The 1980 Listening Post - Van Morrison - Common One

 Van Morrison - Common One

#315

August 1980

Van Morrison

Common One

Genre: Soooooooooooft, meandering borefest

2 out of 5

In the mid 1700s, presented with a dilemma, the ruling class in America realized that they had to keep a wedge driven between black slaves who were always on the brink of rebellion and the poor who, too, were ready to burst. At the time 1% of the population had 44% of the wealth. How best to do this? By fomenting racism as much as possible. As long as blacks and whites hated each other, they wouldn’t join forces.

To perpetuate this a new class was created: the middle class. These were aspirational whites who had probably had more in common with the poor than they did the wealthy elite, but were encouraged to sell to the elites and given names like “farmers” and “planters” so as to keep them as a buffer between the two ends. 

They would become a useful tool when the rich wanted to stoke a revolution and break free of England’s rule, expanding their own power. 

I know this because I am reading Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. 

I don’t often read when I am reviewing a record because I need to make notes for the review. 

There is no reason to listen to this record with any intensity because it’s as boring and dull as can be mustered. It meanders and begs you to do something else. But not something productive. Just sit back and read a fucking book while you wait for it to fucking end. 

The trouble is, the 15 minus opus, “Summertime in England” is almost good. If it wasn’t FIFTEEN minutes long. It all feels like a pointless excuse to jam to some smooth jazz. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/common-one-bonus-track-version/1031189776

The 1986 Listening Post - Van Morrison - No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

Van Morrison - No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

#310/1990

July 1986

Van Morrison

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

Genre: Soft…rock?

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

In the Garden

When do we get to take Van off this list? 

If you are new here you will come to learn that I talk about my youth a bit. Mostly about summers I spent in Bar Harbor, Maine. Truly the most indelible and excellent part of my young existence. It’s there that I learned about love, requited and unrequited (on my and her part, truly). I made life long friends, although I haven’t been there for over 30 years. I might never go back, since I don’t want to spoil the memories. 

It’s there my father died suddenly, away from all of us. It’s a memoir in the wings. 

I spent spare time sweeping up the local movie theater, for which I was compensated in movie passes. 

The rest of my time was spent working in the store my parents managed. 

I used to say they “had a store there” because I was embarrassed that my father was just the manager of a tchotchke store and a T-Shirt place. But that job put me through college (sorry for wasting your money, dad). And it taught me about retail and people. Tools I have used my entire life. 

In any store I would try as hard as I could to get music played that interested me. Queen II was on the turntable when I worked there, putting decals on plain T’s. The Clash. X. But that usually chased customers away and we were forced to play local radio which, in the early 80s was all soft rock and gentle, inoffensive pap. 

That’s this record. You could easily make purchase decisions with this thing on in the background and not get too distracted.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/no-guru-no-method-no-teacher-bonus-track-version/1030930341

The 1985 Listening Post - Van Morrison - A Sense of Wonder

Van Morrison - A Sense of Wonder

#56

February 1985

Van Morrison

A Sense of Wonder

Genre: Celtic Rock/Soul

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Tore Down ala Rimbaud

After two great albums my experience with Van was verging on torpor, reaching a nadir on Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. 

He’s much more approachable here but that doesn’t mean he isn’t unimpeachably dull. He is. That starts on song three and goes all the way to “A Sense of Wonder” so I imagine you could turn the cassette over and skip all the boredom and have a nice little ep. But that would mean you would miss the Celtic-Country (Celtry?) instrumental “Boffyflow and Spike”, which is really no great loss. And then you would find yourself thinking, Hey, this cover of “If You Only Knew” is pretty good! And then stab yourself in the ear for sitting through “Let the Slave (Incorporating the Price of Experience)” with it’s lyrics taken from William Blake and such. 

God, fuck you, Van. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-sense-of-wonder-bonus-track-version/1030930160

The 1983 Listening Post - Van Morrison- Inarticulate Speech of the Heart

The 1983 Listening Post -
Van Morrison-
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart

March 1983
Van Morrison
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
2 Stars

Highlights:
The Street Only Knew Your Name
Cry for Home

Is Van Morrison drunk? Why is he singing like he was just screeched in in a bar in St. John’s after kissing the cod he stumbled into a recording studio and started warbling? This is awful. When he’s not singing, as on Connswater, the album is very pleasant and some of it could serve well as the soundtrack for a Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever TV Series.
This album is sort of endemic of everything that seems to be happening in 1983. Namely, stalwarts of the 70s have run out of ideas, are bored and there’s no push to have them replaced by upstarts. The whole year, so far, feels like a changing of the guard.
Somnabulant.