''Into the Music'' is the 11th

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

singer-songwriter

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

, and was released in August 1979. It includes "

Bright Side of the Road "Bright Side of the Road" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1979 album ''Into the Music''. It was also one of the outtakes that made up the 1998 compilation album, ''The Philosopher's Stone (a ...

", which peaked at number 63 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, and other songs in which Morrison sought to return to his more profound and transcendent style after the pop-oriented ''

Wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, t ...

''. The record received favourable reviews from several music critics and was named as one of the year's best albums in the

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abs ...

critics' poll.

Recording

''Into the Music'' was recorded in early 1979 at the Record Plant in

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's ...

, California, with

Mick Glossop Mick Glossop is an English record producer and recording engineer. In 2009, he was awarded a Visiting Professorship at Leeds College of Music. Glossop was initially known for recording and producing for new wave and punk bands such as Magazine ...

as engineer. During the recording of the album, one of the musicians,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

player

Mark Isham Mark Ware Isham (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician and film composer. A trumpeter and keyboardist, Isham works in a variety of genres, including jazz and electronic. He is also a film composer, having worked on numerous films and ...

, referred Morrison to

Pee Wee Ellis Alfred James Ellis (April 21, 1941 – September 23, 2021), known as Pee Wee Ellis due to his diminutive stature, was an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. With a background in jazz, he was a member of James Brown's band in the 19 ...

who lived nearby. Morrison brought him in to do the horn charts for "Troubadours", but Ellis remained and worked on the entire album. The band also included Toni Marcus on strings,

Robin Williamson Robin Duncan Harry Williamson (born 24 November 1943) is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and storyteller who was a founding member of The Incredible String Band. Career Williamson lived in the Fairmilehead area of Edinbu ...

on penny whistle, and Ry Cooder playing slide guitar on "Full Force Gale".Hage, ''The Words and Music of Van Morrison'', pp. 90-91 According to ''

Hymns to the Silence ''Hymns to the Silence'' is the twenty-first studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was his first studio double album. Morrison recorded the album in 1990 in Beckington at Wool Hall Studios and in London at Townhouse an ...

'' author Peter Mills, ''Into the Music'' was titled after

Ritchie Yorke Ritchie Yorke (12 January 1944 – 6 February 2017) was an Australian-born author, broadcaster, historian and music journalist, whose work was widely published in the U.S., UK, Canada and elsewhere. Biography Australia: 1962–1966 Ritch ...

's 1975 biography of the same name on Morrison, while the book had been titled in reference to his song "

Into the Mystic "Into the Mystic" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and featured on his 1970 album ''Moondance''. It was also included on Morrison's 1974 live album, ''It's Too Late to Stop Now''. Recording and composition "Int ...

" (1970).

Music and lyrics

Morrison wrote most of the songs while he was staying with

Herbie Armstrong Herbert Christopher Armstrong (born 14 May 1944) is a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is known for his collaborations with Kenny Young in the bands Fox and Yellow Dog, and with Van Morrison in the early 1960s and again in ...

in the

Cotswold The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jura ...

village of Epwell, England, and the sense of place is reflected in the spirit of the music. During this time, he would often walk through the fields with his guitar composing the future album's songs. Erik Hage commented that after the favourable commercial reception of ''

'', Morrison was inspired to "return to something deeper, to once again take up the quest for music that was spontaneous, meditative, and transcendent—music that satisfied the other side of his artistic nature." Morrison was quoted on his opinion of the album, "''Into the Music'' was about the first album where I felt, I'm starting here...the ''Wavelength'' thing, I didn't really feel that was me." (1988) "That's when I got back into it. That's why I called it ''Into the Music''." (1984) The opening track, "

" peaked at number 63 on the

. The healing power of music would be subtly introduced on "

And the Healing Has Begun "And the Healing Has Begun" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and recorded on his 1979 album, '' Into the Music''. Recording and composition "And the Healing Has Begun" was recorded at the Record Plant Studios in ...

