Van Morrison is 76 years old today.
A Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician, Morrison’s live performances at their best are transcendental, while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums, Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album, It's Too Late to Stop Now, are critically acclaimed and appear at the top of many greatest album lists.
Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish show-bands covering the popular hits of the day.
He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band, Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic, "Gloria.” Morrison’s solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single, "Brown Eyed Girl," in 1967.
After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison’s contract and allowed him three sessions to record, Astral Weeks, in 1968. Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received.
However, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist, and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of critically acclaimed albums and live performances.
Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008, he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B, such as the popular singles "Brown Eyed Girl,” "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile),” "Domino" and "Wild Night.”
An equal part of his catalog consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as Astral Weeks and lesser-known works such as Veedon Fleece and Common One.
The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic Soul.”
Here, Morrison performs “Into the Mystic”