These folk strains are not as evident on most of the recordings by, say, Wilson Pickett, Al Green, or Otis Redding, though the musical elements are indeed there, and can be heard more obviously in later recordings by the latter two artists in particular. Early-'60s American soul music, particularly the Southern Stax-identified strain - as well as coming from the blues - owed a great deal to country music, which of course followed from Appalachian folk, which can itself be traced back to the British Isles. "Purple Heather" finds Morrison returning to one of his strengths, the soul-infected Celtic folk song, or the Celtic-infused soul song - depending on how you want to view it. In fact, Morrison was still at the top of his game on this LP, a peak he rode right through his more country- and R&B-flavored early-'70s records to his under-acknowledged Veedon Fleece (1974), which must be counted as one of his best records, a full realization of some of the ideas he began to explore on Astral Weeks.
His arrangement of "Wild Mountain Thyme" as "Purple Heather" on Hard Nose to the Highway(1973) is a stirring, soothing, dramatic reading that ranks with his best work, particularly the jazzy folk excursions of his monumental Astral Weeks (1968). But leave it to Van Morrison to reinvent it as a soul number. This traditional Scottish ballad was an old folk standard covered by Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Joan Baez, and Marianne Faithfull, among many others.
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