“And I will stroll the merry way, And jump the hedges first”
Artist, album and year: Van Morrison, Astral Weeks, 1968
Why is it a classic? : On the 50th anniversary of the superb Astral Weeks, it seems like now is the perfect opportunity to pay tribute to one of greatest love songs that was ever recorded.
That’s not said lightly.
This track was written in the summer of 1966 after ‘Van the Man’ had recently met his future wife Janet, only to be parted from her shortly afterwards.
You get the impression that he wrote this tune during that blissful ‘honeymoon period’ with his future wife when they both felt like they could deal with anything that the world dealt them.
Anyone who has been in love can relate to that feeling of being on cloud number 9 or as Van puts it, “Hey, it’s me, I’m dynamite, and I don’t know why’.
In just 4:25 seconds, he manages to perfectly describe something that’s almost impossible to describe, the intoxicating feeling you have when new love enters your life, lifts your spirits and makes you feel like nothing in the world is impossible.
The brilliance of this song is that it doesn’t latch, focus or attach itself to just one particular person, it’s timeless because the lyrics capture what it feels like to be in love. Pure and simple.
Even the most cynical music fan would find it hard not to be swept along with the swaying guitar that manages to dwell in that part of your mind that instantly lifts your mood and spirits.
Did You Know? : This is the only song on Astral Weeks that looks forward in time rather than dwelling and thinking about the past.
The lyrical hook: “And I’ll be satisfied, Not to read in between the lines, And I will walk and talk, In gardens all wet with rain, And I will never, ever, ever, ever, Grow so old again”
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