“I would love to be a big movie star, but you know, I want to get this music thing done first. I want to become a great musical force, then become a movie star, and then become, you know, Mother…

“Brown-Eyed Girl” and grumpiness — the two inescapable collars that fans and media have hung around Van Morrison’s neck, weighing heavy all these many years. On this, his best record in some time, Morrison has shaken off those twin shackles….

Duncan Sheik is eating lunch. It’s a fall day in Manhattan, and the songwriter with the Baldwinesque looks is cramming in a bite between recording sessions. This time, however, he’s not the artist, but the producer — “for nobody you…