My Corona Diary (Take XXIV): From Weird, To Just Plain Bad: Van The Man's Crotchety Anti-Lockdown Rock

<Irish News, 11/30/17:
See link below for a flavor 
of the interview -- he's a bit difficult,

as you'll find out...>

<i.>

It's fair to say, isn't it, that the gray viral dawn of COVID has pushed all of our adaptive capabilities to the outer limit. That's why "tired," I'm sure, is the word I most often hear, these days, from my friends and loved ones. Still, some of us are seizing the moment better than others, which is why I have some serious issues with Van Morrison's anti-lockdown musical crusade. 

He's just dropped the fourth single in that dubious series, "Stand And Deliver," complete with Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals: "Do you want to be a free man, or do you want to be a slave?" Spartacus should be so proud, I guess, with lyrics like these: "Do you wanna be a free man, or do you wanna be a slave?/Do you wanna wear these chains/Until you're lying in the grave?"

All proceeds will go to the Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, an entity that Morrison has set up to help musicians who've fallen on hard times, now that COVID's taken touring totally off the table. It all sounds pretty conscientious and admirable, except...

<except...

except...

except...>

"Stand And Deliver" is dropping at a time of near-total panic, due to a new COVID strain that's reportedly 70% more transmittable than its predecessor. In response, Boris Johnson's government has shut down all nonessential businesses (bowling alleys, cinemas, gyms, hairdressers, and shops) for two weeks, with people restricted to meeting just one other person from another household in any public space. Considering that Johnson hasn't always taken the virus seriously himself, this news alone should give Van the Man pause.

You've got to be awfully tone deaf to drop an anti-lockdown ode on the eve of what will surely go down as Britain's most harried Christmas ever. Yet "Stand & Deliver" is  the fourth entry in this exercise, which includes "As I Walked Out," "Born To Be Free," and "No More Lockdown."

Sadder still, as Yahoo News has noted, both legends seem to be buying lock, stock and riff into the conspiracy theories and crackpot rebellions that have dogged the whole COVID tragedy since its beginnings, as if it's something they could somehow snap their fingers and slap aside, the moment that their (mostly, presumably) graying fanbase mobilizes to gatecrash the barricades: "Stand and deliver/You let them put the fear on you/Stand and deliver/But not a word you heard was true."

Clapton has explained his participation in Van's latest tirade against public health by characterizing it as a rally around the rock 'n' roll flag, as it were: "There are many of us who support Van and his endeavors to save live music: he is an inspiration. We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover."

Eric, old man...If your worst case scenario is not strapping on a guitar for your paying customers, then you're even more out of touch than I could ever imagined. How about dying horribly, all by yourself in a hospital bed -- assuming they have one for you -- without anyone to see you off? That scenario sounds a lot more unthinkable than just not being able to crank up the music. We don't say, "See you on the other side," we say, "See you later." There's a slight difference, verbally speaking. But I digress.

<"Introducing...The Lone Unmasker"
The Reckoner>

<ii.>

Longtime Van Morrison watchers will remind you that this latest twist in his career is hardly a new one. That's not to denigrate his vocal abilities, which remain considerable, and remarkable. Where many of his '60s- and '70s-era cohorts often sound weaker and wispier, he's never seemed stronger, and the creative peaks of albums like Astral Weeks (1968), Moondance (1970) and Veedon Fleece (1974), to name three, are always worth revisiting. He's done some equally noteworthy collaborations with Georgie Fame and the Chieftains.

My personal favorites are Into The Music (1979) and Common One (1980), widely regarded as some of the most joyful and challenging of his lengthy discography, and I heartily encourage you all to check them out, plus the purple patch of creativity he experienced during the mid- to late '80s, with Beautiful Vision (1982), Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (1983)*, A Sense Of Wonder (1985), and Poetic Champions Compose (1987). No dispute there from me.

Since the mid-'80s, however, Van has increasingly begun trafficking in a style I'd jokingly call Grump Rock, Grouse Music, or Grievance Pop, a tendency that began creeping out on songs like "Thanks For The Information" (No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, 1986), where he sternly takes popular culture to task: "It's living off dummy tech or MTV/And with her everything light becomes heavy/And everything heavy becomes light." Wonder who the lucky date was that night? Hopefully, it wasn't Debbie Downer From Derry, but presumably, that's what it takes to cope with the Bleary-Eyed Bard From Belfast, I suppose. 

