"Live it in these extremes"

This is an episode of "Sound Opinions," which airs on Chicago's WBEZ 91.5. The show is hosted by music critics Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune. (I suppose their gig is the music dork's answer to "At the Movies".) Awhile back, the pair spent 35 minutes or so vivisecting Astral Weeks. Here are a few of the highlights.

Kot discussing "Astral Weeks": "This track builds and builds to this crescendo of feeling and then slowly recedes and literally it's like the trembling of the leaves in a summer breeze at the end. With the fiddles shivering and the bass underneath it all and Morrison's voice finally descending into a whisper."

Kot discussing Astral Weeks: "Do we have to experience a little death in ourselves in order to live life to its fullest? It goes back to that deep, deep feeling and the only way to live life is to live it in these extremes."

DeRogatis discussing Astral Weeks: "He was fascinated with this idea of how does one transcend the everyday, how do you find heaven on earth. In large part, what Astral Weeks is about is you find it in love, in true love. Now he has a lot of definitions of love and that includes pain ... You gotta suffer to get the reward."

DeRogatis discussing "Cyprus Avenue": "Is it him as an older man looking back on the past that he did have and the joys that he had? Is it the past he wished he had?"