Let’s get this damn business settled once and for all. Steve T’s alarming claim that Hymns To The Silence is the great man’s “best album” cannot – must not! – go unchallenged. List yer Top Five and we can all go home with a sense of satisfaction that the issue has at last been laid to rest.
If we’ve done this before, and it seems more than likely we have, please link to the results and we can accept those and save ourselves a lot of bother. If not, roll your sleeves up and get stuck in. Five for your top choice (at the top of your list), one for the bottom.
Here’s mine (which is of course definitive):
Astral Whelks (I KNOW! I KNOW! SHUT UP!)
St. Dominic’s Preview
Veedon Fleece
Too Late To Stop Now
Tupelo Honey
The votes are in! Those results in full:
Astral Whelks 5
St. Dominic’s Preview 4
Veedon Fleece 3
Too Late To Stop Now 2
Tupelo Honey 1
you are cheating again with a live album!
1. Astral Weeks
2. Moondance
3. St Dominic’s Preview
4. His Band and Street Choir
5. Beautiful Vision
6. Veedon Fleece
7. Into the Music
8. Tupelo Honey
9. Common One
10. The Healing Game
A live album, Dai, is “an album”. The task here – seemingly attainable by even the meanest intelligence – seems to have eluded you. See also – five, as in “Top Five”. But you got a couple right, anyway – well done you!
It is great, but stands alone. Did you see the gap between 5 and 6,? Hope that helps you out.
Yebbut everything after the gap doesn’t count. So why bother? I might instigate a rule whereby adding supernumerary albums puts them into the minus points. Your number six gets minus one, und so weiter.
Terry Adams on cello. Be still, my beating heart……..
Re Dai
Not just any live album though. Arguably the best live album ever made
One of them for sure. Vols II to IV are not too shabby either.
I picked up a Van fanzine in Helter Skelter in the late 1990s.
Mojo had recently declared Astral Weeks to be the second greatest album of all time.
The fanzine declared it to be the 10th greatest Van Morrison album of all time!
Again, we have a commenter who fails to grasp the task at hand.
Van fanzine:
Look at that evil vehicle. The full name of this publication is “What Van Do You Use For Transporting Your Kidnapped or Murdered Victims?”
Common One, Moondance, Poetic Champions, Veedon Fleece, Tupelo Honey.
–
Gastric Weeks, Beautiful Vision, Enlightenment, Too Late To Stop Now, St Dominic’s Previn.
Bite me, as the potted herring said to the grumpy gent from Belfast.
I wish I’d put “Gastric Whelks”, because that is a good joke.
1. Three Chords & the Truth
2. The Prophet Speaks
3. You’re Driving Me Crazy
4. Versatile
5. Roll with the Punches
Oh, bless! BLESS! I love it when Gar gets his eyes focused.
Sorry, I completely misread the OP. I’ll go for Astral Weeks.
You missed out “Anti-lockdown” EP.
Astral, St Doms, Beautiful Vision, Veedom, Into The Music,Common One, Hard Nose…..Actually there are a few more that squeak but the real fall off began when he started wearing his bloody Blues Brothers clothes brand.
We seem to have difficulty counting up to five, don’t we?
yes we do….
1 – Moondance
2 – Astral Weeks
3 – Enlightenment
4 – His Band & The Street Choir
5 – Into The Music
Thank you Mr. Wad. Following the rules perfectly. HOW HARD CAN THIS BE?
I don’t think top 5 Van Morrison albums, but @Blueboy did a top Van Morrison songs poll about 5 years ago:
For me:
Common One
Veedon Fleece
Tupelo Honey
Avalon Sunset
Saint Dominic’s Preview
And Deramdaze told his same favourite Van Morrison poll anecdote back then too! Isn’t it funny how people look at Trump and Brexit and Covid and stuff and think the world changes, when in reality the important things don’t really change at all.
Like your shorts, Gar. Well overdue, you ask me.
But he’s done like 15 albums since then, so the result will be completely different.
Too right… why reinvent the wheel?
