'Van Morrison,' says Greil Marcus, 'remains a singer who can be compared to no other in the history of modern popular music.' When Astral Weeks was released in 1968, it was largely ignored. When it was re-released as a live album in 2009 it reached the top of the Billboard charts, a first for any Van Morrison recording. The wild swings in the music, mirroring the swings in Morrison's success and in people's appreciation (or lack of it) of his music, make Van Morrison one of the most perplexing and mysterious figures in popular modern music, and a perfect subject for the wise and insightful scrutiny of Greil Marcus, one of America's most dedicated cultural critics. This book is Marcus's quest to understand Van Morrison's particular genius through the extraordinary and unclassifiable moments in his long career, beginning in 1965 and continuing in full force to this day. In these dislocations Marcus finds the singer on his own artistic quest precisely to reach some extreme musical threshold, the moments that are not enclosed by the will or the intention of the performer but which somehow emerge at the limits of the musician and his song.

Fourth studio album by the Northern Irish singer-songwriter. Released in November 1970, the album was as well received as Morrison's previous album, 'Moondance', owing its success mainly to the US Top Ten single 'Domino', which was released before the album and surpassed Morrison's 1967 hit, 'Brown Eyed Girl'.Disc 11. Domino - Van Morrison (3.10)2. Crazy Face - Van Morrison (3.00)3. Give Me a Kiss - Van Morrison (2.41)4. I've Been Working - Van Morrison (3.30)5. Call Me Up in Dreamland - Van Morrison (3.55)6. I'll Be Your Lover, Too - Van Morrison (3.54)7. Blue Money - Van Morrison (3.48)8. Virgo Clowns - Van Morrison (4.14)9. Gypsy Queen - Van Morrison (3.18)10. Sweet Jannie - Van Morrison (2.12)11. If I Ever Needed Someone - Van Morrison (3.48)12. Street Choir - Van Morrison (4.49)

The once-great Irish singer has trashed his reputation by preaching extremism around Covid. Oliver Keens worries that Glastonbury’s involvement with him could hurt the world’s greatest music festival’s impeccable reputation

​April 22nd, 1966 - While on tour in Australia, Bob Dylan sat down for a press conference with a room of journalists in Adelaide. Listen to the audio of the press conference at the bottom of this

Gallery of iconic images from Van the Man's career

Jon Michaud writes about a new book about Van Morrison, which takes up the masterpiece “Astral Weeks” and unearths the largely forgotten context from which it emerged.

Photographing Van Morrison: The image used for the Moondance Album (1969) Van Morrison was living In Woodstock. NY. When I went to his home on the day of the photo shoot Van had a large pimple in the middle of his forehead…so I had to photograph him up close cutting off the top of his forehead.