Up until today I had never purchased a single record/CD by Van Morrison. The man’s been performing since 1964, and heaven knows I knew “Gloria” by his band Them, released sometime between ’64 and ’68. But I never got around to buying “Astral Weeks” or “Moondance” or any of his other albums. I knew some of the songs, but they never hit me hard enough to cause me to buy his work.

Well, I finally got around to it. “Self,” I said, “your music library has many many CDs by great musicians, and many many more by one-hit wonders, so how is it that you have no Van Morrison, who’s a genuine icon by this stage of the game?”

Here you go:

Two discs, 37 songs. Arranged chronologically. I think I’ve listened through about 1971 so far.