Van Morrison gathers more than sixty years of songwriting into ‘Lit Up Inside / Keep ’Er Lit: The Collected Lyrics,’ a hardcover volume featuring the words to over two hundred songs. With a foreword by John Cooper Clarke, the book presents Morrison’s lyrical world in one carefully assembled edition.
Across its pages, readers encounter the recurring touchstones that define his work — back streets and mystic avenues, childhood memory and adult reckoning, church bells and late-night radio. The lyrics move between solitude and celebration, naming fellow artists, tracing romance and regret, and returning again and again to themes of grace and transcendence.
Spanning his full career, the collection charts the evolution of a writer who has continually reshaped blues, soul, folk, and rock traditions through language and phrasing. Seen together, the lyrics reveal patterns of imagery and rhythm that run through decades of recording and performance.
‘Lit Up Inside / Keep ’Er Lit’ offers a comprehensive overview of Morrison’s output, presenting the words on their own terms — a standalone document of one of contemporary music’s most enduring songwriters.