Music: No more confusion

Rockers show spiritual healing and backsliding from liberalism | Arsenio Orteza

During the '80s, when everyone from Bob Dylan to Al Green was embracing Christ and recording gospel songs, no gospel-friendly rock icon inspired more delight and confusion among critics and fans than the Celtic soul man, Van Morrison.

"The healing has begun," he sang in 1979 on Into the Music, and to make sure no one confused this "healing" with a quick fix, he let the statement reverberate until his 1987 Poetic Champions Compose, when he asked the follow-up question, "Did ye get healed?" Now, with The Healing Game, he revisits the concept and comes up with the following insight: True healing comes from the laying down of burdens.

So when he sings, "Too busy thinkin' 'bout this weight" ("This Weight"), he doesn't mean the caloric kind, and when he sings a song called "Waiting Game," he means the "weighting" game as well. For that matter, "Burning Ground"-a song devoted explicitly to burden disposal-is both sharp and playful.

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