Astral Weeks/Moondance

Poetic Champions is my all-time fave Van the Man album. One of his more jazzy offerings and a “demo” disc of mine, especially on vinyl. Check it out. I dedicate Queen of the Slipstream to my long suffering wife.

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I Forgot That Love Existed is one of my favourite tracks but the fade s pretty brutal.

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I like His Band, but prefer the next album, Tupelo Honey. Surprised it hasn’t been mentioned.

Astral Weeks is, in my opinion, a work of unique brilliance - jazz, folk and poetry - but it is not a particularly easy listen as the vocals can sound harsh. I bought an expensive Japanese CD import some years ago and it sounds much better. There is a rare bootleg of VM (recorded by Peter Wolf, later of the J Geils Band) playing at the Catacombs club in Boston in the Summer of 1968 (accompanied by a double bass and a flautist - most likely John Payne who plays flute on Astral Weeks - plus Van on acoustic guitar) before he went into the studio to record Astral Weeks which gives you a sense of what it must have sounded like before the producer Louis Merenstein added strings, vibraphone, harpsicord etc. my favourite track - and possibly VM’s given the frequency with which he has performed it live - is Ballerina.

VM started recording Moondance with Louis Merenstein at the controls but dropped him as he wanted a more commercial sound when Astral Weeks failed to sell.

For people from Belfast, as I am, Astral Weeks is full of references to the city - Cyprus Avenue (“the Avenue of trees”) in the East of the city, and Ford Street and Fitzroy Avenue in the University area where Madam George reputedly sold drugs. If you ever visit Belfast there is an excellent guided ‘Van Morrison Walking Tour’ which takes in many of the places he sings about (the Hollow, Hyndford St, Orangefield) in the East of the city where he grew up.

Somewhat disappointingly he mostly performs R&B and Blues material nowadays and makes few concessions to his audience. With his characteristic stubbornness, when he played two outdoor sets on Cyprus Avenue a few years ago (to celebrate his 70th birthday as part of the Eastside Arts Festival) he refused to sing the song Cyprus Avenue and instead sang ‘On Hyndford St’!

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I love both but Astral Weeks more

My favorite is The Way Young Lovers Do. When he wails the refrain !! And this album I think has the greatest bass playing of any rock album ever

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I have seen him perform a number of times. I think you are being quite polite

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With his attitude to his paying audience & his miserable face I refuse to see him anymore, just makes me angry! Doesn’t stop me admiring & listening to his music though.

From all that I’ve ever read about him, Van Morrison has always come across as a miserable git. It is not something that has come with his advancing years.

Perhaps he’s a charming person off stage (although I wouldn’t count on it).

He has made some wonderful music, though, which has surely made a lot of people very happy.

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That was also my first one - I think it got a Five Star review in Q Magazine, so I thought id give it a try. Brilliant.

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I’m a big fan of a lot of his music not only the two albums (Astral Weeks and Moondance) mentioned but many others. Back on Top and Down the Road include some of my favourite tracks of his, however his last album was just plan sht. He’s sounding angrier and more bitter to a point where I now find him unlistenable. I doubt I will buy or even stream another new release of his, time to retire and count his money somewhere out of sight.

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Always loved the story that he turned up late to a party hosted by Elton John and was turned away because nobody had ordered a taxi.

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The last time I saw him he wouldn’t talk to the audience or the band. He only spoke to the drummer who spoke to the rest of the band

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I’d recommend Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl a 2009 double gatefold album where he does the whole album to a live audience. On 180gm vinyl - one of my go to albums - absolutely outstanding!! Bar code 5 0999-6-93423-18.
Cheers

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Trying to remember if Van ever smiled in The Last Waltz - surely Robbie’s infectious grin should have prompted him…

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Astral Weeks is the most over-rated record of all time. It’s so bloody prissy and I find its faux-jazz stylings pretentious and insufferable, while Moondance is just laughably maudlin gash. Plus that ill-tempered oaf Morrison sings like a duck high on helium being fed through a mangle.

So my choice between the two would be… Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz-Funk Greats.

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Kevster but tell us what you really think.

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I couldn’t, I’d be sued for libel.

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Think I’ve said before but the worlds better off for simple fact we’re all individuals.

Definitely agree about the man himself, his last album made me want to punch him. Whinging old privileged fool.

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I’ve got a Them album, which I quite like. Maybe if he’d stuck to gritty R&B I’d like him (or rather, his music – as a person he seems irredeemably ghastly) more.

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Utterly asinine comments. And posted on a music forum, for goodness sake.

This post will probably be deleted, sadly.

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