Look no further than to his award-winning 2015 magazine feature for a glimpse of the story that gave way to the book ("It was an obsession before it was an article," said the author during a recent launch at Brooklyn's WORD bookstore). Not unlike 2016 Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, a nonfiction work by writer (and friend) Jesse Jarnow that technically "stars" The Grateful Dead but is a study of much more, Walsh goes long on context in A Secret History. "With its roots in tempers, outbursts, gangsters, and violence, it's ironic that Astral Weeks ended up being an album completely preoccupied with notions of transcendence and the sublime," writes Walsh. Walsh's Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968. How that happened-as well as other insanely weird and fascinating things behind Morrison's LP-is laid bare in journalist and musician Ryan H. He fled New York City when an already-shady record contract eventually found his work under the control of gangsters. When he started work on his 1968 album, the Irish artist was hiding out for more than a year in Boston's Cambridgeport neighborhood. In lieu of the warbling organ tones and spidery guitar that underpinned his old band, however, Morrison is unplugged on his second solo album, riffing in songs like "Sweet Thing" on love and his youth over acoustic guitar, upright bass, flute, and strings:Īfter the Ark sets, Astral Weeks became a taboo interview subject for Morrison and would barely be a part of his live repertoire until he played it again in full at Hollywood Bowl 40 years later.
He was introducing a personal song cycle called Astral Weeks, which saw him backed by jazz musicians and repeating single phrases, looking to blues artists in the way that he did while leading R&B outfit Them a couple of years previous. In May of 1969, Belfast, Northern Ireland-born songwriter Van Morrison performed a single record in its entirety over the course of a three-night stint at Boston venue The Ark.
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