It has been more than 40 years now since the brooding, celestial, folk-jazz classic, "Astral Weeks," by Van Morrison, was unleashed and mostly dislocated amid the countercultural maelstrom of the late 1960s. Full of Irish mysticism (check out the Belfast of "Madame George") and haunted blues that Morrison adopted from the Mississippi Delta, and backed by first-call jazz musicians such as bassist Richard Davis and ex-Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay, "Astral Weeks" had staying power, and eventually wound up as No. 13 in Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of all time.

In November 2008, Morrison performed a live re-recording of "Astral Weeks" at the Hollywood Bowl that was well-received. You can hear it here or see the video. In February, the record will be released on Morrison’s own Listen to the Lion label, distributed by EMI.

The concert recording is another step forward is what has been an ingenious trend in the resurrection of classic pop music. Last July, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago invited legendary hip hop group Public Enemy, punk-rockers Mission of Burma, and indie-rock emo forerunners Sebadoh to each perform an entire album from their catalog. And 2008 was also the year that Liz Phair launched a national club tour reprising her classic, "Exile in Guyville" disc.

It’s an inspired gambit, which allows artists to refresh (or, in the case of a restless muse like Morrison, probably reinvent) their most durable, cherished material, reigniting the enthusiasm of their core fan base while corralling new generations of listeners. That’s the plan, anyway. And an esoteric, beguiling work like "Astral Weeks" is an ideal vehicle.