Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece

(click image to listen)

Every man and woman in America has danced to "Brown-Eyed Girl" (if you haven't you are not human...hurry and do it to reclaim your membership), and Astral Weeks is credited by a whole slew of hep cats as one of the grooviest pre-indie indie records ever made.  Moondance is a greatest hits record in and of itself (and "Into the Mystic" was on a mix tape mailed to me by the first girl I ever fell in love with).  But despite Astral Weeks' experimental genius and Moondance's undeniable pop cred, Veeden Fleece has one thing they do not: it got me through the worst hangover I have ever experienced.

I have no words to describe this hangover, other than to say that I was literally wishing for death at its height, but as the rest of the party left that morning to do whatever it was that people who didn't drink their weight in tequila the previosu night did, my friend changed the morning music, and when Morrison's voice broke over the gentle tide of piano, strings, guitar and soft horns, I could suddenly breathe again.  I knew I felt like hell, but I didn't feel like I felt like hell.  For about 35 minutes, all I felt was this music.  This is the music I want to hear playing when I die.

I did a little research and was surprised at the lack of good Van Morrison art out there.  There are a few gems where he's a co-bill, and a couple nice ones from the late 60s, and this recent one created by Ron Donovan and printed by Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company:

Cheers to one of the most soulful men on the planet...enjoy.