", and would be a continuing theme in Morrison's music. Although celebration of love and life was the predominant theme of the album, this was especially true of "Troubadours", "Steppin' Out Queen" and " You Make Me Feel So Free". "Troubadours" is an uplifting celebration of the singer-songwriter from ancient days, walking through towns "singin songs of love and chivalry". "Rolling Hills" is a joyful song in which the singer directly refers to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and to living his life "in Him" and reading the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. The album is notable for its interpolation of an elegiac version of the fifties pop hit " It's All in the Game". It was a B-side of the Morrison song "

Cleaning Windows "Cleaning Windows" is a song written by the Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, recorded on his 1982 album ''Beautiful Vision''. Recording and composition The version of "Cleaning Windows" that was released as a single and was includ ...

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'',

Jay Cocks John C. "Jay" Cocks Jr. (born January 12, 1944) is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is a graduate of Kenyon College.New York'' found Morrison's spirituality casually but confidently expressed in songs that are "introspective, impressionistic", and "charged by the author's overwhelming belief in them". '' High Fidelity'' was impressed by Morrison's ability to explore a diversity of universal emotions and called the album "the full-circle complement to his most cosmic, allegorical work", veering from

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

-rooted R&B and Gaelic songs to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

blended with "heartfelt religious fervor". "There's a general sense of happiness and clarity here", the magazine wrote, "as if Morrison has finally distilled his feelings down to their most essential musical level." In ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', Robert Christgau deemed ''Into the Music'' his best record since 1970's ''

Moondance ''Moondance'' is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 27 January 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album ''Astral Weeks'' (1968), Morris ...

'' while writing that like

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, Morrison had "abandoned metaphorical pretensions, but only because he loves the world". Morrison's simple odes to rural life, he believed, were made vivid and deeper by backing musicians such as Marcus and "by his own excursions into a

vocalese Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation. Definition Vocalese uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos, as opposed to scat singing, which uses nonsen ...

that has never been more various or apt." Christgau viewed "It's All in the Game" as the album's only great song, however, and was somewhat critical of the "lightweight rockers" and "You Know What They're Writing About", which he felt sounded tedious halfway through. Don Snowden of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' described ''Into the Music'' as "a more personal, more definitely Van Morrison album than ''Wavelength''", but complained that "Bright Side of the Road" and "You Make Me Feel So Free" lacked the "rhythmic punch and melodic substance" of the artist's early-1970s R&B songs and that elsewhere, "tempos often drag when they should push and few of the melodies make any lasting impression." Snowden also wrote: "Despite sporadically interesting passages, the four songs on the second side carry on far too long." Reviewing for the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'', Paul Rambali welcomed Morrison's return to ''

Veedon Fleece ''Veedon Fleece'' is the eighth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on 5 October 1974. Morrison recorded the album shortly after his divorce from wife Janet (Planet) Rigsbee. With his broken marriage in the pa ...

''-style musical arrangements but said, with the exception of "Full Force Gale" and "Rolling Hills", they lacked the precision that

Jeff Labes Jef Labes is an American keyboardist and musician. He is best known from his work with Van Morrison and Bonnie Raitt. Jef Labes has also arranged for string and woodwind instruments on numerous albums. Career Labes started his recording career ...

had brought to the artist's earlier work and instead "merge the songs into a jaunty, lightweight mass". He also said that Morrison's singing lacked conviction and concluded: "I hate records like this – neither particularly good nor especially bad but just, well, pleasant. They hang there frustrating you in the run-off grooves ... And I hate this even more because Van Morrison made it, and because he set out with the right idea this time, too." ''Into the Music'' was voted the sixth-best album of 1979 in the

, an annual poll of American critics nationwide; Christgau, the poll's supervisor, ranked it fourth on his own year-end list. In ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' (1983), Dave Marsh later said the second half's suite of nocturnal ballads was "the greatest

side Side or Sides may refer to: Geometry * Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape) * Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape) Places * Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, Greece * Side (Caria), a town of an ...

of music Morrison has created since ''

Astral Weeks ''Astral Weeks'' is the second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was recorded at Century Sound Studios in New York during September and October 1968, and released in November of the same year by Warner Bros. Rec ...

