Tag: van morrison

Show Review: Van Morrison – Vienna, Austria (12/29/01)

Van Morrison
2001-12-29
Museumsquartier – Vienna, Austria

01 – Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart #1
02 – Celtic Swing
03 – Whatever Happened To PJ Proby
04 – Meet Me In The Indian Summer
05 – Naked In The Jungle
06 – Days Like This
07 – Have I Told You Lately
08 – Satisfied
09 – In The Afternoon > Ancient Highway > Joe Turner Sings > Louis Prima Sings > Raincheck > Hamlet
10 – Stop Drinking
11 – Jackie Wilson Said
12 – Jump Jive And Wail
13 – And The Healing Has Begun
14 – All Work And No Play
15 – It’s All in the Game>You Know What They’re Writing About>Rainbow 65>Make It Real One More Time
16 – Star Of The County Down
17 – Brown Eyed Girl
18 – Gloria

 

Comment: 1h35m

Lineup: Richard Dunn, Ned Edwards, Lee Goodall, Matt Holland, Pete Hurley, Bobby Irwin, Martin Winning

Guest: Candy Dulfer

Lineage: ? > CD trade > EAC > FLAC > SBE check > you

The Midnight Cafe Review 

I’ve posted a Youtube clip of this show and more over at my Substack.

Several reviews ago, I noted that my reviews come slowly because I just don’t have that much time to listen. I do my best listening in my car to and from work. I do listen at home, but usually when I’m doing something else and thus not paying close attention. This means it usually takes me the better part of a week to listen to an entire show.

Well, I’m getting better at listening but worse at writing. I don’t know if I’m riding around more for work, or more likely I’m not letting myself pause the music for any reason. Often, when I have something on my mind, I’ll talk it out to myself (and yes, I really do talk to myself). Usually, when I do that, I’ll stop the music because I know I won’t be paying attention. But for the last couple of weeks, I’ve forced myself to listen and not talk.

I now have a couple of shows fully listened to with notes, but I haven’t taken the time to review. If I get good at this, I might get two or three reviews in a week, which would be cool.

In my last Neil Young review, I complained about crowd noise. For that recording, there were a few folks talking rather loudly through the entire show. And the mics picked them up. For this recording, there is still some crowd noise, and it has that typical audience reverberation where it sounds like the show is happening in the next room, but I can’t hear any specific people talking (except for the occasional shout). I don’t know why that is. I do know there are directional mics that are designed to only hear sounds coming from one direction, which should help cut out crowd noise from around the microphone (except from directly in front, I guess).

Is that what happened on the Neil show? Were the talkers directly in front of the mics? Or did the taper have bad mics? Or maybe this crowd at the Van show was less talkative? I don’t understand any of that. Maybe our good friend OldNeumanntapr can explain the details. His recordings always sound wonderful.

The show begins with two instrumentals. Van apparently doesn’t come out until after “Inarticulate Speech of the Heart #1” as he gets announced just before “Celtic Swing.” “Whatever Happened To PJ Proby” and “Meet Me In the Indian Summer” are well played. They are very mellow and laid-back.

“Naked in the Jungle” is killer. Big jams, high energy. The audience recording doesn’t do it justice. He’ll do this several times throughout the night – play a couple of laid-back, mellow, or soulful songs and then just absolutely let loose.

“Days Like This” is very good. “Have I Told You Lately” is very jazzy. “Satisfied” has a great little groove. The whole show is very well played. The band and Van are syncing really well. “Jackie Wilson Said” is big and jazzy.

“Jump Jive and Wail” is fine. It is one of those songs that was probably a lot of fun to listen to if you were in the audience, but on tape you lose some of that energy. But it’s perfectly fine.

“And the Healing Has Begun” is gorgeous. So soulful. In the middle, there is this section where the strings solo for a bit, then the guitar, then the piano all get solos, and it’s just wonderful. Sometimes when they trade solos like that, it gets a little tedious, but here it works. Then they come together to create a wonderful groove. You know Van is into it because he does his whole “Digga Digga Dig” thing.

