Vanity Fare
There was a time in my mid 20s when I got briefly obsessed with Van Morrison. There’s a lot of Van Morrison records to get obsessed about. I mean, he’s just released his 4th record in two years - so that gives you an idea of how prolific he can be. Back in the mid 90s there wasn’t nearly as many Van records as there are now but, even then, there was too much to get through so my obsession was limited to the run of records from Astral Weeks to Veedon Fleece before jumping to the handful of records he put our between about 1986 to 1995. Oh - with a stop off in 1979 for the brilliant Into the Music. Anyway, despite my obsession in those fifteen records, I never dug any deeper. I’m sure I read a rating of every Van record in Q or Mojo magazine and took them at their word when they said that much of the rest of it wasn’t worth having. More fool me.
Anyway, after Days Like This I fell out with Van. Life took over and there was just too many other records in my life to make room for any more Van albums. But, undeterred, he just kept going releasing another 16 records between 1997 and last year. Lately, i’ve given some of his new releases a cursory listen on Spotify but I can’t pretend any of it made any impression - apart from his cover of Unchained Melody on 2017’s Versatile which is stunning - not least because it sounds very little every other version of that song that you may have had the misfortune of hearing.
For some reason Van’s been popping up around me a but lately. For one thing the recent reissue of 1997’s The Healing Game caught my attention and I listened to it a lot during March and April. Then there’s Summertime in England from 1980’s Common One which I heard a snippet of somewhere and became infatuated with all 15 minutes of it! Then there’s 5AM Greenwich Mean Time from last year’s The Prophet Speaks which came to me in a Spotify Release Radar playlist and became something I’d listen to on repeat as I walked the dog every evening.
So, with Van re-entering my consciousness, I figured it was time to go back to see what I’ve missing. It’s hard to know where to start when there’s so many records to choose from so I did what I always do - I made a Spotify playlist of the most popular song on each record. The cream always rises to the top, right? Well maybe or maybe not but in this case it has to be said that the quality from 1968’s Sweet Thing to The Prophet Speaks from late last year is astonishing. Often with these ‘most popular songs’ playlists I find that the quality definitely wavers - sometimes in the middle (don’t take a bow, Bob) and more often towards the end (Hi Bruce) but this playlist is cracking all the way from Astral Weeks to The Prophet Speaks. You may not love it all equally - for me, The Eternal Kansas City is a little more of a struggle than the rest but thats not because it’s bad but because it’s just a little too gospelly for my tastes. But you might love it. The whole collection, which I’ve regrettably called Vanity Fare, is right here for you to enjoy.
Although it’s a hefty 37 songs, you’ll find that you can comfortably get through in less than 3 hours and I really can’t say enough good things about it. Prepare to marvel as he glides effortlessly (and how often can you imagine yourself saying that about Van Morrison) through myriad styles of popular music. There’s jazz, there’s gospel (yeuch!) and there’s soul and rhythm and blues too. There’s country and rock and, of course traditional Irish music courtesy of The Chieftains. My favourite discover on the list is 2005’s Keep it Simple. I haven’t quite got to grips with the record it’s from but there’s something about the stripped-back sound and Van’s unusually gentle (or at least not quite as vitriolic) dismissal of his critics (a common theme, of course, throughout his career) that’s impossible to resist.
Whether that’s your favourite song on the list is a matter for yourself but there’s something for everyone here. It’s a remarkable collection - I hope you like it.
