ASTRALWEEKS

by Van Morrison

“I REMEMBER WHEN A NEW BRANCH of the Columbus Metropolitan Library was built at the end of my street. That meant I could go to the library, sit in a little booth, and listen to CDs all day. I was at the mercy of the library workers who preloaded the CD changers, and I would sit there with a pair of headphones on. One day, when I was 16, I went and Astral Weeks was on.

I had no idea who Van Morrison was, no idea what I was getting into. Astral Weeks opens, and you’re drifting. It’s that space I really like where you’re almost asleep, but not quite. The phase where you’re awake enough to realize that you’ll soon be in a dream state. You’re still tethered enough to the waking world to relish the anticipation. That’s what the beginning of Astral Weeks feels like to me.

The listening pods were set up along the back of the library, which looked out into deep forest and overgrown grass. I remember listening to the album and staring out at what seemed like endless green. ‘Sweet Thing’ is such an atrociously, offensively beautiful love song. I can’t believe that a person wrote that about another person. And Van Morrison was like 21 when he recorded it! There’s one line that I love: ‘And I shall drive my chariot down your streets and cry / Hey, it’s me, I’m dynamite and I don’t know why.’ What a beautiful lyric. There’s a certain ridiculousness to it—a love song that lays bare the absurdity of being in love.

I was at a hardcore show like five years ago in Cincinnati. It was one of the old-school hardcore shows I used to go to, where 30 or so very enthusiastic people thrash into each other. There was a point where the guitarist was tuning his guitar, and he started playing the opening notes of ‘Sweet Thing.’ It wasn’t a hardcore version, just a very tender, soft cover. I remember thinking, What an incredible, unlikely place for this song to pop up, what an amazing place for it to live.”