Truly one of the all-time rock and roll great songs. They don’t call him Van the Man for nothing. Astral Weeks, only his second album recorded in 1968, is out of this world. It’s a song cycle, a whole document in song with a beginning, middle and ending. One thing about great albums is that you will often find that every single song on the album is good. There will not even be one lousy song. This is true of Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks almost reminds me of very early Bowie when he was nearly a folkie. If you have never heard or God forbid heard of Van Morrison, you really need to check him out.
Moondance was also a very good album, I believe. Once again, not one bad song and the feeling of a seamless whole.
Brown-eyed Girl is one of his most famous songs. It was actually one of the first solo songs he wrote after he left Them, a great band in its own right. It appeared on the very first album, Blowin’ Your Mind, released in 1967. The song was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Hey, where did we go?
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow
Playing a new game
Laughing and a-running, hey, hey
Skipping and a-jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumping
And you, my brown-eyed girl
You, my brown-eyed girl Whatever happened
To Tuesday and so slow?
Going down to the old mine with a
Transistor radio
Standing in the sunlight laughing
Hide behind a rainbow’s wall
Slipping and a-sliding
All along the waterfall
With you, my brown-eyed girl
You, my brown-eyed girl Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah?
Just like that
Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah
La dee dah
So hard to find my way
Now that I’m all on my own
I saw you just the other day
My, how you have grown!
Cast my memory back there, Lord
Sometime I’m overcome thinking about
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium
With you, my brown-eyed girl
You, my brown-eyed girl Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah?
Laying in the green grass
Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah
Dee dah dee dah dee dah dee dah dee dah dee
Sha la la la la la la la la la la la la
Dee dah la dee dah la dee dah la
D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d
