Van Morrison's Greatest Hits Revisited

In the history of rock music, Van Morrison stands alongside the giants of the genre. “Van the Man” has produced a body of work as rich, varied and creative as any other artist in the canon of rock music. Morrison’s work has often incorporated elements of jazz, blues, British dancehall and even country twang, an accomplishment that few other artists can lay claim to. So why does Morrison remain a virtual cult artist in the United States?

Perhaps part of the blame can be laid at the feet of the man himself; with a penchant for following whatever muse strikes his fancy when it comes time to record an album, Morrison doesn’t create music that is easily identifiable. Morrison has steadfastly refused to bow to commercial trends, yet he has been amazingly prolific, with some three-dozen albums released over the past four decades. Morrison’s work has, many times, been lyrically repetitive in theme if not in sound as he has pursued his own vision, and he might have been better served by combining musical ideas into a single album rather than spread out over two (or, as in the late-80s, sometimes three) albums. Because he’s always made music for one, even Morrison’s most ardent fans find more than a few landmines hidden among his extensive catalog.

Still On Top – The Greatest Hits is but one of dozens of various Van Morrison compilations, the latest collection of “hits” purporting to represent the artist’s entire career. That is does, to some effect, but 40+ years after Morrison’s first recordings were released, his career shows few signs of slowing down. Any career retrospective for an ongoing creator is going to be like shooting at a moving target. The question, then, is whether or not Still On Top is worth dropping some coin down on the retailer’s counter.

Irish rockers Them were Morrison’s first band of note, a troubled outfit that scored a trio of hits and recorded only two albums before Morrison’s first “retirement” from music. Them’s classic 1964 rave-up “Gloria” kicks off Still On Top, the song remaining a perfect example of crackling guitar work, grungy sound and twist-and-shout vocals. Surprisingly, although “Gloria” wasn’t a hit for Them, the song has become a de facto rock standard with the Shadows of Knight, the Doors and Patti Smith, among many others, all recording their versions. Also culled from an early Them single is the wonderful “Here Comes The Night,” a heartbreakingly earnest song that mixes a ‘50s-era love song vibe (notice the cool Duane Eddy-trembling guitar lead) with contemporary ‘60s Britrock construct, the song a wonderful example of where late-60s garage rock would go.

Disgusted with the label politics surrounding his experience with Them, Morrison retreated from music until producer Bert Berns convinced him to go solo. Morrison launched his career with the Berns-produced “Brown Eyed Girl,” a magnificent pop-rock tune with a great, unforgettable melody and tasteful guitarwork that mimics the song’s rollicking rhythms, with more than a few surf-guitar licks thrown in for good measure. The song displays Morrison’s early songwriting prowess; even in 1967 his material played as more mature than that of his peers, the lyrics rich with reminiscence and emotion. From here, Still On Top jumps ahead to “Moondance,” skipping some of Morrison’s otherwise impressive early solo work in favor of his groundbreaking early-70s Warner Brothers recordings.

“Moondance,” from the album of the same name, has a smoky, back-of-the-bar feel to it, with jazzy horns and piano-pounding that sounds like empty glasses clinking together at a distance. Morrison’s vocals here pierce the grey darkness with characteristic soul and energy. “Crazy Love,” also from the Moondance album, is a beautiful, subdued romantic number with sparse instrumentation and a fine vocal turn, with a Gospel-style choir backing Morrison and adding to the overall Stax/Motown feel of the song.

The lead-off song from 1970’s His Band And Street Choir, “Domino” is a radio-ready up-tempo rocker with its roots in R&B revue style, big beat with horns and powerful vocals. From the excellent, overlooked 1971 album Tupelo Honey, “Wild Night” is a similar tune – perhaps rocking a little harder than its predecessor – with a great chorus, driving rhythms, and some of Morrison’s funkiest lyrics (“boys do the boogie-woogie on the corner of the street”). The song is so strong that it’s been redone several times, most recently by John Mellencamp, whose duet with Me'Shell NdegéOcello took the song to number three on the charts; by contrast, Morrison only took the song as high as #28.

A tribute to both the great soul artist and the R&B tunes that Morrison loved so much as a teen, “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)” is another raver, an upbeat tune with an undeniable hook and a grin on its face, and the only song here chosen from 1972’s St. Dominic’s Preview. From 1973’s Hard Nose The Highway, “Warm Love” is an infectious ode to the joys of romance, delivered with deliciously muted vocals and lush instrumentation. Leapfrogging entirely over both the Veedon Fleece (1974) and A Period Of Transition (1977) albums, “Wavelength” – the title track from Morrison’s 1978 album – is one of Morrison’s most misunderstood songs. The song’s heavy use of synthesizer as a lead rhythmic instrument (which foreshadows the new wave pop of the ‘80s) along with Morrison’s cryptic lyrics and staggering vocal gymnastics, excites as many listeners as it confuses. Some 30 years after the fact, however, it is safe to label the song as a classic.

