Editing Moondance (section)

=== Songs ===
The opening song, "[[And It Stoned Me]]", was written about feelings of ecstasy received from witnessing and experiencing nature, in a narrative describing a rural setting with a county fair and mountain stream. Morrison said he based it on a quasi-mystical experience he had as a 12-year-old fishing in the [[Comber]] village of Ballystockart, where he once asked for water from an old man who said he had retrieved it from a stream. "We drank some and everything seemed to stop for me", the singer recalled, adding that it induced a momentary feeling of quietude in him. According to Hinton, these childhood images foreshadowed both spiritual redemption and—in Morrison's reference to "[[wikt:jellyroll|jellyroll]]" in the chorus—sexual pleasure.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=106}} AllMusic's Tom Maginnis argued that the singer was instead likening the experience to the first time hearing jazz pianist [[Jelly Roll Morton]].{{sfn|Maginnis|n.d.}} The largely acoustic title track "[[Moondance (Van Morrison song)|Moondance]]" featured piano, guitar, saxophone, electric bass, and a flute [[over-dub]] backing Morrison, who sang of an adult romance set in Autumn and imitated a saxophone with his voice near the song's conclusion. "This is a rock musician singing jazz, not a jazz singer, though the music itself has a jazz swing", Hinton remarked.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|pp=106–7}} "[[Crazy Love (Van Morrison song)|Crazy Love]]" was recorded with Morrison's voice so close to the microphone that it captured the click of Morrison's tongue hitting the roof of his mouth as he sang.{{sfn|Collis|1997|p=118}} He sings in [[falsetto]], producing what Hinton felt was a sense of intense intimacy, backed by a female chorus.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=107}}

[[File:Cissy Houston.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Some songs used a three-piece chorus of backup singers that featured [[Cissy Houston|Emily Houston]] (pictured in 1975).]]
"[[Caravan (Van Morrison song)|Caravan]]" and "[[Into the Mystic]]" were cited by Harrington as examples of Morrison's interest in "the mystifying powers of the music itself" throughout ''Moondance''.{{sfn|Harrington|2003|p=87}} The former song thematises [[music radio]] and [[Romani people|gypsy]] life—which fascinated the singer—as symbols of harmony.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=107}} Harrington called it an ode to "the transcendent powers of rock 'n' roll and the spontaneous pleasures of listening to a great radio station", while biographer Erik Hage regarded it as "a joyful celebration of communal spirit, the music of radio, and romantic love".{{sfn|Hage|2009|p=51}} "Into the Mystic" reconciles ''Moondance''{{'}}s R&B style with the more orchestrated folk music of ''Astral Weeks'', along with what Evans described as "the complementary sides of Morrison's psyche".{{sfn|Evans|1992|p=488}} Harrington believed it explores "the intricate balance between life's natural wonder and the cosmic harmony of the universe".{{sfn|Harrington|2003|p=87}} Hinton said the song evoked a sense of "visionary stillness" shared with "And It Stoned Me" and the gypsy imagery of "Caravan", while working on several other interpretive levels. Its images of setting sail and water in particular represented "a means of magical transformation" for the writer, comparable to [[Alfred Lord Tennyson]]'s poems of leave-taking such as "[[Crossing the Bar]]", which had "the same sense of crossing over, both to another land and into death". The lyrics also deal with "the mystical union of good sex", and an act of love Hinton said was intimated by Morrison's closing vocal "too late to stop now"—a phrase the singer would use to conclude his concerts in subsequent years.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|pp=108–9}}

"[[Come Running]]" was described by Morrison as "a very light type of song. It's not too heavy; it's just a happy-go-lucky song." By contrast, Hinton found the song's sentiments tender and lustful in the vein of the 1967 [[Bob Dylan]] song "[[I'll Be Your Baby Tonight]]". He argued that "Come Running" juxtaposed images of unstoppable nature—wind and rain, a passing train—against "which human life and death play out their little games", and in which the narrator's and his lover's dream will not end "while knowing of course it will".{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=109}} According to the writer, "[[These Dreams of You]]" manages to be simultaneously accusatory and reassuring. The lyrics cover such [[dream sequence]]s 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 said he was inspired to write "[[Brand New Day (Van Morrison song)|Brand New Day]]" after hearing [[the Band]] on the 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'."{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=110}} 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.{{sfn|Yorke|1975|p=83}}

Along with "Brand New Day", "[[Everyone (Van Morrison song)|Everyone]]" and "[[Glad Tidings (song)|Glad Tidings]]" form a closing trio of songs permeated by what [[John Tobler]] called "a celebratory air, bordering on spiritual joy".{{sfn|Tobler|2005}} Labes opened "Everyone" by playing a [[clavinet]] figure in [[6/8 time|{{music|time|6|8}} time]]. A flute comes in, playing the [[melody]] after Morrison has sung four lines, with Schroer playing the [[harmony]] underneath on [[soprano saxophone]]. Although Morrison says the song is just a song of hope, Hinton says its lyrics suggest a more troubled meaning, as 1969 was the year in which [[The Troubles]] broke out in Belfast.{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=110}} The final track, "Glad Tidings", has a bouncy [[Beat (music)|beat]] but the lyrics, like "Into the Mystic", remain largely impenetrable, according to Hinton. In his opinion, "the opening line and closing line, 'and they'll lay you down low and easy', could be either about murder or an act of love."{{sfn|Hinton|2003|p=111}} In Hage's opinion, "'Glad Tidings' was a premonition of the future, as 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."{{sfn|Hage|2009|p=53}}
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