Morrison spent the summer of 1968 playing small clubs and high-school gyms across New England, using a group of local musicians, including flute and soprano saxophone player John Payne, under the banner of the Van Morrison Controversy. The sublime eight-song album, recorded over just three days (25 September, 1 and 15 October) at Century Sound Studios, 135 West 52nd Street, New York City, represented what Morrison called “sophisticated poetry that is multi-layered in sounds”, a jazz-infused acoustic song cycle behind stream-of-consciousness lyrics about being transported to “another time” and “another place”. “Sophisticated poetry that is multi-layered in sounds” He was 23, broke, depressed, drinking heavily and living in Boston with his first wife, Janet Rigsbee (aka Janet Planet), with whom he worked on a group of imaginative songs he had written as a teenager back home in Belfast and during his residence in Ladbroke Grove in London. The results are a real treat, upholding the same openness and sense of exploration that defines the original - even with the addition of more musicians and a string ensemble.Ĭlick the link above to hear the full review of Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl.Van Morrison was living what he called “a very hand-to-mouth existence” when he recorded the majestic Astral Weeks album in the autumn of 1968.

In November, Morrison revisited the album for the first time in a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. But since then, it has become touted as one of the most influential pieces of late-'60s rock. They worked to create an extraordinarily original piece over the course of just a few days, striking a delicate middle ground between rock and jazz.Īstral Weeks never cracked the Billboard Top Albums chart when it was first released. Verging on starvation and desperate to escape a contract with his first label, Morrison wound up in a New York studio with a small group of jazz musicians.

Though he'd scored a hit the year before with 'Brown Eyed Girl,' he'd made little money off it. When Van Morrison recorded Astral Weeks in 1968, he had reached a low point in his life.

Van morrison astral weeks live