Love is a But a Song We Sing (a Valentine’s Day Ramble)

(pictured above is young Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, who wrote “Get Together,” when he was a young folksinger. It would become a hit for The Youngbloods in 1967)

by Wayne Cresser

It may come as a surprise to learn that two of the most recognizable singer/songwriters of the second half of the 20^th century, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, have furtively infiltrated the ranks of the great romantic crooners of our time.

Dylan’s output still interests me, low these many years after hearing him sing the people’s music as a boy.

I was a Them fan early on too. Nothing else sounded like “Mystic Eyes” to me. “Gloria” had more snarl than anything by the early Stones, matching only the Kinks in its protopunk ferocity.

But with 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home (the signs were already there on Another Side of Bob Dylan), came a new Bobby—gone the ragamuffin kid, replaced by the sartorially clad, poetic and determined to play something loud, young rebel.

Morrison’s shift was equally dramatic. By 1968, gone was the old band, the knife edge rhythm and blues and the old manager, along with his record label.

With its stream of consciousness lyrics, acoustic guitars, vibes, flutes and Morrison’s soulful, meditative vocal delivery, his second post-Them album, Astral Weeks, was a rare and beautiful thing.

Perhaps the Irish singer/songwriter hasn’t reached those lofty heights since, but until the last few decades there were enough highpoints in his expansive catalogue to earn him an Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1995, six Grammys and entre into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

A long time ago, I know, and one might have said the same about Bob Dylan’s best-known songs if not for all the attention A Complete Unknown has brought the back catalogue—yet with both artists there are a couple of tunes, one by each, that have little to do with their oeuvre. Indeed, they are one-offs that since their release, have been added to many a radio and wedding playlist and recorded by myriad other artists, in some cases becoming major hits for them.

Of course, they are love songs, and at the time of their release, each played a different role in the context of the album they debuted on—one was intended to do something for the record, the other just seemed out of place.

“Have I Told You Lately” was recorded by Van Morrison for his nineteenth studio album, the Celtic- influenced Avalon Sunset (1989). Originally written as a prayer, Morrison sang it as a romantic ballad and released it as the lead single from the record. It made a dent in the Adult Contemporary Chart and then caught a second wind as a wedding favorite. In 1993, Rod Stewart had a go at it, and his version reached number five on both the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as on the UK Singles Chart. Since that time, the song has won a Grammy and a BMI Million-Air certificate. It’s Morrison’s most covered song.

Even stranger is Dylan’s most covered song since this listener always felt that its appearance on the brilliant Time Out of Mind, Dylan’s 30th studio album (1997), was an aural speed bump. Wedged between the Grammy-winning (best male rock vocal performance) “Cold Iron Bounds” and “Can’t Wait,” a song that holds the key to understanding the thematic weight of the entire record (which is not hopeful), “Make You Feel My Love,” as Rollingstone’s Greg Cot so aptly put it, “is a spare ballad undermined by greeting card lyrics [that] breaks the album’s spell.”

The song has been covered by more than 450 artists and is considered a “standard” of the 21st Century.

Am I making a case that Van Morrison and Bob Dylan are at the core, hopeless romantics? No, I am not. Each has made a career out of shifting moods, directions and sounds. I’m probably making a case for the notion that sentiment sells, which is just a roundabout way of getting to where I really want to go.

Once upon a time, kids, very popular recording artists could sing about forms of love that were not centered in romance— tribal love, love for humanity and love for joining together in song without irony, without schmaltz, and without embarrassment. I’m time traveling now, but that’s what we do here.

Here’s some tunes from the heady times of Peace and Love (if you can remember themmadays), 10 of the very best.

Good Vibrations-The Beach Boys, originally a non-album single, 1966