Van Morrison to revisit "Astral Weeks" live

Van Morrison is nothing if not a patient man -- at least when it comes to his landmark 1968 album "Astral Weeks."

The work established him as one of rock's most revered singers and songwriters after his initial bout with fame and commercial success a few years earlier with his band Them. But it wasn’t a big hit -- it never cracked Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart -- and took 33 years to reach gold record status, denoting sales of 500,000 copies. It has, however, consistently shown up on critics' lists of the greatest albums of all time, alongside the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde."

Come November, to mark the 40th anniversary of the album’s release, he’s doing a pair of shows at the Hollywood Bowl performing the album in its entirety, something he never did originally.

“In the '60s and '70s the record companies did not support the music, so I never got to take these songs on tour, and I certainly did not have the money to do it,” the mercurial 63-year-old said in a news release announcing the shows. “These songs are as timeless and fresh right now as the day they were written and I am happy about taking them to the Hollywood Bowl."

He’ll be accompanied by a band set to include guitarist Jay Berliner and bassist Richard Davis, who played on the groundbreaking album that blended rock, jazz, folk and Celtic music with lyrics that often evoked William Blake’s poetic mysticism. Peter Erskine will take over for “Astral Weeks” drummer Connie Kay, the Modern Jazz Quartet’s percussionist who died in 1994.

The plan is to record the concerts for a live album to be released on vinyl by Christmas and on CD in January.

“This is a welcomed opportunity for me to perform these songs the way I originally intended them to be,” Morrison added. “It’s about the world of creation and of the imagination: That is what a song is, a little movie with melodies and music built around it, poetry in moving pictures in the mind.”

It’s also rare look backward for Morrison, one of the few major artists who has never put out a retrospective box set. Record company execs interested in assembling one say his standard response is that he’s more interested in moving forward than revisiting his past.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Van Morrison performing in 2001 at the Wiltern by Lori Shepler/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[I, Slay The Dragon]

The blessed St. Patrick, AND Van the Man? Thank-you, Ireland!