The Music: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks
Present: Patrick (host), Aaron, Ian, Jase, John
The Album
A Belfast-born singer-songwriter released the most important album of his career in November 1968. Of course, I’m referring to Van Morrison—known to music fans as Van the Man—and his career-defining record Astral Weeks.
Morrison opened himself up to what he calls “the mystic,” and wrote a collection of songs that is routinely listed as one of the greatest albums of all time by publications like Rolling Stone and Mojo. At the time of its inception, Morrison was known (or unknown) for his work with the garage rock band Them and the popular solo single “Brown Eyed Girl,” which appeared on his debut solo album Blowin’ Your Mind! in 1967. That album was—minus the unsettling centerpiece “T.B. Sheets”—the pop creation of producer Bert Berns. Astral Weeks was a step away from Van’s pop and rock origins.
Conceived in turmoil, 1968 was a trying year for Morrison. The year began with contract issues with Bang Records. The sudden death of the label’s founder, Bert Berns, at the end of ’67 certainly had not helped his situation. Berns and Morrison had a strong disagreement about the direction of his music. Morrison wanted to explore new territory, while Berns wanted more singles like “Brown Eyed Girl.” Berns passed away of a heart attack, for which his wife, Ilene, blamed Morrison. As a result, she tried to have him deported to Ireland.
Luckily, she was not successful and Morrison was able to continue his musical career in Boston. Although Morrison’s contract dispute kept him out of the recording studio, he was able to write and play music in local clubs in Boston, where the foundation of Weeks was built..
Once Warner Brothers got word of Morrison’s situation, they became very interested in buying out his contract. Warner Brothers sent Lewis Merenstein, a producer, to a show in Boston to see what he had to offer. Merenstein heard Morrison play the song “Astral Weeks” and later said in an interview found in Clinton Heylin’s 2003 Van Morrison biography Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, “I started crying. It just vibrated my soul, and I knew that I wanted to work with that sound.”
After that rave review, Warner Brothers, in cooperation with the Schwaid-Merenstein production team, bought out Morrison’s contract.
Merenstein had a background in jazz production, and as a result, he had good connections with many accomplished jazz musicians who would shape the improvisational tone of the record. He booked Richard Davis, Jay Berliner, Warren Smith Jr. and Connie Kay for the three recording dates. All of the musicians booked were well known in the jazz realm—Kay and Mingus had even played with the Modern Jazz Quartet. Along with Merenstein’s direction, they were left to develop their own sound and feel. In fact, according to a radio interview on Imus in the Morning to promote the 2010 release of Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl, the only direction that Van gave the musicians when recording began was “Just follow where I’m going … follow my vocal, and follow the best way you can, and don’t get in my way.”
With only that direction, a rock/pop musician and a group of jazz musicians played what felt right. As a result, Astral Weeks can sound tentative and uneasy at moments. It even has musical moments some might consider mistakes. However, with an open mind, what initially appear to be mistakes begin to sound like perfection. The album is meant to be felt in whatever way it hits you at whatever moment it hits you. It’s an album of jazz, R&B, soul, blues, Celtic, and many other influences. It’s an album that, to use the words of Van, originates from “another time, in another place,” yet arrives someplace unexplainably human and universal. It can be both an album of great comfort and great distress.
The album never met gold status until 2001, 33 years after its release, yet it has often been held up as a shining example of how transcendent pop music can be. It was praised as the No. 2 album of all time in 1995 by MOJO and No. 19 in 2003 by Rolling Stone. There have been many other “greatest of all time” lists that have placed Astral Weeks in the top 25. This is interesting because there are no singles on either side of this record. It certainly isn’t easily digested, either. Astral Weeks is a challenging album that a listener could drive themselves crazy trying to interpret. Of course, this is how the album latches onto the listener and doesn't let go. Depending on your own life walk, this album will mean something different to you. Lester Bangs once said in Greil Marcus’ 1979 compilation book Stranded that although Van was only “22 or 23 years old when he made this record; there are lifetimes behind it.”
Van opened himself up to a realm that few have ventured and wrote a gorgeous album about humanity, hurt and love. It’s like an audio version of a Rorschach test where only the listener’s thoughts, feelings and experiences can form the story. Perhaps, we as listeners should open ourselves up to “the mystic,” “venture into the slipstream between the viaducts of [our] dreams,” and “dig it all, not to wonder.”
I think that would be just fine.
The Distillery
The Cooley Distillery, established in 1987, is located less than an hour away from Belfast on the Cooley Peninsula on Ireland’s east coast. It’s a distillery built on independence and Irish pride. Cooley Distillery only uses Irish barley and local water from the Cooley Mountains. It’s also important to mention that its creation ended the Irish whiskey monopoly and reintroduced competition and quality to Irish whiskey.
The Cooley Distillery, the first new whiskey distillery in Ireland in more than 100 years, was created with the vision to become the distillery to provide innovation and revive traditional Irish distilling techniques. Cooley’s handcrafted whiskeys are distilled using small copper pot stills with very large necks. The use of these distinctive stills causes the whiskey to pass through at half the pace as typical stills, therefore creating a “more refined product.”
In 1966 there were only four Irish distilleries. Soon, there were only two after the Jameson, Powers, and Cork distilleries merged to create Irish Distillers. In the early ’70’s, once Bushmills decided to join Irish Distillers, the Irish whiskey monopoly began. The monopoly lasted for nearly two decades until the creation of the Cooley Distillery. Since Cooley’s creation, the Irish Distillers sold Jameson, Powers, and Cork to Pernod Ricard, a French multinational company. Soon afterwards, the Bushmills label was sold to Diageo, a UK multinational company. The Cooley Distillery is now the only Irish-owned Irish whiskey distillery.
Cooley has successfully brought several classic Irish whiskey brands to their former glory (Tyconnell, Kilbeggan, Inishowen, etc.) as well as created new whiskeys (Connemara, Locke’s 8 Year, etc.). Cooley’s whiskeys have won countless awards in each of their respective categories. The Cooley Distillery has successfully worked its way to the top of the quality Irish whiskey list.
The Blend
When I read of the different whiskeys that Cooley has to offer, the one that screamed
Astral Weeks was Connemara. It’s a peated single malt Irish whiskey produced using traditional Irish techniques. Peat fires are used to dry the malted barley giving it a smoky, complex flavor while allowing the simpler, sweeter tones of vanilla, honey and fruit to shine through.
Much like how Astral Weeks, an album like no other, was created using jazz techniques, Connemara, a whiskey like no other, was created using ancient distilling techniques. Also, Connemara, which is not commercially known, has won more awards than any other Irish whiskey, including “World’s Best Irish Single Malt.” That fact certainly reminds me of Astral Weeks highly placed spots on many greatest of all time lists. The taste can even be compared to the sound of the album. Both the album and whiskey is complex, but they have a sweet side that lightens the mood and allows the listener/taster to continue to enjoy over and over.
Now, let’s quit reading and start mixing this evocative and questioning record with this complex and satisfying whiskey.
A Toast
We raise our glasses to "the love that loves to love"; may we never forget it or say goodbye.
(Written by Patrick Mears; Edited by Darren White)
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