As time has gone on, though, Van has elevated his Grump Rock brand to a distinct sub-genre of his style. It's one built around lightweight riffs, vaguely defined grievances and numbingly banal lyrics, whether he's scolding society at large ("You can't believe what you read in the papers/Or half the news that's on TV": "What's Wrong With This Picture," 2003), the media ("They've brainwashed the suckers again and perpetrated the myth," "School Of Hard Knocks," 2008), or one of his favorite targets, the music industry ("They sold me out for a few shekels," "They Sold Me Out," 2005).

At least "They Sold Me Out" boasts an insidiously catchy melody and vocal hook, a quality that seems far less evident on the former efforts, or his latest anti-lockdown broadsides. As Rolling Stone points out, it's downright weird to hear him crooning bitter couplets like "Don't need the government cramping my style/Give them an inch/They take a mile," over an upbeat country-soul backing track. It's as if the Carpenters had recorded an album of screaming, headbanging rock 'n' roll, or Metallica had taken the Bert Bacharach route over a double album.

Still, if I were only picking musical nits, I'd feel a lot less concerned about Van the Man's newly-minted curmudgeonly posture, one that he apparently feels comfortable enough airing more openly, as the years go by. My problem with it deepens when I read about him dismissing COVID-19 as some figment of some faceless bureaucrat's imagination, as he aired on a since-deleted post on his website, according to Rolling Stone: "Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudoscience and speak up."

The disconnect grows even more worrisome, when you consider Van Morrison's  status as a celebrity and certified legend with an estimated net worth of $90 million, which that means somebody out there listens to him, and takes some of his public pronouncements seriously. More than a few people here or there, as Northern Ireland's Health Minister, Robin Swann, told Rolling Stone, in critiquing Van's lumpen anti-lockdown rock outbursts: "I don't know where he gets his facts. I know where the emotions are on this, but I will say that sort of messaging is dangerous."

Context is everything, especially when you're dealing with a global pandemic that's claimed millions of lives. I do appreciate Van's willingness to raise money for fellow musicians who've slid through the COVID cracks, which someone in his position can do quite effectively. If he'd left it there as the bandwagon of choice for people to jump on, I'd have been happy.

But, instead, he chooses to undercut his own efforts by going about his current path of railing against COVID as some sort of conspiracy against him, saying that he doesn't want to play socially distanced shows, because they're not economically viable -- as if that disruption of his bank balance is somehow more important than  the social misery and suffering the virus has rained down on so many.

<"Spider Above Garage Door":
Take II/The Reckoner>

<iii.>

It's a story that I know all too well, having interviewed my share of COVID-19 survivors, like the woman who'd lost her husband of twenty-some years -- after suffering with him for three days. She didn't learn his fate immediately, because she recovered sufficiently to get discharged after her first day. When I asked how was doing, she said she wasn't crying all day anymore. But even with her faith, and her daughter helping out at home, the road back looked awfully dark, still. And long.

Or maybe Van could join Clapton and myself in talking with another woman who'd also logged time with her husband in the hospital. She had no idea how it happened, because they both committed to wearing masks, and following the other precautions, like social distancing. Even then, their recovery carried a tremendous cost. Both are experiencing side effects from battling their illness. Her husband lost his stepmother, who became their county's second victim of COVID. Both know other family members who are struggling to breath on ventilators, "fighting for their lives," Interviewee Two told me. "People are dying, left and right." The power of personal testimony doesn't come any starker than that.

Tone deaf as it is, Van's posturing becomes all the more offensive and self-aggrandizing when you see the likes of Rolling Stone giving it a platform. In researching this post, I took the trouble to listen all the songs I've mentioned, where -- guess what? -- you can get links to them, via the magazine. I suppose they're doing it in the name of journalistic rectitude, but why give them free exposure?

It's bad enough to see the mainstream media giving free rein to Trump's batshit crazy pronouncements, as they laboriously print them all in living color, syllable for sorry syllable, allowing him and his cult to soak up the resulting attention, and shove our democracy -- such as it is -- closer to the edge. It still amazes me that Twitter waited well into the twilight of Trump's presidency to slap factual warning levels on his Tweets. 