Given that Them Again and Them are 1. and 2. respectively, can I have those non-Van Them albums or Trader Horne to make up the five?
When I compiled the results of that poll, the albums which had the most votes for indivual songs were:
Astral Weeks
Moondance
St Dominic’s Preview
Veedon Fleece
Beautiful Vision.
Which is not a bad list
Almost my top 5, no sign of Wavelength.
Veedon Fleece
St Dominic’s Preview
Moondance
Tupelo Honey
Celtic Heartbeat
Celtic Heartbeat?
http://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com
I remember one of the Proclaimers calling it that at the time. Wishful thinking?
Doh, Irish Heartbeat (think I was channelling my inner Van when I typed that).
Cheer up, C
At least you remembered to include it in your list, I clean gorgot both IH an poetic while including Into the Music in both my first and second tier
OK, so HP’s arbitrary limit of 5 somewhat skews things, but really folks? No Wavelength love here? How wrong that is.
It is just extremely average, could make my top 25 (still not bad though), and you can’t really complain if you haven’t even bothered to vote it in.
Re Dai
Not just any live album though. Arguably the best live album ever made
Quite right Dai, you tell him. Flouncing in here with his pronouncements as if he’s too damn good for us.
You are correct. Wavelength is one of Van Morrison’s best five LP’s. I’m not putting the other four mostly because one of my molars has just split and it hurts when I do stuff.
See? See? “Extremely average”? Good grief.
Wavelength “average”?? Good grief, Dai – next you’ll be claiming Abba made great records.
You got a problem with SOS or Tiger?
Average by Van’s standards. I. still said it was good. Too FM radio MOR to be classed as one of his best.
You are weirder than Bellows and he’s really weird (see his comments on Burns Night)
It’s in my top 5. Still pondering the rest. Probably
Beautiful vision
Moondance
St. Doms
Period of transition
Veedon Fleece
Too Late To Stop Now
St Dominic’s Preview
Into the Music
Beautiful Vision
Bubbling under
Astral Weeks
Into the Music
Moondance Tupelo Honey
Common One ]
Tupelo Honey
Interestingly, Van has such a low opinion of Tupelo Honey that it’s currently not available (well, wasn’t listed on his website a few weeks back)
If I asked you to give me five pounds, would you give me ten? Are the rules so densely complex that understanding them is simply beyond you?
Anything below your Top Five doesn’t count, or rather – gets nul points.
If you asked me for five pounds, I’d give you a damn good thrashing with Walter Walking Stick and a send you packing with a flea in your ear about the need to do an honest day’s work, sirrah!
Anyway, it does clearly “bubbling under between the first and second five unless there’s a Van album that none of us here know about
Eh?
This reminds me of a sheepdog trial I once saw in Dai’s homeland. Absolute chaos, sheep running all over the show, the dogs apparently pissed out of their minds.
Never mind – Lodestone Of Wrongness has agreed to collate the results and arrive at the final tally. The alert reader (where is he, by the way?) will have noticed the signal absence of Hymns To The Silence, thoughbut.
1) Veedon Fleece
2) Astral Weeks
3) St. Dominic’s Preview
4) Moondance
5) Tupelo Honey
6) Wavelength
7) Beautiful Vision
8) Hymns To The Silence
9) Avalon Sunset
10) Common One
Your TOP FIVE get counted, Baz, And a jolly good Top Five they are.
Question…….
I see that Tupelo Honey gets a few mentions, but this album seems to have been erased from existence by Van Morrison – it wasn’t included in the remasters a few years ago, it’s not on streaming services and doesn’t even appear in his discography on his own website (which is very weird).
Anyone know the reason ?
For some reason, god knows why, he apparently hates it
Could be related to his personal life at the time of recording.
He’s riding a horse in the woods. Perhaps it threw him off.
Janet’s the one riding, Van’s leading the horse.
You can lead a horse to Janet but you can’t get on on it because you don’t have a ladder. Or something.
On a horse, leading a horse, eating a horse in the form of a tasty cheeseburger, what’s the difference?
Horses for courses.
