People had started talking about Van Morrison in the past tense. In the three years since his last album release [Veedon Fleece] his presence had grown to become some vaguely attainable level of excellence it seemed no one, not even Morrison himself, could ever truly achieve, or had ever truly achieved. Bruce Springsteen acknowledged him and Graham Parker took his rough edges as a persona. His albums, grown familiar after so many years of constant play, were beginning to be referred to as classics and, as happens with the greats of the ages, were more discussed for impact than actually listened to for pleasure. Van the Man became an Influence—like Beethoven, Chuck Berry or Lenny Bruce—not on the scene and increasingly hard to conjure as a real human being….

A Period of Transition is Van Morrison's comeback album and with it he steps from influential absentia...