Astral Weeks was recorded in three sessions that took place between September and October of 1968 in New York City at the Century Sound Studios on West 52nd Street. It was Van Morrison's second album as a solo artist, after Blowin' Your Mind! and his albums with the band Them, and would become one of the most revered and influential albums of all time.
A brief history on Van the Man.
Van Morrison was born George Ivan Morrison in Northern Ireland in 1945. His father George, a shipyard electrician, owned the best record collection in town, and exposed the young Van to a wide array of musicians like Hank Williams, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, Charlie Parker, and so many more. In 1956, when Van was only 11 years old, George bought him his first acoustic guitar. Van's exposure to solid blues musicians like Lead Belly, Solomon Burke, and Muddy Waters gave him a thirst and connection to "skiffle" music, which is basically a combination of jazz, blues, folk and roots using homemade or improvised instruments. Listen to a song like "T.B. Sheets" and you'll understand what that sounds like. A year later, after only playing the guitar for a year, Van formed his first band - The Sputniks (it was 1957, give him a break). Throughout the next five years, Van formed and took part in four bands: Midnight Special, Deanie Sands, the Javelins, and the Monarchs, and also learned how to play the saxophone and read music. At 17, in 1962, Van went on his first ever tour across Europe with the Monarchs, playing mostly for US Army bases, and as often as five shows a night. He was now officially a musician. But upon returning from tour, the Monarchs decided to disband, and Van was left looking for another creative outlet.
In 1964, after a couple years of performing as the band the Golden Eagles, Van responded to a "band wanted" ad for a new R&B club at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast. He was hired, but didn't have a band, so he got some musicians together, eventually forming what would become the band Them.
When Them split up in 1966, Van returned to Belfast and immediately started writing new songs, some of which would end up on Astral Weeks. But in 1967, Bert Berns, Them's producer and composer of "Here Comes the Night" convinced Van to move to New York and record solo for his new label Bang Records. For whatever reason, Van decided to take him up on it and unknowingly signed a contract that would prevent him from having any control over any music or material released through the label. In March of that year, Van recorded eight songs during a two-day session at A&R Studios that were supposed to be released as four singles, including "Brown Eyed Girl." Instead of keeping to the original singles release plan, Berns released the album as a full-length, calling it Blowin' Your Mind. Van didn't even know the album was out until he got a call from a friend, saying he had just bought the record. Although the album is considered his solo debut, Van wasn't happy with the release, and noted that the entire process was manipulated by Berns.
In 1968, Berns suddenly died, leaving Van caught in contractual hell with Bang Records. Under their stipulations, Van wasn't allowed to play or record anywhere in New York. Meanwhile, Berns' widow was trying to deport him back to England. Van decided to move with his then-girlfriend and soon to be wife Janet to Cambridge, where he met upright bassist Tom Kielbania and the jazz-trained flautist John Payne. The trio began performing around the Boston area and subconsciously laying out the template for what would become Astral Weeks. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Records began pursuing Van for a record deal. The legal dispute between Bang Records finally disolved (Van was basically forced to write and record 36 songs, that are now considered the "revenge" songs) and the freedom path before Astral Weeks began to pave itself out.
On September 25, 1968, Van Morrison, producer Lewis Merenstein, bassist Richard Davis, guitarist Jay Berliner, percussionist Warren Smith Jr., drummer Connie Kay, and a mysterious unnamed flautist crammed into a room at Century Sound Studios. There were no lead sheets, no pep talks, no this-is-how-it-goes rundowns. Van walked in the studio, holed up in the vocals room, and let everyone else do their thing. Four songs were recorded during this session: "Cyprus Avenue," "Madame George," "Beside You," and the eponymous "Astral Weeks." Although Van technically wrote "Beside You" as one of his revenge songs for Bang Records, the song was instrumentally deconstructed for the purposes of Astral Weeks. John Payne, the original flautist Van found during his Boston experiments, was watching out in the control rooms, and begged Van to allow him to participate on the last track, which happened to be "Astral Weeks."
The second attempted recording session for the album occurred on October 1st. All the same musicians were employed except guitarist Jay Berline, who would be replaced by Barry Kornfeld. John Payne would officially replace the rando unknown flautist on the remaining flute parts of the album. According to Van biographer Cliton Heylin, the only song from this session that made it to the final Astral Weeks was "The Way Young Lovers Do," the most lounge-jazzy song on the entire thing, and, to me, the only song that doesn't sound like the others. But others have noted that all the songs from this session were entirely abandoned.
The third and final session occurred on October 15th. Davis was back on guitar, and the vibe was just right in the studio. The songs that came out were the remaining three tracks to complete Astral Weeks: "Sweet Thing," "Ballerina," and "Slim Slow Slider." "Sweet Thing" is maybe my favorite song ever. It conveys warmth and happiness and sorrow and that ray of hope after a torrential downpour that just puts a big bright smile on your face.
Because of the legal shit storm with Bang Records, none of the songs from Astra Weeks were ever released as singles, and as a result, the album failed to perform well on the charts or financially. But think about it. Van Marrison was 23 years old when he finished the record. Lester Bangs said about the album, "there are lifetimes behind it." And beyond that. There are echos of emotions from beyond whatever Van could've possibly consciously created. The word "astral," according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is an adjective defined as "of or relating to the stars" and "involving a person's spirit rather than the body." Almost like Van went out of himself, went above, into the stars, to come up with something so fucking magical.
The end.
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