Here I am gazing on the Web for extraordinary witnesses of
enlightenment yet very popular in the entertainment realm, so
that at least everybody that read newagenotebook.com could say
“hey, I’ve seen or heard that person!” As my research focuses
randomly on any performer from our time, some pages choose to
cite the art of singer Van Morrison. His work is thoughtful,
often spiritual in nature, and combines elements of jazz , R&B ,
Celtic traditions, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Van
Morrison was born in Belfast , Northern Ireland , in 1935 and
was named George Ivan Morrison. Better known as the Celtic
sorcerer, Morrison began playing different instruments and
composing songs in an Irish band during his teen years. His
musical heritage was inevitable since h e was exposed to music
from an early age with his father collecting American jazz
albums and his mother being a singer. Journalists have described
Morrison as one of the most serious singers with high moral
values, something that lacks in the music business. His lyrics
and music are influenced on the works of poet and New Age
prophet William Blake, Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, J.D.
Salinger, occult and spiritualist poet W.B. Yeats, Alice Bailey,
and of many other religious visionaries. Those authors add
mythic powers to Morrison’s singular musical vision and his
articulation of emotional truths. Astral Weeks was his first
album after he moved to America . It gained good reviews from
critics. Rolling Stone magazine once reported that a man claimed
to see God while listening to this album under the influence of
nitrous oxide . If you listen to the record you’ll notice that
the artist uses a form of symbolism instead of current
narrative. Very much like using spiritual images because they
are stronger than words. And this work was released in the late
1960s, when a New Age consciousness was spreading in the U.S.
His idiosyncratic and spiritual musical path has lead him to
create more than 30 albums, among them are Moondance, Tupelo
Honey, A Period of Transition, Beautiful Vision, No Guru- No
Method- No teacher, Irish Heartbeat, Avalon Sunset,
Enlightenment, Days Like This, and The Healing Games.
On his official site, Alan Pert sums up Morrison’s spiritual
exploring on the album Days Like This. “Morrison continues his
lifelong exploration of the human psyche, offering up highly
entertaining and danceable tunes about everything from love to
manic depression. While all of Morrison’s albums from the early
1990′s had expressed a desire to go back to childhood and early
adolescence when “everything made more sense” and he was most
capable of experiencing the elusive “sense of wonder,” the
memory in “Ancient Highway” is of being older, of feeling
isolated and restless, of needing to leave home and childhood
behind forever, and he is afraid of failure: “I keeping praying
to my higher self, don’t let me down…” Extract of the Ancient
Highway ” There’s a small cafe on the outskirts of town I’ll be
there when the sun goes down Where the roadside bends And it
twists and turns Every new generation And I’ll be praying to my
higher self Don’t let me down, keep my feet on the ground
There’s a roadside jam playin’ on the edge of town In a town
called Paradise near the ancient highway When the train whistle
blows All the sadness that Hank Williams knows And the river
flows Call them pagan streams and it spins and turns In a
factory in a street called Bread in East Belfast Where Georgie
knows best What it’s like to be Daniel in the lion’s den Got so
many friends only most of the time” I picked Morrison’s music up
because he is still creating innovative material and is not like
others rock stars who recycle their greatest hits. “Great art
incarnates truth, gives shape to beauty, and joins inner longing
with outer form. Van Morrison has provided Christians and
non-Christians alike a glimpse into the childlike vision ”
according to the insights of Carl Olson.
More recently, Morrison had the opportunity to duet “Crazy Love”
along with the late Ray Charles, on the 2004 Genius Loves
Company album. Ray Charles was one of Morrison’s influences
during his years in Northern Ireland .