“Well, I’m taking some time with my quiet friend.” — “Alan Watts Blues,” Van Morrison

THE BRITISH PHILOSOPHER ALAN WATTS, who helped introduce Zen teachings to the Western world, was a man more comfortable retreating to the idyllic solitude of his Mt. Tamalpais cabin than he was in the workaday world. Similarly, Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison prefers his “alone time,” revealing himself through his music while serving up only occasional interviews.

When “Van the Man” first broke onto the international music scene on the wave of the British Invasion, I was immediately drawn to his projection of the blues, his uniquely soul-tinged music that carried just a hint of country, perhaps because I seemed to be listening to some of the same people as he. Van’s earliest influences came from his father’s extensive record collection: Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, the late Solomon Burke, Charlie Parker, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Big Joe Turner and many others. “If it weren’t for guys like Solomon, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Those guys were the inspiration that got me going,” he once told biographer Brian Hinton.

Perhaps the first song one associates with the name Van Morrison is his first solo hit, “Brown Eyed Girl.” Van himself doesn’t think much of the tune. Upon learning it was on President George Bush’s iPod, Van reportedly said: “Yeah, it’s good to hear things like that, but I would have preferred if it was a new song. It’s not one of my best. I mean I’ve got about 300 songs that I think are better.”

There is justifiable bitterness in those words — Van still holds a grudge for having lost royalty rights to the song. This is a theme that regularly appears on his albums in songs like “Big Time Operators,” “Drumshanbo Hustle” and “Show Business.” But it is merely one facet of a complex individual.

A more positive side to Van is his habit of paying homage to those who influenced his life and music, “Jackie Wilson Said” — an up-tempo jukebox favorite — being one example of many. In a similar vein, Van has given new opportunities to those who otherwise might have faded into history: John Lee Hooker, Georgie Fame, Mose Allison and Sam Butera. And over the years he also has included on his albums and tours such rising musicians as Herbie Hancock, James Hunter, Candy Dulfer and Brian Kennedy — to say nothing of his undeniable influence on many, ranging from Jim Morrison (who studied his stylings at the Whisky A-Go Go in the ’60s) to the Counting Crows, who played in his place at his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Always with Van, it comes down to the music. Over the years he has evolved, certainly, but as Rolling Stone noted, unlike many aging musicians he has not responded to trends or changing tastes to revitalize a flagging career. Instead he has improved on past performances while more deeply exploring his inspirational roots.

Of endless fascination are his widely varied thematic albums, ranging from the contemplative (“Poetic Champions Compose”) and reflective (“Wavelength,” “Hymns to the Silence”) to the therapeutic (“Too Long in Exile,” of which one critic wrote that “never has one man’s regression therapy sounded this exhilarating”) — and from the mystical (“No Guru, No Method, No Teacher”) to the spiritual (“Avalon Sunset”). His Scots-Irish roots (“Irish Heartbeat”) and his Christianity are familiar, recurring themes as well.

Asked about the prevalence of Christian themes in his music, Van once responded: “I wrote a song, ‘Full Force Gale,’ in which I said, ‘No matter where I roam, I will find my way back home, I will always return to the Lord.’ That answers it for me.” I learned recently that one of his acknowledged masterpieces, the song “Into the Mystic” — a song I have probably heard a hundred times over the years — is possibly his strongest Christian-themed song, though it is masked in metaphors. A “Christian interpretation” of the lyrics:

“We were born before the wind” — Adam was created or “born” before the wind, which came about after his fall from grace, when the world received its curse.

“Also younger than the sun” — The sun was made on the fourth day of creation, Adam on the sixth.

“Ere the bonnie boat was one/As we sailed into the mystic” — According to a traditional Irish Skye Boat Song, the line “Carry the lad that is born to be king” refers to the Christ child; thus, believers were “one” with Christ as they “sailed” on the “bonnie boat” into the “mystic,” or wondrous life.

“Hark, now hear the sailors cry” — Man has fallen, everything has changed, he feels cold, all is not well. The people who are “sailing” through time “cry” out in agony.

“Smell the sea and feel the sky” — There was no rain before the fall. Streams came up from the Earth and watered the ground, but now man could feel the rain from the sky and smell the now-raging sea.

“Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic” — Fallen man is doomed to an eternal life apart from God unless God’s grace is received, letting his “soul and spirit fly” to the “mystic.”

“And when that fog horn blows, I will be coming home” — The Bible states: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven … with the trumpet call (fog horn) of God.”

“I want to hear it, I don’t have to fear it” — Welcoming the call to come home to Christ.

“I want to rock your gypsy soul/Just like way back in the days of old” — Enjoy life as intended, in the “days of old” before the “fall.”

“Then magnificently we will float, into the mystic” — “Float” those raging seas, now calmed; the perfectly wonderful life with our “bonnie boat” continues.

Brian Hinton quotes Morrison as saying: “Originally I wrote it as ‘Into the Misty.’ But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it, so I called it ‘Into the Mystic’ … I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.”

Van will be coming around again soon, and I would urge those interested to check him out, or try listening to one of his live albums like “A Night in San Francisco,” featuring such guests artists as Hooker, Dulfer, Georgie Fame, Jimmy Witherspoon, Junior Wells, Booker T and others.

Enjoy!

Dennis Lund graduated from California State University-Long Beach with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1981 and has resided in Benicia since 1992.