Oil Well Bootlegs - RSC CD: Van Morrison - Wild Night

Van Morrison - Wild Night
Oil Well RSC CD080

1 I've Been Working
2 Young Lovers Do
3 Purple Heather
4 Come Running
5 Sweet Thing
6 Blue Money
7 Green
8 Wild Night
9 Caravan
10 Cypress Avenue
11 It's Not The Twilight Zone
12 Foggy Mountain Top
13 Hearthrow Shuffle
14 Naked In The Jungle
Total time: (72:44)

Note:
All songs by Van Morrison unless noted
Live in Los Angeles May 26, 1973 (wrong date)

Tracks 1 to 4; 6 to 10 are acetates of It's Too Late To Stop Now recorded between 24 May – 24 July 1973
Tracks 5 recorded live at the Santa Monica Civic 29 May of 1973
Tracks 11 to 14 recorded on 30 June 1974 at Montreux

1973 Lineup
Van Morrison – vocal
Nathan Rubin – first violin
Tom Halpin or Tim Kovatch – violin
Nancy Ellis – viola
Teressa Adams – cello
Bill Atwood – trumpet, backing vocals
Jack Schroer – alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, tambourine, backing vocals
Jef Labes – piano, organ
John Platania – guitar, backing vocals
David Hayes – bass guitar, backing vocals
Dahaud Shaar (David Shaw) – drums, backing vocals

1974 Lineup
Van Morrison - vocals, acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, harmonica
Pete Wingfield - piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, background vocals
Jerome Rimson - bass, background vocals
Dallas Taylor - drums

This CD is a digital clone of: Irishman in LA and of ...It Ain't Why It Just Is! - Big Music ‎– BIG 047
Tape in circulation is a mix of the It's Too Late to Stop Now acetates taken from many shows and the Montreux 74 show. A real Live At The Troubadour Los Angeles 26 May 1973 tape has never surfaced. Please note that "Purple Heather" is "Wild Mountain Thyme".

There were acetates made of a 3 record set of It's Too Late To Stop Now. When the choice was made to make it a 2 record set, the above tracks were left off. (The last four tracks on this boot are taken from Montreaux 1974). This boot is a clone of Irishman in LA (or vice versa). This boot is not to be confused with another 2CD bootleg with the same name. The sound quality of this boot is impeccable Note: Outward facing spine on inlay states Bruce Springsteen as artist. Inward facing spine is correct (see images).

There were acetates made of a 3 record set of It's Too Late To Stop Now.
When the choice was made to make it a 2 record set, the above tracks were left off.
The last four tracks on this boot are taken from Montreaux 1974.
The sound on It Aint Why, It Just Is is excellent stereo sound with occasional pops and scratches (just like those old LPs you use to have...)

© Official released material:
Tracks 1 and 9 have breen released officially on: It's Too Late to Stop Now - 1 February 1974
Track 5 is from Live at the Santa Monica Civic 29 May of 1973 released officially on: ..It's Too Late to Stop Now...Volumes II, III & IV (cd2)
Tracks 11 to 14 have been released officially on: Live at Montreux 1980/1974 - 16 October 2006 by Eagle Vision for Exile Productions Ltd.
______________________________________________________________

1973 concert
The sound quality is excellent - especially when you consider this is a recording from 1973. The stereo effect is very distinct and the audience sound is way in the background and noticeable only when there is applause which leads me to believe this one came through the sound board.

The performance is very upbeat and the band is tight, with great piano and guitar playing. The songs are performed, for the most part, closely to the studio versions. Not until the 10th cut, "Cypress Avenue", does Van embellish with playful give and take with the band. Van gives a spirited and intense effort on every song. He's way out there with an unusual "It's Not The Twilight Zone" (hard to believe this is Van singing).

If you like the songs featured in the song list here, you won't be disappointed at all. A very enjoyable performance by Van with a solid band backing on a well produced CD.

Alternate It's Too Late to Stop Now, it is the "lost acetate" of the original album or at least a press copy that had been sent out to radio stations before Van decided to completely overhaul in favor of the many tributes on the released album to his heroes via covers of Sam Cooke, Sonny Boy, Ray Charles etc. These are simply more brilliant performances from the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, clearly in their prime. An excellent companion piece to the original album.

