Doubt many on here listen to him but he's one of my favourite artists. He's known to many simply as that guy who sang Brown Eyed Girl but that does him scant justice. His early albums, particularly Moondance and Astral Weeks, are as good as any album Lennon wrote during his solo period. And he's regarded as one of the best vocalists in rock history. Personally, I think he's better than Elvis who is considered the gold standard. I was pleasantly surprised to see Rolling Stone rank Van The Man at 42 in their Immortals: Top 100 Artists Of All Time. He's rather underrated as a songwriter by a lot of people so it was nice to see him given his due. The infamous Lester Bangs was a big fan. As was Bob Dylan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NypVyx35qHo He even did a better version of Dylan's Baby Blue - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdb_3H-28dE He stole the show at The Last Waltz, which is not an easy thing to do with the sort of talent on display at that concert: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Neil Diamond etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXVD-nSSKE His version of Comfortably Numb, selected by Scorsese for The Departed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDqurjPXEA Some of his other great songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BteIwbKU_iQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RI-QtEAwvE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX8nAZftZL4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0DJ8hWgNes And my personal favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QzDWIOUnM0
The only thing that made me listen to him was the fact we had a bloke in our team named Dan Morrison, so we needed to get the lyrics right for when he bowled well or poorly.
