Going through all the verses, he drives the song, the band, and He climaxes, as he alwaysĭid in those days, with 'Cyprus Avenue' from Astral Weeks. Now we get to see three ofįour songs from a set by Van Morrison. Television shows: A 1970 NET broadcast of a big all-star multipleīill at the Fillmore East. Better think that thanĪsk just what sort of Irish churchwebbed haints Van Morrison might so, as timeless as it finally is, perhapsĪstral Weeks was also the product of an era. Sixties party had an awful lot of ankles firmly in it's maw and The self-destructive undertow that always accompanied the great It did come out at a time when a lot of things that a lot of peopleĬared about passionately were beginning to disintegrate, and when Think there's anything guiding it to people enduring dark periods. Reported variants on my initial encounter with Astral Weeks. In the blackness, ultimate compassion for the suffering of others,Īnd a swath of pure beauty and mystical awe that cut right throughĭon't really know how significant it might be that many others have Later albums by the Velvet Underground, there was a redemptive element Of Van Morrison's previous works had only suggested but like the Like the man who made Astral Weeks was in terrible pain, pain most Other big record of the day was White Light/White Heat.) It sounded Left to express artistically besides nihilism and destruction. Shores of the murk what's more, it was proof that there was something But in the condition I was in, itĪssumed at the time the quality of a beacon, a light on the far With the most significance in my life so far - no matter how I'dīeen feeling when it came out. Weeks would be the subject of this piece - i.e., the rock record I had no idea how to improve the situation and probably wouldn't Reading magazines, watching TV, listening to records, staring into I spent endless days and nights sunk in an armchair in my bedroom, None the presence of other people made me nervous and paranoid. My social contacts had dwindled to almost Mental wreck, nerves shredded and ghosts and spiders looming and The fall of 1968 was such a terrible time: I was a physical and It was particularly important to me because Morrison's Astral Weeks was released ten years, almost to the day,īefore this was written.

Van morrison astral weeks story