Van Morrison
The Essential Van Morrison

Creating an artist's collection representing 50 years of career with 2 CDs is certainly a difficult task, and even more so if the artist in question is Van Morrison.

The beauty of The Essential Van Morrison, however, is that it doesn't summarize the tracks included in the previous Best of, Still on Top, and At the Movies collections, but creates a new path on its own, also including tracks never before featured in a Van the Man compilation. The problem that remains to be solved is answering this question: what are Van Morrison's most representative tracks, leaving aside his songs that rank among the absolute classics that made history? It's a bit of an uncomfortable question since, for several tracks, there's always an alternative that could have been considered. Furthermore, Van has always been rather reluctant to release collections, and rightly so since his songs are not created with the intention of being chart hits at all – not surprisingly, many of Van's most famous tracks aren't even singles. The collection was released in 2015 but stops at 2006 concerning studio albums and at 2009 considering the live reinterpretation of the album Astral Weeks. However, the version on digital platforms contains the 2012 version of “Close Enough for Jazz” from Born to Sing: No Plan B, not included on CD due to timing reasons.

Going in chronological order, it starts with the Them period, the band with which Van Morrison began his career. Besides "Gloria," which is an absolute classic and one of the most covered songs in rock history, we have "Here Comes the Night," a certainly important piece that I personally like quite a lot, but... why weren't the equally well-known "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (beautiful, and whose original version is by the legendary Bob Dylan, the singer-songwriter par excellence) or "Baby Please Don't Go" (which, even if it doesn't drive me crazy, is certainly well-known) considered?

We continue with 2 tracks from the first solo album Blowin' Your Mind, namely "Brown Eyed Girl," undoubtedly the most well-known song of Van's entire repertoire, and "Spanish Rose," which was a minor hit at the time and is the first example here of a song appearing for the first time in a retrospective compilation of the artist.

For the first time, we have a fairly significant inclusion of songs from Astral Weeks in a Van Morrison compilation. From the historic album, a failure when released but highly acclaimed by critics and considered a masterpiece, alongside the more famous "Sweet Thing" (present here in the 2009 live version), the title track, recently much appreciated and reevaluated, and "The Way Young Lovers Do," regarding which I would have definitely preferred "Madame George," likely excluded due to its nearly 10-minute length.

Moondance is Van Morrison's best-selling album, and it is represented here with its 5 biggest classics: the title track, "Into the Mystic," "Crazy Love," "And It Stoned Me," and "Caravan," the latter present here in the live version with The Band from the 1978 concert film The Last Waltz. More representative material could not have been chosen; in particular, the first four, technically not hits, are nonetheless absolute classics and probably Van Morrison's best-known songs after "Brown Eyed Girl."

Talking about the '70s material, we initially have the most well-known songs, understandably chosen, going album by album: "Domino" from His Band and the Street Choir, "Wild Night" and "Tupelo Honey" from Tupelo Honey, "Jackie Wilson Said" from Saint Dominic's Preview, "Warm Love" from Hard Nose the Highway... suddenly arriving at a much less known track: "Fair Play" from Veedon Fleece, certainly chosen for its musical structure very similar to the folk-jazz style of Astral Weeks. From the album Wavelength, instead of the title track, which was also a decent hit in the US, "Hungry for Your Love" is included here, probably because it is more representative of Van's style, and relatively known thanks to its inclusion in the soundtrack of Officer and a Gentleman. From the last album of the '70s, Into the Music, in addition to the more famous "Bright Side of the Road," the sublime and poetic "And the Healing Has Begun" is included, instead of the other single extracted from the album, "Full Force Gale," which I fortunately have on other CDs: this is where we begin to talk about true alternatives in choices...

Yes, the alternatives. And moving into the '80s, here we have some sore points. Why wasn’t "Dweller on the Threshold" from Beautiful Vision included, and "Cleaning Windows" isn’t even present here in its original version with Mark Knopfler on guitar, but in the live version with a less fitting rhythm from Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast? Why is there nothing, not even the well-known "In the Garden," from No Guru, No Method, No Teacher? It is indeed a pleasure to have here a lesser-known yet quite fitting single like "Tore Down a la Rimbaud" (from A Sense of Wonder), a tribute to the melancholy of the great French cursed poet. From Poetic Champions Compose, we have the most famous track "Someone Like You" (but someone would certainly support the inclusion of "Queen of the Slipstream" or "Did Ye Get Healed," although slightly fallen into oblivion), while from the album with the Irish folk group The Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat, the traditional yet beautiful title track couldn’t be missing, originally from Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, reestablished as a classic in 2015 when Van revived it by singing it in duet with Mark Knopfler. The '80s period concludes with the inclusion of "Have I Told You Lately" (which contends with the Moondance songs for the status of Van the Man's most popular song after "Brown Eyed Girl") and "Whenever God Shines His Light," both from Avalon Sunset and both beautiful songs. But... where is "These Are the Days"? I don't say this just because of how beautiful the song is for me subjectively, but also for how appreciated it actually is in recent times... No big deal, as I have both it and the mentioned missing songs on their respective albums or other collections!

Ending with the '90s and more recent times, from Enlightenment we have the well-known hit "Real Real Gone," and the lesser-known title track which is immensely pleasing to have here, as well as "Why Must I Always Explain," another lesser-known Van single, extracted from Hymns to the Silence. Following that is the artist’s last truly significant hit, "Days Like This," extracted from the 1995 album of the same name; thereafter, a cover of Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" from How Long Has This Been Going On (which, as much as there is nothing to say to the man who made crooning history, is certainly enhanced by Van thanks to his unique and powerful vocal timbre). From The Healing Game, “Rough God Goes Riding” is included, currently the album's most appreciated song, while from Back on Top it would have been difficult to include a piece other than “Precious Time,” the album's main single. To finish the collection, there are some not-so-obvious selections from the 2000s: “Once In a Blue Moon” from What's Wrong With This Picture, “Magic Time” from the album of the same name, and “Playhouse” from Pay the Devil. As for the first, given that no song from the album it comes from is particularly well-known, it's an understandable and fitting choice, which could have been rivaled by “Evening in June,” or a slightly more known song from Down the Road, excluded from the lot; in the second case, instead, in terms of popularity among listeners, the winning song from Magic Time is “Stranded,” which was indeed chosen in other collections, but this time the title track was preferred instead. Perhaps due to its live popularity? Maybe because it's considered more representative? Who knows, it's still a pleasing presence. Regarding the material chosen from Pay the Devil, though the single “Playhouse” was included, the best choice would likely have been the title track, especially because the proverb with which the song begins, one man's meat is another man's poison, fits this collection perfectly...

The final verdict is this: a collection will never, ever please everyone, and even less so when it comes to representing an artist of this caliber. But overall, what's there is enjoyable, and quite a lot.

Until next time!