6 Week Online Course with Pete Elman
How Rhythm & Blues and Celtic mysticism combined to inspire an artist for the ages.
Van Morrison’s amazing career has spanned 56 years, and in that time, he has produced 40 albums containing hundreds of his unique and original songs. His eclectic career has seen him range from the early blues-influenced days of his Irish band, Them, to his acclaimed twin masterpieces, Astral Weeks and Moondance, into the 1970’s where he parlayed R&B-based rock into superstardom. For the past 40 years, Morrison has eloquently displayed the ability to move between genres blending jazzy rhythm & blues and the Celtic folk of his ancestors, with healthy doses of rock & roll and country. In this class we will break down that extraordinary volume of work into six periods, chronicling the artist’s evolving development as a man and a musician.
Week One: Early life in Belfast – The misfit becomes a rock star.
Week Two: America beckons – Bert Berns, a Top 40 hit—and a timeless masterpiece, Astral Weeks; we break down the record in its entirety.
Week Three: Personal challenges – and another classic album, Moondance.
Week Four: The 1970’s – a move to California, fatherhood, success, critical acclaim and confusion.
Week Five: The 1980’s – a return to the UK, claiming his Celtic and R&B roots, spirituality and faith. Sobriety, awakening; the road goes on forever.
Week Six: 1990-present – compilations, greatest hits, a new love, trials and tribulations: knighthood, 41 albums, and in the words of Harlan Howard, Three Chords and the Truth. “It’s Too Late to Stop Now.”
Download the suggested viewing, reading and listening sheet.