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Rating: I am devoted to vinyl, to its crackling and noble sound, I sometimes lose myself watching the needle arrogantly traverse through that long hollow spiral. I love the stale and musty fragrance of the sleeves that have passed through who knows whose hands before mine; whenever I have the chance, I purchase dozens at fairs or antique markets. Recently, my attention fell on a famous multimedia buying and selling site, and having successfully completed yet another shrewd bargain, I received a package with about fifteen long plays, three of Van's "eighties" period, including "Common one" released in the summer of 1980. So, I rushed to the "fiko DeB" to try to glean some forward-looking information about it, but, disappointed and overwhelmed by a vacuum de profundis, I found not a trace of the record in question. Rich platter I dive into.
The irish-folkman, after a series of authoritative and essential works composed between his beginnings and the first half of the '70s, entered a professional crisis, during which he produced a couple of distorted records of excessively commercial caliber compared to his usual clichés. The clouded experience was brief, and in 1979 he inaugurated with "Into the music" a powerful parabola of mystical-introspective productions that led him through the eighties to a delicate search for styles of celtic and new-age origin, depriving his rise in the sales charts but earning him a place of honor in a more abstract and less conventional musical perspective, though pleasingly enjoyable.
I immersed myself with extreme saturation in listening to "Common one", and was almost ecstatic by its peculiarity and let myself be captivated by some suggestive peculiarities. The first I noticed is the location of the track recordings, namely a high mountain studio located inside an ancient French monastery. This particular details Morrison's choice for an obstinate and intended isolation from any diversion, capturing this situation even on the cover depicting him as a hermit and detached, climbing a steep ascent along wild slopes, centuries away from urban contemporaneity. The sensation that arises from the opening track "Haunts of ancient peace" is that of a caress, a light breeze, the bass is soft, the guitars harmonious, the winds gentle, and the voice accompanies the listener with drowsiness on a journey along the archaic search for peace. The second "oddity" is the six tracks, a meager number compared to previous productions, two of which have an exhaustive duration of a quarter of an hour each (oddity number three): "Summertime in England" is the first of the two extended tracks, one of the fundamental pieces of his repertoire, filled with lush brightness and a generous rhythm, it momentarily separates from the calm spiral, enhancing the enchanting British rural setting with an encyclopedic text and evoking his cultural passions, so that the surrounding landscape tends to romantically color with the dreamlike essences of Joyce, Wordsworth, Eliot, Blake, Yeats, and Coleridge, unraveling the background in a jubilation of jovial silence. The itinerary continues with "Satisfied", "Wild honey" (opening the second side), and "Spirit", breaking away entirely from superficiality and soberly embracing a chain of arguments full of sweet desolation and moral redemption. The tracks are dressed with veils of organ and piano, still at the mercy of elegant trumpets, gentle horns, and delicate saxophones, solemnly led by Mark Isham and Pee Wee Ellis. The finale introduces "When hearts in open", enveloping the mind with a seductive hypnosis; it is the other powerfully extended track with the task of obstructing the paths of perdition and torment, granting a quarter of an hour of pure relief. The heart is open while the circle closes.
Van giant and transcendental, presenting a complex, deep, versatile record, stubbornly and intelligently extreme compared to the previous and subsequent ones, not inferior for this reason, but clearly imposing, cathartic, and rich with an ineluctable charm. Invaluable and granite work by a Morrison not yet melodically open and not yet dedicated to the aid of "synthetic" nuances of keyboards and electronics, which with accuracy and usability will accompany the following works throughout the just birthed decade.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Haunts of Ancient Peace (07:11)
Beside the garden walls,
We walk in haunts of ancient peace.
At night we rest and go to sleep
In haunts of ancient peace.
The love and light we seek,
The words we do not need to speak,
Here in this wondrous way we keep
These haunts of ancient peace.
Let us go there again
When we need some relief
Oh, when I can't find my feet
When I need rest and sleep.
The Sunday bells they chime
Around the countryside and towns
A song of harmony and rhyme
In haunts of ancient peace.
The holy grail we seek
On down by haunts of ancient peace.
We see the new Jerusalem
In haunts of ancient peace.
Oh, when I can't find my feet
Oh, when I need some relief
One more time again.
You know I want to go there one more time again.
Be still in haunts of ancient peace.
(Be still)
02 Summertime in England (15:37)
Can you meet me in the country
In the summertime in england
Will you meet me?
Will you meet me in the country
In the summertime in england
Will you meet me?
We'll go riding up to kendal in the country
In the summertime in england.
