Livin' With a Gun

Adam, Will, and Sandra discuss the two most undeniable masterpieces from Van Morrison's oeuvre. Adam had heard Van as a kid, but wouldn't become acquainted with the total mastery and genius of the songwriter until reading Lester Bangs' essay on Van's '67 swan song Astral Weeks and finally listened to the entirety of the record himself. It totally changed his life. Van recorded Astral Weeks, ranked by critics overall as the 4th greatest album of popular music history, when he was only 22 fucking years old! It is shocking the extent to which this young man was in touch with the full range of his humanity. Lester Bangs wrote: "It sounded like the man who made Astral Weeks was in terrible pain, pain most of Van Morrison's previous works had only suggested; but like the later albums by the Velvet Underground, there was a redemptive element in the blackness, ultimate compassion for the suffering of others, and a swath of pure beauty and mystical awe that cut right through the heart of the work." Veedon Fleece wouldn't be released until 1974, five albums after Astral Weeks, but now can be seen to function as Astral's spiritual sequel. The most obscenely overlooked album in Van Morrison's oeuvre, there are fascinating things happening lyrically here. Not to mention, it is the only record in which Van seems comfortable expressing and showing off the full range of the seismic instrument that is his voice. "I'm not a good enough writer to explain how magical [Veedon Fleece] is," says Ben Chasny of the freak folk/psych band Six Organs of Admittance. "You'll just have to trust me."     Do you want to see God? Listen to Van Morrison.     (NOTE: this record got cut off at the end due to tech problems, but you don't miss much)   Astral Weeks: https://music.apple.com/us/album/astral-weeks/1031002336   Veedon Fleece: https://music.apple.com/us/album/veedon-fleece-bonus-track-version/1030926137     Soundtrack (all by Van Morrison): Astral Weeks   Cyprus Avenue   Madame George   The Way Young Lovers Do   Linden Arden Stole the Highlights   Who Was That Masked Man   You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Push the River Comfort You LINKS:   Lester Bangs on Astral Weeks Greil Marcus on Astral Weeks Ryan Walsh on Astral Weeks Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance on Veedon Fleece Gary Suarez on Veedon Fleece