Oh, it still consists mostly of great songs- the two "bonus" tracks slightly less so- performed with skill, and recorded at fine quality, but it's hard to imagine why anyone other than souvenir-seekers or live-music absolutists would need to listen to this more than once as long as the original LP remains in print. On disc, Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a bland, bluesy celebration you can afford to miss. As recorded on Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl, the performances retain the improvisatory approach from the record, right down to changing the song order- the all-loving, possibly transvestite-themed, vaguely pro-civil-rights hymn "Madame George" now closes, rather than atmospheric mortality rumination "Slim Slow Slider". The shows featured guitarist Berliner from the 1968 sessions, along with other previous Morrison collaborators and a full string section they were generally well-reviewed. Transcended the originals, if you know what I mean." That's Morrison talking to the Associated Press recently. "We did the songs and took them somewhere else. Sadly, one thing that this record isn't: legendary.Īstral Weeks was released 40 years, almost to the day, before Van Morrison performed the whole thing live two straight nights last November.
Now Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl is also an album honoring the shows that honored that legendary album. The legend is with the album, and the legend is the album.Īstral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl was a pair of concerts held last year at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, honoring the legendary album (scheduled to be reprised February 27 and 28 at New York's Theater at Madison Square Garden). You breathe in you breathe out, baby baby baby, way upon way upon, dry your eye your eye your eye, too late to stop now, the love that loves the love that loves the love that loves the love that loves to love the love that loves to love the love that loves, I know you're dying.
Guitarist Jay Berliner (Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady), bassist Richard Davis (Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch), and drummer Connie Kay (of the Modern Jazz Quartet) create an improvisatory space for Morrison's haunted freeform meditations Larry Fallon's overdubs add strings, woodwinds, and harpsichord. A 23-year-old Van Morrison howls, he hollers, he cajoles, he grabs hold of the ineffable and caresses its edges, bending and reiterating it like an instrumental virtuoso.
Only Astral Weeks the album could live up to Astral Weeks the legend.
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