Celtic Crush Sunday- “Into The Mystic”- Van Morrison

A month into the series and I haven’t had a song yet from Van The Man! I don’t know how that has happened. “Into The Mystic” from Van’s great Moondance album from 1970- is not only one of his best and a favorite of mine- but also a song that I would pick out as the greatest example of a Van song that defines his music- the spiritual quest that he has been on this entire career. In a review of the album in Rolling Stone- Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs wrote – “‘Into the Mystic’ is the heart of Moondance; the music unfolds with a classic sense of timing, guitar strums fading into watery notes on a piano, the bass counting off the pace. The lines of the song and Morrison’s delivery of them are gorgeous: ‘I want to rock your gypsy soul/Just like in the days of old/And magnificently we will fold/Into the mystic.

The BBC has written that “Into The Mystic” is one of the favorite songs for surgeons performing operations due to its cooling, soothing vibe.