“All Work and No Play” is light and jazzy. It makes for quite a contrast to the soulfulness of “And the Healing Has Begun.” “It’s All in the Game” is wonderful, then he slips into a medley of several songs. All of which are sung very soulfully, but they wind up taking away from the beauty of “It’s All in the Game.”

“Brown Eyed Girl” is spirited. Van’s voice is in such fine form here. “Gloria” has some great sax from Candy Dulfer and a fun little outro. I’m thinking Dulfer being present all night added to that jazzy feeling I keep mentioning on several songs.

This really is a great show. The sound is quite good, and the performance is wonderful.

Show Review: Van Morrison – Amsterdam, The Netherlands (09/29/86)

Van Morrison
Carre Theatre
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
September 29, 1986

Tracklist:

1. Celtic Swing
2. Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
3. Cry For Home
4. She Gives Me Religion
5. Tore Down a la Rimbaud
6. Vanlose Stairway
7. Beautiful Vision
8. It’s All in the Game>Make It Real One More Time
9. Domino
10. Cleaning Windows
11. Oh the Warm Feeling
12. Here Comes the Knight
13. Dweller on the Threshold
14. Help Me
15. And the Healing Has Begun
16. Gloria
17. In The Garden
18. Full Force Gal
19. Rave On John Donne

Neil Drinkwater – Keyboards
Ritchie Buckley – Saxophone
Jerome Rimson – Bass
Arty McGlynn – Guitar
Martin Drover – Trumpet
Ray Jones – Drums
Helen Bradley – Backing Vocals
June Boyce – Backing Vocals

Source 1:

Artwork

SHN Lineage: CDR > WaveLab (digital remastering) >CDR >WaveLab (DAE) > shorten v3.3

Known Flaws:

t8 – 2 seconds frequency interferences inbetween 0:03 and 0:05

Comment:

These shn files decode to the original remastered wav files as received from wolf himself.

Source 2:

FM Stereo Broadcast

SOURCE: DATA DVD (FLACS)

CDDA Test shows Tracks to be between 42/43% CDDA. Most probable cause for this is a DAT Transfer

somewhere in the linage using 32 kHz at 16 bits instead of 44.1 or 48 kHZ. This has ocurred on

some Dylan Bootlegs and they become mistaken as Lossy.

If I had any doubt that this recording was Lossless I can assure you it would not be in my collection.

Front Artwork (Adapted) and Rear Artwork by JTT

Source 3:

Here’s another of my favorites. This one re-mastered in 2001 by the legendary Wolf. I’m not sure of the linage but it sounds like a SB or FM to me. The first song of the concert was not included in the recording. (Moondance) (inst.). Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m just in this to share what I have.

Enjoy, twofthrs

I also have some random artwork that doesn’t come with any of the sources. I don’t remember where I got it. But you can have it too (click here)

The Midnight Cafe’s review:

This is a very good show with superb sound, but not a great one. It begins with a nice version of “Celtic Swing”. Vanomatic indicates they played an instrumental version of “Moondance,” but none of my sources have that. My post on the old blog also has “Moondance” on it, and that was definitely something he was doing regularly at the time, so I think it is safe to say he played it that night, but again I don’t have a copy of it.

The next three songs, “Northern Muse (Solid Ground)”, “Cry For Home”, and “She Gives Me Religion” are played very quickly. I don’t mean the tempo is fast; they just don’t last very long. They are each under three minutes. There are times when Van would basically play a medley of his hits at the start of the show, almost like he was trying to get through them to satisfy the casual fans before moving on to what he really wanted to do. This isn’t that. Those songs aren’t his greatest hits, and they aren’t quite a medley. But it does feel like he’s just trying to get through them. They aren’t bad performances. Van and his band are too good for that, but they feel rushed. Most of the show is good, but it feels a bit lacking. It doesn’t have that little something that makes his best shows so special. It lacks that Celtic Soul we all come for. Again, it isn’t bad. In fact its quite good. Had I been there in person, I would have raved about it. This is a very good band putting on a very good show, but for the most part Van just doesn’t seem to be in that special place he sometimes goes to.

