September 14th, 1969: Van Morrison has completed work on his follow-up to Astral Weeks

Since completing work on his second album, Astral Weeks, Van Morrison has been living near Woodstock, NY with his wife Janet Planet. According to Planet, the two moved to the Catskills so that Van could be closer to Bob Dylan. Planet says,

"Van fully intended to become Dylan's best friend. Every time we'd drive past Dylan's house... Van would just stare wistfully out the window at the gravel road leading to Dylan’s place. He thought Dylan was the only contemporary worthy of his attention."

Morrison began writing what will be his third album in June and recently finished recording it. Following the poor album sales of Astral Weeks, Morrison has made a concerted effort to record a more popular album stating,

"I make albums primarily to sell them and if I get too far out a lot of people can't relate to it. I had to forget about the artistic thing because it didn't make sense on a practical level. One has to live."

Listen to Astral Weeks below, released in November last year.