Inside The Life And Career Of Van Morrison

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Numerous music critics have hailed Van Morrison as a genius over the course of a career lasting more than half a century, so it is reasonable to ask where that genius came from. Are major talents such as Morrison born with what they need to succeed? Or does it take careful nurturing on the part of supportive parents, teachers, and experts in the music industry?

As it happens, Morrison didn't come from the ideal musical background on paper. Biographer Brian Hinton, author of "Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison," describes the future star's upbringing in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as a working-class and suburban one, spent right on the edge of the city with the countryside at his doorstep. Along with that, Belfast in the 1940s and 1950s was deeply religious, with the young Morrison exposed to Christian imagery on countless murals on the streets where he would play.

While pastoral images and religious themes would eventually become central to much of his work, and though Morrison's mother was a successful singer, the greatest influence on Morrison as a child was undoubtedly his father, George, who, after searching the United States for work, returned home with an impressive record collection, estimated to be one of the largest in Northern Ireland: "Everything from Al Jolson to 'Ave Maria,'" Morrison later claimed (via Hinton), and the boy filled his head — and imagination — with some of the greatest music money could buy.

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