On record, the song climbs and climbs, egged on by Richard Davis’ limbic, octave-leaping bass. It was just stunning, and I knew I wanted to work with him in that moment.”

“My whole being was vibrating,” Merenstein later remembered in 2008. “If I ventured in the slipstream / Between the viaducts of your dreams,” he began. When it came time to audition some material for producer Lewis Merenstein at Ace Recording Studio in Boston, Morrison pulled out a tune he’d written around that “astral” theme. He’d been working on some paintings themed around astral projection, and they caught the singer’s eye he’d go on to translate the visuals into a song. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, here’s a track-by-track retrospective of the original album.īack in 1966, Morrison visited the Belfast, Ireland, home of his friend, painter Cecil McCartney. Over the years, he’s strangely described it as a “ rock opera,” denigrated the heavily improvised arrangements as “ too samey,” and even declared the young man’s yearnings in the lyrics to be “ totally fictional.” He’d come around to Weeks onstage, performing the album during a run of Hollywood Bowl concerts in 2008 - but with the track sequence completely reshuffled.ĭespite its cool reception in 1968 and Morrison’s waffling opinion in the 21st century, Astral Weeks continues to ensnare new listeners to this day. Morrison still seems nonplussed and insecure about the album. He’d never fully return to the style of Astral Weeks. The results tanked commercially, and Morrison would find a way to split the difference between his experimental and commercial sides on future albums like 1970’s Moondance, 1974’s Veedon Fleece and 1986’s No Guru, No Method, No Teacher to much applause. In its loose swirl of imperfections, the music seems to lift a few inches off the ground. The mostly unrehearsed musicians vamp together in strange, slippery timing.

Like any Verve or Blue Note classic, Weeks was recorded almost completely live it was tracked in only three days. Drummer Connie Kay hailed from the East Coast bop legends Modern Jazz Quartet upright bassist Richard Davis had made waves on Eric Dolphy’s 1964 free-jazz classic Out to Lunch!. When the singer headed to New York’s Century Sound Studios that fall, he wasn’t set up with pop or R&B session cats, but with jazz veterans.

Van morrison astral weeks