Editing Astral Weeks (section)

==Music and lyrics==
{{Quote box
 | quote  =It sounded like the man who made ''Astral Weeks'' was in terrible pain, pain most of Van Morrison's previous works had only suggested; but like the later albums by [[the Velvet Underground]], there was a redemptive element in the blackness, ultimate compassion for the suffering of others, and a swath of pure beauty and mystical awe that cut right through the heart of the work.
 | quoted =1
 | source = —[[Lester Bangs]], (1979)<ref>"Astral Weeks". In [[Greil Marcus]] (Ed.), ''Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung'', p. 20. New York: [[Anchor Books]]".</ref>
 | width  = 27%
 | align  = right
}}
''Astral Weeks'' has poetic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics that evoke emotions and images instead of coherent, intellectual ideas and narratives.<ref name="AWHP">{{cite news | url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/huffpost-reviews-van-morr_b_161308 | title=HuffPost Reviews: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl / Asa – Asa | work=[[HuffPost]] | last=Ragogna | first=Mike | date=27 January 2009}}</ref> According to [[Guy Raz]] from [[NPR]], it is a [[folk rock]] album, "perhaps ''the'' seminal album of the folk-rock genre",<ref name="Raz">{{cite web|last=Raz|first=Guy|author-link=Guy Raz|date=9 August 2009|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111712776|title=Van Morrison Revisits His 1968 Classic|publisher=NPR|access-date=9 May 2013}}</ref> while the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] online biography of Morrison said its music is trance-like [[folk jazz]] set to "impressionistic, free-flowing" lyrics.<ref name="RHOF">{{cite web|url=http://rockhall.com/inductees/van-morrison/bio/|publisher=[[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]] |title=Van Morrison Biography|access-date=9 May 2012}}</ref> [[AllMusic]]'s William Ruhlmann, on the other hand, viewed the music as an amalgam of folk, blues, jazz, and classical music that is unlike rock.<ref name="Allmusic">{{AllMusic |class=album |tab=review |id=r13454 |first=William |last=Ruhlmann |access-date=10 January 2010 }}</ref>

Although usually described as a song cycle<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/03/van-morrison-astral-weeks-review|title=My favourite album: Astral Weeks by Van Morrison|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|last =Barton|first=Laura|date=3 August 2011|access-date=15 October 2011}}</ref> rather than a concept album, the songs do, when considered in their totality, seem to link together as one long song, forming an "intangible narrative of unreachable worlds"<ref name="Manik">{{cite web|url=http://www.manikmusic.net/reviews/classic-album-van-morrison-astral-weeks/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203002126/http://www.manikmusic.net/reviews/classic-album-van-morrison-astral-weeks/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 December 2013|title=Classic Album: Van Morrison–Astral Weeks|last=Campbell|first=Sim|publisher=Manik Music|date=30 March 2012|access-date=11 April 2012}}</ref> and delivered with what one writer calls "a masterpiece of virtuoso singing".<ref name=Stereo>{{cite web|url=http://www.stereotimes.com/comm071304loveformusic.shtml|title=Astral Weeks by Van Morrison|work=Stereo Times|last=Szabady|first=Paul|date=July 2004|access-date=9 May 2012|archive-date=25 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525153603/http://www.stereotimes.com/comm071304loveformusic.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to [[Charlie Gillett]], the album has meditative songs that combine themes of nostalgia, drama, and Morrison's personal mysticism and are performed in a [[white soul|blue-eyed soul]] style.<ref name="Gillett">Gillett et al. (2008), p. 261.</ref>

The album embraces a form of symbolism that would eventually become a staple of Morrison's songs, equating earthly love and heaven, or as close as a living being can approach it. Morrison and Davis's upright bass can be interpreted as the earth opposing Kay's percussion and the string arrangement representing heaven and with Berliner's lead acoustic guitar residing on a plane in between.<ref name="STreview">{{cite web|url=http://web.me.com/tracyparsons/Site/The_Artists_files/hayward/van-the-man.info/discography/astralweeks.html|title=Scott Thomas Review|publisher=web.me.com|access-date=26 September 2011}}</ref>

Van Morrison told Ritchie Yorke, one of his biographers, he wrote both of the songs "Madame George" and "Cyprus Avenue" in stream of consciousness: "['Madame George'] just came right out&nbsp;... The song is just a stream of consciousness thing, as is 'Cyprus Avenue'&nbsp;...I didn't even think about what I was writing."<ref>Yorke (1975), p. 61.</ref>

In an interview with ''[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]'' in 2009, Morrison said the songs on ''Astral Weeks'' were written "prior to 1968 over a period of five years".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/02/catching-up-with-van-morrison.html|magazine=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]|author=Pilot, Jessica|date=10 February 2009|title=Catching Up With...Van Morrison|access-date=11 February 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090211063730/http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/02/catching-up-with-van-morrison.html| archive-date= 11 February 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> In an [[National Public Radio|NPR]] review he comments: "It's not about me. It's totally fictional. It's put together of composites, of conversations I heard—you know, things I saw in movies, newspapers, books, whatever. It comes out as stories. That's it. There's no more."<ref name="NPR Review">{{Cite web | url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101249415| title = Van Morrison: 'Astral Weeks' Revisited (Listen Now)|work=[[National Public Radio|NPR]] | first = Josh | last = Gleason | date = 28 February 2009 | access-date =10 January 2010}}</ref>