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VAN MORRISON
featuring the Caledonia Soul Orchestra
San Bernardino 1973 [JF Archive Series Vol 21 via JEMS, 1CD]
Live at the Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA; November 30, 1973. Fairly to very good audience mono recording.
Thanks to taper JF; JEMS; and to mjk5510 for sharing the show at Dime.
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Known Faults:
- And It Stoned Me: start slightly cut
JEMS is thrilled to return to the JF Archive series, presenting another one of the nine Van Morrison performances recorded in and around Southern California circa 1973-74.
Unlike the initial Lost California tapes, JF’s 1973-74 recordings have long been in circulation among collectors. However, this series marks the first-ever digitization and dissemination directly from JF’s cassette masters. The recordings were made with low-end equipment but yielded surprisingly listenable results.
The San Bernardino show is another significant performance and recording.
Like the Shrine shows from October, Van is mixing recent material, covers and classics. The show begins with two unknown instrumental numbers which lead to an instrumental “Moondance” intro before we hear someone say, “And now ladies and gentleman, here is Van Morrison,” at which point “Moondance” stops and the band immediately goes into a high-stepping “Come Running.”
“Come Running” sets the pace for a lively and largely up-tempo set. As at all the late ’73 shows, Van again dips heavily into blues and R&B covers, including “Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do,” made famous by Bobby “Blue” Bland and penned by Don Robey and Joe Scott; John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen’” (one of just five known performances); and Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want To Make Love To You.” The rest of the show is loaded with crowd-pleasing material, including “Into the Mystic,” “Domino,” “Caravan,” “Cypress Avenue,” “Here Comes The Night” and “Gloria.”
The Swing Auditorium is not the most acoustically cooperative venue, as JF notes below, but the sound quality here is relatively close and clear. There seems to be some low-end distortion, likely caused by the bass cabinets overwhelming the built-in microphone on JF’s tape recorder, but it doesn’t detract too much from what is otherwise a very listenable capture.
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Here’s what JF recalls about the San Bernardino show:
“Was there a worse venue in Southern California to hear music than the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino? I seriously doubt it. It was like an airplane hanger. I can’t imagine why anyone wanted to play there, except for the fact that, according to Keith Richard’s book, the very first US performance by the Rolling Stones took place there. In any case, I saw lots of bands play the venue and all of the concerts were sonic and visual nightmares. The Swing was always festival seating and I don’t ever remember getting there early enough to get up close. I remember parking always being a horror, too. This was probably recorded from somewhere halfway back in the hall, although there were some bleachers at the back, the only seating in the room, and sometimes I retreated back there to ‘work’.”
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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 reels and cassettes. We are pleased to be able to bring his work to all of you.
Thanks to Goody for checking the pitch. We always feel better when he has blessed 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 tool for this entire series. Finally, kudos to mjk5510, who continues his yeoman duty as JEMS’ post-production and quality-control supervisor. His contributions are vital to getting the music to you.
BK for JEMS
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Lineage:
unknown recorder > unknown microphones (mono)
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
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
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Track 01. Instrumental 5:16
Track 02. Instrumental 4:49
Track 03. Moondance Prelude/Van Intro 1:10
Track 04. Come Running 2:55
Track 05. Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do 3:04
Track 06. Warm Love 3:08
Track 07. Into The Mystic 4:50
Track 08. I’ve Been Working 4:45
Track 09. I Just Want To Make Love To You 4:21
Track 10. Here Comes The Night 3:19
Track 11. I Will Be There 3:29
Track 12. And It Stoned Me 4:23
Track 13. Boogie Chillen’ 2:32
Track 14. Domino 5:13
Track 15. Caravan 8:28
Track 16. Gloria 3:24
Track 17. Cypress Avenue 9:21
75 mins
Lineup:
Van Morrison - vocals
Sid Page - violin
Jack Schroer - saxophone
Bill Atwood - trumpet
Bill Bridges - guitar
David Hayes - bass
David Shaw - drums
James Trumbo - piano, organ
Click here to order Van Morrison releases.