Into The Music (1979) was Morrison’s last album of the ‘70s, an incredibly prolific period that saw the artist release a whopping nine albums, all of which enjoyed almost universal critical acclaim and each meeting with a relative degree of commercial success. “Bright Side Of The Road” – half British folk shuffle, half British dancehall flash – has proven to be one of Morrison’s most enduring songs, one that has held up well through the years. We’re better than half-way through Still On Top now, and the collection takes another large jump over Morrison’s remaining Warner Brothers catalog, ignoring such difficult-to-characterize albums as 1980’s Common One, with its new age spiritualism; 1982’s dense Beautiful Vision; and 1983’s Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart.

The single live track offered here, “Dweller On The Threshold,” from 1985’s Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast, is another soulful number with rhythmic horns and backing vocals. Leaving Warner Brothers for Mercury Records, Morrison entered into a decade of sporadic and sometimes questionable creativity as the ‘80s unfolded. “Tore Down A La Rimbaud,” from 1985’s A Sense Of Wonder, scratches out the blueprint for much of Morrison’s work during the decade. While mainstream listeners largely wandered off to find easier-to-digest material that didn’t make their brains hurt, Morrison took the more difficult path, mixing intelligent lyrics – often pairing literary influences with spiritual yearning – with almost ambient jazz-like wonder in the creation of a sort of personal poetry that just didn’t connect with many listeners stateside. Morrison’s R&B-drenched vocals were just as strong and soulful as ever, but as the artist eschewed the melodic, chorus-driven sound of his early-70s material in favor of a more textured musical approach, his commercial fortunes waned proportionately.

That’s not to say that the scant ‘80s-era material presented by Still On Top is entirely without merit, regardless of Morrison’s tendency towards musical and lyrical repetition during the decade. Songs like the ethereal, mesmerizing “In The Garden,” from No Guru, No Album, No Teacher (1986) or the lush, romantic Adult Contemporary radio hit “Have I Told You Lately,” from Avalon Sunset, are both enchanting choices for this collection. However, including only four studio tracks from Morrison’s ‘80s-era milieu (and a live recording of a ‘70s-era song) seems foolhardy, especially since Morrison’s 1988 collaboration with the legendary Irish band the Chieftains, Irish Heartbeat, is widely considered to represent one of his strongest performances of the decade.

By the ‘90s, Van Morrison had achieved a sort of “elder” status in rock music, his eccentricities and flaws as an artist largely overlooked because of his longevity and past accomplishments. Truthfully, however, much of Morrison’s work during the decade is somewhat sporadic and lackluster, the eight studio albums and one live set representing some of both the best and worst of the artist’s musical tendencies. Appropriately, Still On Top glosses over most of this questionable era, presenting only four songs from the ‘90s, one an alternative version from that originally released.

Although 1990’s Enlightenment largely duplicated the successful rote R&B ballad formula that Morrison struck paydirt with on Avalon Sunset, the jubilant “Real Real Gone” sounded like a welcome throwback to the artist’s vintage ‘70s rockers, a simple horn-driven shout-out with a mild instrumental hook, forceful vocals and some tasty keyboard flourishes. “Days Like This,” from the 1995 album of that title, is also, perhaps, the album’s lone stand-out track, another Gospel-tinged slow-burner with fine vocals and a distinctive horn chart. An alternative version of “The Healing Game” from the 1997 album of the same name does little to improve upon the admittedly weak original while “Precious Time,” from 1999’s Back On Top album, is an encouraging signpost to Morrison’s possible direction in the ‘00s, a snappy up-tempo number with an almost New Orleans jazz vibe.

Considering his prestigious musical output, nobody could ever accuse Morrison of being lazy when it comes to logging studio time. After putting eight albums up on the board during both the decades of ‘80s and the ‘90s, Morrison has cranked out five albums this decade so far. Still On Top closes with “Stranded,” not as representative of Morrison’s recent work as I might have liked, it is nevertheless taken from what is, perhaps, his best album of the ‘00s, Magic Time (2005), and the song’s smooth, lush instrumentation is characteristic of his genre-blending composition these days.

So, the question remains – do you need this album? If you have little or no Morrison in your collection, Still On Top does a fine job representing the entirety of the artist’s career. However, there are several glaring oversights in the setlist here…Still On Top entirely ignores Astral Weeks, Morrison’s 1968 album and his first for Warner, considered to be his best work and one of the best albums in rock & roll history, period. Other Warner-era songs, legitimate hits, are also missing, such as the Top 30 charting “Blue Money” and the pastoral “Tupelo Honey” (still a fave on Classic Rock radio formats), as well as anything from the acclaimed 1974 live album, It’s Too Late To Stop Now, which might have provided haunting renditions of early songs like “Caravan” or “Into The Mystic.”

Considering that there are both a two-disc and even a three-disc version of Still On Top available in England, there’s no reason why an expanded two-CD edition of the collection couldn’t have been released stateside. These import sets include many of the aforementioned missing songs, as well as collaborations with the Chieftains and a Cliff Richard duet. A two-disc U.S. set would have been truly representative of Morrison’s lengthy career, and far too often it seems that whoever compiled Still On Top knew little of the artist’s work, simply grabbing a bunch of title tracks from ‘80s and ‘90s albums to add to the poppier ‘70s-era tracks. Still On Top achieves its stated purpose, compiling a label-spanning overview of the artist’s career…but honestly, it could have been so much better. (Hip-O Records/Universal Music Group)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Still On Top from Amazon.com)