What happened to Van Morrison? The fall from eccentric genius to conspiracy theorist

[Demovictory9]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-05-10/van-morrison-latest-record-project-antisemitism-coronavirus

Outside of the circles of his most dedicated fans, the arrival of a Van Morrison album in the 21st century has not been a news event. That trend stopped last week, however, when Morrison, 75, released “Latest Record Project, Vol. 1,” a 28-track double album that includes eyebrow-raising song titles such as “Where Have All the Rebels Gone,” “Why Are You on Facebook?” and “Stop Bitching, Do Something.” This album is now very much news: Variety published a list of “The 10 Craziest Lyrics” from the record, while the Jerusalem Post rounded up all of the claims of anti-Semitism implied in his song called “They Own the Media” and other lyrics scattered throughout.

This turn toward the alt-right didn’t come out of nowhere. Broadly speaking, Morrison’s career arc looks something like this: He went from being a brash teenage wunderkind with his band Them, to a promising young solo artist (“Brown Eyed Girl”), to a moody, soulful poet casually creating masterpieces (“Astral Weeks” and “Moondance”), to a middle-aged curmudgeon showcasing occasional moments of brilliance (“Common One”), until he slowly devolved into a boozy-uncle type, cranking out boilerplate blues LPs while leaning on his earlier legacy to fill concert halls.

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More recently, the global coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing prohibition of live concerts appear to have shocked and infuriated the singer. In August 2020, Morrison published a screed on his official website explaining that he needed to get his “band up and running and out of the doldrums. … We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward.” In a subsequently deleted message, he went further, denouncing the validity of the science behind social distancing and quarantine. “I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up.”

Back in the fall of 2020, Morrison announced three topical singles protesting COVID-19 restrictions plus a petition to end the temporary ban on live concerts. In one of these songs, “No More Lockdown,” he crooned about scientists “making up crooked facts,” labeling the perpetrators of these measures “fascist bullies.” In an unprecedented turn of events, the songs became cause for Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, to pen an op-ed for Rolling Stone, calling Morrison’s new lyrics “dangerous” and a great comfort to “the tinfoil hat brigade who crusade against masks and vaccines and think this is all a huge global plot to remove freedoms.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-05-10/van-morrison-latest-record-project-antisemitism-coronavirus

[MontanaMama]

1. I had no idea.

So disappointing...

[mcar]

2. What a shame. I love his early music.

[yardwork]

3. Sheesh.

[CentralMass]

4. It's a marvelous night to catch covid ...

[Claire Oh Nette]

21. On my Wavelength...

[Maeve]

5. Some people just don't age well

Particularly if their talents diminish as time goes by...

[MissMillie]

6. I saw a review for his new music

It wasn't pretty.

[brush]

7. Too bad. So sad. How does descent into rignt wing idiocy happen?

How does one disregard 600,000 deaths...and that's a conservative estimate just in this country?

[appalachiablue]

8. Eric Clapton has gone loopy too, second round.

[abqtommy]

11. Yeah, it saddens me to see this. I remember when it was written Clapton Is God

but now it's Eric, My Gawd!

[BlueNProud]

14. Clapton flirted with far right politics National Front in the 70s.

[Withywindle]

18. Rock Against Racism started in part in reaction to him

Godawful racist comments about immigrants. Warning for racial slurs:

"Originally conceived as a one-off concert with a message against racism, Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976 by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle, Jo Wreford, Pete Bruno and others. According to Huddle, "it remained just an idea until August 1976", when Eric Clapton made a declaration of support for former Conservative minister Enoch Powell (known for his anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech) at a concert in Birmingham.[2] Clapton told the crowd that England had "become overcrowded" and that they should vote for Powell to stop Britain from becoming "a black colony". He also told the audience that Britain should "get the foreigners out, get the wogs out, get the coons out", and then he repeatedly shouted the National Front slogan "Keep Britain White".[3][4] Saunders, Wreford and Bruno, who were members of the agit-prop theatre group, Kartoon Klowns, together with Huddle, responded by writing a letter to NME expressing their opposition to Clapton's remarks. They claimed these were all the more disgusting because he had his first hit with a cover of Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff': "Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black... Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!" At the end of the letter, they called for people to help form a movement called Rock Against Racism, and they received hundreds of eager replies from fans who recognised the hypocrisy and wanted to proclaim the black roots of the music they loved.[2]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Against_Racism

[BlueNProud]

20. Wow worse than I though. Thanks for the info.

[PatSeg]

16. They both are extremely rich

They can pretty much do anything they want with their lives and this is what they chose? Apparently money can't buy reason and decency.

[BlueJac]

9. I will just stick with his old music I love.

Crazy times.

[Paladin]

10. I hope he's endangering his knighthood status. (nt)

[Patterson]

12. He's been a crank a long time. Around 1994 he got drunk on stage and started yelling out crazy p

political stuff.

[BlueNProud]

13. I noticed what I though was a rightward bent to some of his lyrics 20 year's ago

still in my top 5 all time.

[musette_sf]

15. Van Morrison: Latest Record Project Volume 1 review - depressing rants by tinfoil milliner

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/06/van-morrison-new-record-project-volume-one-review

[Hortensis]

17. It's possible to respect his questions but not where they've taken him.

Poor guy. Like those yelling at people in public, he's probably very anxious and defensive these days.

From the WaPo, an article I missed and have to look up: "there is “a growing pipeline between New Age male spirituality, new masculinity movements and QAnon.” I knew the New Age spirituality connection was big. Decline of churchgoing does not erase the need to be part of groups for spiritual belonging, just directs it in different directions, including those where predators and wingnuts await.

But the "male spirituality" and "masculinity movements" sound worth reading about. And inevitable. After all, that's the way the authoritarian Republican Party is going.

[bif]

19. How sad. "Astral Weeks" is one of my Desert Island albums.

I saw him perform it back in the day!