Here's a really nice show with some oddities from Van, recorded off the soundboard at The Lion's Share, in San Anselmo, California, on August 8, 1971. This is a 2CD set of the early and late shows.
The early set begins with three acoustic songs, "Sweet Thing", "I Wanna Roo You" and "Tupelo Honey" with slightly different lyrics than the released version on "Tupelo Honey". After that, the band joins in with Van singing part of "Que Sera Sera" (the 1956 Doris Day hit from the film, 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'), which abruptly changes to "Hound Dog". "These Dreams Of You" is next, with very nice saxophone courtesy of Jack Schroer. Van then does the Everly Brothers "Let It Be Me" and is followed by Patti Page's 1950 hit, "The Tennessee Waltz". "Moonshine Whiskey" is next, when I played this recording for my friend Zelda, as "Moonshine Whiskey" started, Zelda was exhaling a huge hit from spliff, and said, "Janis Joplin drank a lot of whiskey." to which I replied, "Yes she did." Zelda then told me, "Janis Joplin's wake took place at The Lion's Share in San Anselmo... I wonder if Van made that connection?" I then asked Zelda, "Do you think Kevin Bacon's parents were at this show?" Zelda replied, "Probably not." and then took a Peter Tosh sized hit, without passing it to me. "Back in the day" we called people who did that a "Bogart". Be that as it may, next, Van puts his spin on Dylan's classic "Just Like A Woman". Two songs from the Street Choir album follow, "I've Been Working" and "Domino". Van closes out the set with Louis Prima's 1956 hit, "Buena Sera Senorita". We then hear an announcement asking everybody to leave by the back door, as people are already online at the front for the second show.
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| Van with Janet Rigsbee |
The late set is almost the same show, with three song changes. "Street Choir" replaces "I Wanna Roo You" with lyrics that the title of this bootleg came from. "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" replaces "Tennessee Waltz", and Van adds "Gloria".
The band and backing singers are tight throughout, and Van is good voice, good spirits, and has no meltdowns or "hissy fits".
For the freeload, tell us about live shows you saw, that were disappointing to you, or shows that went off the rails.
The Replacements, as expected, went off the rails. They came on, playing each other's instruments, which was funny for one song, but . . . The only other show that I've attended that could be said to have gone off the rails was in Boston, on St. Patrick's Day, featuring the Pogues. They were great, but the audience was another story and I had to make a hasty retreat. --Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteIn 2016 Emitt Rhodes released his first album in 40-some years. A show was scheduled. We attended.
ReplyDeleteEmitt decided at the last minute he couldn't sing. Sad. Disappointing but not surprising due to his mental illness.
The show must go on. Producer, Chris Price, sang all the songs with Emitt quietly playing acoustic guitar.
I saw a lot of great shows at Portland, OR's cool club called Euphoria (yes, it was named after the Holy Modal Rounders' song). I probably saw - between early 1974 and 1980 , 350 gigs plus or minus. I can't say that I saw this one...it went went off the rails so early. It was blues acoustic guitarist Stefan Grossman. I was running just a little late that night - 5 minutes or so - so I thought that I wouldn't miss that much, if any of the show. However, when I got there, there was a steady and strong stream of people leaving. In asking around, I found out that the sound man got in an argument with Stefan - evidently just before the show started, and it was loud and heated. Grossman packed up his guitars and left.
ReplyDeleteNearest thing I can think of going off the rails was a gig we played with a semi-famous, past-his-prime drummer (RIP, Rex). We were playing for a charity & knew we weren't top-notch by any means. It was classic Texas dance hall music; nothin' fancy, but he decided it was too far below his skills & quit before the 3rd set. We finished the gig with a guy that really wanted to play.
ReplyDeleteTwo shows come to mind, from two of my favorite performers.
