Five Fucking Years
Five years ago, I pretty much changed the course of my life in a way that can not be described. The short and simple answer of it, is that I broke my leg. In doing so, I suffered what is probably the most painful experience in my life, even more so than my parents di-vorce, and one that still cripples me to this day. In the period after, when I was a much more consistent but lesser writer, I composed the following. It is a review of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. So now, 5 years after the fact, I will post one of my favorite texts to come out of this period. In retrospect it's semi drivel, but it is interesting as a point in time.
P.S. Happy B Day dad
Earlier this year, on April 9th to be exact, I dislocated my ankle and was rendered completely invalid for over a month and a half. I was on crutches and then I used a cane, and still to this day I can’t walk right, my leg will click and hurt, and I won’t be able to run for a while.
But about during the period I stopped using the cane, I started to feel a reawakening of consciousness, and I started to really appreciate what I had. And then, on the weekend that the fourth of July, my life reached a high point that seemed to last until the end of the month. Never in my life have I felt so good, never have I felt more alive and aware of everything around me. I had some of the best experiences of my life with my friends, and I saw family I may not see again for years or ever. And then even though I was having the time of my life, I knew it had to end, and by the end of this period, I sunk back into a depression, but it wasn’t a low as much as it was a continuation with the rest of my life, and a knowledge that this period may have been the final chapter of my childhood. And as if there was a fate to it all, I picked up only two days before this period what would become the soundtrack to it all, Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison.
The first four tracks of the album seem to feel like one great day, the lyrics of some of the songs, including the title track that is the first song.
If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dreams
Where the mobile steel rims crack
And the ditch and the back roads stop
Could you find me,
Would you kiss-a my eyes,
And lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again
The song climaxes with Van singing the line, we are goin to heaven, looping the lyric over and over again and then adding in another time, in another place. And the lyrics would leave you to believe this as well. But what pushes the album into the ranks of great and why it continues to be considered one of the greatest albums of all time is the supporting music and how it perfectly matches the way the lyrics feel. On the last track Slim Slo Slider, it is just Van and his acoustic guitar, but on Astral Weeks, and Sweet Thing, it is a collection of musicians that defies labeling, it just seems like heaven. The album seems at time, like the sound of Lennon’s Imagine, this world where we don’t have problems, at the same time, it has the sharp pain of not be able to go there, or if we were, the feeling of leaving that place, and knowing you can’t go back.
He was born again, and he was also, at the same time, finding the ultimate moment in his life, as the lyrics and folklore of the album would tell. The back story of the album would tell you that the protagonist, Van or whoever, has been in the slump of his life, and this one day is where all of his problems have ceased, and his is reunited with his lost love, and he just seems to be able to float along in this joyous world he has finally found.
Adding more interesting ideals to the history of the recording, done in two small sessions in New York, were the circumstances that surrounded the period. The history of Ireland at the time was at the peak of the problems that would shape the country and it’s relations with the other countries of the Isles during the late 60’s and 70’s. Morrison himself was only 23 at the time of the recording, but he was trying to recreate himself from the days of Them and Bang, where he did Gloria and Brown Eyed Girl. He hated the songs in a sense and he tried to get himself away from the whole mess of it. So, with the help of his producer he put himself into the album. The lyrics of the album have references to Morison’s life before he was an artist, such as Cypress Ave. and many other references, that can be seen and understood at the Van Morrison Website
http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/van.html
So, he moved himself out of the area where he grew up, and began with a new life. This idea helps to explain the two album sections, In The Beginning, which covers the first 4 songs, and Afterwards which covers the second side and other 4 songs of the albums. The difference between the two, below the surface is night and day. One the first side, it has the beauty of the album aforementioned, a sort of musical drug that takes you to another place, which would explain why this has been a stoners choice for years. The second half, however, holds the recognition that Van has to leave, and this is done with absolute perfection in what is considered the centerpiece of the album, Madame George. The song is about a reunion of old friends, maybe those who lived in the first half of the album, which brought Van to another world. It is joyous, but there seems to be a feeling of awkwardness, as Van has seemingly outgrown his friends. He feels a pain because he doesn’t seem to fit in anymore, but he remembers all of the times where he was, but he realizes that he has to leave.
The following two songs of the album take this idea and continue with it, with the final song having Van recount this sort of depression and rubbish of it all, the sense of leaving greatness and beginning his life again.
The songs are as good as any that have ever been made, and the album itself is an experience that is unforgettable, definitive, and beautiful and immensely depressing at the same time.
As for me, it kind of captured this period with perfection. For Morrison the whole album was both autobiographical and otherworldly removed at the same time. I hope you may understand with what I have written how Astral Weeks fits in both ways, but for me to do this would only spoil the album itself, it needs to be heard first, and if so later desired, understood. I don’t think I could even do it justice.
