

could still turn out satisfying LPs.

On relaxed, assured tracks like

“Rough God Goes Riding” and

“Fire in the Belly,” the then-51-

year-old employs the full range

of his mature voice, still stretch-

ing for those thrilling high notes

but also reveling in rumbling

lows. The result is a rich docu-

ment of the artistic wisdom he’d

accrued in middle age.

him

spitting and

snarling like a

proto-punk, his unhinged fury

presaging Captain Beefheart

as much as Iggy Pop.

FURTHER READING

More Gems

Singles, forgotten classics

and rarities

“BABY, PLEASE DON’T GO”

1964, non-album single

With a 19-year-old Morrison

delivering a ferocious vocal,

Them turned this blues tune into

a hard-rock standard, covered

by everyone from AC/DC to

Aerosmith.

“4% PA N T OMI ME ”

1971, from the Band’s Cahoots

An “extremely liquid” session

birthed this rip-roaring bar-

room-style duet with Richard

Manuel of the Band. The two

trade verses and Manuel blesses

Morrison with the fitting nick-

name “the Belfast Cowboy.”

“JUST LIKE A WOMAN”

1971

Taken from a widely bootlegged

performance at San Francisco’s

Pacific High Studios, Morrison’s

cover of the Bob Dylan classic

starts out subdued and gradually

turns explosive and shattering.

“THE GREAT DECEPTION”

1973, from Hard Nose the

Highway

On this standout from an over-

looked LP, Morrison combines a

smooth delivery with a cynical

view of a counterculture popu-

lated by “plastic revolutionaries”

and “so-called hippies.”

“CARAVAN”

1978, The Last Waltz

Morrison electrified a flagging

crowd at the Band’s farewell

show with a roaring version of

the Moondance standout. “God

bless him for being the show-

man he is,” said Levon Helm.

“SUMMERTIME

IN ENGLAND”

1980, from Common One

Morrison at his stream-of-

consciousness best, offering a

survey course worth of literary

shout-outs (William Blake, T.S.

Eliot) and soaring vocal flights.

“TORE DOWN A LA

RIMBAUD”

1985, from A Sense of Wonder

One of his better Eighties efforts

kicks off with this buoyant,

hands-in-the-air track, where the

singer praises his muse for giv-

ing him “knowledge of myself.”

“CRAZY LOVE”

2004, from Ray Charles’

Gen ius Loves Company

At the Songwriters Hall of Fame

awards, Morrison traded verses

with one of his idols on a loose,

effortlessly classy version of a

beloved Moondance slow-jam.

Going

Deeper

The “Angry”

Young Them!

1965

In his teenage years, Morrison

was a garage-band howler for

the ages. Them’s first album

captures what it must have

been like to hear him belting out

preternaturally intense R&B at

Belfast’s Maritime Hotel in 1964.

Tracks such as “Just a Little Bit”

and “I Like It Like That” find

The Prophet Speaks

2018

The singer’s 40th studio album

continues a late-career roll that

began with 2016’s Keep Me

Singing. It’s a loose, unfussy

LP with the feel of a club set.

Covers of John Lee Hooker, Sam

Cooke and Solomon Burke fuse

seamlessly with originals like

“Ain’t Gonna Moan No More,”

a slow-burning ode to the

musician’s eternal quest.

Morrison

recording at a

San Francisco

studio in 1971,

at the height

of his first

great run

Astral Weeks:

A Secret History

of 1968

By Ryan H. Walsh

Journalist Walsh’s deep

dive into the making of

Morrison’s 1968 master-

piece is a fascinating

glimpse of Boston’s

hippie underground and

an indelible image of a

mercurial genius. “We

were not concerned

with Van at all,” bassist

Richard Davis says.

“He never spoke

to us.”

Pay the Devil

2006

Morrison’s Nineties and

2000s discography is studded

with covers-heavy, genre-

themed albums. Each of these

has its moments, but the best

might be this country outing.

Hard-luck tales like “There

Stands the Glass” and “Your

Cheatin’ Heart” are a great fit

for Morrison’s husky late-era

voice, and “Big Blue Diamonds”

inspires him to test the limits

of his still-impressive range.

No Guru, No Method,

No Teacher

1986

Glossy mid-Eighties produc-

tion can’t dull this midperiod

gem. Morrison is deep in his

mystic-gospel wheelhouse on

“Foreign Window,” where he

evokes the “palace of the Lord,”

and “In the Garden” includes

lyrical throwbacks to Astral

Weeks. Along with the spiritual-

ity, there’s a lovable crankiness.

On “Thanks for the Information,”

he sings that whenever he’s

“breaking through to a new

level of consciousness, there

always seems to be more obsta-

cles in the way.”

Irish Heartbeat

1988

Backed by Celtic traditionalists

the Chieftains, Morrison cut an

album steeped in Irish music.

The blend of the ancient (“Star

of the County Down,” where you

can imagine

Morrison & Co.

soundtracking a dance in

a town square) and the contem-

porary (the title track, a hymn-

like ballad originally heard on

his 1983 LP Inarticulate Speech

of the Heart) makes for a potent,

gently surreal contrast.