Van Morrison: The Healing Game - 1997
"People find it incredible when I tell them that people used to sing and play music in the street. I think there's a whole oral tradition that's disappeared" - Van Morrison
Van Morrison is once more on a nostalgia trip here, on way is a mighty uplifting and impressive album. He looks back to the days of harmonious singing in the streets on the vibrant, soulful The Healing Game, to the Belfast of his childhood on the evocative, rhythmically insistent Burning Ground and gets all reflective on the gorgeous, Stand By Me-influenced It Once Was Me and the beautiful, sensitive Sometimes We Cry.
On If You Love Me he uses fifties early rock'n'roll "doo-wop" harmony backing vocals to bring back memories of those days gone by and "those ancient streets" that he is always trying desperately and emotionally to recall. Indeed, these latter three tracks all contain a nostalgic them for the late fifties in their musical structure and delivery.
The album is packed full of strident horns, saxophones, harmonious facing vocals, organ breaks and sumptuous piano. It is Van Morrison's own brand of soul. While not of the upbeat Celtic Soul of the seventies, it is Morrison soul updated for the nineties and it is slightly slower-paced and stately in its execution. There is also some touching self-examination in This Weight and, of course, spiritual concerns are never far from the surface, raising their holy heads on the wonderful, horn-driven and exhilarating Rough God Goes Riding and Waiting Game, in which Morrison claims to be a "serpent filled with venom". He talks of "golden autumn days" and searching for a "higher flame". Traditional Morrison conceits if ever there were.
The mystical side to his nature is also never far away and it is here on the simply lovely Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, with its beautiful chorus refrain and the use of the Celtic Uilleann pipes. It is my favourite song on the album. Van evokes the spirit of "the great God Pan" and speaks of "the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn...". Great mystical stuff.
Fire In The Belly has Van in familiar rustic mode, speaking of the seasons - "Got to get through January, got to get through February...". He loves nature and the changing of the seasons. Songs like this from him I find irresistible. Just listen to that saxophone and backing vocals on the oh-so-soulful The Healing Game as well, which closes the album. Magnificent. Van raises me higher, yet again.
The bold saxophone from Pee Wee Ellis drives this album in so many ways, so much so that I think of this as "the one with all the vibrant saxophone on it". It is here, also the the black outfit with black hat gets a second outing on the cover, after having done so on Days Like This. It has been his trademark look ever since. I would also say that this possibly the last album not to follow the "r'n'b by numbers" route that most subsequent albums have taken. Not that I dislike those albums, because I appreciate them all, but this could well have been the last truly original Van Morrison album.
2019 Deluxe Edition
Assuming the original album is well-known, I will deal with the bonus material. (I am unsure as to whether the original album has been remastered again - it sounds good, but then so did the 2007 remaster).
Look What The Good People Done is a slow, jazzy blues in the style of the material he did with Georgie Fame. It is a Morrison original but sounds like a cover of a blues/jazz standard. At The End Of The Day is a slow, soulful, evocative number included as a bonus track on the previous issue of the album.
The Healing Game is included in its "single version". Personally, I don't have much time for single versions, seeing them as wilful butcherings of excellent tracks. Its inclusion here is pretty superfluous for me. Full Force Gale '96 is given a catchy, slowed-down jazzy soul makeover with the vaguely irritating Brian Kennedy's backing vocals making a few appearances. It is pleasant enough and it is always interesting to hear a new interpretation, but I prefer the original.
Another intriguing new coat of paint is given to St. Dominic's Preview which here features an Astral Weeks-style strummed acoustic backing together with some fetching Celtic violin. It reminds me of his extended version of Wonderful Remark that appeared on The Philosopher's Stone. The alternate version of The Healing Game is simply sumptuous - backed by a beautiful bass and piano. Van Morrison soul at its very best. Fire In The Belly has a slower, slightly sparser backing, again concentrating on an understated bass and melodic, tinkling piano.
Didn't He Ramble reappeared a few years as The Philosopher's Stone, with slightly changed lyrics, on the Back On Top album. The jazz version of The Healing Game is once more backed by piano and bass and then some grainy jazzy saxophone and brush drums come in. It is all extremely stately.
Sometimes We Cry is extended to a slow-burning, soul-drenched eight minutes featuring some great saxophone. It doesn't improve incredibly on the original, you just get a few more minutes of Van and Brian Kennedy exchanging "cry - cry" vocals. Mule Skinner Blues is a harmonica-driven, shuffling blues and A Kiss To Build a Dream On is a laid-back, late-night jazzy cover of a Louis Armstrong track from 1962. It is the sort of thing Van did on his 2017 Versatile album.
Then we get several duets with John Lee Hooker, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan, that are made all the more poignant by the fact that three of them were quite near the end of their lives when they recorded these tracks. The John Lee Hooker tracks particularly so. The Carl Perkins songs are just a delight. Paul McCartney would love these, I think. They are upbeat rock 'n' roll numbers and Van seems to be really enjoying himself. Matchbox is a particular favourite of mine - "if you don't want my peaches, don't shake my tree...", a line that just makes me smile.
Sittin' On Top Of The World is great too. These tracks are the real gems in this collection, if you're fan who enjoys these sort of relative obscurities, that is. Just check out the deliciously bluesy My Angel.
The live concert material from Montreux has excellent sound quality - warm and bassy, as I like it. It includes seven tracks from The Healing Game album plus several others. Foreign Window, from No Guru, No Method, No Teacher is excellent. It is good to hear tracks like this done live. Ditto the vibrant Tore Down A La Rimbaud and the Georgie Fame organ solo on Tupelo Honey.
Overall, this is an excellent set for hard-core fans, as things like this always are. I guess that is who will buy it, and quite rightly too, they won't be disappointed.
