Astral weeks

[Orang Utan]

Not heard it - looks rubbish

 

[Dubversion]

Not heard it - looks rubbish

you're a moron

 

[Dubversion]

My Dad's epitaph is 'Fair Play To You'.

aw, that's ace

Veedon Fleece is the one i occassionally decide i prefer to AW - just the way the first side specially is just one long suite of astonishing vocal performances, all of which sound like they're someone else.. just amazing.

But AW.. it's unmatched, by him or anyone else. I was 12 or so when i first heard it (given to me by a market trader who had the 2nd hand record stall next to my dad's on Wimborne Market cos he knew I liked Dylan), and I didn't understand it at all. But it worked its magic now I know every note, every tick, every sound.

Lester Bangs' review of Astral Weeks is also the finest piece of writing about music I've ever encountered.

Astral Weeks, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they can comprehend. It is a precious and terrible gift, born of a terrible truth, because what they see is both infinitely beautiful and terminally horrifying: the unlimited human ability to create or destroy, according to whim.

 

[Orang Utan]

you're a moron

I just don't dig the Van much from what I've heard of him, that's all

 

[Voley]

aw, that's ace

Innit.

My Mum's idea, to her eternal credit.

Funnily enough, my old fella didn't like Astral Weeks much, either. Big Veedon Fleece fan, mind. And capable of belting out 'Full Force Gale' at horrifying volume with headphones on oblivious of how awful it sounded to all and sundry.

He reckoned the best gig he ever saw Van do was a matinee at the Colston Hall in Bristol playing to a half-empty venue. Jaw-droppingly brilliant and barely anyone there to witness it. Which is sort of Van's style, for me ...

 

[Dubversion]

I just don't dig the Van much from what I've heard of him, that's all

ah, but this is different from anything else he did, and very different from anything else anyone else did. give it a go..

 

[Orang Utan]

ah, but this is different from anything else he did, and very different from anything else anyone else did. give it a go..

But then I'd have to buy it! I only really know Brown Eyed Girl and what I've seen on the telly makes me think of a honking potbellied goose

 

[Dubversion]

But then I'd have to buy it! I only really know Brown Eyed Girl and what I've seen on the telly makes me think of a honking potbellied goose

right

well, download it or something.

 

[Paul Russell]

Hmm

http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/glossary/belfast_east.html

I'm spending a little time in Belfast in September. I might do a bit of Van-related trainspotting activity. Although Cypress Avenue doesn't look that exciting.

Fact (well I read it somewhere anyway): on his first UK tour, Jonathan Richman travelled to Belfast to check out Cypress Avenue, just cos of the song.

 

[Orang Utan]

right

well, download it or something.

I just know I'll never get round to it.
There's a lot of music about - I can live without it

 

[118118]

No you can't!

 

[Orang Utan]

right

well, download it or something.

I've just listened to some clips - meh! Not my cup of tea at all.
It's probably one of those albums that people tell you that you MUST like and then infer that there's something wrong with you if you don't dig it. I've had this recently with the likes of Bob Dylan/Jimi Hendrix/The Doors etc etc

 

[118118]

It's probably one of those albums that people tell you that you MUST like and then infer that there's something wrong with you if you don't dig it.[/quote]

yes that's exactly what we've been saying.

 

[astral]

Damit I thought this thread was about me for a moment....

 

[Orang Utan]

It's probably one of those albums that people tell you that you MUST like and then infer that there's something wrong with you if you don't dig it.

yes that's exactly what we've been saying.[/QUOTE]
Well fuck the lot of you!!

 

[Dubversion]

I've just listened to some clips - meh! Not my cup of tea at all.
It's probably one of those albums that people tell you that you MUST like and then infer that there's something wrong with you if you don't dig it. I've had this recently with the likes of Bob Dylan/Jimi Hendrix/The Doors etc etc

well, there's no guarantee you'd like it, and i accept it's part of the 'have to hear it' canon, but i'd argue it's better than anything by the artists you mentioned (the doors? )....

and snippets won't do - it's a headphones on / immerse yourself deal

 

[Orang Utan]

Snippets are enough for me to tell I won't like it

 

[sleaterkinney]

I didn't like him either until I heard this:

 

[118118]

that *is* white jazz

 

[118118]

i dunno, is good, but maybe too smug? i don't usually agree with the "pop stars have talent" sentiment. but maybe the smugness is alright, y know?

 

[Chairman Meow]

"And you know you gotta go/on the train from Dublin up the sandy road"

This album has been a significant part of my life since I bought it in 1979.
.

*Ahem* Up to Sandy Row ackcherly. Its a (Prod) area of Belfast near the Botanic train station.

Its an amazing album - definitely in my top five of all time. I've seen him live five times. Twice he was terrible - grumpy, uncommunicative and sullen, one time only playing for an hour. Twice he was bloody good, and once at the Ulster Hall in Belfast one Xmas in the early 90s when he was utterly, completely sublime. He was also a pit pissed and wearing a Santa hat which was quite a sight, but when he did Gloria the roof nearly came off the place.

 

[Mallard]

Fantastic beautiful LP. Never get tired of it myself.