“Madame George” by Van Morrison

"Madame George" is the hypnotic heart of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, released in 1968, and it came out of the very first session for the album, cut at Century Sound Studios in New York City on 25 September 1968 with Lewis Merenstein producing. Morrison sings and strums acoustic guitar while Richard Davis's double bass roams, Connie Kay's drums whisper, John Payne's flute drifts in, and vibraphone and a string quartet shimmer around the edges.

What it means is still up for grabs. Some hear a song about leaving the past behind, and plenty of listeners took the title character for a drag queen, a reading Morrison rejected in a Rolling Stone interview. He later said the character was pieced together from six or seven people and admitted the song baffled him as much as anyone.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.