From what I have read Its Too Late To Stop Now was originally planned to be a triple album and ended up a double. There were some early (test?) pressings as a triple and that's where these songs come from. This explains the pops and crackles. Two of the tracks are simply unedited versions of songs from Its Too Late To Stop Now. "I've Been Working" has about 10 seconds reinstated and while you can hear where it is, it doesn't really make a lot of difference. The sound quality is the same as the first official release unless you have the remastered set which is much better. "Caravan" has 3 seconds reinstated but I can't find it.

"Cypress Avenue" is an alternative recording to that on the official ITLTSN. While being slightly different to the official version there is nothing new or outstan ding in it that rates special attention. Except for the completest these three tracks are no gr eat addition to the Van fans library. The other seven tracks, plus four bonus tracks, are.

Alternate It's Too Late to Stop Now
Two tracks feature from Astral Weeks that aren't on ITLTSN. "The Way Young Lovers Do" is a wonderful jazzy version with great strings from the Caledonia Soul Orchestra. "Sweet Thing" is even better. The version of "Sweet Thing" from Montreux in 1990 is generally considered the best version of this song on tape but this version come close. Very close. Where the Montreux version is slow with a lot of flute, this one rocks with great br ass and fine guitar. Van grunts and pushes the song along. He improvises lyrics and almost chan ges it from a song of love to a song of lust. This track alone makes the price of admission worthwhile.

"Come Running" from the Moondance album is a gas. Gone is the extended jamming of the Filmore set and what we have is a straight up song played flat out. It's a lot of fun. "Blue Money" from Street Choir is still a minor song but you won't hear a better version of it than this. "Wild Night" is played pretty straight. It doesn't have as much oomph as the Pacific High version, but at this stage of his career Van couldn't play anything poorly and this is no exception.
Two tracks from Hardnose the Highway also feature and both are a vast improvement on the original album recordings. "Purple Heather" sounds just lovely. Strings and Van's voice blending together perfectly. "Green" changes from a Muppet song to a great soul ballad. Van really gets into this song and gives it everything. One of the standouts on this CD.

RATING If, like me, you think Its Too Late To Stop Now is the greatest live album made then this boot is essential. If you are not a ITLTSN fan or prefer later van material then this may not be of much interest to you. While the CD cover says this is recorded in LA at the Troubadour I believe it is in fact recorded at the same locations as Its Too Late To Stop Now. Certainly the tracks do not sound as though they were recorded at the same show The sound quality of this boot is impeccable. I don't have the other boots that are this same show [Ed: often referred to as the It's Too Late To Stop Now acetates - see It Ain't Why, It Just Is and Its Never Too Late], but the sound and the quality of performance are first rate. There are no liner notes to speak of, just a color picture on the cover.

It does not list the musicians, but I'm sure the info is available on the other boots of the same show. There is a misprint on the spine of the case, which I guess makes this one a rarity - it says, "Bruce Springsteen - Wild Night".

1974 concert
The concert performance at Montreux for the 1974 set (disc 2) was recorded on 30 June 1974.[8] One of the songs played was "Bulbs", which was released as the single on the album Veedon Fleece. Three of the songs, "Twilight Zone", "Foggy Mountain Top" and "Naked in the Jungle", would not be officially released by Morrison until his 1998 compilation of outtakes, The Philosopher's Stone.[9] Morrison wrote "I Like It Like That" when he was in Them, while "Heathrow Shuffle" was released on the 1995 live jazz album How Long Has This Been Going On. "Swiss Cheese" was never officially released except on this DVD.[9] All of the songs, except for "Street Choir", were unfamiliar to the audience, who were expecting his more recognizable songs and according to Clinton Heylin, in Montreux "a familiar conflict arose between his own thirst for spontaneity and an audience's preference for being eased into any new musical progression." Less than a year later, Morrison would say that as soon as "you are committed to a series of concerts you lose all spontaneity. It's not jazz any more. The reason I first got into music and the reason I was then doing it were conflicting. It was such a paradox."[10] During the concert but not shown on the DVD, Morrison angrily confronted a woman heckler who said he didn't know how to play the blues.[11]

Morrison's stripped-down band was assembled when he arrived at Montreux, with the help of festival manager Claude Nobs. Drummer Dallas Taylor from Crosby, Stills and Nash, British keyboardist Pete Wingfield and Jerome Rimson, bass player from Detroit, Michigan rounded out the quartet, with Morrison contributing vocals, saxophone, guitar and harmonica.[12]
A note by Claude Nobs on the sleeve notes for the DVD: "For all the years I have been producing the Montreux Jazz Festival, these two concerts will remain very deeply set in my memory as well as in the memory of all the people who enjoyed these concerts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_at_Montreux_1980/1974