Online, the bottom of an old Boston Tea Party poster, for a series of 1968 shows, catches my eye: “The Van Morrison Controversy and The Road Light Show can be seen on WGBH-TV, Wednesday May 29th, 7:30 PM–8 PM.” Could audio and video of a Boston lineup be moldering in the basements of WGBH? David Atwood, who directed WGBH’s Mixed Bag-a half-hour show presenting local rock and jazz bands-is the man who would know. What did the Astral Weeks songs sound like before producer Lewis Merenstein’s jazz ringers got hold of them? Was the album’s timeless vibe invented on the spot, in the studio, or was the foundation laid down in Boston? And what did the songs sound like before Van had his midsummer night’s dream about getting rid of electric instruments? Wolf himself hasn’t listened to his tapes of the Van Morrison Controversy performing at the Catacombs in over a decade, as he explained to me while staring at the boxes containing the reels on his bookshelf.Īfter I publish a brief account of meeting with Wolf, conjecture about these Boston tapes bubbles up on assorted online message boards and the pages of Uncut magazine, but no one brags about hearing them. Even the musicians who made up the Belfast singer’s first steady, American live band haven’t heard Wolf’s bootleg. It’s possible that no one besides Peter Wolf has heard any recording of Van Morrison’s various Boston lineups since they toured around New England in the summer of 1968.

How van morrison created astral weeks