No. 65: Moondance

Band: Van Morrison
Album: Moondance
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: "Moondance" is arguably Van Morrison's best record and it features "Into The Mystic," considered one of his best.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Van Morrison's lyrics are so verbose they are hard to follow and the music is so folk bland, it's easy to get bored.
Best song: I'll say "Into The Mystic," though "And It Stoned Me" is a lot of fun.
Worst song: "Glad Tidings" is kind of bad.
Is it awesome?: I like it slightly better than "Astral Weeks," but that's not saying a whole lot.

While a big part of this project is trying to downplay the tyranny of the boomers on music opinion-making in this country, I'd say that the boomers are often right. The boomers were present at/responsible for a lot of important stuff of the past 50 years. If pressed, I'd certainly argue a Beatles record as the best of all time (most likely "Revolver") and if I had to make a top 10 list of best records ever, there would be a fair share of boomer classics.

I say this because the truly great boomer relics are the ones that stand the test of time. Jefferson Airplane is the kind of drug/protest music that hasn't held up in the way the Beatles or Stones have. Donovan? Not so much. Dylan? Tes.

The more I listen to him and the more I think about him, Van Morrison hasn't stood the test of time. His music is of a place and time that doesn't really translate now. His soul/folk hybrid sound is kind of hokey now and his Doors-esque stoner sexpot religion are kind of ridiculous.

An example: Noted baby boomer Tony Kornheiser (the man to whom I credit my entire journalism career [it's a long story]) used to use "Into the Mystic" as bumper music for his radio show often. As he'd come back from breaks, he once mentioned a near-perfect night for him: Listening to "Into the Mystic" in a dark room while drinking Johnny Walker Blue and eating cashews. TK's ridiculously devoted fanbase has even made a t-shirt design based on that segment.

But, as souful as "Into the Mystic" is (and it is), what is that song really about? Anything? Nothing? Something about a spiritual journey? Sex?

Certainly sex is a big part of the song. The "rock your gyspy soul" line is hokey as hell, though not subtle. And the final portion of the song is mostly Morrison screaming "It's too late to stop now" over and over.

In fact, I'd compare "Into the Mystic" to a movie I saw recently, "Live Free or Die Hard." It's fun while it's going on, but the more you analyze it, the more holes you find. The more I write about "Into the Mystic," the less I enjoy it.

No. 19: Astral Weeks

Band: Van Morrison
Album: Astral Weeks
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Morrison's transition album has some excellent storytelling, shown by "Madame George." Vocally, Morrison is uniquely soulful. To be totally honest, this is my first real exposure to it, so I'm still digesting it.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: If you're going with boomer singer/sonwriter pained records, "Blood on the Tracks" is probably better. Again, I'm not a big supporter of the "folk rock" thing, so a lot of this stuff goes over my head. Plus, "Moondance" is, in my mind, a better album.
Best song: The title track's lyrics are pretty awful, but it's a pretty good song. "Madame George" is epic.
Worst song: None of the songs are particularly terrible, but I'm not fall-down blown away, either.
Is it awesome?: I'm not sure. I'm just hearing it in full now and I do enjoy it. It's taking a bit to grow on me, but I'm leaning towards "awesome."

Some songwriters write disjointed lyrics in a way that the short clauses and sentences make sense, on the whole. Some have clever one-liners (think Pavement), while some are smart references to modern times (Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"). Van Morrison's, however, seem to just be a phrase or two, repeated over and over.

The more I listen to "Astral Weeks," the more I believe Van Morrison when he says some of the songs were written in a "stream of consciousness" situation. "Cypress Avenue," nominally a song about the street where Morrison grew up, is like this. He says "Baby" a lot. He repeats lines. A lot. Van Morrison is one of the artists I expected to learn a little about in doing this project. "Astral Weeks" fits into this folky rock/soul thing and that's a genre to which I have never really warmed up.

With that said, one of the things I mention in my biases is that I prefer a record that experiments. "Astral Weeks" experiments. This record came out in 1967 and he took a songwriting route that only Dylan (a big experimenter himself) had done much of. His voice lilts and carries the lyrics with an intensity that most rock and roll singers can't even touch. Comparing what Morrison was doing on "Astral Weeks" to what Donovan was doing at the time, it's not even close as to who was more adventurous.

Which is to say that "Astral Weeks" is growing on me. I don't know if it belongs here, but it's certainly an interesting record and that's a huge compliment from me.