1979 · Soul · Behind the Songs
The opening track of Into the Music — optimism after the dark years.
“Bright Side of the Road” opens Into the Music (1979), the album that marked Van Morrison’s full return to form after a difficult mid-decade. Where the seventies had often found him brooding, this song is all daylight: a brisk, joyful declaration that the hard times are behind and the road ahead looks good.
The track sets the tone for the whole record — spiritually recharged, musically generous, and performed with a lightness Morrison hadn’t shown in years. Released as a single, it became one of his signature feel-good songs, the one audiences reach for when they want Morrison the optimist rather than Morrison the mystic.
It also signaled a creative rebirth that would carry him through the eighties: albums of increasing spiritual depth, recorded with the confidence of a man who had found his way back to joy. Every later Morrison anthem of uplift — and there would be many — starts here, on the bright side of the road.
What to listen for: the sheer lift of the chorus and the warmth of the band — this is Morrison smiling in song form. Play it on a morning drive; it was built for one.