Editing Astral Weeks (section)

==Background==
At the beginning of 1968, Van Morrison became involved in a contract dispute with [[Bang Records]] that kept him away from any recording activity. This occurred after the sudden death of the label's founder [[Bert Berns]]. Born with a congenital heart defect, Berns had a fatal heart attack, and was discovered dead in a New York hotel room on 30 December 1967.<ref name="HeylinPage164">Heylin (2003), p. 164.</ref> Prior to Berns's death, he and Morrison had experienced some creative difficulties; Berns had been pushing Morrison in a more pop-oriented direction, while Morrison wanted to explore newer musical terrain.<ref name="HeylinPage158-164">Heylin (2003), pp. 158–164.</ref> Berns's widow, [[Ilene Berns]], held Morrison and this conflict responsible for her husband's death. Years later she would downplay this scenario, but Morrison's then girlfriend Janet (Planet) Rigsbee has since gone on record describing Ilene Berns's subsequent vindictiveness towards Morrison.<ref name="HeylinPage167">Heylin (2003), p. 167.</ref>

Following Bert Berns's death, Ilene Berns inherited the contracts of Bang Records.<ref name="HeylinPage165">Heylin (2003), p. 165.</ref> Morrison's annual option on his recording contract was also due less than a week after Berns's funeral.<ref name="HeylinPage166">Heylin (2003), p. 166.</ref> Legally bound to Bang Records, Morrison was not only kept out of the studio, but also found himself unable to find performing work in New York as most clubs refrained from booking him, fearing reprisals. (Bert Berns was notorious for his connections to organized crime, and those connections still affected artists like Morrison and [[Neil Diamond]] trying to leave Bang Records, even after Berns's death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525055587/bang-the-bert-berns-story-the-complicated-man-behind-twist-and-shout|title='BANG! The Bert Berns Story': The Complicated Man Behind 'Twist And Shout'|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=27 April 2017|access-date=31 August 2020}}</ref>) Ilene Berns then discovered that her late husband had previously been remiss in filing the appropriate paperwork to keep Morrison (still a British citizen) in New York, and contacted [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]] in an attempt to have Morrison deported. However, Morrison managed to stay in the U.S. when Janet Rigsbee agreed to marry him.<ref name="HeylinPage166-168">Heylin (2003), pp. 166–168.</ref> Once married, Morrison and Rigsbee moved to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], where he found work performing in local clubs. Morrison began performing with a small electric combo doing [[blues]] numbers, and songs from ''[[Blowin' Your Mind!]]'' and from Morrison's [[Them (band)|Them]] band days. Two of the musicians soon left but Morrison retained the bassist, Tom Kielbania, a student at the [[Berklee School of Music]].<ref name= "HeylinPage169-172">Heylin (2003), pp. 169–172.</ref> Morrison decided to try an acoustic sound, and he and Kielbania began performing shows in coffee houses in the [[Boston]] area as an acoustic duo with Morrison playing guitar and Kielbania on [[double bass|upright bass]]. Before this, Morrison had primarily recorded and performed with electric musicians. The acoustic medium would provide him "greater vocal improvisation and a freer, folkier feel".<ref name="HagePage40">Hage (2009), p. 40.</ref>

Later, Kielbania heard [[jazz]]-trained flautist John Payne for the first time while sitting in on a jam session. He invited Payne to the club where he played with Morrison, hoping Morrison would invite him to join them. After allowing Payne to sit in on one performance, Morrison extended an invitation, which Payne accepted.<ref name= "HeylinPage172-173">Heylin (2003), pp. 172–173.</ref> The trio of Payne, Kielbania, and Morrison continued performing for four months. In the weeks they played at the Catacombs, they began to develop the template for ''Astral Weeks''.<ref name="HeylinPage173">Heylin (2003), p. 173.</ref> It was around this time that [[Warner Bros. Records]] approached Morrison, hoping to sign him.<ref name= "HeylinPage176">Heylin (2003), p. 176.</ref> Presumably, their interest focused on his prior success with "[[Brown-Eyed Girl]]", not on Morrison's current acoustic work. Regardless, their interest allowed Morrison to return to the recording studio.<ref name= "HeylinPage177">Heylin (2003), p. 177.</ref>

At the time, Warner Bros. had a deal with Inherit Productions, the production arm of Schwaid-Merenstein, which was founded by manager Bob Schwaid (who worked for Warners Publishing) and producer [[Lewis Merenstein]]. Merenstein received a call from Warner Bros. to see Morrison in Boston, and related how eight or nine producers had gone to hear Morrison, thinking they were going to hear "Brown Eyed Girl" only to find that "it was another person with the same voice".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.drb.ie/essays/van-the-youth|title=Essay Book Reviews - Irish Book Reviews - Dublin Review of Books|website=www.drb.ie}}</ref> Merenstein first heard Morrison play at Ace Recording studio and recalled that when Morrison played the song "[[Astral Weeks (song)|Astral Weeks]]" for him, "I started crying. It just vibrated in my soul, and I knew that I wanted to work with that sound."<ref name="HeylinPage177"/> While Merenstein was visiting Morrison, Schwaid set to work on resolving Morrison's contractual troubles<ref name="HeylinPage177-181">Heylin (2003), pp. 177–181.</ref> with the help of legendary Warner Bros. executive [[Joe Smith (music industry executive)|Joe Smith]], who would ultimately sign Morrison to Warner Bros.<ref name="auto">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2015/03/24/van-morrison-astral-weeks/2/|title=Astral Sojourn: The untold story of how Van Morrison fled record-industry thugs, hid out in Boston, and wrote one of rock's greatest albums.|magazine=[[Boston (magazine)|Boston]]|date=24 March 2015|access-date=31 August 2020}}</ref>

Still legally bound to Bang Records, Morrison would yet have more issues with them in the future. For the time being, Schwaid managed to free him from those obligations, under several conditions. First, Morrison had to write and submit to Web IV Music (Bert Berns's publishing company) three original compositions per month over the course of one year. Morrison fulfilled that obligation by [[New York Sessions '67|recording thirty-six nonsense songs in a single session]]. Such action risked legal reprisals, but ultimately none transpired. Morrison then had to assign Web IV half of the copyright to any musical composition written and recorded by Morrison ''and'' released as a single within one year from 12 September 1968. That demand became a moot point when Warner Bros. refrained from releasing any singles during that time, as no single was released from ''Astral Weeks''. Finally, Morrison had to include two original compositions controlled by Web IV on his next album. Morrison fulfilled that demand with two of his own compositions, "[[Madame George]]" and "[[Beside You (Van Morrison song)|Beside You]]", although the versions subsequently released were vastly different musically from the original versions recorded with Bang.<ref name="HeylinPage178-181">Heylin (2003), pp. 178–181.</ref>

There were still demands that weren't given on paper, which Smith tried to deal with through [[Don Rickles]]'s manager, Joe Scandore. Scandore, whom Smith described as "connected", set up an unusual arrangement where Smith had to arrive one evening at an abandoned warehouse on 9th Avenue in [[Manhattan]] at 6&nbsp;p.m. with a bag containing $20,000 USD in cash. According to Smith, "I had to walk up three flights of stairs, and they were four guys. Two tall and thin, and two built like buildings. There was no small talk. I got the signed contract and got the hell out of there, because I was afraid somebody would whack me in the head and take back the contract and I'd be out the money." When asked if he ever saw these men again, Smith replied, "No. They weren't in the music business."<ref name="auto"/>