Astral Weeks, not highly regarded on the old ILM?

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Why not? Seems like most of the threads bash it? I think its a fantastic album...a must have in my opinion.

― Chris, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so say why chris? i am not a fan (no surprise there surely) though i do not particuarly hate it either

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

to steal from Lester Bangs. The pain and sadness and that endless ramblng, love to love to love to love to love and all that. Great songwriting. The pictures that Van paints. Just really do it for me.

― Chris, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

tom nairn once threw an idea into an essay on northern ireland politics which i really liked, but then he didn't expand on it: that the key to van m is that he is a NI protestant unable to attach to his own specific cultural heritage, hence [but this is the bit TN didn't explore] => VM generally gets the same "free pass" treatment i moan abt with coltrane => i can't connect at all with people's reasons for super-SUPER-loving him ("spirituality" blah blah)

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i never explained "free pass" so this may not be a bit clear

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hahaha. I wasn't aware that lacking clarity ever bothered you, Mark.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

:p :p :p :p :p :p

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha i shd have said to :p to :p to :p to :p

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

good one mark.

― Chris, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Meet the new boss...

― Daver, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't get that whole NI protestant = detachment from culture = free pass for spirituality point. I want to get it, but I don't. I don't know if I even paraphrased it well, actually.

― , Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

...hence...he had to forge his own, highly personal link between the Celtic 'mystical'/musical tradition of his youth and the American, gospel-derived r'n'b/blues of ppl like Leadbelly and Ray Charles that, for the young VM, represented an escape from repression/conformity?

I sometimes feel that the 'spiritual' (yawn) aspects of 'Astral Weeks' have obscured the highly personal, almost conversationally 'realist' nature of some of the lyrics, most esp. on 'Slim Slow Slider', the alb's utterly devastating last track - "I know you're dying/And I know you know it, too/Everytime I see you/I just don't know what to do " - itself a partial reworking of an earlier, even more harrowing song VM, 'TB Sheets'. In fact, I think a lot of the lyrics on AW still stand up - when Van sings 'em they're like hippy- dippy Chuck Berryisms, complete w/ creepy teeny lolita obsessions and some brilliant alliterative rhyme schemes that work so well when SUNG. Plus, I don't know many other pop/rock recs that draw so convincingly on jazz sounds/arrangements - Richard Davis on bass, etc.

Blimey - I want to hear it again right now!

"If I ventured in the slipstream/Between the viaducts of your dream/ Where immobile steel rims crack/And the ditch in the back roads stop"

― Andrew L, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is this :p the emoticon for lick me, Mark? Or is that a raspberry? I'm sorry, Mark, you're still not being very clear!

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know about that free pass, seems like a lot of people squares and hipsters alike are pretty put off by that "spirituality" association and not at all afraid to say so. I love Van - more for tb sheets than astral weeks - but I always feel completely uncool for saying so here - which is fine of course.

― fritz, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"free pass" = straight thru to great OR horrible, but never actually anything in-between, viz greatly significant cuz greatly flawed

― mark s, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh OK - that makes total sense now. lester bangs was so over the top too - might have set the tone for how people talk about it now

― , Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love Astral Weeks for the jazzy vibe (completely inadequate term) and the arrangements. I don't know another record that sounds like that (maybe Out to Lunch or something). There is other good Van stuff but I am not so interested in the soulman routine.

― Ben Williams, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't verify this with a footnote, but I've been told that Astral Weeks was recorded with Van just giving cues to a band he'd assembled of NY session players. Then he went into a sound chamber in a studio and the band played while he vamped along with lyrics. Basically the effect being that the band and the singer couldn't hear each other. I don't know if that's true, but that's the rumor I'm partial to. Also, that Astral Weeks was recorded in, like, record time.

Please don't throw in the towel on him until you've given Veedon Fleece and St. Dominic's Preview a serious turn...

― Steve K, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably 'cos Richard Davis played bass on both OTL and AW.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

aha! Interesting, I didn't know that. Of course, Astral Weeks has the strings too, they really put it over the top.

― Ben Williams, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Richard Davis remembers the session as basically jamming with his jazz buddies, with Van Morrison hanging out in the control room being a bit shy and not giving them too much direction.

― Jordan, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Excellent album. When I worked in the Barnes and Noble music dept that was my best selling monthly recommendation. Of course I don't even touch the stuff Mr. Morrison makes today. AW and St. Dominic's Preview make me jealous.

― Lindsey B, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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