Yep, Band Of Gold was by Freda Payne. The lyric tells of a bride who discovers on her wedding night that hubby can't perform. She winds up sleeping in a separate room, and then leaves him. Whew, what a tragedy -- Freda Payne was gorgeous, and viagra wouldn't be around for 30 years.
And yes, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is an absolutely amazing album in many ways -- a work of art that totally stands the test of time. Some of his really old recordings with Them are pretty remarkable too -- "Mystic Eyes", "Baby, Please Don't Go", and his version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", which is beautiful, unusual, and haunting.
The other day I picked up the "Tom Dowd & The Art Of Music" DVD. Wow, that's an amazing documentary, just full of great footage and stories. Much of it overlaps with discussions that we've had here. A scene about Booker T & The MG's has footage of them playing "Green Onions" in a club. Holy crap, they just SMOKED! It'd almost be worth buying the DVD for that one scene.