van morrison

in my urge to re build my entire music collection that was drowned in the mumbai floods, i have recently begun downloading a van morrison discography. though i was always a fan i had only stuck to the ‘best of..’ collections with their greatest hits compilations, ‘astral weeks’ – that strange poetic mystical morning music and ‘moondance’ jazzy rolling drifter music. after that i had skipped the rest of the seventies albums directly to the nineties' ‘avalon sunset’ and ‘enlightenment’- which were quite nice- but largely i thought background music. i did not have the energy to explore further into his work and was pretty satisfied. nowadays, on the other hand, his unexplored seventies albums are blaring (when they are not throbbing with prince) on the car radio. ‘its too late to stop now’ – a great live album; ‘tupelo honey’- i love the title track.

it takes a bit of getting used to – his barking soulful voice, and the images do tend to feel a little predictable if you let them- rolling streams, flowing hair, forests, fields and the sunrise, but when you can let go of the hang ups and believe in his words, and his passion for the music- its can be breathtaking. the key word is there, i guess, is ‘belief’-in a great and wonderful god; in nature and her power, the goodness of humankind… and soaked in love- of the eternal kind – wide eyed, innocent, sun drenched and beautiful.