Van Morrison featuring the Caledonia Soul Orchestra
Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles, CA
October 6, 1973
JF Archive Series Vol. 16 via JEMS

Download MP3@320

Taper: acquaintance of JF

Source: unknown recorder > unknown microphones (stereo)

JEMS 2016 Transfer: master cassette > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX6 > iZotope Ozone 6 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 Herbie Hancock ìWatermelon Manî
02 Ainít Nothing You Can Do
03 Iíve Been Working
04 Moondance
05 I Paid The Price
06 Here Comes The Night
07 Boogie Chillení
08 Hard Times
09 I Just Want To Make Love To You
10 Try For Sleep
11 Into The Mystic
12 Listen To The Lion
13 Warm Love
14 You Done Me Wrong
15 Caravan
16 Cyprus Avenue
17 Gloria
18 Domino

Known Faults:
-Hard Times: cut
-I Just Wanna Make Love To You: start cut
-Listen To The Lion: small technical glitch

Sid Page – violin
Jack Schroer – saxophone
Bill Atwood – trumpet
John Platania – guitar
David Hayes – bass
David Shaw – drums
Jef Labes (?) – piano, organ

JEMS is thrilled to continue the JF Archive series, presenting another one of the nine Van Morrison performances recorded in and around Southern California circa 1973-74. For further details and backstory on JF, his tapes and the extraordinary lost Van performances from 1975 that started the series, please refer to the notes in Vol. Three:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=524853

Unlike the initial Lost California tapes, JFís 1973-74 recordings have long been in circulation among collectors. However, this series marks the first-ever digitization and dissemination directly from cassette masters. The recordings were made with low-end equipment but yielded surprisingly listenable results.

The second Shrine show is another significant performance and recording.

Vanís setlist had evolved substantially since the Troubadour gigs in June, the most interesting changes to which were the inclusion of three new songs unreleased at the time. The first, ìI Paid The Price,î only saw official release on last yearís expanded edition of Itís Too Late To Stop Now. This is one of its five known performances, all in 1973. The next is the second-known version of ìTry For Sleep,î which premiered the night before, this being one of only four known appearances. It was finally released in a studio version on 1998ís The Philosopherís Stone.

The third, ìYou Done Me Wrong,î turns out to be more special still. It remains unreleased to this day, with no known studio recording. On top of that, it would only ever be performed at this show and the previous night at the Shrine before vanishing forever and tonightís version is even more lively. It name-checks some serious villains, from the Cosa Nostra to Jesse James, against a rollicking musical backdrop. Without JFís tapes, weíd never have the chance to hear it. Some websites list ìYou Done Me Wrongî as a cover of the Ray Price tune of the same name, but Van calls it out specifically as a new song, and while it is difficult to understand his full spoken intro, he does appear to say something about it being ìa single.î Fascinating.

Beyond the new material, Van again dips heavily into blues and R&B covers as he did the night before, including Bobby ìBlueî Blandís ìAinít Nothing You Can Do,î Ray Charlesí ìHard Times,î John Lee Hookerís ìBoogie Chilleníî and Willie Dixonís ìI Just Want To Make Love To You.î The rest of the show is crowd-pleasing material, with one set list change from the previous night at the Shrine as ìMoondanceî replaces ìAnd It Stoned Me.î

So we get all the rare songs from the previous show, plus one change. If you already downloaded the first night (available here: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=601579), do you need the second? Yes, indeed you do, as JFís notes make clear:

ìI attended this show and recorded it, although I appear to have misplaced my tape. This particular recording was done by a guy I met just two or three times. He attended one of the colleges in Claremont, CA, where I lived. At this concert he recorded a single cassette worth of music. As he told me, he was not a Van fan and was just testing out new equipment. Iíve always preferred his recording to my own (now missing in action anyway) because the sound quality is significantly better than what I was getting. When I told him how much I admired the recording, he held the cassette out to me and said, ëHere. Itís yoursí.î

The mystery taper who gave JF his master tape was indeed using better equipment and recorded in stereo, resulting in a recording that is a material upgrade to JFís own efforts from the night before, and, to the best of my knowledge, very likely the best available recording of these rare song performances. It is rich, warm and clear. Samples provided. As a bonus, the taper also recorded five minutes of the opening act, Herbie Hancock, which we have included at the top as it appears on the master cassette.

JF also provided us with with a clipping of the newspaper advertisement for the Shrine shows along with his ticket stubs. Weíve included them in the files.

Once again, our gratitude goes to JF, who reached out on DIME (you could be next!) and offered us his archive, which had been sitting in boxes for over 20 years, 6000 miles away from where he lives today. Like so many early tapers, he had great stories to tell and the memories flooded back as we sorted through tapes. We are pleased to be able to bring his work to all of you. Please let him know through your comments that you are, too. We also appreciate the unnamed Van collectors who helped get JFís masters back in his control.

Thanks to Goody for checking the pitch. We always feel better when he has given his blessing to an important transfer. We also want to acknowledge the value and work of http://ivan.vanomatic.de, the definitive Van Morrison setlist archive on the web. It has been a constant reference resource for this entire series. Special shoutout to senormogul9 for helping us confirming the Herbie Hancock track. Finally, And kudos to mjk5510, who continues his yeoman duty as JEMSí post-production and quality-control supervisor. His contributions are absolutely vital in getting the music to you.

BK for JEMS