''". Morrison biographer Erik Hage called the record "a fully fleshed-out musical vision that often surrenders to rapturous moments of pure beauty".

Aftermath

After the release of ''Into the Music'' and before his next release ''

Common One ''Common One'' is the twelfth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1980. The album was recorded over a nine-day period at Super Bear Studios, near Nice, on the French Riviera. Its title is in the lyrics of t ...

'' in 1980, Morrison appeared at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

with a fleshed-out band. He performed two of the songs from the album, "Troubadours" and "Angeliou". These two songs featured Morrison interacting with the brass section, composed of Pee Wee Ellis and Mark Isham. Erik Hage describes this musical relationship between Morrison and the two brass musicians as "simply stunning".Hage, ''The Words and Music of Van Morrison'', p.91 Morrison's 2006-released DVD, ''

Live at Montreux 1980/1974 ''Live at Montreux 1980/1974'' is the first official DVD by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 16 October 2006. The films consist of two separate performances by Van Morrison at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switz ...

'', contained these performances of the two songs. The 29 January 2008 reissued and remastered version of ''Into the Music'' contains alternative takes of "Steppin' Out Queen" and "Troubadours".

Track listing

All songs written by

, unless noted. ;Side one #"

" – 3:47 #"

Full Force Gale "Full Force Gale" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was included on his 1979 album '' Into the Music''. Recording and composition "Full Force Gale" was recorded in spring, 1979 at the Record Plant Studios, ...

" – 3:14 #"Steppin' Out Queen" – 5:28 #"Troubadours" – 4:41 #"Rolling Hills" – 2:53 #" You Make Me Feel So Free" – 4:09 ;Side two #

"Angeliou" – 6:48 #"

" – 7:59 #" It's All in the Game" (

Charles Dawes Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker, general, diplomat, composer, and Republican politician who was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-rec ...

, Carl Sigman) – 4:39 #"You Know What They're Writing About" – 6:10 ;2008 Compact Disc bonus tracks #

"Steppin' Out Queen" (Alternate take) – 7:00 #"Troubadours" (Alternate take) – 5:30

Personnel

Musicians *Van Morrison – vocals, guitar, harmonica *

– guitar, backing vocals * Ry Cooder – slide guitar on "Full Force Gale" * David Hayes – bass guitar *Toni Marcus – mandolin, violin,

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, stroviola *Mark Jordan – piano *John Allair – Hammond organ on "And the Healing Has Begun" *

– trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet *

–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

– penny whistle on "Troubadours" and "Rolling Hills" *

Katie Kissoon Mac and Katie Kissoon are a pop soul duo, consisting of brother and sister Mac Kissoon (born Gerald Farthing, November 11, 1943, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) and Katie Kissoon (born Katherine Farthing, March 11, 1951, Port of Spain). E ...

– backing vocals *

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–

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on "Bright Side of the Road" and "Steppin' Out Queen" *

Peter Van Hooke Peter Van Hooke (born 6 April 1950) is an English rock drummer and producer with over 350 credits to his name. He was the drummer for the English band Mike + The Mechanics (from 1984 to 1995) and also drummed for Van Morrison's band, Headstone ...

– drums *Kurt Wortman – drums on "Troubadours" Production *Producer: Van Morrison *Assistant Producer: Mick Glossop *Recorded & Mixed by: Mick Glossop *Assistant Engineers: Alex Kash (recording), Leslie Ann Jones (mixing) *Horn Arrangements:

* Coordination: Richard Freeman, Ed Fletcher *Photography and design:

Norman Seeff Norman Seeff (born March 5, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a photographer and filmmaker. Since moving to the United States in 1969, his work has been focused on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative ...

Charts

Notes

References

* Hage, Erik (2009). ''The Words and Music of Van Morrison'', Praeger Publishers, * Heylin, Clinton (2003). ''Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography'', Chicago Review Press, * Rogan, Johnny (2006). '' Van Morrison: No Surrender'', London: Vintage Books * Turner, Steve (1993). '' Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now'', Viking Penguin, {{Authority control Van Morrison albums 1979 albums Albums produced by Van Morrison Mercury Records albums Warner Records albums Polydor Records albums