1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #132. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)

Label – Warner Brothers
Producer – Lewis Merenstein
Art Direction – Ed Thrasher
Nationality –UK
Running Time – 46:50

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Astral Weeks
2. Beside You
3. Sweet Thing
4. Cyprus Avenue
5. Young Lovers Do
6. Madame George
7. Ballerina
8. Slim Slow Rider

Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” was his second record and is generally considered one of the best albums in pop music history. I’m the first to admit, I’m just not a big fan of Morrison’s – and I do not see what the excitement is over this record. That’s it exactly – there is nothing to get excited about in the music. In fact it is rather bland and dare I say boring. Cue up the readers saying “you just don’t get it, you have no idea what your talking about” – all of which may be true – but I know what I like – and this just doesn’t do it for me!
It’s not a rock & roll album at all. It’s a mixture of folk, blues, jazz, and classical music, and on tracks like "Madame George" it just fails to go anywhere and just drags on and on. I kept waiting for something, anything remotely exciting to happen musically so I could justify all the critics' raves that I’ve read, but it never materialized. Some of the lyrics are pretty poetic (sometimes to the point of just plain gibberish) but it is definitely a depressing and un-pleasant work.
The record received critical acclaim immediately upon its first release and subsequently has been placed on numerous widely-circulated lists of best albums of all time. The 1995 MOJO list of 100 Best Albums, ranked it as #2, and it received the #19 ranking on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. The Times magazine listed it at #3 of The Times All Time Top 100 Albums. A separate readers' poll published in January 1996 placed the record at #5 behind three Beatles albums and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. In 1997, it came in at the 9th greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers placed it at #52, and in 2000 the same magazine placed it at #6 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1999 “Astral Weeks” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The TV network VH1 named it the 40th greatest album ever in 2003. It was listed among the All-Time 100 albums by CNNTime magazine in November 2006. In 2009, it was voted #6 on the list of The 100 Greatest Singer-Songwriter Albums of All Time by the editors at Amazon.com. In December 2009, it was voted the top Irish album of all time by a poll of leading Irish musicians taken by Hot Press magazine. Whew. Some list there. Oddly it never really sold that well and it took 33 years for it finally to achieved gold status which it did in 2001.
I do not recommend it


You can purchase the vinyl LP here

ROCK BIRTHDAYS FOR MARCH 3
John Lilley of the Hooters is 56; Blower (aka Joe Garvey) of Hinder is 26;

ON THIS DATE
1966 The Rolling Stones begin recording session in Hollywood for what would become Aftermath
1967 With Rod Stewart and Ron Wood the Jeff Beck Group make their debut in London
1978 In Chicago Van Halen begin their first U.S. tour
1983 Before the U.S. Senate a member of the motorcycle gang Hell's Angels testifies that the organization has a beef with Mick Jagger due to the Altamont incident in 1969. There evidently were two murder attempts on Jagger's life
1986 Masters Of Puppets by Metallica is released
1994 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana lapses into a coma because of a combination of valium and champagne and is rushed into a hospital in Rome
1995 Bill Berry of R.E.M. has surgery for a brain aneurysm
2005 Motley Crue appears on Live With Regis and Kelly
2006 Axl Rose files a counter-suit against Slash. Both want the copyright for Guns 'N' Roses
2008 Norman "Hurricane" Smith dies at the age of 86. Smith worked on several Beatles and Pink Floyd albums
2008 Kid Rock pleads not guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge after being arrested five months earlier at a Waffle House in Atlanta
2009 No Line On The Horizon by U2 is released

IN CONCERT
Thursday, March 4 THE MOODY BLUES Ruth Eckerd Hall Clearwater
Saturday, December 4 DON FELDER Youkey Theatre Lakeland

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