Common One

Common One is the twelfth album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1980. It has been said to be one of his most ambitious and daring albums since Astral Weeks. The album was recorded over a nine day period in Super Bear Studios located in a monastery in the French Alps that was said to be haunted by the massacre of a number of members of a religious society in hiding there. (It burned down several weeks later.) The title of the album comes from the 3/4 section of the song "Summertime in England", where Morrison sings the lyrics "Oh, my common one with the coat so old and the light in her head". The June, 2008 re-issued and re-mastered version of the album contains an alternative take of "Haunts of Ancient...