Van Morrison’s debut solo album is a waking dream of an East Belfast populated by stargazers, sweet things with champagne eyes, heroin casualties and persecuted drag queens. Over improvised backdrops constructed by top session players and Charles Mingus alumni, Van sang haunting incantatory melodies and astonishing stream of conscious lines that fused Kerouac’s jazz to Joyce’s tenor. The songs had strong literary associations – the protagonist of ‘Cypress Avenue’ could’ve been Lolita’s Humbert Humbert, the tragic Madame George straight out of Last Exit To Brooklyn by way of Tennessee Williams – but Van insisted these songs had more to do with northern vernacular than consciously tapping into any written tradition.
“The bulk of the lyrics were written in East Belfast,” he told hotpress in 2000. “I don’t think it came from literary interest, I think it came from hearing people talk, not from reading books. Later on the connections were made with the poetic tradition, but at that point it was just stuff I was picking up from the way people talked.”
Like its weirder twin, the Velvet Underground’s debut, Astral Weeks was a seminal album dealing with adult themes of darkness, mortality and deviance. And like the Velvets, its influence vastly overshadowed its meagre sales.
“By the time that came out it was like, where’s the next meal coming from, you know what I mean?” said Van. “Astral Weeks didn’t sell.” But its influence remains immense.