Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

Week 49 gives us Van Morrison and his second solo album “Astral Weeks” released November, 1968. In order to understand this album we first need to look at a little bit of what was going on for Morrison before this album was released. His debut solo album “Blowin’ Your Mind” was released on Bang Records in 1967. The album was compiled and released without Morrison’s consent, to which he was a little pissed about (and that’s why you should always read the fine print kids). This led to a dispute with label guy and producer Bert Burns. In a misfortunate turn of events Burns had a heart attack and died, making the whole shebang much more complicated. Morrison then signed with Warner Bros. who helped him deal with his contractual obligations to Bang Records.

Signing to Warner Bros. meant the Morrison finally had artistic control over his work. His previous work was soul and R&B influenced but for this album he enlisted several session musicians with jazz backgrounds. Most of the album is recorded live and largely improvised around the framework that Morrison gave them. The album incorporates folk, jazz, blues and classical music. It’s one of those albums that’s hard to categorize as it doesn’t really fit into one genre. It is often referred to a ‘song cycle’ rather than a concept album. Wikipedia puts it best: “The album embraces a form of symbolism that would eventually become a staple of Morrison's songs, equating earthly love and heaven, or as close as a living being can approach it.”

“Astral Weeks” received great critical response upon its release but despite this was never really commercially successful. The album has gone on to be considered not only Morrison’s greatest recording but also is now a massive influence and many genres of music. It was ranked #19 on Rolling Stone magazines “500 Greatest Albums of all Time” list.

I first came aware of this album many years ago through the work of Jeff Buckley. He was a massive Morrison fan and often covered his songs. His live version of ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ from the “Live at the Sine ep” was good enough to make me go and buy this album. It’s an album I’ve always loved. I can’t explain why I like it so much. When I listen I can hear the obvious pain but there is also this beautiful hope that swells around the pain the way the instruments swell around the vocals. It is one of those that works better as a whole, yet each track stands strong on its own, unlike some concept albums. I don’t necessarily understand what he’s singing about on some of the songs but it doesn’t matter because I feel it. It’s almost a mediative experience listening to “Astral Weeks”. I’m reluctant to break down this album song by song as I feel it would do an injustice to the album as a whole. Instead I’m just going to say that ‘Sweet Thing’ is one of the most joyous things I’ve ever heard.

A haiku for you Mr Morrison:
how do you describe
indescribable music?
you don’t. you listen.