Brian Boydon music

There's no arguement that Astral Weeksis music in its most exalted form. Van Morrison's 1968 album represents, within the popular music tradition, that rare work that genuinely deserve to be labelled "art". Forty years on from its release, Astral Weeksremains weirdly mesmerising, a song-cycle of such emotional intensity that it still stops you in your tracks.

"The songs are timeless works that were from another sort of place, not what is at all obvious," Morrison has said. "They are poetry and mythical musings channeled from my imagination. The songs are poetic stories, so the meaning is the same as always - timeless and unchanging."

Written at the obscenely early age of 23 and recorded in a mind- boggling two days, Astral Weekswill always be Morrison's best album. Afterwards he kind of ran away with the fairies for a while and thought that theosophy was something that you could hope to understand.

With the band Them, Morrison had shown himself to be more than a dab hand at r'n'b and soul. But, producer Lewis Merenstein says, Van didn't have a clue about jazz stylings when he was thrown into a New York recording studio with some grade-A jazz heads. As a result, the album was largely improvised.

Morrison, displaying his usual level of sociability, isolated himself in the vocal booth and the musicians were on their own. They weren't even given lead sheets. "What stood out in my mind was the fact that he allowed us to stretch out," says guitarist Jay Berliner. "We were used to playing to lead sheets, but Van just played the songs on his guitar and told us to go ahead and play exactly what he felt."

And still they produced songs that sound like they had been worked on and built up over years: Madame George, The Way Young Lovers Do, Ballerina, Sweet Thing. There were sounds produced and instruments used, including a harpsichord, that just didn't belong on a "rock" album. And if the songs have a so-called "timeless" feel to them, it's because some of the melodic arrangements date back to medieval balladry.

Naturally, Astral Weeksbombed on its release. It sold pitifully and Van's label all but killed it. "They were expecting Brown Eyed Girlsays Morrison, "and the first thing I played them was a seven-minute song about rebirth . . . they just shook their heads."

The album still retains a rather bizarre record: the length of time between release date and going gold (31 years). Over the decades it has grown in reputation and import. Ask musicians about it and even the skinny white boy indie guitar bands come over all awe- struck. Martin Scorsese has confessed to being so enthralled by it that he made the first half of Taxi Driveras homage to the album.

Tonight, in the Hollywood Bowl, Morrison will reunite with the original Astral Weeksmusicians to play the album for the first time in its entirety. Realising the import of the event, Van is allowing the concert to be broadcast live on the radio - the first time he has ever done so. A live CD and DVD of the show will be released later this year.

Still, there are mutterings of discontent among hardcore fans: Astral Weeksis sacred, leave it alone in its 1968 glory; Morrison's voice is far from that of the 23-year-old who first sang the songs; the concert is being staged outdoors - even a slight breeze will distort the sound; does any true fan really need a reissue/repackage of one of music's greatest moments?

Perhaps the biggest fear is that people don't want their memories messed with. If any album could be said to "mean something", it is Astral Weeks- the original, not the 40th anniversary reunion edition.

Listen to the show live at www.kcrw.com

bboyd@irish-times.ie