I disagree if only for the line, “And I’ll be praying to my higher self/Don’t let me down, keep my feet on the ground.” It is pure arrogance to pray to your higher self, regardless of what religion you ascribe to. Some consider “Ancient Highway” to be a high water mark for Van. This is the beginning of Van making some really good jazzy albums that are never bad but lack that transcendent feel.

It’s really good at times but never great. It was as if God was saying, “I know how hard it is to be alone in your love of this music.”

But the Muzak station played “Days Like This” at least once every shift. Surrounded by fans of Garth Brooks, I knew no one who listened to Van Morrison. Highlights: Too Long In Exile, Lonely Avenue/You Give Me Nothing But The Blues, Till We Get The Healing Done, Wasted Yearsīack in the 1996, when I started listening to Van, I was waiting tables at a “meat and three” in small town Alabama. “Wasted Years” with John Lee Hooker is so beautiful it hurts. So many great Chicago bluesy songs that sound like a summer night’s stroll with the “L” passing overhead. If you want to know what it sounds like, look at the cover. Man, this is such a great understated album. I love this album so much and not only because it’s one of the first albums of his I bought back in ’96.

If you go and read the fan pages and forums, your expectations for this album will be low. But I never listen to them.Įvery now and again, I will take them out, dust them off and try them out. While this stretch of albums has one magnificent album and some good ones, there are two that are just hard to listen to. I know there are people who will argue for the next period as being his worst, but they are wrong. This period has more just “good enough” albums than any other period.

Wasted years van morrison