Van’s Covid protest songs in Variety’s worst of 2020
SIR Van Morrison’s four protest songs against coronavirus restrictions penned during lockdown have been listed as among the worst of 2020 by Variety Magazine.
The entertainment magazine has listed the musician’s songs, which accused the Government of taking the public’s freedom during the coronavirus crisis, as among the worst of the “anything-can-happen” year.
Sir Van (75) faced a wave of criticism for the songs — Born To Be Free, As I Walked Out, and No More Lockdown — which were all recorded by the singer himself. The last, Stand and Deliver, performed by Eric Clapton topped Variety’s chart of 2020’s worst.
Health experts and politicians slammed the songs when they were released in September and October last year.
In the lyrics, the Belfast singer called for an end to rules aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus in which he claimed scientists were “making up crooked facts” in measures that “enslave” the population.
The Belfast blues legend, who was also forced to postpone a series of 2020 comeback concerts
in Belfast due to Covid-19, also criticised celebrities “telling us what we are supposed to feel” as he called for an end to the “status quo”.
Profits from the songs were destined for Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund, which is intended to make life easier for musicians facing financial stress as a result of coronavirus. But in its newly published list, Variety argues that Van the Man, in the course of his Save Live Music campaign, had “written not one but four horrific anti-lockdown songs”.
The magazine said: “A year ago at this time, if you’d have told us that Van Morrison would be single-handedly responsible for nearly a third of a worstsongs-of-2020 list (and that this would not be some kind of weirdly perverse, contrarian view, but something that had wide public agreement)... well, we would’ve assumed you’d dipped a little too much into the mystic Christmas edibles.
“Was Morrison’s quartet of conspiracy theme-driven anti-quarantine tunes really as bad as, or worse than, the mind-bogglingly bad work of fellow worst listees like Jake Paul, Tory Lanez, Mike Love and Lil Pump?” the magazine added.