As we detailed last week Van Morrison will be coming out with a new album October 1st called Born to Sing: No Plan B. This will be Morrison’s first album in 4 years and his 35th solo record overall.
Morrison recently revealed some of the inspirations and themes for this new album, admitting that he felt the need to comment on the worldwide preoccupation with money, materialism, income equality, and the greed that has poisoned society.
Although he insists he isn’t taking a political stand, this new album definitely reflects the protest atmosphere of the times:
I’m not protesting, I’m just observing what’s happening – like Lenny Bruce said, ‘observation, baby!, Starting about two years ago, everybody was talking about money, money, money, and that’s the way songs come about. Whatever people are talking about, the ideas around you, that’s what you pick up. — Van Morrison
Songs on the new album include:
* Open the Door (To Your Heart) : “Money doesn’t make you fulfilled/money’s just to pay the bills.”
* Educating Archie: “You’re a slave to the capitalist system/which is ruled by the global elite.”
* If In Money We Trust – a song-length meditation on the ways in which cash has replaced God at the centre of the modern belief system. Morrison says…
That came from looking at a dollar bill and turning the concept on its head. I thought, ‘what is this stuff on here, what does it mean?’ Some people’s God is money – we’ve discovered that about a lot of people recently. So then what happens after that? What happens if you don’t have it, or if you don’t have enough?
Van Morrison joins a growing list of respected songwriters who recently have used their lyrics and cover songs to speak out on the world’s financial meltdown, the growing economic crisis, and the effect on the “common man.” Others include Ry Cooder (Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down) Bruce Springsteen (Wrecking Ball), Neil Young (Americana) Tom Morello/The Nightwatchmen (World Wide Rebel Songs), Drive By Truckers, and the major compilation record Occupy This Album featuring songs by Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson, Crosby & Nash, Yoko Ono, Lloyd Cole, Joseph Arthur and numerous others.
For his part, Morrison refuses to avow that he has a political agenda that he wants to necessarily cram down people’s throats:
I’m not proselytizing, it’s not some kind of manifesto. Songs are just ideas, concepts, and you just put the mic there and go.
Rock Cellar will be bringing you music to listen to as soon as we can…
