I saw him in concert once, back in 1973 (as I recall). That tour was captured on “It’s Too Late to Stop Now.” Definitely worth a listen. Otherwise I have his first four studio albums plus two compilations. “The Essential Van Morrison” is a relatively recent two disc set. Every once in a while I’ll shuffle several of his other albums from a streaming service.
Try “No Guru No Method No Teacher” beautiful album and a wonderful recording.
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The recent reissues of both Astral Weeks (Back to Black) and Moondance sound excellent. Both were cut by Kevin Gray at AcousTech. In Europe the vinyl was pressed by Optimal and in the US by RTI. Generally I would favour the RTI, but the Optimal pressings are still excellent.
I wish KPG would cut Veedon Fleece, St. Dominic’s Preview and Hard Nose The Highway…
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Thanks, all, for all the suggestions. I will have these all in mind once I’ve worked through the unheard records which are piling up in a neighbour’s home.
I have not listened to these since my student days. I did not hear what the fuss was about then, and having downloaded them today I’m still not sure. What am I missing?
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Definitely Hot Rats, but Apostrophe and One size fits all are brilliant. I’m a massive fan of FZ
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I first became aware of Van at the age of 18 when The Last Waltz came out. What a barnstormer of a version of “Caravan “ he gave. Apparently he had severe stage fright and was pushed in stage by his manager to perform.
I subsequently bought Moondance and Astral Weeks. I much preferred Moondance as it had proper songs and was much more a traditional album albeit utterly brilliant. I could not get a handle on Astral Weeks, to my 18 yr old ears it was too ill defined and rambling.
I note since madame George seems not to make it on greatest hits compilations of which I have a couple, probably because it was never a “hit”.
Yeah, that was good - but I got rid of all my vinyl. Now I have a WG Target CD (bought new) and a 96/24 download.
Poetic Champions Compose was the first Van album I owned. A rather good record IMHO and still one of my favourites. Worth a listen.
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I confess that I have never even heard of that one. I will try to find a way to give it a listen when I can, thank you.
In respect of Astral Weeks, I’m with you - I’ve never been able to understand what all the fuss was about. I’ve played it occasionally, maybe once every five years or so, but still don’t get it. I don’t know the Moondance album, but we recorded a jazz version of the song in Hamburg some years back. Actually 16 years back!
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As others have said there is some good stuff from the Eighties:
Beautiful Vision
Inarticulate speech of the heart
No Guru…
Poetic Champions Compose
Avalon Sunset
Hymns to the Silence has some good stuff on as well.
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The great Veedon Fleece is essential Van to my ears. Can’t remember the release year offhand.
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Pretty much the same here. I got the CD back around 1992 / 93. I give it a spin every few years to see if I finally start to “get” it - but somehow, it just doesn’t seem to appeal to me all that much. Maybe getting a newer better remaster might help?
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I doubt it.
Astral Weeks is very much an outlier in the catalogue. At first I loved it but over the years I’ve come to see it as quite a patchy record really. The good stuff is superb. The rest is not. Moondance I think is a very different beast. Beautifully produced great pop songs and Van in full flow. Essentially if you don’t get that then you’ll likely not get Van.
I note the other recommendations here and think they’re spot on but, really, if you don’t get Moondance it strikes me as unlikely that listening to the other stuff would change that.
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One of my most loved albums of Van Morrison is Wavelength. This is often overlooked but well worth a listen.
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This is a superb pressing:
and a review of it:
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I have the copy of AW that I bought in 1972 and which still sounds superb. They finally remastered the album on CD with a bonus track if I recall but haven’t played that much. AW is really one of those ‘you had to be there’ albums - it had a real following amongst hip Bristolians in the (very) early 70s.
Having said which, my favourite of all his albums is the much more low-key His Band and the Street Choir, which I like partly because it’s very unpretentious (a bit like the Beach Boys’ Wild Honey), but also for nostalgia. Or was it neuralgia. I forget.
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