Moondance - Composition

Composition

"The yang to Astral Weeks yin, the brilliant Moondance is every bit as much a classic as its predecessor; Van Morrison's first commercially successful solo effort, it retains the previous album's deeply spiritual thrust but transcends its bleak, cathartic intensity to instead explore themes of renewal and redemption."

The combination of music and lyrics of the songs on the Moondance album comprised the first Van Morrison album that was highly accessible with various genres that blend jazz, soul, country, and blues.

The opening song, "And It Stoned Me", according to the singer, depicts a true tale of a day in his childhood. The lyrics show that the setting of the song is rural, including references to a county fair and mountain stream.

The title song is mostly acoustic but also includes electric bass and piano, guitar, saxophone, and a flute over-dub played softly behind Morrison's voice, which imitates a saxophone towards the song's end. Brian Hinton says, "This is a rock musician singing jazz not a jazz singer though the music itself has a jazz swing."

"Crazy Love" has Morrison's voice so close to the microphone, that a click of Morrison's tongue hitting the roof of his mouth is picked up. He sings in falsetto, producing a sense of intense intimacy, with the backing of a female chorus.

"Caravan" is about gypsy life and also about the radio. Morrison said, "I'm really fascinated by gypsies. I love them." Musically, one can discern a decided interplay between the guitar and singer's voice. The song opens with Jef Labes trilling on piano, the drum kit then comes in, whilst Morrison sings the line "And the caravan is on its way". The chorus consists of Morrison and the band singing "La la la la, la la la" repeatedly. John Platania then improvises around Morrison's voice: " interplay with Platania's softly picked guitar touches the soul."

According to Morrison "Into the Mystic" was originally called "Into the Misty" but as he had thought there was "an ethereal feeling to it" he changed the name. Morrison has also said that some of the songs lyrics could have more than one meaning: "I was born before the Wind" could also be "I was borne before the wind" as well as "Also younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was one" being "All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won". The song opens with Collin Tilton's tenor saxophone, made to imitate a foghorn blowing, and ends with the words "Too Late to Stop Now" – a phrase he would famously use to conclude concert endings in the 1970s. After a dynamic stop-start ending to "Cyprus Avenue", Morrison would bellow this phrase and then stalk from the stage. This phrase also served as the title to his acclaimed 1974 live album. These lyrics have also been used at the end of "Friday's Child" in his concerts.

"In Moondance, Morrison bursts forth in warm Technicolor. The Van Morrison that the public would come to know and recognize over the decades—Van the Man, the Belfast Cowboy, etc—essentially makes his first appearance on Moondance."

In Morrison's words, "Come Running" is "a very light type of song. It's not too heavy; it's just a happy-go-lucky song." The song starts with Jef Labes improvising on piano. The two saxophones then split apart, playing different rhythms during the chorus, and come back together for "You gotta rainbow if you run to me".

The song "These Dreams of You" oddly manages to be simultaneously accusatory and reassuring. The lyrics cover such dream sequences as Ray Charles being shot down, paying dues in Canada, and "his angel from above" cheating while playing cards in the dark, slapping him in the face, ignoring his cries, and walking out on him.

Morrison says he was inspired to write "Brand New Day" after hearing The Band on FM radio playing either "The Weight" or "I Shall Be Released": "I looked up at the sky and the sun started to shine and all of a sudden the song just came through my head. I started to write it down, right from 'When all the dark clouds roll away'." Ritchie Yorke quoted Morrison as saying in 1973 that "Brand New Day" was the song that worked best to his ear and the one with which he felt most in touch.

"Everyone" opens with Jef Labes' clavinet in 6/8 time. A flute comes in, playing the melody after Morrison has sung four lines, with Jack Schroer playing the harmony underneath on soprano saxophone. Although Morrison says the song is just a song of hope, Brian Hinton says its lyrics suggest a more troubled meaning, as 1969 was the year in which civil war broke out in Belfast.

The album's closing song, "Glad Tidings", has a bouncy beat but the lyrics, like "Into the Mystic", remain largely impenetrable: "And they'll lay you down low and easy" could be about murder or love. Rolling Stone magazine reviewers Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs have suggested that the song is the most vital on the album by saying: "Perhaps 'Glad Tidings'... is the song that most makes one want to come back to this album without even thinking about it." In 2009, Erik Hage observes that "'Glad Tidings' is also a premonition of the future. For the next four decades, Morrison would continue to use a song here and there to vent about the evils of the music industry and the world of celebrity."