42 on The 885 Essential XPN Songs compiled in 2008 by WXPN from listener's votes.

474 on the list of Rolling Stone's 2010 feature, The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and was listed as No. The lines of the song and Morrison's delivery of them are gorgeous: 'I want to rock your gypsy soul/Just like in the days of old/And magnificently we will fold/Into the mystic.' The Moondance Allmusic review described it as 'a song of such elemental beauty and grace as to stand as arguably the quintessential Morrison moment.' Rogan described it as 'one of finest compositions of the period.' Ultimate Classic Rock rated 'Into the Mystic' as Morrison's greatest song, stating that its 'grace and style' turned it into 'an instant classic.' Acclaim Music critic Johnny Rogan explained that because of these homophones, 'although province sounded like the astral plane, it also conjured images of the shipyards of East Belfast with Morrison's tenor sax imitating the sound of a fog horn.' Reception ДЄ Rolling Stone review by Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs described the song's importance on the album as: ''Into the Mystic' is the heart of Moondance the music unfolds with a classic sense of timing, guitar strums fading into watery notes on a piano, the bass counting off the pace. I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.' For example, there's 'I was born before the wind' and 'I was borne before the wind', and also 'Also younger than the sun, Ere the bonny boat was one' and 'All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won'. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics in WB Music, I couldn't figure out what to send them. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it 'Into the Mystic'. Originally I wrote it as 'Into the Misty'. ''Into the Mystic' is another one like ' Madame Joy' and ' Brown Eyed Girl'.

Morrison remarked on the song and how its use of homophones lent it alternate meanings: 'Bass thrums like a boat in motion, and the song comes back to water as a means of magical transformation.' 'At the very end Van sings: too late to stop now, suggesting that the song also describes an act of love.' (This phrase would become a key point of many live concerts.) Compared to ' Yesterday' by The Beatles, it has been described as 'another song where the music and the words seem to have been born together, at the same time, to make one perfectly formed, complete artistic element.вЂњ The lyrics are about a spiritual quest, typical of Morrison's work. 'Into the Mystic' was recorded during the Moondance sessions at A&R Recording Studios in New York City in September to November 1969.

Van morrison discography allmusic