The album has been a critical success and consistently been on the various Greatest Albums Of All Time lists since it came out, although it never charted a hit. We knew him for Gloria (with Them) and Brown Eyed Girl, but when we first experienced Astral Weeks, it was magic and poetry and cosmic all rolled into one. The LP came out in 1968 - before Moondance (1970) and His Band And Street Choir (1970) made him a big star with hits like Moondance and Domino putting him on the pop charts. We didn't know what a song cycle was, but we liked it. My friends and I were listening to bands like Cream, the Beatles, the Grass Roots, Sly And The Family Stone, starting to veer away from the mainstream music, but this album was very, very different. It had a powerful effect on me and changed the rhythms running in my head and the music that I played. D o you remember the first time you heard Van Morrison's Astral Weeks? Did you lie back in the darkness, hearing Van Morrison play jazz, with horns and flutes vibes and strings bluesy folk vocals with acoustic guitars and bass? It was something else - not rock, not pop - it was music that made you listen to the poetry in the lyrics, and feel the real emotion in Morrison's singing.
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