ReplyDeleteIn November 1971, Van Morrison was headlining a show at Winterland in San Francisco. Taj Mahal opened for him with a solo performance that entirely enthralled the crowd of four or five thousand. I've never witnessed a solo act completely own such a large crowd. It was breathtaking. Clearly Van was not happy with having to follow that. His nose was out of joint from the get-go and he ended the show after only performing six or eight songs. A complete buzzkill for the crowd. I read that after he went backstage he fired the band.
The other show was about 25 years ago at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, with Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks opening for Ricki Lee Jones. We went solely to see Dan Hicks (sorry all Ricki Lee fans.) Dan was in a foul mood and continually complaining about the stage monitors. Finally, in a fit of rage, he began kicking the monitors and stormed off the stage, leaving his band on stage to look both embarrassed and bewildered. Ultimately he returned to the stage and tensely completed the set, but it was not a joyous outing for anyone. Ricki Lee even made a joke or two about it when she came on.
I've seen Taj solo "smoke" many a headliner.
DeleteDylan at the Birmingham NEC in 1988 when he repeatedly went off on unrehearsed guitar solos that left his supporting guitarist completely flummoxed, shrugging their shoulders at each other. You got the feeling that the support band was not far off walking off after he did it for the third time.
ReplyDeleteI saw Dexy's Midnight Runners at the time of Geno hitting the charts. Kevin Rowland cannot hold a note and repeatedly sang off key which culminated some years later when he tried to make a come back as a solo artist with him having things thrown at him and being booed off stage at one of the Reading festivals in the late 1990's. Needless to say his comeback and single album failed and his return lasted little more than a summer. Ironically it was re-released a few years back and made the bottom half of the UK album charts. Which I think speaks more to the state of the music scene now than it does to some underestimation of his talents.
I saw John Cale the first time in Paradiso, Amsterdam, probably very early 1980's, great solo performance. Some time later he returned to Paradiso, this time with a band, promoting his Caribbean Sunset album which was just out. My friend had bought tickets and I was looking forward to it. Afterwards according to him Cale gave a great performance, but 5 minutes or so before he started I suddenly got a fiendish toothache which made it impossible for me to focus on the music... You could say I went off the rails instead!
ReplyDeleteThe one and only time I was about to see Dr Feelgood at Paradiso was a disaster. By the time we arrived (after a 1 hour motocycle trip) there we were told that the show had been canceled at the last moment but they'd managed to find a replacement band. We were pissed off but decided to give it a try anyway. After 3 or 4 songs we left, it was so incredibly lame (especially compared to Dr Feelgood!), can't even remember their name...
Archie Shepp at Kentish Town Forum. Now Archie had some misgivings it appeared about being paid and liked to have the cash in physical form (1992 or so) and given to him before playing. This had not occurred so at gig start time Archie ambles out sits on choar in spotlight and informs everybody he ain't playing shit until he gets his money. He sits there for 20 minutes or more we stare at him and messages are heard over the tannoy but no music no band. Eventually somebody runs on and Archie smiles and hey he plays the grumpiest jazz set many had ever seen.
ReplyDeleteOh and that Kevin Rowland Reading festival gig I was there witnessed kevin in full trans female outfit having bikers fill pint glasses with piss and throw over him. He pretty bolshy and carried on for a while...not his greatest perfromance but probably his bravest.
Archie and many of his generation want the money upfront, due to years of getting ripped off by sleazy promoters.
DeleteActually Dylan topped both those only time seen him was in Nottingham 2003 in a metal shed arena that better suited to ice hockey which it built for. I paid £33 a lot of money then to not see properly (too far away) and not hear ( sound reverberating off metal walls )a Dylan set that even on bootleg sounds pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteTwo shows. First was a Fleetwood Mac show that was the band in name only. Their then manager had somehow gotten the rights to the name, and had assembled a group that was nothing like the then, FM - like a local bar blues band. Other was the Allmans at an all day concert for the opening of the Superdome. They were the headliners, and after about a 2 hour wait from the end of the 2nd to last act, they took the stage. Opening number was brutally bad (Statesboro Blues), and Greg announced they were taking a break. After about 30 mins, they retook the stage with Betts sporting a welt under his eye, and Greg's hand bandaged. And, they still sounded like crap.
