High, holy stinks

Back in October, I checked in with writer Pat Thomas, who made the claim that an acquaintance of his had access to the master tapes for Astral Weeks. Thomas' pal worked at Warner Bros. Records and was reviewing the tapes to gauge how much unreleased material existed. (Apparently none.) From what I understand, the idea was to give Astral Weeks the deluxe edition treatment.

To those clamoring for such a release: Calm your tits. Nothing of the kind appears to be on the horizon. However, if you fancy believing in the improbable, there is this: According to a 2012 post from Thomas on the East Portland Blog, Van Morrison got back the rights to 11 of the 14 albums he recorded for Warner Bros. The three he didn't? His Band and the Street Choir, Moondance, and Astral Weeks.

Morrison is steadfastly anti-deluxe edition; the Irishman was none too pleased three years ago when Rhino released a deluxe edition of Moondance, featuring a remastered version of the original album and three discs' worth of unreleased demos, alternate takes, and unreleased tracks. So Astral Weeks' appearance on that aforementioned short list means Morrison would be powerless to prevent it from being all deluxed up and such. But we know he would raise a high, holy stink. Hell, that's reason enough to do it.