At first blush, I didn’t consider Van Morrison’s voice among the greats. But over time, I came to appreciate his phrasing and inflection in the context of the song as a musical instrument, which it is.
Setting aside his gifts as a lyricist, not to mention his massive longevity, his tone and pitch are masterful. Check his performance on 2005’s “Stranded”. Superb.
There are a lot of singers who don’t have “great” voices in terms of range or tonal quality, who still manage to sound good. Van is definitely one of them.
Agreed. Van Morrison's sense of time and phrasing is phenomenal. He can swing, or lay down a down home blues, with the very best of them.
I still say his voice is not "objectively" as finely honed an instrument as that of many a "pure" professional singer. But I prefer listening to Van Morrison (and other great singer-song writers) over a thousand, say, Andy Williams types. They have a stronger connection to the song.
Take just about any Van Morrison song. I've heard many excellent and compelling interpretations thereof by other singers. But they're all compelling because they take the song somewhere else. No one can offer a more essential, natural and fundamental interpretation than Van The Man himself. "When that fog horn blows you know" he "will be coming home," like you know it with no one else. And while someone else might sing about being on that "hard road," "searching for the philosopher's stone;" only Van can make you believe that he's really been there (Daddy-O).
BTW, cool version of John Lee Hooker performing "Gloria" with Van Morrison: