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Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live
Monday, June 01, 2009
In the final series of Astral Weeks concerts Van Morrison proves the classic nature of the original recording.By Brian Wise.
Sometimes you have trust your instincts. When I heard that Van Morrison was performing Astral Weeks at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles while I was still in the USA I decided that would be the perfect way to end the journey. The cost of changing a flight, of a balcony ticket and of foregoing a day in Nashville seemed well worth it as soon as Morrison appeared on stage.
Five years ago I might have been nervous about Morrison’s performance and less likely to take so much trouble to see him. But after recent reviews of the Astral Weeks shows, the live CD and his marvellous performance at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2007 (the recording of which was released as a double CD) I was confident that the detour would be worth the effort. But I was not quite prepared for how great it actually turned out to be. It is not understating things to say that it was one of the musical highlights of my life.
If you have the album or the DVD of last November’s Hollywood Bowl show you have an idea of how great the performance was – but it did not give you all of the first part of the show that was a mix of ‘greatest hits’ and favourites.
In his shades, trademark hat and leather jacket, the 63-year-old Belfast-born singer - who played piano, guitar, harmonica and sax - was assisted by a 14-piece band and almost raced through the first set. The songs nearly ran into one another as he treated us to ‘Moondance,’ ‘Wild Night,’ ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You,’ ‘It’s All In The Game,’‘When The Healing Has Begun,’ ‘Northern Muse (Solid Ground)’ and ‘Troubadours.’ There were also mighty versions of ‘Caravan’ and “And It Stoned Me.’
Morrison also added ‘Queen Of The Slipstream,’ which he said he had not performed in years, as a special request for Ryan O’Neal who wanted the song dedicated to Farah Fawcett, who apparently was given a DVD of the show. (Van does have a heart after all!).
It was difficult to know if there was an actual set list because often Morrison would bark out a title and the band would quickly launch into the song. Later, I read that the band members need to know up to 100 songs so that Van can change the order at will – which is exactly what he seemed to do here. He would also point to various musicians to indicate that he wanted them to do a solo, which might have been daunting for a lesser band. One might have been satisfied with that set alone but the masterpiece was yet to come.
If the first set was freewheeling and spontaneous, the Astral Weeks portion of the show was necessarily much more structured – though again, Morrison has changed the song order to reflect his original vision. This is unlike the revival of Pet Sounds where Brian Wilson was propped up by the backing band that reproduced the album perfectly. Morrison is in complete command and, if his voice does not have quite the same timbre as on the original, it now has a different, richer, quality. The songs are not note perfect either with Morrison, adopting a jazz singer’s approach to fit within the framework of each one but at the same time, be a little more adventurous and spontaneous.
After a very short break, a voice announced, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Astral Weeks,’ and Van launched into the album while at least half of the audience were still making their way to their seats. The ensemble had been reduced to ten, minus some of the string section, and the sound was less cluttered as was demanded by the sparseness of the original recording. Of the original session musicians only guitarist Jay Berliner appeared but that was enough to provide a palpable link with the past.
On certain songs Morrison was able to stretch out even more than on the album with ‘Astral Weeks,’ ‘Slim Slow Slider’ and ‘Cyprus Avenue’ being extended, as they were on the Hollywood Bowl shows. When he launched into a beautiful version of ‘Ballerina’ and we knew that there was only a few songs to go, I turned to Triple R’s Tim Thorpe, my travelling buddy whom I had convinced to make the same detour, and said, ‘I never want this show to end!’
Suddenly, Morrison burst into laughter, aware of some private joke, and said, ‘I didn’t really look at this from the point of view of a comedy album before, but…..” Somehow, this one humorous aside brought Morrison closer to the audience, who remain mystified at the joke but appreciative to see Van in such rare good humour.
‘Madame George’ is now the coup de grace of the Astral Weeks show and now matter how Morrison treats it – fast or slow – it is magnificent. ‘Listen To The Lion,’ which is considerably shorter than its original incarnation, follows it immediately and, though it appeared on St Dominic’s Preview some years after Astral Weeks fits the mood perfectly.
The encore brought a surprise as Morrison launched into ‘Mystic Eyes’, one of the earliest songs he recorded with Them, and followed it with an upbeat version of ‘Gloria,’ that left everyone on a high. Despite a massive standing ovation, one encore was all we were going to get – but it did end one of my most memorable nights.
In the warm afterglow it occurred to me how wonderful it is that, no matter how long you have been listening to music, it still has the power to move you in strange and mysterious ways.
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