1000 Day Album Challenge (#32) Van Morrison: It’s Too Late to Stop Now (1974) [01.02.24]
turn up your radio and let me hear the song…
listening to Van Morrison provides an opportunity to experience transcendence or at least its flavor, even if not always its absolute essence. I remember an all night party at our place in Philly when let’s just say we all were a bit ecstatic. in the morning, with the sun coming through the skylights I played all of (or at least one side of) Astral Weeks (1968). when leaving one of my friends commented something like, “I never realized that Van Morrison was so spiritual.” I admit it was a warm feeling to know that I helped someone realize that simply by playing a record.
I’ve been a Van Morrison fan since sometime in college. my thesis advisor and debate coach, Bob Branham, played a role in that. I don’t quite remember the precise nature of that role – did I hear a particular album, or more, through him somehow? something greater than that? I am confident that there was a Van connection and he played at least some sort of mentor role in my embracing Van Morrison.
I owned almost all of Van’s seventies output on vinyl. looking over his discography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Morrison_discography), Hard Nose the Highway is the only album of the era I never bought. I was a latecomer to his live album, It’s Too Late to Stop Now. I don’t think I bought it until the late 90s. waiting that long was a mistake. I am not the biggest fan of live albums. I feel like most are overrated and don’t capture enough of the energy of being at a show in person to overcome the superior versions. there are plenty like this one that I love. for example, it was One More From the Road that introduced me to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Van’s blues and R&B roots are acknowledged in his choice of covers. one-third of the tunes here are blues and R&B covers. featuring both strings and horns, his eleven piece band, the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, are loose but never sloppy. the song I have returned to her more than any other is his version of Ray Charles’ I Believe to My Soul. on my vinyl it was the last song on side one. streaming the album I realize I would have always let that flow right into I’ve Been Working.
It’s Too Late to Stop Now is an excellent choice to expose yourself to a cross section of Van’s early seventies solo output, a couple of mid-sixties songs from his original band, Them, half a dozen covers and the Cypress Avenue from his early masterpiece, Astral Weeks (1968).