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It's best to approach this album with a free afternoon because if you really, truly let it speak to you it will leave you in tears. It sticks with you, and the more you listen to it the more you understand.
Or time. Every time I listen to this album I am transported to another place.
Something about it grabs you right in the heart and will not let go. Or mindset.
It's truly psychedelic, even though it really doesn't belong in the category of psychedelic rock. But you never have it solved.
An absolute must for anyone who wants to really know Van Morrison.
This is a no brainer. A total mood setting piece. kick back, smoke a cigarette, and drink the hard stuff on ice. You have to have this in your collection. If you already know about this, then you should consider getting Bang Masters as a companion album.
So Yesterday I bought the whole thing again in MP3 format and listened to it three times in two days - it's spinning now and I was marveling yet again that someone so young could have turned in this effort. There are also some amusing rants from obviously deaf people who wrote one star reviews as well - those poor souls should just turn in their ears. and for every one of those folks there undoubtedly ten more who just haven't taken the time to express their opinion. I bought two on vinyl, the first one, circa '68, became worn out & scratched from over use so it had to be replaced.
WOW. The third copy was a CD which was cherished and well cared for. But about a year ago I moved away and left my CD collection packed in boxes in storage. Currently there are 274 five star reviews here on Amazon for Astral Weeks and some of them are amazingly articulate. What else can one say. at least 275 people gave it FIVE stars.
or they are just struck speechless by the enormity of THIS glittering jewel Mr. Morrison has given us.
Big sigh. They aren't using them.Hey, I just bought my FOURTH copy of Astral Weeks.
What a masterpiece. This is a timeless treasure.
I came in here to Amazon to read some reviews and see. Okay, I'm done now.
See you on Cypress Avenue.
On Astral Weeks he abandons his pop sensibilities and amplified sound in exchange for a more 'rootsy' and organic vibe. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison's seminal 1968 album has been praised by musicians and writers from Lester Bangs to Bruce Springsteen. Known previously for his role as the singer in the Irish rock and blues band, Them, Van Morrison has helped define rock and roll with such hits as 'Gloria' and 'Here Comes The Night'. The long lasting success of this album demonstrates that Van's songwriting is timeless and has appeal for all listeners of all generations. I would recommend this album to any fan of Van's solo music or the music of his previous band Them.
Most of these numbers have the feel of a man lost in his own emotional world, often watching someone outcast from society and seeing beauty there that no one else is aware of. Other than that, it's bassist Richard Davis's show all the way, rooting the guitar and the flute, as well as the vibes and acoustic guitar. Van wrote a group of songs about things that are notoriously difficult to express, and he used ideas and forms appropriate to the purpose. Maybe that's why "Astral Weeks" didn't sell at first.
Some say that the title character of "Madame George" is an aging transvestite, and the subject of "Beside You" seems to be a young street urchin. Whoever these people are, though, the point is that Van's music dances all around these people in a fascination trance, anchored by that jazz bass and brought into focus by the instruments and vocals.That's all the more remarkable when you consider that by most accounts, these musicians spent rather less than 12 hours on this album and some of them couldn't even remember the session afterwards. His previous music with Them resembled classic American soul, and his first solo material added some folkie elements, so I doubt that anyone saw this coming. Since pop and rock music, of the kind Morrison made before, is usually about the guy either getting the girl or losing her, this kind of ambiguity didn't play very well at all.Today, "Astral Weeks" makes just about every Top Ten Albums list we see. All of this apparently allows Van to meditate on some of the sights and characters he remembers from his home in Belfast.
As I said, most of them would be considered outcasts, including the singer himself; it's pretty common knowledge, for instance, that when Van was growing up, Cypress Avenue was an upscale neighborhood, so when he says "I'm caught one more time up on Cypress Avenue," it's fairly clear that he doesn't think he belongs there. These are the kind of lyrics that let some people compare rock lyrics to poetry - not a great idea most of the time - and the music consists primarily of jazz voicings (gasp). Why that has changed for the pop music audience isn't entirely clear, but it's good news, since it suggests that quality will find an audience eventually.Maybe it's just that we eventually found ourselves in a similar fix as the man in these songs. The compassion is undeniable, though, and you don't need to strain to find it by overinterpreting the lyrics.
There's really no one like Van Morrison, and this is the album that proved it. It sure sounds like a meditation, of the hypnotic rhythm sort; Van devotes a lot of energy to a sort of free-jazz scat singing, repeating miscellaneous syllables for several bars at a time ("wayupon wayupon wayupon") until you're not sure whether he's just chanting or channeling. I can't think of anyone who ever wrote or sang like this, and Van himself rarely did it again on record.That manner of playing and singing speaks of a certain attitude toward those Belfast sights and characters. You can probably find other examples for yourself. Meanwhile, the musical bed consists for a few minutes of little but light percussion, high-end acoustic bass and flute, with a string section jumping in just at the chorus. All you need to do is let Van's voice and the instrumental excellence carry you through to the tail end. Crazy.Then again, maybe "Astral Weeks" didn't sell just because it's very difficult to talk about this music in any but the vaguest terms ("You should hear this stuff, because.uh.").
"I know you're dying," Van whispers, "and I know you know it too / Every time I see you / I just don't know what to do." Except empathize, which is actually more than good enough because empathy is in short supply today. In the title track he asks "If I ventured in the slipstream.would you find me." and a lot of us might very well find that this question expresses our own sense of loneliness and confusion, I'll bet. Anything heavier would be a little too bombastic; you don't go seeking companionship by yelling and screaming, after all.The rest of the album proceeds accordingly, with time out for a little swinging brass on "The Way That Young Lovers Do". Whatever they did, it seems to have been one of those rare times when everything worked, so that a song about some poverty-stricken brat digging through the gutter trash might as well be about an angel of light.Well, maybe that's overdoing it some - I'll hear these songs my way and you hear them yours. And that may finally explain how "Astral Weeks" found its audience.Benshlomo says, Seek the human touch and you'll eventually find it.
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