Music |
Van Morrison: Almost Independence Day
By
Published: Mar 20, 2022
Category:
Rock
“Almost Independence Day” is the last song on Van Morrison’s 1972 release, “Saint Dominic’s Preview.” If you’re tired or restless or not willing to convert music to images in your head — to make a private movie — this is not for you. But if you’ve got some centered calmness or have adjusted your consciousness… turn off the lights.
Morrison wrote the songs for this record as his marriage was cratering. Some are tight and jaunty — the record opens with “Jackie Wilson Said,” which you often hear on classic rock station — but as the seven-song record continues, he moves away from words and meaning to sound and feeling. If you think “Almost Independence Day” begins like another song you know — Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” — you’re right. Which came first? This song.
The lyrics are a patchwork. The song begins, “I can hear them calling all the way from Oregon.” (Yes, he did: a musician called him from Oregon about playing on this record.) He and his lady will “go out stepping.” He can hear the fireworks echoing “up and down the San Francisco Bay.” He can hear the people “shouting out.” He can see the boats in the harbor. He can feel the cool night breeze. A synthesizer delivers a fog horn. An acoustic guitar makes an emphatic comment. And it’s almost Independence Day.
This is great visual songwriting: I can make that movie in my head. As you can. But indulge the aging English major here and let’s consider the title. It’s not “Independence Day” It’s “Almost Independence Day.” Morrison is going out with his lady “to buy some Hong Kong silver” in Chinatown. The song points West: across the bay and the large ocean to another continent. Its final destination isn’t clear. The storyteller may not reach it — that is, achieve independence. And yet… almost. He can taste it. But it’s like the horizon, it constantly recedes. The point is the effort, the reach. “Almost Independence Day” isn’t just a pleasant, picturesque song. It’s another chapter in Morrison’s ongoing story, the search for ultimate knowledge. It’s a hymn.
Critics were knocked out. “Morrison again seeks to reach the Final Truth through his trance-like vocalizations, which emphasize repetition upon repetition, as when he sings, ‘I can hear the fireworks’ over and over again as a Moog synthesizer sets the mood behind him.” And: “The point is that words — which on this album are as uneven as the tunes — sometimes say less than voices. Amen.”
An ironic way of saying it: Turn off the lights. See what happens.
[To buy the download of the CD from Amazon — you can’t just get this song — click here. The CD is only available used. To buy it from Amazon, click here. You may have better luck finding it on ebay.]
