Happy Birthday, 'Dangerous' Rock'n'Roll Rebel Van Morrison!
Van the Man Hits 77 Amidst A Burst of Fresh Creativity & Government Harassment
“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.” — Ludwig Van Beethoven
“Music is Spiritual. The music business is not.” — Van Morrison
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sir George Ivan Morrison, better known as Van Morrison, AKA Van the Man, AKA the Belfast Cowboy, AKA the pre-eminent singer/songwriter of the past half century (and that’s one helluva competitive set).
Van Morrison turns 77 today, August 31st, and if there has been one positive element to the hellish past couple years of lockdowns and pandemic propaganda, it’s been the pissed-off creative inspiration that resulted from it to drive the great Northern Irish vocalist to pump out nearly four hours of new music in the past two years: Five anti-lockdown singles (two of them collaborations with Eric Clapton), a double CD/triple LP, and this year’s 80-minute What’s It Gonna Take?
On top of that output, Van Morrison has also been touring and putting out live studio sessions from Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the U.K. These excellent live sessions with impeccable musicians are broken up into one hour chunks and there’s five of them (I think). They were a proactive effort to perform for his fans while the government refused to allow live shows.
While it’s been distressing to watch many of my former music “idols” turn into lapdog globalist fear-mongers and/or mask/vaccine pushers— New Jersey “Boss” Bruce Springsteen the worst, followed closely by Jason Isbell, but also Mick Jagger (OOPS…but not Keef!) and a bunch of others—it’s been hugely reassuring and artistically validating to see my single favorite musical artist stand tall and stay true to his iconoclastic self (and his Muse!) in the face of intense pressure from not only the music business but the mean-spirited cruelties of the power-crazed Northern Ireland government’s globalist agenda to break the spirit of the Irish people.
Don’t know if you’re aware, but Van Morrison is currently locked in a nasty legal battle with Northern Ireland’s extremely creepy and morally effete Minister for Health Robin Swann, a wimpy and tiny Napoleonic priss who is suing Van the Man for “Defamation.”
The litigation was instigated after the singer tried to hold a small live show at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June, 2021. Most of the EU was loosening restrictions, but No. Ireland’s wishy-washy government was sending mixed signals and refusing to commit one way or the other, with a spokesperson for the No. Ireland’s Department for Communities saying: “The responsibility for acting within current Covid-19 regulations lies with the organizers of each event.”
But that’s not how it went down in June, 2021. At “the last minute,” right before Van and band were supposed to take the stage at the Europa Hotel, jack-booted government lockdown cops stepped in and shut the show down.
Van Morrison took to the stage solo anyway, and led the angry audience in chants that malevolent moronic midget Minister for Health Robin Swann was “very dangerous.” Somebody in the audience took a video of the authoritarian jackboots, as well as Van’s chanting with the crowd, where he was joined onstage by Parliament member Ian Paisley, an Irish politician against the lockdowns. Repulsive, regressive, rotten Robin Swann flipped out, because he knew the whole thing made him look like the anti-freedom fascist freak (and who knows what else) that he is. The inverted “Health Minister” immediately sued the singer for “Defamation.”
This ridiculously thin-skinned petty lawsuit from an obviously deeply insecure little man subsequently led Van Morrison to file a countersuit over an opinion piece the slimy Swann wrote for disgraced establishment mouthpiece Rolling Stone ragazine, where Swann claimed the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was “actually dangerous” because his protest songs “give great comfort to the conspiracy theorists who crusade against masks and vaccines and think this is all a huge global plot to remove freedoms.”
Time, data and science have not been on Swann’s side since then, ha ha ha. But who knows how those court cases are going to play out, because so far the No. Irish courts have stacked the deck against the Better Man Van and refused to hold either trial in front of a jury but instead rely on the decision of a single judge overseeing the proceedings.
So now there’s a lawsuit over the lawsuits, and Van Morrison’s attorneys have appealed the “no jury” ruling. The No. Ireland Court of Appeals will recognize the challenge in a preliminary hearing in September, and the “Defamation” trials will be put on hold until the jury issue is finally determined.
Can you believe this garbage? They don’t want a jury because they know how a jury’s gonna rule, while you and I (and Van) know how that judge, under The Crown, is gonna rule. What a load of authoritarian horsecrap from the Northern Ireland government and its designated control freak jerk, tiny Robin Swann.
At least we got one great song out of it: “Dangerous,” the terrific opening track from Van Morrison’s May album release.
So while the overwhelming majority of the music business laid down like dogs, Van Morrison kept his humanity. Van Morrison was right to challenge the lockdowns. He was right to challenge the ridiculous and useless mask-wearing orders. He was right to challenge the mandatory vaxx policy to perform or attend live shows. Now he’s right that government hacks like repulsive reptilian retard Robin Swann are “dangerous.”
Dangerous to you, to me, to freedom, to logic, to reason, to free speech, to the Arts, to democracy, to the right to earn a living. Robin Swann is the villain, the wimpy banality of bureaucratic evil in an empty suit.
Which, in turn, makes Van Morrison the Birthday Hero. A real rock’n’roll rebel at 77 who puts the vast majority of his musical peers to shame. So Happy Birthday, Sir George Ivan Morrison, and thanks for everything. You’ve been a legitimate inspiration, both artistically and personally, during a time when most have fallen far short. In a world of sniveling soul-anchors like Robin Swann, you’ve helped a lot of people break their chains. No wonder the masters of inversion call you “dangerous.”