Lester Piggott, ten to one. And we let the goldfish go.
(not quite so tasty)
From an interesting article in the Irish Independent:
“The pastoral image of Van and his good lady wife, strolling hand in hand through the woodlands, is one that the singer is not too keen on. “I had this album cover years ago, Tupelo Honey, where there was a horse in it,” Morrison told an American journalist in 1996.
“So the myth then was that I was living on a ranch and had horses on that ranch. I didn’t have a ranch; I didn’t have a horse. I don’t have a farm, and I never will. I mean, this is all part of the f***kin’ mythology.” ”
Here’s the full article:
https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/love-lost-in-the-myths-of-time-26253156.html
Ha ha brilliant.
Seem to recall that some journalist back in the mid-70s had the temerity to try and humanise Van by asking him if the Irish wolfhounds on the front of Veedon Fleece might perhaps be his canines, The resultant explosion could apparently be heard many miles away
Journalist:
“Uh, Brian, those goats look really lovely on your latest album cover; are they your own little herd?”
Brian Wilson:
“Wednesday.”
Too Late To Stop Now. = Cello.
And cello to you, too, Herbert!
Hubert
He knows what he said…!
Tee hee!
Re Moose
You bet!
I’m struggling to come up with one.
When are you getting the aid fitted?
The battery has gone flat. I said THE BATTERY HAS GONE FLAT.
Oh go on, Moondance if you insist.
The Best Of (Vol 1)
The Best Of (Vol 2)
The Best Of (Vol 3)
Van Morrison at the Movies
Still On Top
I bought the double CD best of Still On Top for £2 or £3 recently. Strangely it is less than the sum of its parts and really isn’t as good as many of his better albums.
Bugger, I missed out The Philosopher’s Stone. That’s fookin’ boss.
Or even:
Vanthology
No Prima Donna.
Just the two, this time.
Astral Weeks
Into The Music
Moondance
Tupelo Honey
Veedon Fleece
Here is the alert reader – apologies for my late offering but some of us have a job to do -waiting to see the ridicule from the poster but as of yet it has been restrained other than surely the very post itself is a piss take.
Just so that Hymns to the silence doesn’t get neglected totally**:-
1) Hymns to the Silence
2) Astral Weeks
3) Irish Heartbeat
4) A night in San Francisco
5) The Healing Game
Bubbling under would be Enlightenment, Moondance and Too long in Exile.
** @Baron-Harkonnen displayed good taste to include it in his top 10 but flouted the rules by
naming 10 – somehow he escaped the wrath of HPS which shows an unexpected inconsistency.
Since I assume the post was obviously to disprove my rather frivolous assertion that Hymns is the best Van album I would add a caveat since this has obviously caused some consternation.
It may not be the best Van album but it is the one that I play most so in my book that counts as the best.
I do find it amusing that both Astral Weeks and OK computer are touted alternatively in polls as the best album ever. Neither are anything of the sort.
It is very good in indeed. Actually 2 separate albums bolted together as a double.
It’s not a piss-take, Steve. The Afterword is Home To The Lists, and Van is a perennial subject, so it seems a good idea to do a Van list, yes? If there’s any piss-taking going on, it’s by those who submit Top Tens. If I’d asked for Top Tens they’d be submitting Top Twenty-Fives. Because they’re rebels, refusing to be hide-bound by conventional conventions an’ that.
Couldn’t agree more – ask for a top 10 Steely Dan and see how creative they are bearing in mind there aren’t 10.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but everyone is aware that Mark Lawrenson (that bastion of pop culture, great hair) is an admirer of Van Morrison, but not “Astral Weeks,” in his words the “difficult one.”
So, potentially, unless you choose very carefully:
“Mark Lawrenson, that’s you that is.”
I’ve just added up all the scores and here’s the final result
1. Hard Nose The Highway
2. Wavelength
3. The Healing Game
4. Veedon Fleece
5. Astral Weeks
Thank you all for taking part – been a blast.
And – there we have it! I’d like to than- hang on- this can’t be right …
No votes for Too Long in zzzzzz
…..sorry, Too Long in Exile?
