Directions and Influences - chapter 7
Back to Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart, Led Zeppelin and oblivion
When I got back to Belfast in '69 I moved in with the old crew who were all at Queens University. It was a typical student house with people coming and going at all hours, passing out from too much alcohol, freaking out from too much acid and dropping out from too much pressure. We had some great times, Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks' had just been released and it was magical to hear lyrics about things and places and maybe even people we knew from Belfast. Coming off a trip with the sun rising and 'Madame George' playing has got to be right up there with meeting God. There was great diversity in our music listening sessions. We would go from Van Morrison to Led Zeppelin to Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica and easily swing into a bit of 'The Duke' or Count Basie and then over to some Bob Dylan for good measure. I am surprised I have a brain left after those days and I know a lot of people who didn't make it through, people who got stuck somewhere around oblivion. I personally felt that I had looked into the abyss or 'The Void' as Nietzsche would call it, teetered on the brink and scrambled back to the relative safety of mundaneness only to find that you are never the same again or as Nietzsche said, "If you look long enough into the void the void begins to look back through you." Anyway when people think I'm a bit vague I have a great excuse!
