Astral Weeks is not a record I remember having an enormous emotional impact on me when I first bought it at some point in the mid-Eighties. I probably did so at that point because I felt it was something that I should do given its already formidable reputation.
Its effect on me since has been more than anything a collection of cumulative experiences and moments over the next thirty five years in which I've been listening to it on a consistently regular basis. One time in Izmir while I was teaching there with a smart guy from Derby who said it had been a major source of inspiration for him to break out of a soul crushing factory job and do something with his life. My brother driving me somewhere in Costa Rica when The Way Young Lovers Do came on and transfixed us both. Listening to it with a really special friend I'd bought the record for fairly recently.
Van doesn't really understand the enduring power of this so why should we. It's just an album that's there whenever you need it and it always sounds both fresh and familiar. It encapsulates the sheer wonder of the universe, its happiness, sadness, and mystery probably better than any other album I know.
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