portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Monday, January 20, 2025

Albums That Should Exist - Van Morrison - The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA USA 1974

Van Morrison - The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA, 7-29-1974 

Paul says : Before I post more BBC albums by Van Morrison, I have to post this concert. I just found it, and I'm very glad I did, because the sound quality is exceptional, especially for the time period.

As for the performance, the fact that it's from 1974 should tell you all you need to know. Morrison was on fire in concert during that era. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about a live album he recorded a year earlier: "Frequently named as one of the best live albums ever, 'It's Too Late to Stop Now' was recorded during what has often been said to be the singer's greatest phase as a live performer." He was still in that groove in 1974.

This is from an FM radio broadcast. One can tell by the introduction by a DJ named Tom Donahue. No doubt, that explains the sound quality. I made a few subtle audio editing tricks to improve the sound quality a little more.

Also, most versions of this bootleg have appeared without the last song, "Gloria." But I managed to track that down from a different source of the same show and add it in.

In terms of song selection, this is pretty similar to "It's Too Late to Stop Now" and some other live stuff I've posted from him from this time period. But see above about how he was at his performing peak around this time. Note that this concert took place a few months before the release of his 1974 album "Veedon Fleece," so there are no songs here from that. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long.

01 talk by Tom Donahue 
02 Heathrow Shuffle [Instrumental] 
03 Ain't Nothing You Can Do
04 Warm Love
05 Snow in Anselmo 
06 Help Me 
07 Into the Mystic 
08 I Believe to My Soul
09 Moondance
10 Foggy Mountain Top 
11 Street Choir 
12 Listen to the Lion
13 I've Been Working
14 I Just Want to Make Love to You
15 Gloria 


Now I haven’t been posting much Van Morrison lately since his mad cap diatribes and anti-vaxxer stance and throwaway rubbish recent albums and yet. . . I still hold that my favourite live album of all time is prolly Too Late To Stop Now and as Paul says this is as good a quality as that so here goes . . . 

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