Rocks His Gypsy Soul
Van Morrison Gets His Chance To Wail, Volume 3
(bootleg CD)Gold Standard 195-VM-16-08
(Released ??; Made in Italy)1. Moondance (4:42)
2. Glad Tidings (3:49)
3. Crazy Love (2:52)
4. Come Running (6:55)
5. The Way Young Lovers Do (3:19)
6. Everyone (2:55)
7. Brown Eyed Girl (2:10)
8. And It Stoned Me (4:11)
9. These Dreams Of You (3:44)
10. Caravan (6:37)
11. Cypress Avenue (12:16)
12. Into The Mystic (5:31)
13. Stormy Monday Blues (5:24)
14. Don’t Start Crying Now (1:34)
15. All By Myself (3:11)
16. Caledonia (2:50)
17. What’s Up, Crazy Pup? (3:10)Total time: (75:18)
From the liner notes:
Tracks 1-12: Live at the Fillmore West, April 26, 1970
Tracks 13-14: Studio demos, recorded 1964
Track 15: Them, live BBC 1965
Tracks 16-17: Live with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra 1973
See the entry for the Gets His Chance To Wail series for information on the chronology of this multi-CD set and a review.The Fillmore West material has also been released on the bootlegs Moonlight Serenade, the first disk of the 2-CD set Live in the USA, and Live in San Francisco 1970.
Review by Russell Parkinson: [The Fillmore West] one hour show features Van and what will be the Caledonia Soul Orchestra performing all the Moondance album except for "Brand New Day". Also included are two songs from Astral Weeks and an obligatory "Brown Eyed Girl".
The sound is either radio broadcast or soundboard and is very good, especially considering the recording is nearly 30 years old.
The show kicks off with an excellent lively rendition of "Moondance". "Glad Tidings" follows and although a quicker version than on the album this song remains, for me anyway, filler. A lovely soulful "Crazy Love" is next. Van sings this in his normal voice rather than falsetto. A six minute improvised "Come Running" misses rather than hits. In the middle of this song the band and van move off into a sixties rock organ/guitar kind of thing with some improvised lyrics. On first listening it sounds great bit after a while I find it disrupts a good song. Interesting but ultimately a bit disappointing.
"The Way Young Lovers Do" is a blast, a great lively version with excellent horns and piano. Everyone joins Glad Tidings in the filler category. "Brown Eyed Girl" is pretty standard. A good "And it Stoned Me" runs into an equally good "These Dreams of You". The Last Waltz version of "Caravan" has always been my favorite but this one comes close. A thoroughly enjoyable version of a great song.
Van winds up with the longest "Cypress Avenue" I’ve heard. Heavy on organ and guitar you get to hear the ending twice! After the usual "its too late to stop now!" van introduces the band and reprises the whole ending from "and you were standing there." amazing. Van then encores with a superb version of "Into The Mystic". Very soulful, this must be close to being the best version of this song out there.
RATING
That organ/guitar thing sometimes dates this show but overall its a great boot. Not quite essential, mainly due to the narrow range of material played, I would give this a "Highly Recommended". If you are a big "Moondance" fan then it’s probably a must.