I was pleasantly surprised by this record. Allmusic notes that Morrison "has no interest in innovation, he's already done that. The pace here is
(mostly) laid-back, the music drenched in jazz, R&B, blues, and
classy pop. He revels throughout in an elegant slow burn; his lyric
themes are bittersweet, melancholic, filled with emotional and symbolic
memory; his longing for the previous prevalent." [source] That's a pretty good description.
In watching the two videos, below, I was suddenly hit by the sad reality that Leonard Cohen and Van Morison (to the best of my know) never got up on stage together. At least, I can find no evidence. That seems like a missed opportunity.
Pay The Devil was released in 2006 on CD and LP. Some CDs came with a DVD. While you can probably find the CD for a few buck, you will have to pay probably $75+ for a copy on vinyl. I managed to get a copy for $20 some time ago. There is one for sale on Discogs now for $229.06 CDN.
So, this is a country music LP, something that would normally not interest me at all. But, this is Van the Man, and I generally love what he does. I believe Van wrote three of the tracks, with the remainder being cover tunes. All in all, I would say that this is a satisfying record, despite the fact that is is a country record.
The original pressing of this LP - Van's 26th record - now costs a small fortune. Thankfully, it was repressed in 2019, and I found a copy at 30% off. Yeah. This record does not move the earth for me, but it is comfortable Van Morrison.
Because this record was released in the death-of-the-CD era, I suspect that some record stores think that they can sell it for extortionate prices. It's either that, or simply that there are few copies readily available in Canada. That might be possible, even though this LP did get a vinyl release domestically. I have one. I have seen this for as high as $50, and yet there are copies available on Discogs for $15.00. About a month ago, I saw a copy for $30, and it was not in good shape. On the other hand, my copy is minty fresh.
As far as I can tell, this compilation was only ever pressed in 1990, and so copies are very hard to find, and if you can find one, it will be pricey. I have a US pressing, though it was pressed in Canada, and my copy is essentially mint. I just had a look at Amazon.ca, where prices from used record range from the quite good to the insane. Today, prices range from $233.90 to $320.48. That's crazy. On Discogs, which offers a much more realistic value, there are four copies ranging from $58.57 (for a copy in not-so-great condition) to $325.38 (for a near mint copy). Wow. Obviously, I paid a lot less than that.
Somehow, they managed to pack sixteen tunes onto this piece of vinyl. This is a solid collection, collecting tracks from Them and taking the story right on up to Avalon Sunset. What else could you want?
I learned that Discogs can sometimes lead people astray. In my humble opinion, this record -- a Canadian pressing -- should cost no more than $15. A while back, when surfing through Discogs, I noticed that some joker was trying to sell a copy for $40. That's why everyone should look at statistics for last sold and definitely not current sale offerings. Last sold gives a low, median, and high price. Current sales are generally correct on Discogs, but, occasionally, some scammer tries to pull a fast one.
If you have a good copy, the median should suffice as a guide. A sealed copy could probably sell for more, and so on. One really need look at the Amazon re-sellers to prove that. And, in this case, with that one copy listed at $40, the median price for last sold was $15, as it should be.
Anyway, a couple of days after seeing this listed for $40, I headed over to a record store in downtown Toronto. Let's call that store Sonic Boom. I frequent that store and I always look in the Van Morrison section. And what did I see? Well, I saw a copy of a Canadian pressing of Avalon Sunset for $40. I am sure it is still there. Someone looked at the wrong price. I recently saw another one of these listed on Discogs for $65. I bet it's the same person trying to sell the same $15 record for a huge profit. More recently, I saw a copy for $30, which is still too high. No one in his or her right might would pay $30 or $40 or $65 for this very common record.
This LP contains a huge van hit, Have I Told You Lately. There should be a question mark at the end of that title. It's a pleasant enough song. On the other end of the spectrum is the inane Whenever God Shines His Light. Just get a load of this horseshit:
Heals the sick and he heals the lame
Says you can do it too in Jesus' name
He'll lift you up and turn you around
And put your feet back (feet back) on higher ground
Puke. Talk about being in the grip of a delusion. It's almost enough to make me a Van Morrison apostate. But, he does sing it very well.
Two previously-released Van tracks appear on this collaboration. They are Irish Heartbeat -- originally from Inarticulate Speech of the Heart -- and Celtic Ray -- originally from Beautiful Vision. The rest are traditional tunes. I like this record very much, even though I had paid (and continue to pay) zero attention to the Chieftans. I am (or was) a big fan of the Pogues, by the way.
The oddly-named Poetic Champions Compose is record number seventeen from Van. This is a quiet and peaceful album, full of meditative diversions, or whatever. I think that Van can really do little wrong, so I do like this record. Some found it boring, and I do understand that perspective.
This isn't a bad later Morrison record. I'm not crazy about it, however. What I will say is that I detest the album cover. I mean, really? It's just awful.
Live Van. What could be better? This is one of the few Van Morrison records that I own on vinyl, but not on CD. In my opinion, this is a very well-chosen set list, covering some great tunes, but leaving out Brown Eyed Girl and Moondance, which doesn't bother me at all.
More than just an album title, “inarticulate speech of the heart” is an evocative, breathtaking description of the humble act of prayer. It captures in a simple phrase that desperate expression of pain and need, as well as the floundering over words inadequate to communicate one’s joy over a new love or a gorgeous country sunrise. [source]
That's an interesting, and accurate, description. This is a pretty amazing record, though it's a low key and mellow affair.
I dealt with a fairly battered copy of this LP for years, until I saw a near mint copy for about $6 somewhere. I brought it home and dumped my old, beaten up copy.
