Songfacts®:

• The opening, titular track of Van Morrison's second studio album, "Astral Weeks" contains some of the Irish musician's most mysterious and spiritual lyrics. It's a song tangled up in time, reflecting on life, death, dreams, astral projection, and rebirth. It's about a spiritual being stranded on a material plane ("ain't nothing but a stranger in this world"). It's a song about love and yearning for new beginnings ("to be born again") or, perhaps, a return to beginnings past.
• Morrison recorded the song on September 25, 1968 - one of the three recording sessions held for Astral Weeks (the others being October 1 and 15). During the same sessions, he recorded "Beside You," "Cyprus Avenue," and "Madame George."
  
  Because of the otherworldly feel of Astral Weeks, many legends have sprung up about its creation. According to those present at recording, however, the sessions were pretty mundane and workmanlike.
• Van Morrison wanted to remove himself from the rock and roll scene, which explains the album's unique sound. He wanted to create something so far from rock that he'd be dropped from that conversation. It didn't work out that way: "Astral Weeks" grew a devoted cult following and was still classified rock and roll.
• Talkin' to Huddie Ledbetter
  Showin' pictures on the wall
  
  Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, was one of history's great bluesmen. Morrison carried a poster of Lead Belly as he toured America and pinned it to the wall of every place he stayed.
• Morrison and crew recorded "Astral Weeks" in a single take.
• Morrison started working on the song in 1966 in Belfast, Ireland. He got the song's name and concept from a visit to Cecil McCartney, an Irish painter and musician (and unconfirmed distant cousin of Beatle Paul McCartney). McCartney had done a series of paintings about astral projection.
• In his book Riders On The Storm, Doors drummer John Densmore recounts hearing Van Morrison work through "Astral Weeks" in 1966, two years before the song was released.
  
  The Doors were unsigned but were a regular act at the Whiskey A Go Go, one of the hottest clubs in Los Angeles. In June 1966, Van and his band Them started a three-week residency at the Whiskey. Each night, The Doors and Them jammed together. It was an impactful experience for Jim, as he picked up a lot of Van's stagecraft and gritty disposition. (Them guitarist Jim Armstrong has also suggested Them started marijuana-aficionado Jim Morrison down his path of heavy drinking.)
  
  On the final night of the residency, the two bands ripped into a 20-minute performance of "Gloria." Densmore went to the show's afterparty with Van, but Jim didn't go. At the party, Densmore was struck by Van's isolation. "He sat on the couch, moody and glowering, and didn't say a word," Densmore writes in Riders on the Storm. "All of a sudden he grabbed a guitar and started singing songs about reincarnation, being in 'another time and place.'" The song Densmore is referring to is "Astral Weeks."
  
  Densmore further comments on how music was Van's only way to communicate. Without it, he was a true outsider, even among peers.