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"Why didn't they leave us to wander through buttercup summers? Why didn't they leave us to wander when there was no other?" -- Van Morrison, "The Master's Eyes"Van Morrison... what can i say? The spiritual philosopher king of all rock music. the one who lets me believe in all the hidden details that the world seems too crass to notice. THE LEAST NERDY SINGER/SONGWRITER EVER (and believe me, there are times when that's exactly the medicine i need). the territory is all his own... it's van's world, and we may not all live in it, but we'd surely be better off if we did....

Astral Weeks, Veedon Fleece, and No Guru No Method No Teacher: possibly Van's three greatest albums, and each one of them is a song cycle. Astral Weeks (1968): the great defining statement of his career, the eternal cycle of young love from obsession to close. Veedon Fleece (1974): a mystic visionary's brush with the world, comcluding with his engulfment, for better or for worse, in his own world of visions; it's not a coincidence he semi-retired from music after this one. No Guru No Method No Teacher (1986): Astral Weeks Revisited, through the haze of memory, through a warm knowledge of the cosmos, and hot jazz horns; Van's most soulful album.

in this compilation i've created my own Van song cycle. He has love (You're My Woman), loses himself in his own vision (The Master's Eyes) and starts to suspect his own love's genuineness (Hey, Where Are You?) and eventually ends up losing it entirely (Here Comes The Night, an entirely different song from what follows). He sinks to the depths of existential despair (Song Of Being A Child) and goes out into the world, mystically, to experience whatever he can of it (Rolling Hills). He questions himself (Whatever Happened To PJ Proby?) and finally, through an extended, grueling meditation, finds some miraculous solace out in Chapel Perilous (the eleven-minute epic Listen To The Lion). He returns to the world, and is immediately filled with absolute gushing love (Madame Joy). And he finds love, not only from her, but with her too (Like A Cannonball) -- but as the final song (Come Here My Love, Veedon Fleece's penultimate song) reminds us, we can never forget where we came from, and all the trials we've suffered through.

An ad hoc spiritual journey; to me this mix means worlds, and it's trying its hardest to get me through my own romantic travails right now. okay, so maybe i'm tooting my own horn too much. but i guess that's what you have to do to be confident about your own artworks... right??

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