Van Morrison - The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours (Official Visualiser)

Van Morrison turns 80 tomorrow. 

And he's still making great music. 

Here's a gorgeous song from his latest album, "The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours."

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Van Morrison at 80, his Belfast in words and photos

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Van Morrison at 80, his Belfast in words and photos

The great Van Morrison will celebrate his 80th birthday on August 31 with a concert at Waterford Hall in his native Belfast. 

This spring, Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I visited Ireland, and we spent two days in Belfast. One of our stops was the Van Morrison Trail in East Belfast. 

A map of the trail can be found on the Belfast Cowboy's official website. Morrison, however, is now a bit of a non-person in his hometown, his anti-COVID lockdown stance drew the ire of the local government. The trail is not marked. It should be. 

Behind the Volkswagen hatchback is 125 Hyndford Street. The rowhouse in the Bloomfield neighborhood is George Ivan Morrison's birthplace.

The Belfast Blues Appreciation Society placed a plaque next to the front door of the rowhouse.

Streets in Belfast are often marked by large signs, often on brick walls. 

A few hundred yards away I found a car-free stretch of Hyndford Street. Oh, it's pronounced HINE-ford street. I was corrected by a resident when I inquired about the location of HINN-ford.

In the light blue is Mrs. Marathon Pundit.

With mixed success I used Waze to find my away along the Van Morrison Trail. Waze did manage to take us to the Hollow. 

Is this a familiar lyric?

Hey, where did we go, days when the rains came, down in the Hollow, playing a new game.

That's from Morrison's biggest hit, "Brown Eyed Girl."

The Hollow is a tiny park roughly a block from 125 Hyndford Street. It's almost certain that the young Van spent a lot of time here.

The stone bridge at the Hollow, believed to be one of the oldest in Ireland, crosses the Connswater River, known locally as the Beechie. "Connswater" is an instrumental from the Belfast Lion's Inarticulate Speech of the Heart album.

In the 1980s, Morrison's work, often called his New Age phase, often had a Celtic flavor.

The river and this bridge gets its name from Conn O'Neill, a 16th century chieftain.

From the Hollow it was on to Orangefield Park. Belfast is a city of murals, many are strongly political. It shouldn't surprise you that a lot of these wall paintings focus on "the Troubles," the Catholic versus Protestant violence that plagued Northern Ireland from 1969 until 1998. This one, I believe, honors men from Ulster who perished in World War I.

Much larger than the Hollow is Orangefield Park. On Van's 1989 album, Avalon Sunset, is this reflective song, "Orangefield." Morrison is a graduate of Orangefield High School, which I couldn't locate. I believe it has been razed. The school closed in 2014. After it was shuttered, Morrison performed there--ten years later he released an indispensable album, Live at Orangefield. The collection is the second release from Van's Orangefield Records.

Rightly or wrongly, Morrison has developed a reputation as a curmudgeon, but there's no evidence of that on this record. Many of the tracks on this album, including "Into the Mystic," "Got to Go Back," and the spoken word "On Hyndford Street" reach deep into Morrison's past.

Also on this collection is "Cleaning Windows." Prior to becoming a fulltime musician, Morrison worked as a window washer.

Astral Weeks, from 1968, is generally considered Morrison's greatest work. One of its cuts is "Cyprus Avenue," and a second song, "Madame George," mentions this street in its opening verse.

Cyprus Avenue is located in a wealthy part of East Belfast. Visiting it offers me a bit more insight into Morrison's work. Pictured again is Mrs. Marathon Pundit.

Van Morrison's first place of education was Bloomfield's Elmgrove School. It closed last year, but it will soon re-open as a special education school.

After he achieved stardom, Van spent most of the 1970s living in California. But he returned to Northern Ireland in the 1980s. Recorded in 1983 and released a year later, his Live at the Belfast Grand Opera House is dominated by his New Age work.

Oh yeah, the photo sucks. I was never able to capture the opera house at a good angle in the two-and-a-half days we spent in Belfast. Hey, it didn't rain in the four days we spent in Northern Ireland, so I should count my blessings. 

Next to the opera house is the Hotel Europa, a frequent bombing target during the Troubles. Several times the opera house was damaged in those attacks.

On a side note, the day we visited East Belfast and the Van Morrison Trail was a public holiday, May 8, V-E Day. That particular day marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. It was a festive day.

Yes, that's me, a typical American tourist in green, on Cyprus Avenue.

On a final note, Van's latest album, Remembering Now, looks back at his storied past. The opening track, "Down to Joy," was featured in Kenneth Branagh's superb film, Belfast, which is about the Troubles. The soundtrack contains many songs from Morrison's early career.

And in a second final note, I may have gotten a thing or two wrong about Belfast. If so, tell me what's incorrect in the comments.

Van Morrison - Pretending

Because Van Morrison spoke the truth about the COVID lockdowns--they were an overreach and an abuse of government power--his What's It Gonna Take? album was savaged by critics.

And not all of the songs were about the lockdowns. 

"Pretending" is a wondrous ballad.

The Belfast Lion turns 80 at the end of this month.

Related post:

Van Morrison at 80, his Belfast in words and photos

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Van Morrison: Stomping Ground

Van Morrison turns 80 at the end of this month.

I had the pleasure to visit his old neighborhood, Bloomfield, East Belfast, this spring.

Look for a post on that soon.

Here the Belfast Cowboy looks back on the 'hood, in a song from his latest album. Remembering Now, titled "Stomping Ground."

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But the original version is by Bonny "Prince" Billy, who has recorded under various names over the years, including Will Oldham--his real name--as well as Palace Songs, Palace Brothers, Palace Music, and as well as Palace.

Obviously, Bonny "Prince" Billy is a bit of an eccentric. 

As for the music, Bonny is hard to classify but think of the Lumineers crossed with early Tom Waits as well as Cash. Only Oldham sings with a high tenor.

He's on tour now, and he'll be in my neck of the woods in a month.

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Shall I see him?       

  

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