There’s a pattern forming. The prolific, ever restless Van Morrison issues new material on Caroline, and then Sony/Legacy responds with either new material or vintage material. It’s getting hard to digest all the high-quality Morrison music that’s come forth in recent years. Yes, we are blessed. That’s the case again with an expansion of Van’s mid-career (1997) gem, The Healing Game, with a three-disc collection chronicling the sessions, collaborations, and a killer live performance surrounding its release. There are six versions of the song “Healing Game,” Van’s ode to the free-form enthusiasm of the doo-wop era, in this set of 44 generous tracks.
To be fair, the original The Healing Game followed one of the lowest creative periods of Morrison’s career in terms of critical acclaim for Days Like This, How Long Has This Been Going On? and Tell Me Something: Songs of Mose Allison. So, The Healing Game marked a return to form, but it should be known that almost every album he has released since has been as good. Most have been better. Nonetheless, the addition of collaborations and the terrific live performance reveal a rejuvenated, impassioned Morrison that puts a new sheen on the original. Here’s how the 3-disc set lays out:
The first disc, “The Original Album Plus…” features the ten classic recordings that form the core of The Healing Game in addition to five bonus tracks, previously issued on singles or compilations, assembled together here for the first time: “Look What the Good People Done,” “At the End of the Day,” “The Healing Game,” “Full Force Gale ’96” and “St. Dominic’s Preview.” “Disc 2 – Sessions & Collaborations” includes formative versions of “The Healing Game” and “Fire in the Belly” and a variety of previously unreleased recordings including a jazz version of “The Healing Game,” the full length version of “Sometimes We Cry,” a cover of “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” and several previously unissued collaborations with Sun Records rockabilly icon Carl Perkins (“Boppin’ the Blues,” “Matchbox,” “My Angel,” and “All By Myself”).
Disc 2 also showcases the late John Lee Hooker, a close friend of Morrison, on two tracks–“Don’t Look Back” and “The Healing Game”–from Hooker’s 1997 album Don’t Look Back. That album was produced by Morrison and released the same day (March 4, 1997) as The Healing Game. Don’t Look Back took home the Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy in 1998 while the title track won Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Disc 2 Deluxe Edition closes with Van collaborating with skiffle king and original inspirer Lonnie Donegan on the most impassioned rendering of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Mule Skinner Blues” this writer has ever heard. (Dolly Parton comes very close, however)
”Disc 3 – Live at Montreux 17 July 1997″ finds Van in a tremendous live set featuring songs from The Healing Game alongside hits and personal favorites from his catalog; covers of Ray Charles (“Fool For You”), Anthony Newley (“Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me”) and Sly Stone (“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin))” and more. This much-sought-after concert performance is officially available for the first time–with pristine state-of-the-art audio. Invariably, Van aficionados will compare it to A Night In San Francisco. Both have “Vanlose Stairway/Trans-Euro Train” that segues to Van’s main inspirer, Ray Charles. The Montreux set is tighter. Van is on fire with Georgie Fame and Pee Wee Ellis in extraordinary form., so it’s even a little better.
At this time Van felt compelled to revisit the jazz and rhythm and blues-inspired music that infused his earliest works with Them and as a solo artist in the late 1960s. As we know, he is even more deeply into that mode today. Then he had assembled a new band featuring such luminaries as saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis (formerly of James Brown’s band), British jazz/blues legend, keyboardist Georgie Fame and bassist Alec Dankworth (who at the time had completed several years in Dave Brubeck’s touring band). They accompanied him on the jazz album How Long Has This Been Going On?(1995), recorded at London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, and Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison (1996), places. They are the same musicians who performed on the original The Healing Game. The Montreux live session included Fame, Ellis, and these other players for one of Van’s most formidable units over his storied career. The horn section is especially strong. Leo Green (tenor sax) and Matt Holland (trumpet) join Ellis. Ronnie Johnson (guitar), Geoff Dunn (drums), Nicky Scott (bass), Robin Aspland (piano), and Brian Kennedy (vocals) round out the band. Ironically, “Not Feeling It Anymore” is one of the strongest performances. In addition to the previously mentioned “Vanlose Stairway” sequence, the medley of “Tupelo Honey/Why Must I Always Explain” is a highlight as is “Fire in the Belly” and “The Healing Game,”, the best rendition of the latter in this 3-disc set. It’s followed by the encore “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” into “The Burning Ground.”
A look at the producer’s notes is worthwhile and helps to tie all this disparate material together. The original album was recorded in three sessions over three years, beginning in 1995. They happened at the same time he was making the Mose Allison tribute, and some tracks (“At The End Of The Day,” another version of “The Healing Game” and “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” spun off the second session. In March 1996 Morrison collaborated with Perkins to record five songs, only one of which has been released, until now. Morrison revisited “St. Dominic’s Preview” in a pared-down acoustic session for a thirteen-part television series. It features Mary Black on backing vocals and Donal Lunny on bouzouki (among others).
The John Lee Hooker collaborations have been well documented. Van did the next installment of the The Healing Game in August 1996. Also at these sessions, he remade “Full Force Gale” and definitive takes on “The Healing Game” and “Fire in the Belly.” That’s the beauty of Morrison; he can keep re-inventing his own songs. In this session, he shows his jazz phrasing on the wonderful take of “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” first popularized by Louis Armstrong in the ‘50s.
Van finished the original album in September 1996 with four more tracks including the enduring “Rough God Goes Riding” and “Burning Ground.” His live shows during this period incorporated many of these new songs into his live set. The Montreux concert features seven from the original album.
Even if you have the original The Healing Game in your collection, the bonus tracks, the collaborative material, and especially the live concert make this an excellent addition to the storied Van Morrison catalog.
