‘Astral Weeks’ – Van Morrison, 1968
Reading today’s Guardian, I saw a piece about Van Morrison banning the sale of alcohol at his gigs. Apparently ‘Van the Man’ doesn’t want to be disturbed while he phones in his repertoire. So, for those of you who might be sickening of the cantankerous old pudding, here’s a classic from his real heyday.
The Astral Weeks album rightly sits atop the pile of “best of the best” albums, up there with Revolver, Highway 61… and Exile on Main Street. It sold almost no copies when it came out, but now it’s almost mandatory listening. Never mind that Mojo magazine have made a living out of worshipping this type of music, it doesn’t make it any less brilliant.
The title track of Astral Weeks lays strong claim to be Morrison’s finest moment. On the surface, it’s a meditation on reincarnation, materialism, love and beauty in the world. Morrison youthful ’sense of wonder’ comes across strongly throughout this song, but on ‘Astral Weeks’ it’s yet to be tempered by the cynicism creeping into later songs such as ‘Madame George’.
Repetition of key phrases in the song leave them burned into your mind: the cyclical chanting – “To be born again”, “In another world”, “Way up in the heaven” – seem so free-wheeling and jazzy that you can almost see Van sidling up to the muse.
I can’t get the studio version of YouTube, so here’s a live version on YouTube from recently. The Van Morrison branding is all over the video, for some reason. Not sure what’s going on there. Anyway. Guess that’s what happens when you get old. Look at Bob Dylan…