I’ll say
St Dominic’s Preview
Astral Weeks
Veedon Fleece
It’s Too Late to Stop Now
Into the Music
Followed by Common One, Tupelo Honey, Beautiful Vision, Hymns to the Silence, Poetic Champions Compose
Great top 5, but you really need to find a way to appreciate Moondance 😉
Best side 1 EVER!!! (and side 2 is very good)
1. And It Stoned Me
2. Moondance
3. Crazy Love
4. Caravan
5. Into the Mystic
How does that compare with dreck like Kingdom Hall or Natalia? (rhetorical question)
You’re right – somehow I forgot about Moondance. And No Guru. And Healing Game. And Hard Nose. Oh, and loads of others.
I love Kingdom Hall, Dai thinks it’s dreck. And whilst we’re at it, Moondance shouldn’t even make Van’s Top 10.
Luckily, I’m Always Right.
I sense that it wasn’t really rehetorical and you’ve got a bit annoyed that someone might prefer Wavelength to, say, Moondance.
Not at all, but I was in a podcast with @Blue-Boy about Van Morrison and Moondance came up at that time.
Nice to see another vote for the sublime PPC. I’m sure most folks are just put off by the cover (fair enough).
Astral Weeks
Veedon Fleece
Moondance
Too late to Stop Now
St Dominics Preview
Do not blame me, I’m only the messenger.
Robert Elms’ favourite Van album? – “Veedon Fleece.”
I’m sorry, it, by definition (“Robert Elms’ favourite…” is the clincher), HAS to be shite.
…and Michael Howard is the world’s biggest Beatles fan.
The Story of Them
Blowin’ Your Mind
Van’s contribution to The Last Waltz
The Best Of Van Morrison
…
Van’s contribution to The Last Waltz, you say?
Never gets old
You can hear the gusset seam going even with the sound off.
Into the Music
St Dominic’s Preview
Common One
Moondance
Beautiful Vision
Avalon Sunset was very close.
(Where’s my )Bleedin’ Fleece
Into the music
St Dom’s
Astral
Hard Nose
Good shout for Hard Nose there. Originally a double album, Warners wouldn’t release it as such and made Van strip it back to a single. It actually works much better as a double – all the missing tracks are known and out there. From A Blog:
“The album as issued was never quite the artistic success it should and could have been. It’s inconsistent, perhaps over-rich, and the more you think about it the more it seems like it was edited down from a double album. Which it was. Or, if you are poetically-minded, you might liken it to a fruitcake with too many cherries and not enough cake. Okay, you come up with a better simile, you’re so smart. Restoring the tracks that were cut from the double allows the HNTH songs to breathe. Gives them a bit of context. But you can’t just shovel them all in at the end as “bonus” tracks, you have to sequence them over the four imaginary album sides so the thing works as it should. Which is what you’ll find here. It flows nicely from beginning to end, with a possible single kicking off each side.”
Not often I agree with the Foam Island Guy but amazingly this bootleg is better than the original and, as we all know, the original is Van’s best.
Ive always though HNTH has been wrongly dismissed over the years. Some stunning tracks like Snow in San Alsemno , Wild Children – sounds unlike most other VM albums.
I may not think it’s his absolute best, but it’s the one I play the most, followed by Wavelength for that glorious soul punch.
It’s not a bootleg, Lodes – it’s my own assemblage, or Album What There Never Was But Ought To. Sleeve too.
Oh, hand me down my big boots.
Van’s Best:
Tupelo Honey
Veedon Fleece
St. Dominic’s Preview
Moondance
It’s Too Late To Stop Now
Veedon Fleece
Into The Music
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
Gastric Whelks
Common One
Strangely no votes for this:
https://recordmecca.com/news/virtual-museum-an-unreleased-van-morrison-album-from-1975-surfaces-for-the-first-time/
Several of those tracks (or different versions of them) can easily be found on various boots
Sorry, was going to amend the above post but the edit feature wouldn’t work.
