Van the Man, What to Buy: One Short of a Six-Pack

Greil Marcus has a new book coming out soon, "When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison", and in one chapter, he dismisses 17 years of Van Morrison's albums as forgettable. Well no, they aren't "Astral Weeks", but there's still some great stuff to be uncovered there. Here's a quick and by no means definitive list: "The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two" (1993) doesn't have the hits afforded Volume One, but it's a well-chosen collection, and the sequencing of tracks is so sensitive that it actually sounds like a better album than Volume One. "Too Long in Exile" from 1993 formed the bones of his live shows from that era, recorded on "A Night in San Francisco" (which my wife would insist is the missing part of this six-pack). Blues, jazz noodling and tributes to early influences. "Days Like This" (1995) is spotty, but great when Van is in the pocket, enough on this album to earn a place here. "The Healing Game" (1997) has the best ratio of really good songs, and "Back On Top" (1999) is close. There's a Best Volume Three, but I'm sure we could have done a better job picking lost gems from this period, and a lot of these releases have since been remastered with added tracks --- but how can you top how "The Healing Game" ends? Genius.