Fairway and Van the Man

On this faux-spring Tuesday evening, fortified by leftover Chinese and a couple glasses of Chilean chardonnay, I walked down to Fairway (slogan--"Like No Other Market", meaning of slogan -- "We've Got Everything, but Let's See You Try to Find It"). The colored lights along the shoreline across the Hudson stretched in wide bands on the water back toward Manhattan, reds, yellows and whites, and Van Morrison shuffled up onto the iPod with "Avalon of the Heart." Listening, it immediately threw me back to Astral Weeks, and that gorgeous, perfect opening couplet -- "If I ventured in the slipstream/Between the viaducts of your dream..." That image of riding uncontrolled, powerless, straight into someone else's dream--you get one chance to capture that, and Van nailed it, no one ever needs to try and write it again. It's done, you ain't gonna top it. Recycling is a good thing with trash, not so good with lyrics. Van disagrees. He's wrong. Avalon's a fine song, but "Well I came upon/The enchanted vale/Down by the viaducts of my dreams..." is a retread, plain and simple. But, hey, spring's coming, I'm in a forgiving mood. Watching those river lights, I listened three repeat times.