Did you ever hear about
Did you ever hear about
Did you ever hear about
Wordsworth and coleridge, baby?
Did you ever hear about wordsworth and coleridge?
They were smokin' up in kendal
By the lakeside
Can you meet me in the country in the long grass
In the summertime in england
Will you meet me
With your red robe dangling all around your body
With your red robe dangling all around your body
Will you meet me
Did you ever hear about . . .
William blake
T. s. eliot
In the summer
In the countryside
They were smokin'
Summertime in england
Won't you meet me down bristol
Meet me along by bristol
We'll go ridin' down
Down by avalon
Down by avalon
Down by avalon
In the countryside in england
With your red robe danglin' all around your body free
Let your red robe go.
Goin' ridin' down by avalon
Would you meet me in the country
In the summertime in england
Would you meet me?
In the church of st. john . . .
Down by avalon . . . .
Holy magnet
Give you attraction
Yea, I was attracted to you.
Your coat was old, ragged and worn
And you wore it down through the ages
Ah, the sufferin' did show in your eyes as we spoke
And the gospel music
The voice of mahalia jackson came through the ether
Oh my common one with the coat so old
And the light in the head
Said, daddy, don't stroke me
Call me the common one.
I said, oh, common one, my illuminated one.
Oh my high in the art of sufferin' one.
Take a walk with me
Take a walk with me down by avalon
Oh, my common one with the coat so old
And the light in her head.
And the sufferin' so fine
Take a walk with me down by avalon
And I will show you
It ain't why, why, why
It just is.
Would you meet me in the country
Can you meet me in the long grass
In the country in the summertime
Can you meet me in the long grass
Wait a minute
With your red robe . . .
Danglin' all around your body.
Yeats and lady gregory corresponded . . .
And james joyce wrote streams of consciousness books . . .
T.s. eliot chose england . . .
T.s. eliot joined the ministry . . .
Did you ever hear about . . .
Wordsworth and coleridge?
Smokin' up in kendal
They were smokin' by the lakeside . . .
Let your red robe go . . .
Let your red robe dangle in the countryside in england
We'll go ridin' down by avalon
In the country
In the summertime
With you by my side
Let your red robe go . . .
You'll be happy dancin' . . .
Let your red robe go . . .
Won't you meet me down by avalon
In the summertime in england
In the church of st. john . . .
Did you ever hear about jesus walkin'
Jesus walkin' down by avalon?
Can you feel the light in england?
Can you feel the light in england?
Oh, my common one with the light in her head
And the coat so old
And the sufferin' so fine
Take a walk with me
Oh, my common one,
Oh, my illuminated one
Down by avalon . . .
Oh, my common one . . .
Oh, my storytime one
Oh, my treasury in the sunset
Take a walk with me
And I will show you
It ain't why . . .
It just is . . .
Oh, my common one
With the light in the head
And the coat so old
Oh, my high in the art of sufferin' one . . .
Oh, my common one
Take a walk with me
Down by avalon
And I will show you
It ain't why . . .
It just is.
Oh, my common one with the light in her head
And the coat so fine
And the sufferin' so high . . .
All right now.
Oh, my common one . . .
It ain't why . . .
It just is . . .
That's all
That's all there is about it.
It just is.
Can you feel the light?
I want to go to church and say.
In your soul . . .
Ain't it high?
Oh, my common one
Oh, my storytime one
Oh, my high in the art of sufferin' one
Put your head on my shoulder . . .
And you listen to the silence.
Can you feel the silence?
05 Spirit (05:12)
When you've given up hope & you're down in despair
When you've given up hope & you're down in despair
When you've given up hope & you're down in despair
When you've given up-
And you sit in your room and you're all alone
And you turn to the one and you turn inside
For a while
Say, help me, angel.
Oh, no, never let spirit die.
Oh, no, spirit don't ever die.
Oh, no, never let spirit die
Oh, no, spirit don't ever die.
Spirit don't ever die.
And you go inside for a while
And you turn to the one
And you turn inside for a while.
You turn it around
And you follow the road
And you get you back out
And you follow the road
Then you get you back home
And you follow the road
And you get you back out
And you follow the road
And you get you back home.
Oh, no, never let spirit die
Oh, no, spirit don't ever die.
Oh. no, never let spirit die
Oh, no, spirit don't ever die . . .
Spirit, don't ever die
And you keep walkin' on
And you keep walkin' on
Spirit in your soul
You keep walkin' on
And you keep walkin' on
And you turn it around
And you turn it around . . .
Oh, no, spirit don't ever die.
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