Van Morrison had proven he could do the whole ethereal tone poem type of song, but he wanted to make a play for the radio. He had settled down somewhat in his personal life, but he imagined a peripatetic lifestyle.
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Those contrasts all came into play in the making of “Caravan,” Morrison’s joyous paean to the gypsy life that brightened up Moondance, his classic 1970 album. Even though the song wasn’t released as a single, the airplay it and other songs from the album garnered helped establish the Irish singer-songwriter as a commercial as well as artistic force.
The Rise of Van the Man
When he left his band Them to go solo, Van Morrison immediately found success with the pop hit “Brown Eyed Girl.” But he wasn’t all that keen to keep going in that direction, as his muse was pushing him toward something more esoteric and mesmerizing.
He brought that all to bear on his 1969 album Astral Weeks, which featured long, free-flowing songs and wandering melodies that pulled Morrison’s vocals around as if he were in an emotive trance. Critics fawned over the album, but the pop audiences looking for another “Brown Eyed Girl” largely looked viewed it with confusion.
Morrison relocated to Woodstock circa 1969, supposedly because he wanted to follow the path of Bob Dylan, who had also made a home there for a while in upstate New York. The beatific nature surrounding him there certainly could have suggested the open spaces that a coterie of gypsies might fill, so it’s not all that surprising “Caravan” emerged from this period.
Deciding he wanted to have more people hear his work, Morrison adjusted his style of music on Moondance. The songs were more focused and finite, with more typical verse-chorus structures and a decided R&B bent. “Caravan,” in particular, benefited from a horn section punctuating every one of Morrison’s guttural, energetic cries.
Diving into the Lyrics of “Caravan”
In “Caravan,” Van Morrison imagines a group of travelers entering a new location and bringing with them a sense of joy and wonder. What’s mostly left unspoken is the notion the narrator needs the transformative powers of these newcomers, especially when it comes to the music they bring along with them.
Morrison begins the lyrics with a conjunction, mimicking the forward progress of the new arrivals: And the caravan is on its way / I can hear the merry gypsies play. Throughout the song, the caravan is closely associated with the music that entrances the narrator, who speaks on multiple occasions of a radio as if it’s not just some basic piece of equipment, but a bringer of magic.
Even though the narrator is likely meeting these folks for the first time, there’s a feeling of comfort and familiarity that they engender: And the caravan has all my friends / It will stay with me until the end. That last line suggests this traveling group might eventually depart, but their impact will always stay with him.
Morrison mostly keeps things light and playful here, but he does imply that this caravan’s magic could act as a balm: Switch on your electric light / Then we can get down to what is really wrong. With the horns responding to him at every turn, he yelps out his desires: Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul.
Morrison memorably performed “Caravan” at The Last Waltz, the final concert by his good friends The Band that took place in 1976. Kicking his legs and punching his arms, it did indeed seem like he was being carried away by the music, and that performance most certainly had the soul the song’s narrator demanded from his benevolent visitors.
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Photo by Mike Slaughter/Toronto Star via Getty Images
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