“Tore Down A La Rimbaud” isn’t much longer; it clocks in at just three minutes and eight seconds, but it has some jaunty horns and a terrific little sax solo. The horns are really what stand out in this show. They really bring these songs to life. “It’s All in the Game/Make It Real One More Time” is where Van finally does seem to be feeling the spirit move him. He does that thing where he starts repeating himself as if thrown into a trance. It is glorious.

“Oh the Warm Feeling” has this lovely xylophone-esque intro. Probably just keyboards sounding beautiful. I’m terrible at instruments. ”Dweller on the Threshold” has some fantastic horn sections.

“And the Healing Has Begun” is where it is at. It is one of my favorite Van songs, and they just nail it here. There is some really beautiful guitar picking accompanied by some fine keyboard tickling. In my notes, I literally wrote: “Oh yeah, this is the stuff.”

I’ve probably underrated this show. It is a very fine performance. Indeed, Van doesn’t quite move into transcendence very often. Those early songs do feel truncated. But the sound quality is great, and non-transcendent Van is still wonderful. And there are a few moments where he gets the spirit, and those are very fine indeed.

Shows in History: Van Morrison – Rotterdam, The Netherlands (03/30/91)

image host

I’m going to try this again. I do like this idea. I like looking at what shows were played on any particular day. There is a part of me that loves stats. I love seeing if there are particular days that have a lot of shows or others that have very few shows. When I am good at this sort of thing, you can follow a tour and see how often the setlists change, etc.

But really, right now, I like listening to shows that happen today. I have a lot of shows, and it is always difficult to know what to listen to. Finding a show that was performed on this day sometime in history is easy. And fun.  And here we go.

As much as I love Van Morrison, I’m not well versed in his different eras. I know about Them and the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, his time with Pee Wee Ellis, his brief stint with Linda Gail Lewis, etc. But I unlike with the Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan, I couldn’t tell you my favorite year for Van Morrison performances or anything really about a specific time period.  For me with Van I’m usually just picking out something at random and giving it a listen. I should work on that. 

I mention this to say I don’t really know what was going on with Van in 1991. I know he released Hymns to the Silence this year, and that’s a good album. But I don’t know if this is considered a good year for Van or not.

Listening to this show, I suspect it is a good year. The liner notes indicate the bootleg Pagan Streams was recorded around this time, and that one’s a killer.  This is a long show with something like 29 songs being played and running just over three hours in length.

Most of the first disc isn’t really my thing. I don’t tend to like his bluesy numbers. Songs like “Stormy Monday” and “Baby, Please Don’t Go” are fine, not bad, but they don’t really do it for me. 

Things pick up toward the end of Disc 1 with “And the Healing Has Begun” and the rest of the disc finishes out strongly. Disc 2 begins with “Help Me” which is another song I tend to not gravitate toward, though I’ve heard some good versions. This one is certainly energetic.

But then we get to “Orangefield” and I’m in heaven. The rest of the set is wonderful straight through. “Summertime in England” lasts a full twenty two minutes, which I think is the longest one he ever played. Certainly the longest version I’ve ever heard. 

Van is in good spirits throughout. He talks a lot, and the conversations are interesting.  

The sound quality is mostly good. The liner notes talk about how there was a low quality AUD that circulated for a long time, but then they found a new source of a much better quality. Unfortunately, that source doesn’t have all the songs, so they are spliced in, which can be a little jarring. Especially in the middle of “Summertime in England” which I guess got cut off in the best-sounding tape. 

If you don’t already have this, email me, and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Just for kicks I played around with it today and managed to upload “Whenever God Shines His Light” to YouTube. I really just wanted to see if I could do that.

Here are the full show notes.

