Editing Van Morrison (section)

===''Common One'' to ''Avalon Sunset'': 1980–1989===
With his next album, the new decade found Morrison following his [[muse]] into uncharted territory and sometimes merciless reviews.<ref name="HeylinPage364">Heylin (2003), page 364.</ref><ref name="RoganPage330">Rogan (2006), page 330.</ref> In February 1980, Morrison and a group of musicians travelled to Super Bear, a studio in the [[French Alps]], to record (on the site of a former [[abbey]]) what is considered to be the most controversial album in his discography; later "Morrison admitted his original concept was even more esoteric than the final product."<ref name="HintonPage230">Hinton (1997), page 230.</ref><ref name="HeylinPage365">Heylin (2003), page 365.</ref> The album, ''[[Common One]]'', consisted of six songs; the longest, "[[Summertime in England]]", lasted fifteen and a half minutes and ended with the words ''"Can you feel the silence?"''. ''[[NME]]'' magazine's [[Paul Du Noyer]] called the album "colossally smug and cosmically dull; an interminable, vacuous and drearily egotistical stab at spirituality: Into the muzak."<ref name="HintonPage230" /> [[Greil Marcus]], whose previous writings had been favourably inclined towards Morrison, critically remarked: "It's Van acting the part of the 'mystic poet' he thinks he's supposed to be."<ref name="HeylinPage364" /> Morrison insisted the album was never "meant to be a commercial album."<ref name="HeylinPage364" /> Biographer [[Clinton Heylin]] concludes: "He would not attempt anything so ambitious again. Henceforth every radical idea would be tempered by some notion of commerciality."<ref name="HeylinPage365" /> Later, critics reassessed the album more favourably with the success of "Summertime in England".<ref name="HeylinPage365" /> [[Lester Bangs]] wrote in 1982, "Van was making holy music even though he thought he was, and us rock critics had made our usual mistake of paying too much attention to the lyrics."<ref name="HeylinPage364" />

Morrison's next album, ''[[Beautiful Vision]]'', released in 1982, had him returning once again to the music of his Northern Irish roots.<ref name="RoganPage338">Rogan (2006), page 338.</ref> Well received by the critics and public, it produced a minor UK hit single, "[[Cleaning Windows]]", that referenced one of Morrison's first jobs after leaving school.<ref name="RoganPage337-338">Rogan (2006), pages 337–338.</ref> Several other songs on the album, "[[Vanlose Stairway]]", "She Gives Me Religion", and the instrumental, "[[Scandinavia (composition)|Scandinavia]]" show the presence of a new personal muse in his life: a Danish public relations agent, who would share Morrison's spiritual interests and serve as a steadying influence on him throughout most of the 1980s.<ref name="HeylinPage371">Heylin (2003), page 371.</ref> "Scandinavia", with Morrison on piano,<ref name="Inarticulate Speech of the Heart">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21723|last=Fricke|first=David|title=Inarticulate Speech of the Heart Music Review|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=28 April 1983|access-date=23 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210033928/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21723|archive-date=10 December 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> was nominated in the ''Best Rock Instrumental Performance'' category for the 25th Annual [[Grammy Awards]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1983/grammys.htm|title=Rock on the Net: 25th Annual Grammy Awards-1983|website=Rockonthenet.com|access-date=8 October 2009}}</ref>

Much of the music Morrison released throughout the 1980s continued to focus on the themes of [[spirituality]] and faith. His 1983 album, ''[[Inarticulate Speech of the Heart]]'', was "a move towards creating music for meditation" with synthesisers, uilleann pipes and flute sounds, and four of the tracks were instrumentals.<ref name="TurnerPage153">Turner (1993), page 153.</ref> The titling of the album and the presence of the instrumentals were noted to be indicative of Morrison's long-held belief that "it's not the words one uses but the force of conviction behind those words that matters."<ref name="Inarticulate Speech of the Heart" /> During this period of time, Morrison had studied [[Scientology]] and gave "Special Thanks" to [[L. Ron Hubbard]] on the album's credits.<ref name="TurnerPage150">Turner (1993), page 150</ref>

''[[A Sense of Wonder]]'', Morrison's 1985 album, pulled together the spiritual themes contained in his last four albums, which were defined in a ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' review as: "rebirth (''Into the Music''), deep contemplation and meditation (''Common One''); ecstasy and humility (''Beautiful Vision''); and blissful, mantra like languor (''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart'')."<ref name="A Sense of Wonder">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21725|last=Puterbaugh|first=Parke|title=A Sense of Wonder Music Review|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=9 May 1985|access-date=23 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210035104/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/3045/21725|archive-date=10 December 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The single "[[Tore Down a la Rimbaud]]" was a reference to [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]] and an earlier bout of [[writer's block]] that Morrison had encountered in 1974.<ref name="HeylinPage308">Heylin (2003), page 308.</ref> In 1985, Morrison also wrote the musical score for the movie ''[[Lamb (1985 film)|Lamb]]'' starring [[Liam Neeson]].<ref name="CollisPage162">Collis (1996), page 162.</ref>

