I don't get Astral Weeks

Regarding Astral Weeks as compared to Forever Changes, with me it was that Astral Weeks didn't click with me at all until the second listen while Forever Changes did "register" on the first listen but I didn't think much of it on the second go-round. Must be the "mood" you're in when ya listen to an album... unless, of course, ya just never "get" a particular album at all.

 

It's not that I don't get it, I just don't like it. "Moondance," and many other Morrison albums, are simply more accessible and likable.

 

Looks like another job for......

 

Yep, maybe eating that stuff will finally help you "get it". But then, I guess the purpose is to help you "lose it". Whatever the case, be careful with that stuff!

 

I don't get it either! I love Tupelo Honey though.

 

Astral Weeks is Van`s stroke of genius for me.

 

Tuning issues on some of the tracks sealed its fate for me; probably the sketchbook way it was recorded. I may give it a whirl again, though, now that I've got more "high-end" gear, and gotten older. (Van's music is very much music for adults.)

 

I've had the same experience so far. I love the Moondance album. So I thought I would like Astral Weeks too, but I've never gotten a thing out of it. I've listened to it probably three times, and I can't remember what a single song sounds like. I'll pull it out and give it another try at some point.

 

I love 'Moondance' and the Bang years material,
but although I've had Astral Weeks for decades,
it never sucked me in either. I've even listened on the 'phones, didn't help.

However, I love 'Song Cycle' by Van Dyke Parks,
which I've used to irritate people for years! (laughing)

 

26 years ago I took a cassette of Astral Weeks with me on a year long european backpacking holiday. I remember going for a walk in the Black Forest (literally) in the south of Germany with my newly acquired Sony Walkman listening to the cassette.

It was a moment (well 45 minutes or so) that will remain with me always.



".......to be born again"

 

It didn't do much for me either, but I don't get so called classic albums anyway (Revolver, Pet Sounds don't do anything for me). However one track I do like is Madame George. Terrific song.

 

One of my top ten lp's.

 

I also didn't 'get' Astral Weeks when I first heard it (about 18 years ago) but I decided to give it time. I was inching my way into jazz around that time, too, and very gradually AW started to make sense to me. The more jazz I listened to, the more I liked the album. It's now my favorite Van Morrison disc.

Morrison himself has said that Astral Weeks is not a rock album, it's a jazz album, which I think is an important distinction to make when going in. You've got Connie Kaye from the Modern Jazz Quartet on drums, Richard Davis (who's played with everybody) on bass and Jay Berliner (who can list Mingus' Black Saint and the Sinner Lady on his resumé) on guitar. It's pretty clear with that list of players what Morrison was after, and he got it.

I say give it more time, listen to some more jazz maybe. It might not ever be your cup of tea, and if that's the case, so be it, no big deal. At least you gave it a shot.

 

Excellent post. I first heard Astral Weeks about 20 years ago, and it was something I respected more than I actually liked. But the more I got into jazz, the more I started to appreciate it. Richard Davis is one of the greatest bassists ever, jazz or rock, and his work with Van was sublime. Also, I found that if you're going through really tough times, it's the perfect music to put on. There's something very cleansing about the strings, his voice and everything else, that it's almost tantamount to a religious experience.

 

Remember, this is one of the best albums!

 

Has anyone listened to and compared different CD pressings? Which one is best? I am trying to get three different copies together, but only have two at the moment.

 

I just found a used CD of Astral Weeks for $2 over the weekend - I'd never heard it before last night. I've gotta say, it was pretty stunning. I obviously need to spend a lot more time with it, but it really impressed me at first listen. A very good late-night spin, for sure!

 

If you like it then check out "Veedon Fleece". I have two version of that one ready to go for a shootout, but want a third.

 

Here's an excerpt from a new interview with Van on vanmorrison.co.uk:


So you then had to start all over again with Astral Weeks?

Astral Weeks was like starting again because when I signed to Bang Records with Bert Berns in America I was getting pushed back again into pop music. So I had to almost go right back to the beginning again, back to the very early days when I thought I was going to be a folk singer. Right back at the beginning in Belfast, when I was learning songs by The Carter Family and Leadbelly, I thought I was going to be a folk singer, just me and my guitar. And I sort of went right back to that with Astral Weeks, right back to the beginning, because I was getting fed up with groups and bands and producers and people imposing their ideas on me and trying to get me to make a chart record and all that ****. So I just started all over again, me and my guitar, and took it from there.

How long did it take to write the songs that ended up on Astral Weeks?

About a year, 18 months. There are lots of different versions of those songs on other records that Bert produced, but if anyone listens to them they can hear why I did what I did with Astral Weeks. Because on these other versions they’re all out of context. I had to break away to get the songs done some other way. Because he (Bert Berns) just wanted this (does handclaps) all the time. So I was forced to do them some other way.

Did you have any sense at all when you were writing and making Astral Weeks of what a phenomenon it would become?

Well, a phenomenon in whose head? All that stuff is just third party. I don’t know who’s saying this stuff. I can only relate to what we’re saying. I don’t know what you mean by that. Who’s saying it’s a phenomenon? I can only relate to what I’m doing and my experiences of what I’m doing and what it is at the time. After you put it out and other people and critics project on it, that’s their stuff, that’s not my stuff. A phenomenon? I don’t even know what that means.

I suppose what I mean is that it seems to have become a permanent fixture on the list of the Top 10 Greatest Albums of all time.

I know certain people have got that angle on it. But I had no way of knowing that when I was making it. And I still don’t know that. It just is what it is. And what it was at that time. I think maybe I was saying things at that time just to say them or something. You know? Like “I’m going to say this just to say it”. I think in some way I was subconsciously trying to be controversial or to say things that were out of the ordinary on that record. I can’t relate to it now, if you know what I mean.

Was it like breaking free?

Breaking free, breaking through, yeah.

And did everything get easier for you once it came out?

No, everything got harder.

How come?

Because nobody would back it. The producers that I had then, they sold it (Astral Weeks) to the record company, and nobody would back me to do it live. I really wanted to do it live, make something out of it, try to have a platform, you know? Try to do it properly with the people who’d played on it, the strings section, everything, but there was no money coming through to do that. I was totally broke, so I just couldn’t present the material in the way I wanted. I was so broke and there was so little support that the only way I was able to get paid on the next record was to get session fees as a singer. I’d get the forms at the session, fill them in as “singer”, and have to send them off to the union to get paid.



The whole interview is worth reading. Registration is required.

(I apologise if this has already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread)

 

I like this better than any other of Vans' solo albums. I remember buying it in the winter when it came out, it still has that wintery feel for me. Everything else by Van I skip tracks, not on this.
In my opinion, it's his masterpiece, if there is such a thing.

 

According to the latest official comments at Because Sound Matters, Steve and Kevin have remastered not only Moondance but also His Band and the Street Choir and Astral Weeks. Perhaps their version of AW will be an improvement.

 

That's interesting, I look forward to that, any release details ?

 

None at all. It's strange that no one on hear has talked about it (including Steve). I knew nothing about it until I read the blurb on BSM.

 

Steve mentioned it at the Head-Fi meet in San Jose in June. I believe some people mentioned it on the Head-Fi threads as well.

 

There is a lot of great Van to hear. Astral Weeks never did much for me musically.