Morrison eventually separated from BANG Records. Morrison faced further conflict with DeNoria, including a drunken night in which DeNoria struck Morrison with his guitar. Following months of arguments about royalties, Berns died of a heart attack in December, leaving Carmine DeNoia in charge of the label. Morrison, who saw himself as a writer and poet, felt like the aesthetic misrepresented him, resulting in a tense relationship between the two. Berns, going against Morrison’s wishes, chose to release Blowin’ Your Mind! with psychedelic cover art, alluding to the drug culture of the 1960s that was becoming increasingly popular in music. Recorded at Century Sound Studios in New York in the fall of 1968, it was released by Warner Bros Records on November 29th the same year.Īstral Weeks was written following months of conflict and contention between Morrison and Bert Berns, a New York producer at BANG Records who released Morrison’s debut solo album Blowin’ Your Mind! in September of 1967. Exactly 50 years ago today, Van Morrison’s album Astral Weeks (1968) was released, and its impact on music continues to remain remarkable.Īstral Weeks was the second album recorded in-studio by Van Morrison, a singer-songwriter born in Pottinger, Ireland in 1945. Bruce Springsteen said that it gave him “ a sense of the divine.” It has been described as nearly perfect, transcendental, and is regarded as one of the best albums of all time. A truly brilliant song to open an equally brilliant album.There are few albums that seem to have a profound effect on not only its listeners but on fellow musicians as well. And then there is Van's voice - still powerful like a loud saxophone from his days with Them, but here also finding moments of whispering softness and incredibly maturity at the age of just 23. The musicianship too is extraordinary, somehow taking a main riff alongside a mixture of independent but co-dependent melodies you might find in a brass and horn traditional jazz band, but instead playing them on classical guitar, flute, double bass and other stringed instruments to create something that is also folk, but again nothing like anything before it. He sought something new, and so indeed this song seems to be about rebirth, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and certain reaches another world in its extraordinary lightness of touch, elevation of mood and feeling. It was a true moment when Van found his identity, escaping the pressures of pop and rock that had come with Them, and after disputes and tensions with his former collaborator and label boss Bert Berns, who had died in 1967. Continuing our astral theme, this 1968 masterpiece by the Belfast artist was the opener his second solo album. A progression from yesterday's otherworldly Flaming Lips to an altogether different place and time.

Van morrison astral weeks song meaning