#astral weeks

[canticleofcanticlesforleibowitz]

[jt1674]

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[johnyorks]

Van Morrison - Slim Slow Slider / I Start Breaking Down (live at the Hol...

OK. Here is old Van doing it live. And still a much better version than I could do, even vocally.

[soundgrammar]

Bassist Richard Davis (April 15, 1930 – September 6, 2023)

[ace-of-bass]

I don't really know what Van Morrison was talking about in Astral Weeks but the vibes are impeccable

[protoslacker]

The Way Young Lovers Do (1999 Remaster)

Van Morrison

Bassist Richard Davis has passed way. Among his many acheivements are his contributions to Van Morrison's second studio album, Astral Weeks. The excellent Wikipedia article about the album quotes the album's producer Lewis Merenstein saying:

If you listen to the album, every tune is led by Richard and everybody followed Richard and Van's voice. I knew if I brought Richard in, he would put the bottom on to support what Van wanted to do vocally, or acoustically.

It's a beautiful and groundbreaking album.

[ryanhamiltonwalsh]

New photos of Van Morrison in Cambridge, MA 1968 emerge!

Every time I think there's no more discoveries related to Astral Weeks (the album and the book I wrote about it), something comes along to surprise me. This one is a doozy. Below you'll find four photos taken in 1968 featuring Van Morrison, bassist Tom Kielbania, and Janet Planet together, working on music on Green Street in Cambridge, MA. I cannot believe these exist. These were taken by and courtesy of Jim Bourne, the context of which I'll explain in a moment.

Jim Bourne's girlfriend lived on Massachusetts Ave on the 5th floor, and he snapped all of these photos from her place looking down. The trash-strewn patch of grass where they are located was an empty lot across the street from their Green St. apartment. The last photo shows Tom Kielbania sitting on the stoop in front of their place, which is the same exact house three members of the Van Morrison Conspiracy pointed out to me back in 2018. [CORRECTION: SEE BELOW] There is footage of Van Morrison in the 00's on Green St. pointing to a house farther down the street that was shown to me once under circumstances I cannot elaborate on, but I don't think he's correct. It's photographer Jim Bourne's memory that they lived there in that house seen in the photo, too. He also adds, "I parked my car in front of it one night, and the next morning the car was gone. I had it stolen twice (and attempted a third time) while I lived in Cambridge." If you've spent any time in this neighborhood today, you're probably shocked about all of the free floating garbage seen in these photos along with the tales of rampant car theft. These were different times. (Oh and btw, I zoomed in on all that newspaper trash just hoping one of em would be an issue of Avatar; results inconclusive)

Next, let's just take a moment to marvel that this is a photo of Janet Planet doing exactly what she described to me during our interviews for the book.

I think we're looking at a photo of this very process, even including the legendary binder full of songs! Now, maybe you're saying, "How do you even know that's Janet in these photos? You can't even see her face!" Well good news, I asked her today and she confirmed it. "It's definitely us - I remember the blouse I'm wearing very well. It belonged to my mom...this is a fabulous find...Those were the Astral Weeks songs we were working on. I'm gobsmacked over here!"

She continued, "I've always wondered if there were all sorts of people who photographed us here and there and just have the photos somewhere. There are so few from that time." She called the existence of these photos "absolutely miraculous." I agree.

The big takeaways here for me are:

These photos both help confirm the address of where they lived AND muddy the waters. 602-604 is what all the band members believed was the house when we visited in person in 2018, but this photo shows Tom sitting on the steps of 608-610 next door. They look similar, for sure. Sigh. So, we know it's one of these two houses, but this doesn't fully resolve the mystery as I thought it did at first. See below for a current photo of both houses, side by side.

This clearly demonstrates the accuracy of Janet Planet's comments to me about her involvement in the song writing process of Astral Weeks and the other songs he composed while he was living in Boston.

Van just busted out that sax whenever he felt like it.

Jim Bourne also noted, "Mel [Lyman] was very much a presence at WGBH, where I worked." You can contact Jim Bourne, the photographer, here.

[chroniclesofnadia111]

While I cook breakfast 🖤