A Fantabulous Night
- 9 Feb 07, 10:44 AM
It΅―s Thursday at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast and Van Morrison is in legendary form. He΅―s blowing sax on ΅®Moondance΅― and riffing on the piano, he΅―s thumping the guitar strings with the flat of his hand and he΅―s slurping away at the harmonica during a peerless version of ΅®Help Me΅―.
When he΅―s in this kind of form, summoning up great sheets of memory and sentiment, you can forgive him almost anything. He΅―s lifting us beyond the humdrum, out of our petty worries and greater woes. He΅―s giving us religion in a way that most churches can not. The centrepiece of tonight΅―s rhapsody is ΅®The Healing Has Begun΅―, in which the singer΅―s thoughts return to a girl and a glorious Belfast avenue, back in the day. He΅―s floored by the beauty of it all, but still feeling lustful, murmuring salacious things about where they might go and what they might do.
The song rises and rises, off into the swirl of time, as Van sings about being back home in the backstreets, where the spirit first moved him. It΅―s like William Blake doing the boogie with John Lee Hooker and it΅―s perfectly great.
He bleats ΅®There Stands The Glass΅― and you shudder as the lovesick narrator thinks about getting drunk and obliterated. He changes ΅®Have I Told You Lately΅― into a jump-blues tune, like something from an old Louis Prima record. And bless him, he even signs off ΅®Brown Eyed Girl΅― and the timeless ballyhoo of ΅®Gloria΅―.
At times like this, how could you not love the fella?
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