Into the Music
| Into the Music | ||||
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| Studio album by Van Morrison | ||||
| Released | August 1979 | |||
| Recorded | Early 1979 | |||
| Studio | Record Plant, Sausalito | |||
| Genre | Rhythm and blues, rock and roll, Gaelic music | |||
| Length | 49:30 | |||
| Label | Mercury (UK), Warner Bros. (US) | |||
| Producer | Van Morrison, Mick Glossop | |||
| Van Morrison chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Into the Music | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 |
| MusicHound Rock | 3.5/5 |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Village Voice | A |
Into the Music is the 11th studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in August 1979 and titled after Ritchie Yorke's 1975 biography of the same name on Morrison; the book had been titled in reference to his song "Into the Mystic" (1970). The record received widespread acclaim in 1979 and was named by critics as one of the year's best albums.
Into the Music was recorded in early 1979 at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California with Mick Glossop as engineer.
During the recording of the album, one of the musicians, trumpet player Mark Isham referred Morrison to Pee Wee Ellis who lived nearby. Morrison brought him in to do the horn charts for "Troubadours" with Ellis remaining and working on the entire album. The band also included Toni Marcus on strings, Robin Williamson on penny whistle, and Ry Cooder playing slide guitar on "Full Force Gale".
Morrison wrote most of the songs while he was staying with Herbie Armstrong in the Cotswold village of Epwell, England, and the sense of place is reflected in the spirit of the music. During this time, he would often walk through the fields with his guitar composing the future album's songs.
Erik Hage commented that after the favourable commercial reception of Wavelength, Morrison was inspired to "return to something deeper, to once again take up the quest for music, that was spontaneous, meditative, and transcendent—music that satisfied the other side of his artistic nature." Morrison was quoted on his opinion of the album, "Into the Music was about the first album where I felt, I'm starting here...the Wavelength thing, I didn't really feel that was me." (1988) "That's when I got back into it. That's why I called it Into the Music." (1984)
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