875 on the list of 885 Essential Songs voted on by listeners of WXPN in 2008. The song 'Astral Weeks' was rated #475 on the WXPN All Time Greatest Songs in 2004 and No.

īrian Hinton's review of the song states: 'All is uncertain, this spiritual rebirth a question still, not a statement, and Van equates his move to a new world - both America and that of love- with a sense of being lost, 'ain't nothing but a stranger in this world'. It's one of those songs where you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's basically what the song says.' Morrison told Steve Turner that he was working on the song back in Belfast in 1966 when he visited painter Cecil McCartney who had drawings on astral projection 'and that's why I called it 'Astral Weeks'. I remember reading about you having to die to be born. Morrison described the song 'Astral Weeks' as being: 'like transforming energy, or going from one source to another with it being born again like a rebirth. John Payne, the flautist who had been working with Morrison, said it was the first time he had ever heard it, and that although the song may sound rehearsed it was actually captured from the only take. On the first recording session for the album on 25 September 1968, this song was the last of four recorded for that date. A truly brilliant song to open an equally brilliant album.' Astral Weeks' is the title song and opening track on the 1968 album Astral Weeks by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. 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.

Astral weeks lyrics van morrison