A question that arises time and time again on this list is whether you should separate the artist from the art and indeed if that is even possible. There are a lot of cases of musicians who turned out to have problematic personal lives or political opinions but the music still has something to say. In Van Morrison’s case his public persona on this album is of a fairly liberal hippy singing jazzy love songs with a bit of a spiritual side, and this album is perfectly fine if you like that sort of thing.
However, in recent years Van Morrison has made no secret of his far right antisemitic views (writing a jaw droppingly offensive song called “They Own the Media”) as well as his tinfoil hat anti-vax conspiracy theories. It’s also no secret that he has had a turbulent private life and taken a petty dispute with a neighbour about a driveway all the way to the Irish Supreme Court to prove a point (which he lost). Lovely guy.
So, I can’t really appreciate these songs as I might have done had I heard the record with no prior knowledge of his character.
Your mileage may vary.
https://album.link/gb/i/1031002336
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