Beautiful Vision

Performer: Van Morrison
Artist: Mark Knopfler; Rob Wasserman; Pee Wee Ellis; Mark Isham
Engineer: Jim Stern; Hugh Murphy
Producer: Van Morrison
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Van Morrison (vocals, piano); Herbie Armstrong (acoustic guitar); Chris Hayes, Chris Michie (guitar); Sean Fulsom (pipes); John Allair (organ); David Hayes (bass); Tom Dollinger, Gary Malabar, Peter Van Hooke (drums); Michele Segan (percussion); Bianca Thornton, Pauline Lozano, Annie Stocking (background vocals). Recorded at The Record Plant, Sausalito, California. Morrison kicked off the '80s with a new musical direction, and BEAUTIFUL VISION marks that turning point. Though Van was a lifelong devotee of American roots music, he put his R&B influences on the backburner for a while, instead pursuing the more spiritual side of his muse, which had always been present, but never given this much room to roam since his very first release, ASTRAL WEEKS. An important element here is the synthesizer and trumpet work of Mark Isham, which provide spacious, ambient musical textures, upon which Van's spiritual insights float. Detractors claim that this period in Morrison's artistic development (a process that continued unabated throughout his entire career), was too mellow, too new-agey. What they fail to grasp is the fact that Morrison was probably the only artist capable of utilizing the very elements they bemoan and not turning it into a goopy, pseudo-mystical mess. The man has a genuine gift for articulating the spiritual. A notable exception to this direction is the funky "Cleaning Windows," a light-hearted look back at one of Morrison's youthful occupations.

NME (Magazine) (9/25/93, p.19) - Ranked #45 in NME's list of The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.

Van Morrison first came to notice as the powerful vocalist of the mid-1960s group Them ("Baby Please Don't Go," "Gloria"), and then with the solo hit "Brown-Eyed Girl." Morrison followed this success with two landmark albums, ASTRAL WEEKS and MOONDANCE, which masterfully combined folk, gospel, rock, and jazz. As complex a performer as any that rock & roll has produced, the soulful Irishman has produced numerous outstanding recordings in his long career, mixing his pensive and passionate R&B-inflected rock with a decidedly mystical bent.

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