Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (2LP, 45RPM)
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Van Morrison – vocals, acoustic guitar
Connie Kay – drums
Jay Berliner – classical and steel-string acoustic guitars
Richard Davis – double bass
John Payne – flute; soprano saxophone on "Slim Slow Slider"
Warren Smith Jr. – percussion, vibraphone
Larry Fallon – conductor ; harpsichord on "Cyprus Avenue"
Barry Kornfeld – acoustic guitar on "The Way Young Lovers Do"
Strings arranged by Larry Fallon
Written by Van Morrison
2LPs, gatefold jacket printed by Stoughton Printing
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : Black
Speed : 45 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Quality Record Pressings
Label : Analogue Productions - Acoustic Sounds 40 Series
Original Label : Warner
Recorded on 25 September 1968, 1 and 15 October 1968 at Century Sound Studio, New York City
Engineered by Brooks Arthur, Neil Schwartz
Produced by Lewis Merenstein
Mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab
Art direction by Ed Thrasher
Photography by Joel Brodsky
Originally released in November 1968
Reissued in 2026
Tracks:
Side A:
- Astral Weeks
- Beside You
Side B:
- Sweet Thing
- Cyprus Avenue
Side C:
- Young Lovers Do
- Madame George
Side D:
- Ballerina
- Slim Slow Slider
Awards:
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time – Ranked No. 60
Included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Ranked number 16 in the 2000 third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums
Reviews :
“Astral Weeks is generally considered one of the best albums in pop music history, but for all that renown, it is anything but an archetypal rock & roll album. It it isn't a rock & roll album at all. Van Morrison plays acoustic guitar and sings in his elastic, bluesy, soulful voice, accompanied by crack group of jazz studio players: guitarist Jay Berliner, upright bassist Richard Davis, Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay, vibraphonist Warren Smithand soprano saxophonist John Payne (also credited on flute, though that's debatable -- some claim an anonymous flutist provided those parts). Producer Lewis Merenstein added chamber orchestrations later and divided the album into halves: "In The Beginning" and "Afterwards" with four tunes under each heading. Morrison's songs are an instinctive, organic mixture of Celtic folk, blues, and jazz. He fully enters the mystic here, more in the moment than he ever would be again in a recording studio. If his pop hit "Brown-Eyed Girl" was the first place he explored the "previous" -- i.e., the depths of his memory -- for inspiration and direction, he immerses himself in it here. The freewheeling, loose feel adds to the intimacy and immediacy in the songs. They are, for the most part, extended, incantatory, loosely narrative, and poetic ruminations on his Belfast upbringing: its characters, shops, streets, alleys, and sidewalks, all framed by the innocence and passage of that era. Morrison seems hypnotized by his subjects; they comfort and haunt a present filled with inexhaustible longing and loneliness. He confesses as much in the title track: "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/ Could you find me?/Would you kiss-a my eyes/...To be born again...." Morrison doesn't reach out to the listener, but goes deep inside himself to excavate and explore. The album's centerpiece is "Madame George," a stream-of-consciousness narrative of personal psychological and spiritual archetypes deeply influenced by the road novels of Jack Kerouac. The climactic epiphany experienced on "Cyprus Avenue" paints a portrait of place and time so vividly, it fools listeners into the experience of shared -- but mythical -- memory. "The Way Young Lovers Do" is the most fully formed tune here. Its swinging jazz verses and tight rhythmic choruses underscore a simmering, passionate eroticism in Morrison's lyric and delivery. Astral Weeks is a justified entry in pop music's pantheon. It is unlike any record before or since; it mixes together the very best of postwar popular music in an emotional outpouring cast in delicate, subtle musical structures.” AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann
Ratings :
AllMusic : 5 / 5 , Discogs : 4.51 / 5