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Blues legend Van Morrison: Late self-calling as a protest singer
Photo: Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic / Getty Images
If only he had stuck to his dictum from three years ago.
At that time, Van Morrison told the Irish News that he had nothing to do with politics in the trilby hat.
"I am apolitical," he emphasized, adding: "I have absolutely nothing to say about politics, and I will not start now".
But what does the old grumbler care about his chatter from yesterday?
As early as 2018, Morrison rumbled against the media and the "fake news" they would spread about him and everything else.
In contrast to his curmudgeon image, which is always reproduced in public, he has a good sense of humor and would laugh more often on stage.
(Nobody just never sees that because they like to turn their back on the audience at concerts).
Only last year the Northern Irishman, now 75 years old, was annoyed that the British Prime Minister had quoted Boris Johnson from one of his songs in a speech.
Without further ado he declared his then new song "Nobody In Charge" to be an anti-Brexit anthem.
Both the distrust of the media and the aversion to Johnson are now also manifested in three protest songs against the lockdown and the corona policy in Great Britain, which Morrison plans to publish in two-week steps from September 25.
They are called "Born To Be Free", "No More Lockdown" and "As I Walked Out".
DER SPIEGEL was allowed to listen to the songs in advance.
Crude historical comparisons
And that wasn't a pleasure.
Soul and blues singer Morrison, celebrated worldwide since the 1960s for R&B evergreens such as "Brown Eyed Girl" or albums such as "Astral Weeks" and "Moondance", knighted by the Queen in 2016, seems to have been knighted in the past few years to have become increasingly radicalized.
Masks, lockdown rules, distance requirements, all of this is repressive nonsense, he suggests in the cheerful, lively and organ-filled "Born To Be Free": "It's not for the benefit of you and me, cause we were born to be free", sings he is moody, but then whispers in crude historical comparisons of new, old ideologies that are supposed to suppress the people: "Everyone seems to have Amnesia / Try to remember the Berlin wall" - everyone seems to be suffering from memory loss, give them a try Remember Berlin Wall.
In "No More Lockdown", a classic piano blues, Morrison becomes even clearer: "No more lockdown, no more government overreach, no more fascist bullies, disturbing our peace", he sings - and describes the politicians of the British government as fascist , assaulting bully.
Inedible, also musically, it becomes in the last song, which is actually just an angry speech laboriously pressed into verse: On March 21, a government website said that Covid-19 no longer falls into the "High-Risk" category , he reports, "but two days later, Boris put us under lockdown."
Why don't the "media and their political lackeys" report about it, he asks over again animated, disturbing organ tones: "Why is it not big news", why aren't the people told the truth?
Morrison's late self-proclamation as a lateral thinking protest singer was not without effect: The song trilogy was completely uninspiring and would not stir up anyone, angry a commentator in the British Telegraph on Friday.
The songs are just "mad mutterings of a grumpy old man".
"It's about freedom of choice"
Last month, Morrison caused a sensation when he called for "fight pseudoscience" in a plea for live concerts to be held again in front of the crowds.
However, the statement was deleted again.
The corona virus is currently spreading again in Great Britain, researchers are already calling for a new lockdown, but Health Minister Matt Hancock initially wants to rely on regional restrictions.
Morrison wants to make it clear in his new songs how unhappy he is with the way the government has taken away personal freedoms, it said in a statement released on Friday.
At the same time, he said he did not want to "dictate what people should do or think".
In his view, the British government is already doing that: "It's about freedom of choice, writes Morrison." I believe people should have the right to think for themselves.
Fair enough.
But Morrison may underestimate his own influence as a popular artist when in "No More Lockdown" he demands: "No more celebrities telling us how we're supposed to feel" - just no longer celebrities telling us what we should feel.
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