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Those were crazy days for me.
if you pic up my IPod you're likely to hear Van Morrison, Tupac, Zeppelin, Kid Cudi, Old school motown, George Jones (I know crazy right)...so many others.
My son says it's like 6 different people listen to it.
I can't remember the first time I heard them, but I'm pretty sure Into the Mystic was the first song I heard, I fell in love right away and had to hear more.
Now, I've got to find out about Kid Cudi. That's a name I don't remember.
One could say that we have eclectic taste in music.
I'm glad you liked them! 
Over the years I've spent time thinking about what this song means. I've read interviews with Van and insights from others. Here's my interpretation.
Van was living in San Francisco when he read a newspaper story about a church back home in Belfast where people were praying for peace. He thinks about that church, called St. Dominic's. Many were protesting a recent law in Northern Ireland that banned public display of 'badges, flags and emblems' because it was considered too incendiary.
He thinks about music coming from a French cathedral, and Edith Piaf's famous song Je Ne Regrette Rien" ("I Regret Nothing"
. He wonders if he has any regrets. And if he does, what might they be?
He thinks about what he's been doing - trying to get his band together both in upstate New York and in the Bay Area. It ain't easy getting the right band to blend. Maybe he should be back home in Belfast.
He describes his strong desire for an end to 'The Troubles' - the violence in Northern Ireland at the time. North versus South. Catholic versus Protestant. He's aching to be there praying with them. But he's also praying with them from afar. He shares his sorrow that he can't be there physically.
He gently describes his sense of disconnection of working in the record industry, where few want to discuss these kinds of matters of deeply praying for peace. He describes the sense of exhaustion turning to narcissism once the draft had ended, foreshadowing some of the apolitical hedonism that many in his generation would embrace into the mid and late 1970's.
He finds salvation in the euphoria of the wide open spaces and wide open music he hears in the United States. He finds it in music. Especially from the uniquely American music he hears on the radio (the radio is a recurring theme in Van's songs).
He relates that euphoria to that of praying for peace in his old home town. He relates it also to the the freedom marches for the civil rights movement. The liberation found in country, soul and rhythm & blues music. 'For every Hank Williams railroad train that cried' The same euphoria found in the civil rights movement. 'Out on the street. See them freedom marching.'
He'll go forward with his music. Dedicate it to freedom marchers everywhere. To share the beauty and joy and loneliness of life. For all with open hearts, who pray and march for peace. While gazing out on St. Dominic's preview.
Chamois cleaning all the windows,
Singing songs about Edith Piaf's soul.
And I hear blue strains of "No Regredior"
Across the street from Cathedral Notre Dame.
Meanwhile back in San Francisco
We're trying hard to make this whole thing blend,
As we sit upon this jagged
Story block, with you my friend.
And it's a long way to Buffalo.
It's a long way to Belfast city too.
And I'm hoping the choice won't blow the hoist
Cause this town, they bit off more than they can chew.
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview
All the orange boxes are scattered.
Against the Safeway supermarket in the rain.
And everybody feels so determined
Not to feel anyone else's pain.
(You know that) No one's making no commitments
To anybody but themselves,
Hidin' behind closed doorways,
Tryin' to get outside, outside of empty shells
And for every cross-cuttin' country corner,
For every Hank Williams railroad train that cried,
And all the chains, badges, flags and emblems
And every strain on every brain and every eye
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview.
And the restaurant tables are completely covered.
The record company has paid out for the wine.
You got everything in the world you ever wanted
Right about now your face should wear a smile.
That's the way it all should happen
When you're in, when you're in the state you're in;
You've got your pen and notebook ready,
I think it's about time, time for us to begin.
And we're over in a 52nd Street apartment,
Socializing with the wino few,
Just to be hip and get wet with the jet set.
But they're flying too high to see my point of view.
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview
Saint Dominic's Preview.
See them freedom marching,
Out on the street, freedom marching.
Saint Dominic's Preview.
It's about praying for peace.
Praying for peace - that's pure grace.
This is the way Woodstock looks now. 