Van Morrison’s Moondance CD Cover

In 1964, while I was at school in Scotland, Van Morrison and Them exploded on the U.K. charts with “Baby Please Don’t Go”—and most memorably with “Gloria.” It took everyone by surprise. Where the heck did these guys come from?

Later on, when I was back in the States, I attended a Sound-Out in Pan Copeland’s field. Much to my amazement, there was Van, not more than twenty feet from me, on a makeshift stage. Astral Weeks had just been released, and according to Clinton Heylin’s bio, Van Morrison: Can You Feel The Silence, he was playing the gig with former members of the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band. Ex-bandmates Jack Schrorer and Collin Tillton were in attendance. It was late August 1969, there was a hint of autumn in the air, and Van was giving an all-out performance. In Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to Woodstock, there is a copy of the performance check. The band netted $50! In 1970 this core group of musicians, plus a few others, worked with Morrison on his classic Moondance album. International acclaim and fortune soon followed for Morrison.

Recently Scott Parker, author of the Recordings of Frank Zappa series, introduced me to Janet Morrison, Van’s ex-wife. She emailed me and said of their time in Woodstock, “Van had just finished Astral Weeks, and although we had high hopes, there was no telling how well the album would be received. Woodstock, for us, was a bewitching sylvan paradise after NYC. We loved everything about the place. The locals became our friends. We bought an old car to navigate haphazardly in the deepest snow. In the spring, when the snow finally melted, we drank pink bubbly wine by the flowing stream close to town and sang our hearts out for the pure romantic joy of it all. It was good. We acquired cats. I gave birth in due time to my endearingly adored daughter Shana Caledonia. Woodstock healed us and made us quite sure that magic was afoot. As it turned out, we were correct.”

~ Weston Blelock