Van the Man

Image by Cimabue, Pixabay

Last weekend saw the 80th birthday of Sir Van Morrison, a Northern Irish singer/song-writer and musician beloved of 3 generations of my family. ‘Gloria,’ was the first hit song he penned, aged 19, recorded by ‘Them’ in 1964 and covered by innumerable artists since. Van plays guitar, saxophone, harmonica and keyboard. He also plays vocals, using his voice in a distinctively instrumental style. For 7 decades, he’s been astonishingly prolific and recorded music across the genres of rhythm & blues, soul, jazz, rock, gospel and Celtic, often blending them. I love his two best-known hits, ‘Brown-eyed Girl’ (1967) and ‘Moondance’ (1970) but for me, the most characteristic Van the Man style is his mellow, nostalgic, meditative ‘Celtic soul.’ His album ‘Astral Weeks,’ has been compared to French Impressionism and mystical Celtic poetry. It features on many lists of the best albums of all time. My personal favourite in the Celtic soul style is ‘Coney Island.’ My favourite Van albums are the 80s and 90s’ ‘Avalon Sunset,’ ‘Enlightenment,’ ‘Back on Top’ and ‘Hymns to the Silence,’ which includes his wonderful rendition of ‘Be Thou My Vision.’ And if I had to pick one track to save from the waves on a desert island, would it be that? … Or ‘Enlightenment?’ …. Or ‘Tupelo Honey?’ Just as well I’ll probably never appear on Desert Island Discs!

BBC 4 had 4 programmes dedicated to Van last weekend (30/31 August) and we particularly enjoyed the one collating his many appearances on the Jools Holland show. Available on BBCiPlayer.

Van Morrison is still an inveterate live performer and my parents, also in their 80s, regularly go to his gigs - rock on octogenarians!