ROCKTOBER MusicFest - 1 (Or, My First 2019 Contribution to MMQE's Annual Blogfest)

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As I sit here drinking a Tervis Tumbler of Cruzan's 'Black Strap Rum' and listening to one of the all-time, ALL-TIME(!!) greatest "Albums To Drink By" ['El Rayo-X' by David Lindley], I am going to tap out something about a great song by a different artist. This is my first contribution to MMQE's 'ROCKTOBER Blogfest' at 'Jingle Jangle Jungle'. Click HERE for more!
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'BEAUTIFUL VISION' by Van Morrison

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VAN MORRISON released his album 'BEAUTIFUL VISION' in March of 1982. I loved it! Heck, I loved SO MANY Van-The-Man albums and I owned nearly all of them... until the time he released a song praising "lucifer".
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(Yes, *THAT* [] lucifer.)
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And that's when I took a good, long, hard look at the lyrics of Van Morrison songs I'd been listening to for decades and I found a LOT of New Age 'luciferian' stuffs in there. And that's when - like a big, bad, angry dog shaking the dirt off a bone - I began purging away (down to the pure, clean, white bone) my music collection of every Van Morrison album that contained New Age (i.e., 'luciferian') references - many of them being extremely subtle, which only the most informed researchers (like myself) could catch.
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When the purging was done, only 6 albums remained in my collection, and 'Beautiful Vision' wasn't amongst them. [Technically, I should have also tossed into that same dumpster in Phoenix, Arizona, Van's album 'Hymns To The Silence', but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's a 21-song double album, and some of those songs are big favorites of mine. I couldn't toss out the whole double album because of only 1 offender. So, I just skip that song when it comes up on my CD player.]
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Pro Tip: At the time of the purge, my very favorite album in the whole history of the world (by anyone at any time!) was Van Morrison's 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart'. In fact, that was the very first compact disc I ever owned! I told The Countess (before she became "The Countess"), "I will never start replacing my LPs with compact discs until 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' is available on compact disc!" I figured that would NEVER, EVER happen!
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Two hours later, The Countess came back and handed me 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' on compact disc. Ha!-Ha! ...UHP! I'M AN IDIOT!! {*In hindsight, I realize that, from that very moment, she was destined to become my girlfriend.*}
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Sadly, even my 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' CD had to go into that Phoenix dumpster. But I saved the CD's insert as a souvenir of a terrific Countess / Black Cole Kid moment!
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However, I still have Van Morrison's album 'Into The Music', which is now my favorite Morrison album. You should definitely listen to it. Dang! If you don't dig *that* album, there is something seriously sick in yer soul!!
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Alright, back to the subject at hand:
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One song on the 'Beautiful Vision' album (my old copy which is now lying deep down in an Airheadzona dump somewhere) was 'CLEANING WINDOWS'. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't dig this song! I have even played it for a couple of folks who generally DISLIKE Van's music, and EVEN THEY liked 'Cleaning Windows'. It just might be "the universal song".
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Wackypedia sez:
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The version of "Cleaning Windows" that was released as a single and was included on the 1982 album ['Beautiful Vision'] was recorded at the Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California on 27 July 1981.
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The biographically based song chronicles a cheerful and nostalgic look back at a carefree time in Morrison's life when he was still a part-time musician, playing saxophone with Clubsound at the weekend. He names his favourite musical artists of the time such as Muddy Waters, Jimmie Rodgers, and Lead Belly, along with author Jack Kerouac and his books 'The Dharma Bums' and 'On the Road', and even Buddhist judge Christmas Humphreys and his "... book on Zen." 
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According to Steve Turner, in 'Cleaning Windows' "Van sketched the details of his life during 1961 and 1962, and captured the balance between his contentment at work and his aspirations to learn more about music. It conveyed the impression that his happiness with the mundane routine of smoking Woodbine cigarettes, eating Paris buns and drinking lemonade was made possible by the promise that at the end of the day he could enter the world of books and records..."
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John Milward wrote in a 1982 Rolling Stone review: "Hung on a metaphor as clear as glass, 'Cleaning Windows' applies one night's notions to a lifetime. It's the LP's musical highlight as well, with a guitar-organ combination reminiscent of The Band, and a jumping sax solo to boot".
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Paul Macinnis with The Guardian wrote: "The message of the song is simple – the window cleaner's happy in his work – and the lyrical vignettes combined with delicate, upbeat R&B (with Mark "That ain't working" Knopfler on guitar) convey that feeling wonderfully."
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In his descriptions of the songs on Beautiful Vision, Erik Hage wrote that this song is an exception as it is "stuffed with images and remembrances ... and is therefore somewhat anomalous to the rest of the record, which took up more esoteric and spiritual matters."
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AllMusic's Bill Janovitz, on the other hand, suggests a spiritual reading of the song, with Morrison's literal image of "cleaning windows" doubling as "a metaphor for Zen-like clarity, seeing the essence of life via the repetition of basic chores."
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"Cleaning Windows" was released as a single in March 1982 but was not promoted as a 45 single by Mercury records and therefore did not chart. Writer Howard A. DeWitt felt that it would have charted "because it generated a response similar to 'Domino' in Van's 1982 concerts". ('Domino' charted at #9 in America in 1970.)
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Morrison chose "Cleaning Windows" to be one of the songs included on The Best of Van Morrison, his first "Best of" album, which was released in 1990.
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I have NO DOUBT that 'Cleaning Windows' would have been a huge Top 40 hit in 1982, if Van's record company had the brains of gnat! Like I said, EVERYONE I've ever played this song for has really liked it - even Van-The-Man haters!
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Van Morrison - vocals
John Allair - organ
Pee Wee Ellis - tenor and baritone saxophones
Mark Isham - trumpet
Mark Knopfler - guitar
Gary Mallaber - drums
Chris Michie - lead guitar
Michele Segan - percussion
Rob Wasserman - bass
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Pee Wee Ellis -- what a BEAST on the saxophone!! Some of my all-time favorite sax solos were played by Pee Wee! Saxophone: On ballads, give me Ben Webster, every single time; but on rockin', squawkin' songs, I choose Pee Wee Ellis, yesterday, today, and tomorrow!!
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CLEANING WINDOWS - Van Morrison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgAf0Rjfm5s

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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