Maybe if they'd shown more of that initiative earlier, we might be in a less dangerous spot than we seem to stand now, but the horse has left the barn, as they say. Or, Van, presumably, if he's seeking another song title for his latest anti-lockdown blast (but I expect five percent, dear boy, if you use it). Whatever happened to the notion that crackpots aren't automatically entitled to attention?

I guess it depends how you define "crackpot," doesn't it, but let's put it this way. I'm old enough to remember when the Ku Klux Klan tried to give press conferences, and those stereotypically seen-it-all-done-it-all, crusty old news guys just laughed them out of the room, without bothering to write any of it down. Today, the KKK guys would probably get a police escort and an uncensored live appearance on CNN, or MSNBC. I could see the billing now: "No Holds Barred: The KKK's Plans For Caged Kids."

Sadly, I doubt that I'll get the chance to put on my Ghosts Of Christmas Past, Present and Future costume, so I can show Eric Clapton and Van Morrison what their flawed thinking has brought down on others. But if I could, I'd happily bring up one of my favorite song titles from Veedon Fleece, one that seems so apropos now: "You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River." Because, sometimes, the river has a way of pushing back. And slapping you right upside the head. Hard.--The Reckoner

<Footnote>

(*"Special Thanks" to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in the credits aside, Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart is a good album. Van was reportedly a serious Scientology believer at that time; like many celebrities, he's done the whole stereotypical search through the spiritual shopping mall to find the meaning of life. Still, four of Inarticulate's tracks are instrumentals, so you need not fear any subliminal brainwashing there. :-)

<Update: 5/10/21>

Evidently, Van hasn't gotten all the grievances out of his system yet, judging by the response to his new album, Latest Record Project Vol. 1, a sprawling, 28-track affair that doesn't feature any of the aforementioned songs, but a slew of equally grouchy ones their place ("They Control The Media," "Where Have All The Rebels Gone," and "Why Are You On Facebook?"). 

Other tracks, like "The Long Con," continue Van's other long-running preoccupation of some faceless, nameless "they" out to do him harm ("I'm a targeted individual," he carps), apparently lending some weight to the anxiety voiced by reviewers like InsideHook: "We were right to be worried. Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 is a total shame of a record, so bad that it actively taints the legacy of one of the 20th century’s finest musicians and makes the case that it’s time for him to hang it up."

Ouch! I've seen faceless opening acts get better reviews, though it's fair to say that Van the Man's current output seems fated to especially turn off those who have cut him some slack in the past. Apparently, InsideHook won't be among them ("Sonically, it feels totally phoned-in; it’s by-the-numbers Morrison fare that he could have recorded in his sleep.") But I'll let you be the judge. Just click the link, which joins the others below.

Links To Go (Or...Hey, Eric?
Hey, Van? Enough Already):

Daily Beast
Britain's Supercharged Mutant Virus
Expected To Go Global:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-supercharged-mutant-coronavirus-expected-130447381.html

InsideHook:
Van Morrison's New Album Is An Utter Embarrassment:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/van-morrisons-album-utter-embarrassment-040500848.html

Irish News: Van Morrison: 
"I've Got Nothing To Say
About Politics And I'm Not Going To Start Now":
https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2017/12/01/news/van-morrison-i-ve-got-nothing-to-say-about-politics-and-i-m-not-going-to-start-now-1199647/

Los Angeles Times
Eric Clapton's Anti-Lockdown Song
By Van Morrison Is Totally Worth Protesting:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/eric-claptons-anti-lockdown-protest-192907816.html

People
UK Prime Minister Cites
"New Variant" Of Coronavirus
As He Imposes Stricter Lockdown:
https://people.com/health/u-k-prime-minister-tightens-lockdown-mutated-coronavirus-strain/

Rolling Stone: Van Morrison Has Been
Complaining In Song For Decades.
This Time It Could Be Harmful:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/van-morrison-complaining-song-decades-141156849.html

Variety: Eric Clapton and Van Morrison
Release Anti-Lockdown Song "Stand And Deliver":
https://variety.com/2020/music/news/eric-clapton-van-morrison-anti-lockdown-stand-and-deliver-1234867073/