Word up on WHEN THAT ROUGH GOD GOES RIDING: LISTENING TO VAN MORRISON, an imminent new book by Greil Marcus. (Faber are publishing in the UK this year.) While opaque in places, as with some of GM’s Dylan writings, it really engages with the mystery and menace of VM, taking the form of shortish pieces on everything from “Madame George” to THE HEALING GAME. If Lester Bangs’ classic ASTRAL WEEKS piece (orig. from the Marcus-edited STRANDED anthology) remains the greatest-ever piece of writing on Van, WTRGGR reminds one of how great and how different the Marcus of MYSTERY TRAIN was all those years ago.
Well I hope Van likes Marcus’ effort as much as he enjoyed Clinton Heylin’s recent effort…..I do believe he quite enjoys settling down to a bit of biographical probing…
2 Responses to GREIL MARCUS ON VAN MORRISON
Well I hope Van likes Marcus’ effort as much as he enjoyed Clinton Heylin’s recent effort…..I do believe he quite enjoys settling down to a bit of biographical probing…
Greil’s book is light on biographical probing, so he’s on reasonably safe ground. Van might even like this one!