Van Morrison: Inarticulate Speech of the Heart

An intensely private man and a revelatory performer of 35 years’ renown, Van Morrison remains one of music’s most elusive figures.

In this exhaustively researched survey of his life and music, John Collis charts the scale of Van Morrison’s achievement and the sources of his creativity, and provides stimulating assessments of some of his most famous songs. From the explosive, shambolic teenage days on the road with Them, through the creation of 1968’s seminal Astral Weeks to the experimentation of 1970s albums such as Veedon Fleece, Collis shows how Morrison outgrew the initial freedom he found in rock’n’roll to develop his own complex lyrical and instrumental visions. With the recognition of a younger generation and recent collaborators ranging from John Lee Hooker to Tom Jones, he continues to dazzle and beguile his passionate fans in the 1990s.

Drawing on interviews with those closest to Van Morrison at every stage of his career, John Collis’s biography represents a unique insight into the enduring enigma of one of our greatest singer-songwriters and most instantly recognisable voices.