As for the album, it is one of the best of all time, but for more reasons is it great than just the music.
P.S. Happy B Day dad
Earlier this year, on April 9th to be exact, I dislocated my ankle and was rendered completely invalid for over a month and a half. I was on crutches and then I used a cane, and still to this day I can’t walk right, my leg will click and hurt, and I won’t be able to run for a while.
But about during the period I stopped using the cane, I started to feel a reawakening of consciousness, and I started to really appreciate what I had. And then, on the weekend that the fourth of July, my life reached a high point that seemed to last until the end of the month. Never in my life have I felt so good, never have I felt more alive and aware of everything around me. I had some of the best experiences of my life with my friends, and I saw family I may not see again for years or ever. And then even though I was having the time of my life, I knew it had to end, and by the end of this period, I sunk back into a depression, but it wasn’t a low as much as it was a continuation with the rest of my life, and a knowledge that this period may have been the final chapter of my childhood. And as if there was a fate to it all, I picked up only two days before this period what would become the soundtrack to it all, Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison.
The first four tracks of the album seem to feel like one great day, the lyrics of some of the songs, including the title track that is the first song.
If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dreams
Where the mobile steel rims crack
And the ditch and the back roads stop
Could you find me,
Would you kiss-a my eyes,
And lay me down
In silence easy
To be born again
The song climaxes with Van singing the line, we are goin to heaven, looping the lyric over and over again and then adding in another time, in another place. And the lyrics would leave you to believe this as well. But what pushes the album into the ranks of great and why it continues to be considered one of the greatest albums of all time is the supporting music and how it perfectly matches the way the lyrics feel. On the last track Slim Slo Slider, it is just Van and his acoustic guitar, but on Astral Weeks, and Sweet Thing, it is a collection of musicians that defies labeling, it just seems like heaven. The album seems at time, like the sound of Lennon’s Imagine, this world where we don’t have problems, at the same time, it has the sharp pain of not be able to go there, or if we were, the feeling of leaving that place, and knowing you can’t go back.
He was born again, and he was also, at the same time, finding the ultimate moment in his life, as the lyrics and folklore of the album would tell. The back story of the album would tell you that the protagonist, Van or whoever, has been in the slump of his life, and this one day is where all of his problems have ceased, and his is reunited with his lost love, and he just seems to be able to float along in this joyous world he has finally found.
Adding more interesting ideals to the history of the recording, done in two small sessions in New York, were the circumstances that surrounded the period. The history of Ireland at the time was at the peak of the problems that would shape the country and it’s relations with the other countries of the Isles during the late 60’s and 70’s. Morrison himself was only 23 at the time of the recording, but he was trying to recreate himself from the days of Them and Bang, where he did Gloria and Brown Eyed Girl. He hated the songs in a sense and he tried to get himself away from the whole mess of it. So, with the help of his producer he put himself into the album. The lyrics of the album have references to Morison’s life before he was an artist, such as Cypress Ave. and many other references, that can be seen and understood at the Van Morrison Website
http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/van.html
So, he moved himself out of the area where he grew up, and began with a new life. This idea helps to explain the two album sections, In The Beginning, which covers the first 4 songs, and Afterwards which covers the second side and other 4 songs of the albums. The difference between the two, below the surface is night and day. One the first side, it has the beauty of the album aforementioned, a sort of musical drug that takes you to another place, which would explain why this has been a stoners choice for years. The second half, however, holds the recognition that Van has to leave, and this is done with absolute perfection in what is considered the centerpiece of the album, Madame George. The song is about a reunion of old friends, maybe those who lived in the first half of the album, which brought Van to another world. It is joyous, but there seems to be a feeling of awkwardness, as Van has seemingly outgrown his friends. He feels a pain because he doesn’t seem to fit in anymore, but he remembers all of the times where he was, but he realizes that he has to leave.
The following two songs of the album take this idea and continue with it, with the final song having Van recount this sort of depression and rubbish of it all, the sense of leaving greatness and beginning his life again.
The songs are as good as any that have ever been made, and the album itself is an experience that is unforgettable, definitive, and beautiful and immensely depressing at the same time.
As for me, it kind of captured this period with perfection. For Morrison the whole album was both autobiographical and otherworldly removed at the same time. I hope you may understand with what I have written how Astral Weeks fits in both ways, but for me to do this would only spoil the album itself, it needs to be heard first, and if so later desired, understood. I don’t think I could even do it justice.
As for the album, it is one of the best of all time, but for more reasons is it great than just the music.
posted by Indiana at
3:28 AM
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