I have no idea why Allmusic awarded this record only three stars. Beautiful Vision remains one of my favourite Van Morrison records. I'm not sure why this is the case. The music just always connected with me. Frankly, I would argue that Cleaning Windows is in Van's top five or six songs of all time. It's such a joyous piece of music. I could do without the spiritualism that runs through the record, but whatever. It must have made him happy.
For some reason lost to me, many critics hated this record. On the other hand, Van Morrison called it one of his favorite Van Morrison records. To be honest, the first time I heard it, I was ambivalent. But, the record grew on me, especially when I accepted its jazzy and laid-back sound. Wikipedia's summary of critical reception upon release is illuminating:
The album was generally not well-received upon release and some of the reviews were scathing and merciless. Graham Locke reviewed it in NME calling it "colossally smug and cosmically dull; an interminable, vacuous and drearily egotistical stab at spirituality". Dave McCullough wrote in Sounds: "For the fan, as I am myself, it's not even possible to romanticize and say that Morrison has lost his way temporarily, so stern and so acute is his departure." Rolling Stone critic Tom Carson named "Satisfied" as the record's only "masterpiece", in which "the simplicity that Morrison is striving for arrive as something natural and effortless, as a gift of grace". Clinton Heylin contends that Morrison was bruised by the reaction and "would not attempt anything quite so ambitious again." In 1982, Lester Bangs argued for a reassessment, saying, "Van was making holy music even though he thought he was, and us rock critics had made our usual mistake of paying too much attention to the lyrics."
American critics voted it the 27th best album of 1980 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll. In an accompanying essay, poll supervisor Robert Christgau wrote, "As somebody who considers Moondance an apotheosis and has never gotten Astral Weeks, I think this is his worst since Hard Nose the Highway – sententious, torpid, abandoned by God. I know lots of Astral Weeks fans who agree. But Morrison has a direct line to certain souls, and they still hear him talkin'." In retrospect, he deemed "Satisfied" and "Summer in England" to be the record's highlights. AllMusic later wrote, "No wonder the rock critics of the time didn't get it; this is music outside the pop mainstream, and even Morrison's own earlier musical territory. But it retains its trancelike power to this day." In 2009, Erik Hage said "the dominant critical reaction represented it as prohibitive, sententious, and inaccessible, when in fact it is filled with much melody and beauty." [source]
It's not my favourite Van record by any means, but I still enjoy it very much, especially in certain moods. It's far better than most critics would suggest. I even bought a copy on CD years ago.
Erik Hage commented that after the favourable commercial reception of Wavelength, Morrison was inspired to "return to something deeper, to once again take up the quest for music, that was spontaneous, meditative, and transcendent—music that satisfied the other side of his artistic nature." Morrison was quoted on his opinion of the album, "Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, I'm starting here...the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me." (1988) "That's when I got back into it. That's why I called it Into the Music." (1984) [source]
I think the critics were right about this one. Into the Music is a really fine record. But, on the negative side, I have to say that while I absolutely love the sound and feel of Full Force Gale, the lyrics make me crazy:
Like a full force gale
I was lifted up again
I was lifted up again by the lord
It goes on and on in much the same way, and I think it's stupid. Though, the sound of the song is fabulous.
It's well known that Van's mother was a practicing Jehovah's Witness, and one can hear all about that in Kingdom Hall:
Good body music
Brings you right here
Free flowin' motion now
When we're shakin' it out on the floor
Good rockin' music
Down in your shoes
And when we dance like this
Like we've never been dancin' before
I had decidedly mixed feelings about that song, until I realized that perhaps it was ironic? I prefer that explanation.
I've always really liked this record, even is Lester Bangs didn't. I don't like the cover.
This is yet another Van Morrison compilation. It was first released in the UK on vinyl, and then subsequently on CD in a number of markets but with the title Brown Eyed Girl. This was another effort by Bang records to further exploit the early work of Van Morrison.
According to Discogs, the only other vinyl pressing was a 2xLP release from 2012 in Europe. That release, however, was also entitled Brown Eyed Girl and it also had more tracks. It seems to me that all of the other releases should be aggregated under the title Brown Eyed Girl and this release -- This is Where I Came in -- should be left on its own, because it is quite different in title and tracks. But, that's just me talking. This is Where I Came In contains previously-released tracks. It's cool to have, but possibly unnecessary, if you have the other LPs. I don't think that this is a rare record, but some yahoo on Discogs is trying to sell a copy for $80 Canadian. That's even higher than the $30 copy I once saw on Amazon.
The period of transition took two and a half years. I think I agree with some of the critical assessments, for once. This record is pleasant, not boring any any means, but it is not something that really grabbed me. It just is. I don't hate it and I don't love it. In my humble opinion, he got back on track with Wavelength, though some critics hated that one too.
Morrison explained the title with: "I haven't a clue about what the title means. It's actually a person's name. I have a whole set of characters in my head that I'm trying to fit into things. Veedon Fleece is one of them and I just suddenly started singing it in one of these songs, It's like a stream of consciousness thing." Morrison once told a fan when questioned about the meaning, "It doesn't mean anything, I made it up myself." [source]
So, with that, we can move along. I love this record. It's understated, spare, calm, mystical, and misunderstood upon its release.
Frequently named as one of the best live albums ever, It's Too Late to Stop Now was recorded during what has often been said to be the singer's greatest phase as a live performer. - Wikipedia
Like most Van Morrison records, I also have a copy of CD. This is a really great live set. I have watched a number of live Van Morrison clips on Youtube, and I am sometimes disappointed by how he has reworked material. I would prefer it the way it was recorded, but some artists change it when played live, which I don't always like. But this record is great.
