I listened to most of Van’s unfortunately titled new record, Three Chords and the Truth, this morning on my train ride into the city and I was shocked. All of the rock god dinosaurs of his era are in sorry shape – Jagger sounds like a parody of a parody (of a parody) of himself, Dylan is a hoarse, indecipherable muppet, McCartney has a decided Weekend at Bernie’s vibe that makes one suspect that maybe Paul is dead this time. Neil Young sounds largely the same but feels old and aimless, like he’s pleasantly consigned to his realm of quirky irrelevance. Daltrey… well Daltrey still sounds pretty good but who cares?
Van sounds exactly the way he’s sounded for about 40 years now. Fierce, defiant, difficult. Indomitably, inarguably alive. If you told me that this new album of his was cobbled together from a recently unearthed lost session in 1976, the only question I’d have would be “how did they make it sound so good?”
His 70’s albums are unfairly maligned because they’re not Astral Weeks or Moondance, which is admittedly a very tough standard to be held to. There are some weird ones – Hard Nose the Highway, A Period of Transition – and some unheralded classics, like Veedon Fleece and Into the Music. Into the Music has been a favorite of mine going back to my initial discovery of it when I was teenager and, diligent rock and roll nerd that I was, I read Robert Christgau’s blurb review, which included this line – “You might get religion yourself if all of your old powers returned after years of failed experiments, half-assed compromises, and onstage crack-ups.”
Three Chords and the Truth has an Into the Music vibe to my ears (less the soaring violin and a lot of God talk) – rejuvenated, purposeful, and the band is on fire. And there’s a duet with Bill Medley. And … AND… Jay Berliner is on the record. That’s guitarist Jay Berliner who featured so prominently on Astral Weeks (not to mention Black Saint and the Sinner Lady). Based on Van’s eccentric and sometimes insistent artistic self-destruction in the 70’s one never would have predicted that he’d be the guy still churning out vital music in his 70’s. But here we are.