Van Morrison
March 30, 1991
De Doelen – Rotterdam, Netherlands

Source: Daud clone, except for the three Georgie Fame selections, the conclusion to Summertime in England starting at approximately 17:00, and Caravan through end of show , which are from unknown generation cassettes > CD

The Complete Show

CD 1
1) You’re The One
2) Out of Sight
3) Ain’t That Loving You Baby
4) Stormy Monday,
5) Baby Please Don’t Go
6) We’re Gonna Groove > Who Do You Love (Van with Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee Jays (James Hunter)

7) Parchman Farm
8) Yeh Yeh
9) Green Onions (Georgie Fame and band)

10) And The Healing Has Begun
11) See Me Through
12) Moondance
13) Youth of 1000 Summers
14) Whenever God Shines His Light

CD 2:

1) Help Me
2) Carrying a Torch
3) Orangefield
4) It’s All In The Game > Make It Real One More Time
5) Northern Muse(Solid Ground) > When Heart Is Open
6) I’ll Go Crazy
7) Enlightenment
8) Summertime In England

CD 3:
1) In The Garden
2) Vanlose Stairway > Trans-Euro Train
3) Caravan
4) Send In The Clowns
5) I Can’t Stop Loving You
6) Why Must I Always Explain
7) Gloria (Cuts. Tape apparently gave out at 3-hour mark)

Band: Haji Ahkba, trumpet; Richie Buckley sax; Dave Early, drums; Georgie Fame, organ; Howard Francis, piano; Steve Gregory, sax; Ronnie Johnson, guitar; Nicky Scott, bass.

Notes:
Many years ago I received two Maxell analog cassette tapes containing this show.
The sound on the tapes was very muffled and sounded like the show was duplicated on a boom box with dirty heads.
Oh, those were the days.
Despite the sound quality caveats, Van and the band’s performance was a treasure that I cherished and studied because of its depth and length. I believe the Summertime in England is the longest ever performed by Van. It runs almost 22 minutes. Morrison talks about Christianity, psychiatry, and cults, among other things.
I searched and searched for a good quality recording of this gig for years, and finally one surfaced, but it ended 17 minutes into Summertime, then cut abruptly. The entire rest of the show involving an additional 7 songs was missing.
Recently, in a true labor of love, a friend and Van archivist and my brother helped prepare this complete version of the show, which contains the original nearly two hours of good quality recording, plus the rest of the show from a higher quality analog cassette tape.
I remember that on my original cassettes of the gig, the final song, Gloria, cut, as it does here. It appears that the taper just “ran out of road” as the show went just over the 3-hour mark!
The show has never been uploaded in as complete a condition as this project. This upload runs just a few seconds shy of 3 hours, and contains the opening set of Van with Howlin’ Wilf and the Vee Jays. Georgie Fame then performs for three songs before Van takes the stage again.
Rotterdam was the first show of a legendary 3-gig run that also included The Hague and then Utrecht, made famous as Pagan Streams.

Here are some other shows that were performed today in history.

Eric Clapton & Friends – Malibu, CA (03/30/76)

10,000 Maniacs – Our Time In Eden Tour Rehearsals (03/30/92)

Pink Floyd – Miami, FL (03/30/94)

Bruce Hornsby – Williamsburg, VA (03/30/99)

The Dead – New York, NY (03/30/09)

Adele – Milan, Italy (03/30/11)

Lit Up Inside: Selected Lyrics by Van Morrison

bok

I swear I posted this review on this site when I first published it, but I cannot find it anywhere. Several years ago, before I went private and public again, I was contacted out of nowhere by a publicist for the company releasing a book of Van Morrison’s lyrics.

She presumably had just googled Van’s name and came across my site. Amazingly she didn’t balk at the fact that I was posting lots of ROIOs from Van and asked me to review the book.

Van is better known for his music than his lyrics, but as my review points out, the man can write some words, too.

Links of the Day January 9, 2023

Van Morrison – Live at Real Studios – Box England – 2021: Youtube

Neil Diamond 1972-07-23 Seattle, WA: Guitars101

Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Stone” from Girl from the North Country: Youtube
There is a musical that tells a story based on a bunch of Dylan songs. I have a copy of the soundtrack and it is pretty good. I like what they do with this song here.

Remember When: Bob Dylan Honored His Hero in a Poem “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie”: American Songwriter

The Core: Zero: Relix
A cool little retrospective on the great San Francisco band Zero. Has some nice bits about their relationship with Rober Hunter.

Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton & More Select Berlin Retrospective Movies; Classics & Other Lineups Revealed: Deadline