One of my all-time favorite albums is Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. When I was first getting into Van’s folk-soul thing, I didn’t get Astral Weeks at first, but eventually I realized what a remarkable piece of work it was.

Well, we’ve been patronizing Sulzer library a lot lately. Through the wonders of circulation, there always seem to be a few new-to-me CDs each time, and last time the treat was Van’s “T.B. Sheets”.

The pleasure was in discovering versions of a couple of Astral Weeks tracks (“Beside You”, “Madame George”). The T.B. Sheets versions are definitely different, more rock and blues than the jazzy, mellow feel of the Astral Weeks versions… but to me they still feel like buried treasure, just to find a way to extend something that I have enjoyed so much.

(As an aside, when I was in grade school, I really loved the Chronicles of Narnia. So much so that after I finished The Last Battle, I dreamt that night of discovering the “next” Narnia book in a library somewhere.)

The recurrence (or precurrence, I guess) of “Madame George” brought to mind a question that has plagued me for years — who is this Madame George, anyway? She turns up again in Sinéad O’Connor’s “Black Boys On Mopeds”:

England’s not the mythical home of Madame George and roses…

Well, I found a bit of an answer…

By the way, the title track to T.B. Sheets is another gem. And even though some reviewers discount some of the other simpler rockers on the album, I like it all pretty well.