Morrison's 1986 release, ''[[No Guru, No Method, No Teacher]]'', was said to contain a "genuine holiness ... and musical freshness that needs to be set in context to understand."<ref name="HintonPage255">Hinton (1997), page 255.</ref> Critical response was favourable with a ''Sounds'' reviewer calling the album "his most intriguingly involved since ''Astral Weeks''" and "Morrison at his most mystical, magical best."<ref name="HeylinPage396">Heylin (2003), page 396.</ref><ref name="RoganPage360">Rogan (2006), page 360.</ref> It contains the song "[[In the Garden (Van Morrison song)|In the Garden]]" that, according to Morrison, had a "definite meditation process which is a 'form' of transcendental meditation as its basis. It's not TM".<ref name="HintonPage255" /> He entitled the album as a rebuttal to media attempts to place him in various creeds.<ref name="HintonPage253">Hinton (1997), page 253.</ref> In an interview in the Observer he told Anthony Denselow:

{{blockquote|There have been many lies put out about me and this finally states my position. I have never joined any organisation, nor plan to. I am not affiliated to any guru, don't subscribe to any method and for those people who don't know what a guru is, I don't have a teacher either.<ref name="HintonPage253-254">Hinton (1997), page 253-254.</ref>}}

After releasing the "No Guru" album, Morrison's music appeared less gritty and more [[adult contemporary music|adult contemporary]] with the well-received 1987 album, ''[[Poetic Champions Compose]]'', considered to be one of his recording highlights of the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r13472|pure_url=yes}}|author=Erlewine, Stephen Thomas|title=AllMusic review:Poetic Champions Compose|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=7 July 2008}}</ref> The romantic ballad from this album, "[[Someone Like You (Van Morrison song)|Someone Like You]]", has been featured subsequently in the soundtracks of several movies, including 1995's ''[[French Kiss (1995 film)|French Kiss]]'', and in 2001, both ''[[Someone like You (2001 film)|Someone Like You]]'' and ''[[Bridget Jones's Diary (film)|Bridget Jones's Diary]]''.<ref name="Van Morrison at IMDb" /><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/2001/04/05/bridget-jones-duels-someone-you-soundtrack/|author=Bonin, Liane|date=4 April 2001|title=Song Sung Blue|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=13 July 2008|archive-date=28 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528102633/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,104926,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1988, he released ''[[Irish Heartbeat]]'', a collection of traditional [[Folk music of Ireland|Irish folk songs]] recorded with the Irish group [[the Chieftains]], which reached number 18 in the UK album charts. The title song, "[[Irish Heartbeat (song)|Irish Heartbeat]]", was originally recorded on his 1983 album ''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart''.<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=song|id=t877617|pure_url=yes}}|title=AllMusic: Irish Heartbeat|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=7 July 2008}}</ref>

The 1989 album, ''[[Avalon Sunset]]'', which featured the hit duet with [[Cliff Richard]] "[[Whenever God Shines His Light]]" and the ballad "[[Have I Told You Lately]]" (on which "earthly love transmutes into that for God" ([[Brian Hinton|Hinton]])),<ref name="HintonPage278">Hinton (1997), page 278.</ref> reached 13 on the UK album chart. Although considered to be a deeply spiritual album,<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r13474|pure_url=yes}}|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|title=Avalon Sunset Review|access-date=14 May 2009}}</ref> it also contained "Daring Night", which "deals with full, blazing sex, whatever its churchy organ and gentle lilt suggest"(Hinton).<ref name="HintonPage280">Hinton (1997), page 280.</ref> Morrison's familiar themes of "God, woman, his childhood in Belfast and those enchanted moments when time stands still" were prominent in the songs.<ref name="TurnerPage163">Turner (1993), page 163.</ref> He can be heard calling out the change of [[tempo]] at the end of this song, repeating the numbers "1–4" to cue the [[chord progression|chord changes]] (the first and fourth chord in the key of the music). He often completed albums in two days, frequently releasing first takes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.electricrev.net/archive/2004/july/features-profiles1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040927190040/http://www.electricrev.net/archive/2004/july/features-profiles1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 September 2004|author=Aiello, John|date=18 July 2002|title=July 2004 archives Wild Veils|website=Electricrev.net|access-date=3 July 2008}}</ref><ref name="HeylinPage429-463">Heylin (2003) pages 429–463.</ref>