I thought it best to start the year with one of my all-time favorite records. My musical tastes have fluctuated quite a bit during the years, but "Astral Weeks" never leaves my personal Top-10. Last month I also bought it on CD, as it was recently remastered and reissued. I first discovered it around the time of my 18th birthday, and immediately fell in love with it. Funny, as my favorite music at the time veered from the classic rock I grew up with (Doors, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd) towards the garage punk of The Ramones, Stooges, Cramps etc. It probably shouldn't have resonated so strongly with a "rebellious" youth discovering college night life and political activism, but I've always had an introspective, melancholic side it appealed to. Not that it shows on the record, but Van was at the time an angry young man, too. A 22-year old immigrant from North Ireland to New York, he fell in with producer Bert Burns who tried to take control of his career and steer him towards pop. Burns' commercial instincts produced a huge hit ("Brown Eyed Girl") but Van kept wrestling for artistic freedom and the fight soon got ugly. By the beginning of 1968, Van Morrison was legally prohibited from entering a recording studio or playing live anywhere. Burn's premature death only made things worse, as his widow took over his estate with a vengeance, trying to have Morrison deported from the country. He subsequently managed to avoid deportation by marrying his American girlfriend and broke free from his contract with Burns' company. But he was certainly boiling with anger and resentment towards the music industry - feelings still palpable when, 25 years later, he wrote a song about his experience. So, the Van who entered the studio was remote and aloof, if not quite the misanthrope the music press always portrays him as. The session players assembled for the recording were not given any explanations as to the meaning of the lyrics and no written music or instructions. Van just stepped into the recording booth with his acoustic guitar without even introducing himself. The rest of the band stayed in a different part of the studio, and were told to improvise along to the music that came off the speakers. Miraculously, this approach worked: the spontaneous interplay between these brilliant jazz musicians (guitarist Jay Berliner, upright bassist Richard Davis, drummer Connie Kay, vibraphonist Warren Smith and saxophonist/flautist John Payne) captured something elusive as well as timeless, while the dreamy atmosphere was enhanced later by overdubbed strings. The music was completely different from anything heard before: that gentle mix of baroque jazz and folk had analogies to the music made by Tim Buckley at the time, but it was infused by Morrison's soulful delivery and Celtic lyricism. The lyrics were oblique and poetic, inspired by mysticism and nostalgia for his Belfast childhood. He's described opener "Astral Weeks" as a song about "the light at the end of the tunnel". It flows at a leisurely pace, with playful vibraphone and flute and unobtrusive strings, while Van sings (as he does in the whole album) with the fervor of a gospel singer losing himself in religious ecstasy: "If I ventured in the slipstream/Between the viaducts of your dreams...Could you find me/Would you kiss my eyes/Lay me down/In silence easy/To be born again/In another world/In another time". "Beside You" is folkier and sports some great classical guitar. "Sweet Thing" is a love song with a pastoral Celtic feel, more straightforward that the rest and therefore open to interpretation by other artists. Jeff Buckley and The Waterboys have produced their own excellent covers. "Cyprus Avenue" is a long jam about a lovestruck boy, sitting in a car under a tree-lined road, watching as the girl of his dreams goes by. I especially like how the violinist plays his own improvisations behind the vocal rather than just accompanying. "The Way Young Lovers Do" is somewhat of an anomaly in the album, being the only upbeat song, with Van scatting Sinatra-like accompanied by soulful brass and swirling strings. "Madame George" is the record's centerpiece, a dreamy and nostalgic 10-minute ballad about a mysterious figure living in the back street of his childhood house. It's unclear what kind of establishment the madame runs (or whether she is indeed a lady or a transvestite, as some surmise from the cryptic innuendos) but it seems to hold great attraction for the boy watching her. An earthier version of the song had been cut the previous year at Bang studios (together with one of "Beside You"), and the comparison speaks volumes about Van's decision to leave Burns to follow his own muse. "Ballerina" is a long love song written about his first encounter with his future wife Janet. It harks back to Van's rock'n'roll days with Them (he had rehearsed it a few times with that band) but delivered here in his new Celtic Soul style. "Slim Slow Slider" closes the album in a melancholic manner, as befits a song about a dying girl. Payne's saxophone is a highlight here, while the strings are absent for the first time. At 3,5 minutes it seems rather short, but the reissue rectifies that by including an alternate, longer version. Of the other bonus tracks, there's another long version ("Ballerina"), a first take on "Beside You" and an alternate version of "Madame George". All these performances are great while the absence of strings, together with the crystal clear production, create the illusion of being in the room with the band (although, as previously mentioned, the band and singer never actually sat in the same room). That impression is enhanced by the inclusion of studio banter, but that's not necessarily a good thing: "Astral Weeks" is an album that takes you on an inner voyage, and the atmosphere gets abruptly shattered by the voices of people talking to each other and counting down. I much prefer the silence following the soft click of the turntable coming to a stop and stylus returning to its position. Anyway you prefer it, in LP or new crisply remastered CD, if there ever was an album made to be heard as a whole, on the stereo or with headphones, that's "Astral Weeks". Download the individual tracks in MP3 and play them on your laptop to ruin one of the greatest listening experiences one can ever have.
***** for Astral Weeks, Beside You, Sweet Thing, Cyprus Avenue, The Way Young Lovers Do, Madame George
**** for Ballerina, Slim Slow Slider [Long Version]
*** for Slim Slow Slider, Beside You (Take 1), Madame George (Take 4), Ballerina [Long Version]
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