I don't get Astral Weeks

Understood, and thank you.

I think what I mostly mean to get across is that some people really like The Minutemen's Double Nickels On The Dime or Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica and some don't. Like these two, in its way Astral Weeks can be a difficult listen. Ultimately it's rewarding, but by the same token I don't listen to it all that frequently either. For the most part, it's not an album built for consuming individual songs. It's like that book you come back to once in a blue moon because it's something you really want to read again...you search it out, in other words, not necessarily idly pick it up and give it a spin.

Lester Bangs' essay on the album in Stranded: Rock & Roll For A Desert Island goes a long way to clarifying some of the reasons why this album is considered essential by so many, and to a degree explaining why it's such a difficult listen for many others. It certainly helped me, although I don't necessarily come to the same conclusions that Bangs did.

 

Nice to see some really great discussion going on here. Maybe once I get my room finished downstairs I'll get a copy, turn the lights down, grab a bottle of Czechvar....and have a listen.

 

Sorry, but I'm another detractor. I have never, ever *got* Astral Weeks. I own about half a dozen Van CDs/LPs (and I realise from his huge output that doesn't exactly make me his greatest fan), but I think Veedon Fleece (an album which is often compared for its feel to AW) is a far superior record.

 

Astral Weeks in the 70s

ASTRAL WEEKS was my favorite 3 a.m. album when I was a 17-year-old high school junior back in 1971. Haven't really listened to it much since then, but I still dig what Van does. I'd go for an SACD of AW for nostalgia's sake, if nothing else...

 

I'd go for an SACD of Astral Weeks 'cause I'd love it, and I'd buy it for all my friends. I can hardly think of another rock/pop title I'd more want to see on SACD.

 

Geeze . . . sorry to tell ya---we've got an age related problem here, if you check my drift . Anyway, you're right, that "Which Side of Astral Weeks is your favorite?" thing is sort of---it's like a time tunnel or some'in. Kinda like asking about rising signs and getting into microscopic detail as regards what's "vibes" in the house today.

 

Great thread! Unfortunately I have to chime in on the "don't get it" side. I've had the CD for years - picked it up because it was considered a "classic" and I did spin it quite a few times before deciding......sorry. Not for me. I like Van's more recent stuff better. If my copy of Best of Volume 2 was vinyl - it'd be worn to a pulp by now! In fact I was quite inspired by the song "Meaning of Loneliness" from the What's wrong with this picture CD last year - I heard it on the radio and ...... instant purchase! That doesn't happen to me very often. Sorry to say.....Astral Weeks doesn't elecit the same response. Well, glad to know it wasn't "just me"! Cheers!
--------- Chris

 

You lost me.

 

Never really listened to ASTRAL WEEKS much - always been a big MOONDANCE fan. Then one night I put it on while I was surfin the Internet and found my attention constantly being drawn to the music. Now it's a real "Desert Island" disc for me. I can't imagine a better one-two punch than ASTRAL WEEKS and MOONDANCE, especially when you consider when these two LPs were made. This is music that will be appreciated for generations and generations.

 

That book, STRANDED: ROCK & ROLL FOR A DESERT ISLAND, is necessary reading for anyone who enjoys these sort of forum discussions about why a particular album is someone's special album. Written in the late seventies, the selections are somewhat dated, although most of the writers pick recognizable classics like ASTRAL WEEKS or BEGGAR'S BANQUET, but their enthusiasm fairly leaps off the pages.

That Lester Bangs, who you would assume would pick a Stooges or Velvet Underground record for his desert island, instead selected ASTRAL WEEKS, and wrote movingly and uncharacteristically sincerely about it, says volumes about this album's appeal.

 

Agreed. I'd love to see a modern-day version of the book. I've already got a short list of decent critics and other writers that I'd like to hear weigh in on their favorite albums. Even though Nick Hornby has a book about his favorite songs, I'd like to see which album he goes to as a standard bearer, or read David Sedaris' actual thoughts on Joni Mitchell's Hejira (he has an essay in his newest book bearing that title and mentions Joni in the text once, but it really isn't about the album at all).

