1
I devoured this book.
I bought my first issue of "Rolling Stone" at a newsstand right by the Columbia campus in December 1969. If I remember correctly, it was the issue with Mick Jagger on the cover, with a full explication of the Altamont debacle. This was manna from heaven, this was everything I was looking for, in-depth information on music and culture available nowhere else. Sure, the "Times" had an occasional feature, but an entire magazine?
But was that what it was? It came folded in half and when you subscribed you got free records.
I immediately signed up, it was less than ten bucks and I got a year of issues and the Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" and their greatest hits album "The Worst of Jefferson Airplane." I hadn't owned an Airplane album previously, but I immediately took to "Volunteers." At this point, we were beginning to become disillusioned, it seemed like the revolution might have passed us by, but that's what "Volunteers" was all about, the revolution. Of course the album contained the title cut, and a version of "Wooden Ships," but the heart of the album was "Eskimo Blue Day" and "Good Shepherd," with Grace emoting in her composition "Hey Fredrick" for good measure.
I know, I know, "Rolling Stone" started in '67, but like I always say, distribution is king, and I never saw it in the burbs, never saw it anywhere, in fact.
And when I subscribed nobody else I knew did. And when I went to college the following fall, it was the highlight of every other week. It came on Wednesday, I'd make sure I'd done all my studying for the week by Tuesday, and then I spent two days reading the magazine from cover to cover.
And the following December, there was a cover story on the Mel Lyman family. HUH?
I'd never heard of the guy. I can't say I read every word of the article, because there was no context. Although Jim Kweskin was a member. And Mark Frechette, but I'll get there.
And the funny thing about the Lyman family is it still exists, and it makes its money via construction, building structures for household names in Los Angeles.
And the first night of Aspen Live Mark Kates was testifying about this book about Boston, about Van Morrison's time there, creating "Astral Weeks," and... Mark couldn't put his finger on the other guy the book focused on, but I blurted out MEL LYMAN! And Mark said yes, that's who he was thinking of, and I immediately went on Libby and got the book.
2
I can't recommend most music books, they're basically hagiography, the acts appear to be saints and you learn a few details but even if you're a fan you end up disappointed.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is something different.
If you were alive and conscious at that point, pick this one up.
If you weren't...
Does anybody really care about the history of yore? The counterculture? Sure, people listen to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, if not Jefferson Airplane, and now Van Morrison is a pariah, but I don't think the average person wants to dig deeper. But if you do...
So the story is Van Morrison was down and out and escaped to Boston with Janet Planet, formed a new group and started gigging.
And the book tells the whole story of the development of "Astral Weeks" and its ultimate recording. As well as Joe Smith paying off Bang to get Van on Warner Brothers.
But there's so much more.
Like the history of the Boston Tea Party, which was Boston's Fillmore, yet different. There were no seats, but it was where everybody played. I went once, totally stoned, to see the latest incarnation of Manfred Mann, and it wasn't good, and the following fall the joint closed. You look at the history of these venues, these ballrooms, and in retrospect they're so short.
And it was a guy from Kansas City who built the Tea Party and WBCN and the story is all in this book.
He knew someone who was in the Lyman family.
Actually, it was Thomas Hart Benton's daughter Jessie. Her money helped keep the commune, the cult afloat.
They had a compound in Fort Hill, ultimately with a wall around it, because Mel didn't trust the outside, and he wasn't quite like the Scientologists but he did believe in revenge.
The Lyman family began with "The Avatar," an underground newspaper.
That was a thing back then. Seems quaint today, but you've got to understand, printing was expensive, just like record-making.
I know, I know, today's social media specializes in speaking truth to power, when people are not trying to cash in.
Note: Watch this video about the income of the most successful TikTokkers, it's easier than being a musician — shorturl.at/19rzj
But in the sixties it was all about print, and the establishment didn't like it, so there were lawsuits and...
The book also covers a breakthrough public television show.
And the legendary James Brown concert after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. I never knew the government guaranteed him 60k...did he ever get it?
And there's the search for the holy grail, a tape recording of Van and his band live working out the "Astral Weeks" songs, Peter Wolf had it, could the author ever hear it?
3
But you'll be fascinated by the story of the Lyman family. These people thought he was God. Mel alternately said he was and he wasn't. But these people were in thrall to him.
As for the Mark Frechette story... Cindy Frechette went to our high school. She was called "Behemoth," which sounds terrible today, but you know how kids are... Yes, Cindy was big and tall and not what most people would consider attractive, but suddenly she started telling us her brother was going to be a movie star. Which no one believed, we didn't even know she had a brother. But it turned out she was right, Mark Frechette was one of the two leads in Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point"!
And then Mark and his costar retreated to the Lyman family compound.
God, I'd like to know more. Cults are fascinating. But usually they're peopled by the easily-influenced nobodies, not musicians like Jim Kweskin.
There is so much in this book I did not know.
The revelations were not on the surface, I knew the story, but not so many of the details, the author Ryan H. Walsh makes them come alive.
You will be caught up in the mood, the time, the place if you read this book. You'll be living in Boston in the sixties as opposed to wherever you are today. This is an amazing story. Amazing stories. Never written about in this depth previously.
But "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968" is not brand new, it actually came out in 2018. But today you put it out there and if it's any good it marinates in the marketplace and ultimately surfaces. Because people can't stop talking about it.
Just like Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks."
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