Creative thresholds

"I am into a completely different thing now. Now there is no limit to what I can do. I plan to use the type of instrumentation I like and be completely free. This is only the beginning for me."

I really dig this Van Morrison quote. It was allegedly uttered during an interview with a New York radio station. Morrison was in Belfast at the time, mired in a creative stasis of sorts, fresh off his debut album, disappointed with the overall results, eager to give it another go. There's all sorts of wonderful contradictions at work here. His words are vague and yet full of conviction. You get the sense he has possibly talked himself into believing a creative threshold has been crossed. At the same time, it all sounds so heartfelt, so authentic, so rabid.

I can pictures it now ... If Astral Weeks came packaged with a decorative promotional sticker on the shrink wrap, bearing campy words of praise for the album inside, it would include a snippet from the above quote: "This is Van's 'be-completely-free' album! Tune in—and get completely free with him!"