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1. Today @vanmorrison turns 75. I can think of no other singer-songwriter whose work I’ve enjoyed as much, ever since I was a boy. In two threads I’ll tweet a song from each of his many albums, starting with his 1964 classic with Them, “Gloria.”
2. His other perennial favorite from his Them days is 1965’s “Here Comes the Night.”
3. Van’s first solo album was “Blowin’ Your Mind,” which included “Brown Eyed Girl.”
4. In late 1968 Morrison recorded the landmark “Astral Weeks” album, which included a staple of his live shows for years, “Cyprus Avenue.”
5. The inescapable album in my teen years was 1970’s “Moondance,” and I grew sick of hearing the title track. Not so the number that followed it, “Crazy Love.”
6. That same year he released “His Band and the Street Choir,” which gave us audience favorite “Domino.”
7. I always turn up the radio in the car when this one comes on, the title track of 1971’s “Tupelo Honey.”
8. Morrison’s 1972 album “Saint Dominic’s Preview” opened with his tribute to an R&B influence, “Jackie Wilson Said.”
9. The 1973 “Hard Nose the Highway” album yielded one durable hit, “Warm Love.”
10. “It’s Too Late to Stop Now” (1974) is one of the greatest live albums ever, featuring R&B covers as well as Morrison’s own songs. Here are two—first “Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do.”
11. And here’s Van’s cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me.”
12. The 1974 album “Veedon Fleece” is almost forgotten, but includes this memory of Morrison’s Ulster upbringing, Streets of Arklow.”
13. Morrison did not release a new album again until 1977’s “A Period of Transition.” Here from that album is “It Fills You Up.”
14. One of Van’s biggest successes was 1978’s “Wavelength,” which opened with “Kingdom Hall.”
15. He closed out the 1970s with “Into the Music,” an album suggesting the turn his music was taking, with numbers like “And the Healing Has Begun.”
16. In 1980 Morrison released “Common One,” featuring long contemplative numbers. One of the shorter numbers was “Spirit.”
17. The 1982 album “Beautiful Vision” featured much more accessible pop tunes, but the title track may have been the loveliest.
18. 1983’s “Inarticulate Speech of the Heart” had several instrumental numbers. But fans want to hear Van sing. Here’s an alternate version, from a reissue of that album, of “Cry for Home.”
19. In 1984 Morrison released “Live at the Grand Opera Belfast,” which included “She Gives Me Religion,” originally on “Beautiful Vision.”
20. On “A Sense of Wonder” (1985), Morrison recorded some covers as well as new songs of his own. Here he sings Mose Allison’s “If You Only Knew.”
21. “No Guru, No Method, No Teacher” (1986) returned to the contemplative mood with numbers like “Oh the Warm Feeling.”
22. This mood continued on 1987’s “Poetic Champions Compose,” with songs like “The Mystery.”
23. In 1988 Morrison recorded “Irish Heartbeat” with The Chieftains, and sang the traditional “She Moved Through the Fair.”
24. On 1989’s “Avalon Sunset,” Morrison asked a question many of us ask ourselves, “When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God.”
25. A much more up-tempo Van sang “Real Real Gone” on 1990’s “Enlightenment.”
I see that #24 had an erroneous link. Here’s the right one to “When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God?”
