Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography

By Clinton Heylin
Chicago Review Press, $28


If, as he claims, author Clinton Heylin really is “a self-confessed curmudgeon and part-time misanthrope,” he’s surely the guy to profile Van Morrison. There are two things with which every acquaintance of “Van the Man” agrees: First, that when the inspiration strikes him, Morrison can be the most spellbinding performer on Earth. And second, that he’s a miserable, cantankerous grouch. Inevitably, Morrison did not cooperate with Heylin for this book.

That’s a pity. Morrison roared out of Belfast, Northern Ireland, 40 years ago with the garage-band standard “Gloria” and the timeless radio favorite “Brown Eyed Girl.” He followed with a slew of albums, some of which — Astral Weeks and Moondance, notably — are among the best of all time. Since then, he has blended soul, jazz and Irish folk music in a restless quest for spiritual insight. The results have been uneven, and lately they have been dire. But his story cries out to be told.

Heylin spoke to many former associates of the singer and analyzed his every lyric, studio outtake and live performance tape. Nobody can doubt his attention to the music. We also learn of Morrison’s spiritual searching, which has taken him from mysticism to Scientology and now, reportedly, nihilism. Heylin relates stories of his stormy marriage to a hippie model named Janet Planet and his latter-day romance with an Irish beauty queen. But there is a big, empty space at the heart of this book where Van Morrison should be. He is legendarily tight-lipped, and nobody quoted here can do more than guess at his motivations. Ultimately, Can You Feel the Silence? is as distant and speculative as a backpacker’s guide to the moon.
—Paul Du Noyer