After four decades, Astral Weeks is still the sweetest allotment of abstruseness in Van Morrison's catalog, but until this accomplished weekend, Morrison had never performed the anthology live. (Speaking afresh with David Wild in Rolling Stone, he abhorrent Warner Bros. for not accouterment acceptable promotion aback in 1968.) So if he played Astral Weeks in its absoluteness for two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, everybody present seemed to apperceive they were witnessing history (except for the two teenagers in band for hot dogs who accepted they would be seeing Van Halen). Tickets ranged from $75 to $350, and a abounding camera aggregation captured the achievement for a approaching DVD. The dozen abetment musicians even included the aboriginal Astral Weeks guitarist Jay Berliner (Richard Davis, whose affected plan on actor bass provided the album's spine, had a ancestors emergency and backed out at the endure minute).
After an aperture set (generally strong, although Morrison, acutely apathetic with "Brown-Eyed Girl," now almost bothers with its consonants), Morrison beggared on an acoustic guitar and tackled Astral Weeks. Sometimes he evoked the airiness of the aboriginal material, but added generally he took allegation the music with the ascendancy that comes with four decades of performing, even ambiguity the aboriginal arena adjustment for no accessible reason. Morrison continued the anthology to a abounding hour, abrogation lots of allowance for solos and for his own scatting. It seemed that already he breathed in the aroma of these eight songs, he didn't wish them to end - and searching at the bugged crowd, he wasn't the alone one.
Set List: "Wavelength"
"Saint Dominic's Preview"
"Caravan"
"Heavy Connection"
"Here Comes the Night"
"And the Healing Has Begun"
"Summertime in England"
"Brown-Eyed Girl"
"Gloria" (incorporating "Who Do You Love")
Astral Weeks:
"Astral Weeks"
"Beside You"
"Slim Slow Slider"
"Sweet Thing"
"The Way Young Lovers Do"
"Cyprus Avenue"
"Ballerina"
"Madame George"
Encore: "Listen to the Lion"
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• Classic Interview: Van Morrison in 1972
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