"Beside You" is the second track on ''

Astral Weeks ''Astral Weeks'' is the second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was recorded at Century Sound Studios in New York during September and October 1968, and released in November of the same year by Warner Bros. Rec ...

'', the 1968 album by

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

singer-songwriter

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and released by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

Recording and composition

The song was recorded during the first ''Astral Weeks'' recording session at Century Sound Studios in New York City on 25 September 1968 with Lewis Merenstein as producer. Van Morrison remarked on this song: "'Beside You' is the kind of song that you'd sing to a kid or somebody you love. It's basically a love song, just a song about being spiritually beside somebody." The child that would have inspired the song was his adopted son by Janet, his wife at that time. It is sung with a "hushed wonder" and in it the singer transfers the visions of his own childhood to his son. Jack Lynch wrote in 1983:

The opening image of Little Jimmy shows a child sneaking out of his home, escaping to adventure and a childlike ritual rendezvous. Broken Arrow, possibly his fantasy figure, beckons – innocence led by imagination on the road to experience.

Acclaim

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello has identified this song as one of his favourites, featuring on one of his 500 favourite albums. Robert Pattinson of ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...

'' fame, when asked in an interview what his favourite song was, replied that it was "Beside You".

Appearance on other albums

"Beside You" was featured on Morrison's album ''

Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl ''Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl'' is the fifth live album recorded by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, and released in the UK on 9 February 2009, and in the United States on 24 February 2009. It was recorded during two li ...

'', released in 2009 to celebrate forty years since ''Astral Weeks'' was first released. An alternate version of "Beside You" (6:05) appears on the album

Bang Masters ''Bang Masters'' is a compilation album by Van Morrison released by Columbia's Legacy Records imprint in 1991. The tracks were remixed from the original multi-tracks and were given a wider stereo spread with less compression. The alternate ver ...

(recorded in 1967, released in 1991), featuring Van Morrison on electric guitar rather than an acoustic. An electric guitar version of this song also appears on ''

The Authorized Bang Collection ''The Authorized Bang Collection'' is a compilation album by Van Morrison containing every track that Morrison recorded for Bang Records in the 1960s. It was released on April 28, 2017 by Legacy Recordings on the Bang label. The first disc, ''The ...

'' (released in 2017), listed as "Beside You (Take 5)."

Covers

*Cara Robinson *Australian blues and root band The Revelators covered the song on their 2000 album, '' The Adventures of The Amazing Revelators''.

Personnel

– vocals, acoustic guitar *

Jay Berliner Jay Berliner (born May 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American guitarist who has worked with Harry Belafonte, Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, and Van Morrison, among others. Career Berliner had his first television experience at age seven w ...

– classical guitar * Richard Davis – double bass *Anonymous – flute * Warren Smith, Jr. –

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

References

Sources

* Heylin, Clinton (2003). ''Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography'', Chicago Review Press * Hinton, Brian (1997). ''Celtic Crossroads: The Art of Van Morrison'', Sanctuary,

External links

* allmusic.com:Review-Beside You {{authority control 1968 songs Songs written by Van Morrison Van Morrison songs Song recordings produced by Lewis Merenstein