Tag Archives: Astral Weeks

List, Poll

These are the 20 Greatest albums of all time according to the JV community

39 Comments

 

Bob_Dylan_-_Highway_61_Revisited

The votes have been counted.

Read further down in the post…..

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I hereby challenge all readers to put out their personal list of the 20 Greatest albums of all time.
Top 15 /10 is also appreciated.

Use the comments section in this post or check out our Facebook page.

The poll will be open till Tuesday’ish.

The rules:

  • ONLY 5 Bob Dylan albums allowed
  • It’s an album list, but 2 exceptions are allowed (Greatest Hits/Very Best/..)
    This is meant to cover artists that didn’t really put out many “albums”, typically older music 40/50s.

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Again: Don’t take theses lists so seriously ! It’s meant to be FUN.

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It was a great poll to host, and we got lists in from 52 musicologists.

notes:

  • It’s nice to see (though hardly a surprise) 3 Dylan albums on top (as on my list)
  • lists with fewer than 5 did not count
  • Live albums did not count, including my own “Live @ San Quentin”, as stated above.. this will be a separate poll
# Album Artist votes
1 Highway 61 Revisited (1965) Bob Dylan 29
2 Blood On The Tracks (1975) Bob Dylan 26
3 Blonde On Blonde (1966) Bob Dylan 25
4 Revolver (1966) The Beatles 18
5 Exile On Main St. (1972) The Rolling Stones 17
6 Astral Weeks (1968) Van Morrison 15
7 Rubber Soul (1965) The Beatles 14
8 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) The Beatles 13
8 White Album (1968) The Beatles 13
10 Abbey Road (1969) The Beatles 12
10 Let It Bleed (1969) The Rolling Stones 12
10 Who’s Next (1971) The Who 12
13 Kind Of Blue (1959) Miles Davis 11
14 John Wesley Harding (1967) Bob Dylan 10
14 The Band (1969) The Band 10
16 Bringing It All Back Home (1965) Bob Dylan 8
16 Dark Side Of The Moon Pink Floyd 8
16 Music From Big Pink (1968) The Band 8
16 Beggar’s Banquet (1968) The Rolling Stones 8
16 Sticky Fingers (1971) The Rolling Stones 8

Lurking under:

  • Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
  • Crosby Stills & Nash
  • Neil Young – After The Gold Rush
  • Van Morrison – Moondance
  • Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
  • Crosby Stills & Nash  – Deja Vu
  • Pink Floyd – Wish You Where Here
  • Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
  • Bruce Springsteen – Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  • George Harrison – all Things Must Pass
  • Grateful Dead – American Beauty
  • The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced
  • Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

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My list – 20 favorite  albums:

Continue reading These are the 20 Greatest albums of all time according to the JV community →

Concert films, Live, Van Morrison

Concert film: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live 2008

15 Comments

AV live VM screenshot

“The way I was singing the songs was jazz”
– Van Morrison

I have changed my mind, I do that from time to time (all the time actually…).  My favorite Van Morrison album has been Moondance for years, but now it is Astral Weeks. I’ve always loved Astral Weeks, it has been third on my list of his albums (the live album, It’s too late to stop now, had the second spot). 

VM AW 4

As of today it is officially on top, I get it now, I can truly see the greatness. I have played it to death these last weeks and it goes beyond pop/rock music, it is in a genre of it’s own. I know I’m ramblin’, but bear with me, I’m just an exited convert.

I went on YouTube to see if I could find some good versions of the songs, what I found was Morrisons’s fantastic live re-enactment of his masterpiece. I collected what I found, it is amazing!

Astral Weeks live VM

On November 7 and 8, 2008, four decades after the release of the classic Astral Weeks, Van Morrison revisited the album live in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl, and delivered a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring performance. Van did not simply re-create what he did 40 years ago in a NY studio, but instead took the songs to a dramatically higher contemporary level. The Jazz-rooted compositions of Astral Weeks are poetic stories of young love and the quest to find one’s place in life. They were, and remain, ideal source material for musical improvisation that gives way to the sense of wonder for which Morrison has always striven.
– Amazon.com

Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl: The Concert Film is the second official DVD by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released May 19, 2009. It features the songs from his 1968 classic album, Astral Weeks. The live performances on the movie were filmed on two concerts by Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California with a fourteen member band.

vm3

Morrison has also released an album on CD and vinyl on February 24, 2009 entitled, Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl with material from these two concerts.

UPDATE: Please read the comments from Andrew Robertson for a more comprehensive (and more correct) account of the two concerts.

Van Morrison – Astral Weeks / I Believe I’ve Transcended:

I play in a free-form, inspired style; I have no choice but to change it up according to the vibe. The new record was recorded live; what [you hear] is what was played in its raw form. There was no mixing, no tweaking, no post-production at all, and I like that raw and edgy sound in real time. It’s got a lot of boom to it! I really like listening to live records, it’s my new thing. Real and alive, the life is not taken out of it like a studio produced record can and very too often, does. My motto right now is post mixing kills.

– Van Morrison (to Paste Magazine)

Van Morrison – Beside You:

Van Morrison – Slim Slow Slider / I Start Breaking Down:

Van Morrison – Sweet Thing:

Van Morrison – The Way Young Lovers Do:

Continue reading Concert film: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live 2008 →