I remembered seeing that book for the first time and being very surprised about that album being his pick...I had expected it to be something much noisier myself, too. Yeah, Bangs' more comedic tendencies vanish for at least this one review, and it's interesting reading, seeing him work not-quite in his expected style.

 

You are not alone. I got a copy of this album in the 1970s for 25 or 50 cents at a yard sale, which is how I found most of my LPs in the 1970s. It already had a lot of hype attached to it. I put it on. It literally put me to sleep. So maybe it did do something for me after all ...

Maybe I ought to try it again. I still have that 50-cent green WB "shield" album (second edition; first ones should have the "Warner Bros.-7 Arts Records" box logo). Thirty years of life since then might make me more receptive. But then again, I've heard a lot of Van Morrison over the years, and my favorite of his remains his first solo single, "Brown Eyed Girl" ... a classic in my book.

 

Dave, you might want to try Veedon Fleece, and tracks like "Country Fair" (conjures of the image of a warm sunny July day), and then go back to Astral Weeks.

It's one of my favourites. I just love "Listen To The Lion", the way it builds, ebbs and flows.

 

Me too and another great Idea for a SACD re-issue. As I recall, from a great sounding "Legacy" remaster of "Blowin' Your Mind", Van's Bang sessions have great sound to begin with. I used to have a pristine copy of the LP and it had the most natural sound of all, though the CD (as I recall) had plenty of impact as well.

 

Funny, this is sort of the perfect "Astral Weeks" thread. It's very much an "I just don't get it" kind of album.

I saw it on a list of "20 best rock albums" that was in this "Rock Book of Lists" I had, so I tracked it down, as a teen. I totally didn't get it. In fact, I thought it was unlistenable.

Then, years later, in college in Ohio, on one of those beautiful, perfect "Spring is finally here" days, someone had it cranked on a boombox and it was perfect.

I had a little epiphany at that moment: That some records might be an "A+" or 5-star record on one day, and a "D-," no-star record some other day...in a different time, in a different place, or inhabiting a different face. It's all utterly subjective. When you're in a dance club, some old dance song might be the best thing ever even if the words are idiotic.

And something that feels horribly, inappropriately apocalyptic and mean in peacetime might seem very compassionate and medicinal when we're all reeling from some violence and horror. Again, time and space and who you are and where you're at.

 

You can hardly find anything more "Easter" than the title track to "Astral Weeks".

 

Wow. Revolver U.K. is a my all-time no.1 album.

 

Words that have been deliberately chosen - as any Astral Weeks fan would know.

 

It has always sounded like "phase" to me.

 

Slight threadcrap, sorry, but is the vinyl 1st pressing that gets raves & high prices these days any/significantly better than the 2nd pressing that I have (green wb)? I've played it to death, so you know where I come down on this debate, but I'd gladly shell out if there's a difference.

My feeling on this album is that it's one of the few top 10 canon blah blah that we've all heard a thousand times that I still sit up riveted every time I hear it like it's the 1st time.

Threadcap #2: has anyone ever noticed that both the cymbals to the fadeout of Madame George, & the harpsichord (?) to the fadeout of Cyprus Avenue, keep losing correct time? I mean, that's Connie Kay from the MJQ on drums, right? 2 minor blemishes which, because the whole is so perfect, don't really detract...just curious.

John.

 

Again, it's not like I hate it. Maybe it's my 177th favorite album of all time? I like it more than Astral Weeks, at least.

 

The first pressing has more bass and better focus. It's very typical of what happens with WB vinyl masterings over time. They tend to get brighter as time rolls along.

 

I love Van! Between records and CD's I have most of his commercial (legal) recordings. That said, I bought "Astral Weeks" thirty years ago. I didn't get it then, I don't get it now! I sold my original copy of it years ago. I even purchased a new copy of it some years ago, in hoping on getting it. Bottom line so what...the man has written and recorded so much material over the years, and I mean great material. So...if there's one record he made that I don't necessary like, big deal, he's still way ahead on his game! IMO!

BTW, I must pull "Astral Weeks" out once or twice a year to see if my taste for it has changed. I want to like it, but it just doesn't do anything for me.

 

I absolutely love this record so much, I don't have anything add. If you don't get it, you're missing out.