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Title: Van Morrison : Inarticulate Speech of the Heart by John Collis, John Collis ISBN: 0-306-80811-0 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: September, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 1.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: An uneven biography: inconsistent and incomplete.
Comment: After reading John Collis' VAN MORRISON: INARTICULATE SPEECH OF THE HEART, I'm not sure of the author's intention. In the introduction, Collis claims that he "offers only respect, and simply wants to get amateur psychoanalysis out of the way at the outset." During the course of the next 200 or so pages, however, Collis revels in shameless psycho-babble of the lowest sort while repeatedly criticizing Morrison's notoriously reticent personality.
Another criticism is that Collis seemed to focus a disproportionate amount of his ten chapter biography on Van's years with Them and Van's early solo career. The first seven chapters roughly cover Van's childhood in Belfast up to the release of the WAVELENGTH album in 1978. It is thus left to the remaining three chapters to cover a twenty some odd year era which many fans consider to be Morrison's most consistently rewarding years.
Considering that Van has, on average, released an album every year, Collis' focus on this early era comes at the expense of adequately covering the middle and later periods of Van's career. Indeed, the overall feel of Collis' book is that it was rushed into to print to capitalize on the fact that no Van biographies were available when it was published in 1996.
Fortunately, with the publication of Brian Hinton's CELTIC CROSSROADS, this is no longer the case. Collis does offer some insightful comments on Van's albums, but I would recommend Patrick Humphries' THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE MUSIC OF VAN MORRISON to fulfill this task. Overall assessment: inconsistent and incomplete. Not recommended.
Rating: 1
Summary: Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
Comment: I do not advise purchasing this book. The author seems focused on Morrison's anti-journalism to the extent that he seems to lose sight of his subject. Since Morrison is difficult (if not impossible) to interview, the author has been left with little more than the music to review. His reviews are passable but his insistence on noting numerous incidents where Morrison is arrogant and/or unappreciative of others turns the book into one long, cynical complaint regarding Van's character. The ending alone, wherein the author quotes Morrison's obscene rant to an audience member who requests a song from him, is depressing enough for me to recommend anyone to pass on this one. Sometimes ignorance IS bliss. Go buy Saint Dominic's Preview and listen for the real story!
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Title: Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison by Brian Hinton ISBN: 1860745059 Publisher: Sanctuary Publishing Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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