Not only is 'Common One' my favorite CD of Van the Man's more than three dozen original releases, for my time and money it's the greatest album of all time.

I've listened to it thousands of times, and it kept getting better and better for the first several hundred. Now, it just holds steady at timeless greatness. There have been times in my life when I have laid on my floor, listening to it on headphones, tears streaming down my face at its beauty. For me, parts of this album are like getting a glimpse of God.

It's not for everybody. Some people I've made tapes for from it haven't liked it, called it boring and overlong. But others have been just as deeply moved as I. It's certainly not the place to start for the conventional music listener trying to be introduced to Van Morrison. Begin with "Moondance," "Into the Music" or "Enlightenment" for that.

Unique in its day and unique today, 'Common One' is just short of an hour long. Most of the songs are of slower tempo, several clock in at more than 15 minutes, and none are shorter than five. The lyrics are introspective and sometimes a little goofy, but the band (particularly sax man Pee Wee Ellis) is crackerjack and the singing is that of a soulful virtuoso. The horn break in "Satisfied" is the single greatest two minutes in music for me, ever. The way the epic "Summertime in England" repeatedly changes gears and conjures up images of everything from a sensual red robed lover to stoned British poets to a "suffering so fine" Jesus Christ is mesmerizing and captivating.

The entire album is evocative and romantic, and Van's singing is at its best. It's not an album that will knock you out the first time, most likely, because its charms are subtle before they become profound.

But 'Common One' has helped me through some hard times and made me appreciate the good ones even more. It's sustained my faith in God when I've had doubts. It has music that has reached into the very core of my soul and nurtured it, encouraged it, elevated it.

There are very few creative works, in any field, that I would call transcendent. Even The Clash's relentlessly magnificent 'London Calling,' probably my 2nd favorite album ever, and a release that changed my life even more than 'Common One,' can't come close to the otherworldly pleasure I've drawn from this work of art.

Again, it's not for everybody. If you're not on a certain wavelength (so to speak), you might think it's mostly a meandering, self-indulgent mess (though nobody I know has ever been able to turn their nose up at "Satisfied"). But you might also find it's a CD you'll keep playing for the rest of your life.

It may be blasphemy, but I like Common One more than Into the Music. Pee Wee Ellis and Mark Isham are given free reign to explore here, yet David Hayes and Peter van Hooke (one of Van's better rhythm sections) keep things grounded in the groove. Van himself is riveting. Electric Miles fans will dig "When Heart is Open", which hypnotically riffs over "It's About That Time/In a Silent Way". If you want to expand your horizons beyond "Brown-Eyed Girl" and "Domino", and find Van's outings from the last decade rather hollow and "phoned in", give Common One a try.

If Veedon Fleece is the best Van album (and I would argue it is), then "Summertime In England" from Common One, is possibly the best of all Van's songs. It is an intense song. I listen to it a couple times a year at the most. The vocals are unbelievable...and the lyrics are powerful. It is a mixture of suffering, and bliss. As Van puts it: 'high in the art of suffering....and the suffering so fine'. New fans should really listen to Veedon Fleece (for a couple years) before taking this last, and final step.

This, for my money, is the best of Van's albums - well perhaps it ties with Astral Weeks. This goes beyond music to religion. To listen to this album on headphones or in a quiet space is a transforming experience that I just don't get from any other artist alive or dead. Van at one of the many peaks of his craft.

This deeply spiritual music will one day be compared to the hymns of the medieval visionary Hildegard of Bingen. Summertime In England, whence the album title is drawn, is a magnificent devotional piece with complex but oh so beautiful instrumentation and soulful vocals. Van's brand of funky soul emerges in Satisfied with its jazzy saxophones over a brooding rhythm track, whilst Wild Honey is an evocative pastoral ballad. The uplifting song Spirit is very positive and inspirational and reminds me of an exquisite song with the same title by The Waterboys. I suspect that the awesome but gentle tour de force When Heart Is Open refers esoterically to the opening of the heart chakra. It certainly has that effect on me! There's less of Van's trademark R&B on this album and in general, these pieces are not as overtly religious as say, Be Thou My Vision on Hymns To The Silence, but they're equally moving. Common One offers exquisite music for the soul - listening to it is pure gnosis.