Should have read:
Versions of the better known unreleased -on ‘official’ album anyway. – tracks (e.g Grits ain’t Groceries) are easily available on various studio outtake boots
Given that the original philosophers’ Stone collection is so damn good, Wonder why Van never did PS Vol II?
He just doesn’t like his old stuff. TPS was at attempt to do an Anthology -style Beat the Boots, which probably made sense in a pre-Eel 1998.
Sigh…
1. His Band and Street Choir
2. Tupelo Honey
3. Moondance
4. Astral Weeks
5. Saint Dominic’s Preview
Van Morrison, the Denny Laine years.
A verrrrry nice list. Good to see HBATSC in at Number One.
Is that it? Any more for any more? From a quick scan it would seem that Gastric Whelks will stand on the winner’s podium, and it’ll be a close thing between the runners-up. I’m sure Dai will kindly correct my result (I can hear his cogs ticking over from here) but I’ll reveal my findings after this word from our sponsor.
1 | Hymns To The Silence
2 | Tupelo Honey
3 | Astral Weeks
4 | Too Late To Stop Now
5 | Saint Dominic’s Preview
and The Prophet Speaks (mainly for the cover)
Hard Nose goes from Best to Worst? I demand a recount!
Take no notice of him, Lodey. He’s just being naughty.
Not in my top 5 list it didn’t. Also, my post clearly states that my least best list is in.no particular order
Those chart placings in full:
Astral Weeks 56
Veedon Fleece 50
St. Dominic’s Preview 39
Moondance 31
Tupelo Honey 23
Bubbling under:
Into The Mystic 22
Common One 14
Too Late To Stop Now 13
Hymns To The Silence (only two votes, mind) 10
(Single figures for the rest)
There’s an album called Into the Mystic? Is that one of your bootlegs?
There is someone paying attention.
Moondance. How can a fucking album where one side is tres ordinaire be a classic.
And as for that cocktail lounge jazz – cuh!
Sorry, late to this. Here’s my top ten 😉
It’s Too Late To Stop Now
Hard Knows the Highway
Poetic Champions Compose
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher *
St Dominic’s Andrew Preview
Contains my favourite misheard Van lyric: “In the valley, I see Postman Pat”
Sorry I’m late, but I’ve been venturing in the slipstream, through the viaducts of your dream, where immobile steel rims crack, and the ditch in the back roads stop…
1. Veedon Fleece
2. Astral Weeks
3. St. Dom’s Preview
4. Into the Music
5. Wavelength
Almost everything from 1968 to 1990 = great!
Almost everything after 1990 = no thanks
Better pull up a seat and have a serving of potted herrings plus a Paris bun or two for afters
I’m going for:
1. Astral Weeks
2. Veedon Fleece
3. It’s Too Late To Stop Now
4. Into The Music
5. Moondance
It’s tricky really – Into the Music contains my all-time favourite Van track, “And The Healing Has Begun” but it’s by no means his best album. Similarly, “Moondance” has a flawless first side, but definitely dips in quality on side two.
Bubbling under would be St Dominic’s Preview and Common One. After Poetic Champions Compose my interest wanes considerably.
@Henry-Haddock
The old bubbling under trick to exceed the #5 limit.
Re ITM – Healing and Angelou are transcendental
1) Veedon Fleece
2) Tupelo Honey
3) No Guru, No Method, No Teacher
4) The Philosopher’s Stone
5) His Band And The Street Choir
Intellectually I’d put AW first but I will opt for those albums I play most regularly so:
5 Veedon Fleece
4 Tupelo Honey
3 Beautiful Vision
2 Into The Music
1 Hard Nose The Highway
I always preferred the live versions of the Beautiful Vision songs on Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast – Vanlose Stairway is particularly good.
Another for my bubbling under list!
I’m familiar with 9 of Van’s albums (mainly 1968 to 1974 vintage, with 3 more recent outliers) and have 7 of them. They range in quality (IMO) from Not Very Good to Rather Good but none are what I would consider to be Great. Therefore I consider none of them to be indispensable or essential listening.