ReplyDeleteThe one that comes to mind as disappointing is The Ramones in 1988. It also went off the rails for my group of friends at least. We were students at UCSB at the time and The Ramones played in a lame-ass Isla Vista college frat bar called The Graduate that was the remodeled husk of what used to be a Bank of America before the hippies burned it to the ground in the 1970 (prompting then Governor Reagan to infamously call in the National Guards to beat some sense into the degenerates).
ReplyDeleteAnywho, the Ramones we're clearly bored and simply going through the motions prompting my roommate who was a big fan to hurl a loogie at Johnny. Johnny pointed his finger at said friend and a bouncer grabbed my friend and started pulling him out of the bar by his hair. Another friend then jumped on the bouncer and a bit of chaos ensued though the Ramones continued plodding away.
Knebworth 75. Hot day, early evening. Todd's Utopia were on before the Stones. They finished with "Here's a song about Hiroshima". Dead silence. Stones didn't come on for another 2 hours, by which time we were home.
ReplyDeleteTodd Rundgren, Ohio. Couldn't tell you the album he was promoting but his band included 2 female vocalists and a dj. Todd didn't touch a guitar until the final 3 songs but by then my trauma was complete. Six months later he returned with the Akron Symphony to do a greatest hits concert...I couldn't bring myself to go
ReplyDeleteBob Dylan about 5 or 6 years ago was a big disappointment, the sound was terrible. Didn't they sound-check or adjust during the show? Pink Floyd in the mid-70s playing Everything Note For Note. Hey, on the bright side, saw Van in the UBC War Memorial Gym in 74, he started off slow (I was aware of his stage reputation), but by the 3rd tune he got over himself and put on a show that remains in my top-20 all-time list. AND, got to see Dan Hicks in a smallish venue a couple of years before he passed. During a set break I bravely approached him (and his scowl increased!) and asked if he'd play "Shorty Buys A Milkshake". He looked at me quizzically, but did do "Milk Shakin' Mama" in the last set.
ReplyDeleteElvis Costello ( with Rockpile, Willy DeVille) walked off about 30 minutes into his set. 1978 I guess, Santa Monica Civic.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Bob Dylan 2023..stinkarinkaroo!
I caught a gig by Yusef Lateef around 1976 in which he spent much of the night glancing at his watch and musically going through the motions. Probably just an off night; I saw him in a far more engaged set a year or two later on. He was never one to chat with his audiences though, he came to play.
ReplyDeleteAnother disappointing show I saw in the late 80s was headlined by harp player James Cotton who still had chops aplenty on his mouth organ, but his voice was utterly shot and reduced to a kind of husky barking with little projection. I think he retired from the road soon after.
Chuck Berry has also been a source of disappointment on a couple of occasions where he hired sluggish local pickup bands and more or less phoned in a recitation of his hits.
That was Chuck's modus operandi since 1970.
DeleteMost disappointing show in recent memory: The Rolling Stones this past May, out in New Jersey.
ReplyDeleteMemorable show that went off the rail: Hot Tuna in the early 80s. Their first set was classic Tuna, then they took a break. When they returned, Jorma Kaukonen looked visibly ripped on "Sweet Lady H" complete with the "itchy and scratchy" thing, and after two song made the excuse he needed to use the bathroom. He returned, visibly wired, and finished the set disconnected. Jack Casady looked bewildered throughout.
Loved Hot Tuna live. But it was all before Jorma decided to become a junkie.
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ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/zmNESEYneDV
Hmm....Roy Harper at the Armadillo World Headquarters in April 1976. He was breaking up with his band onstage. Sex Pistols Winterland January 1978. Ditto for John Lydon.
ReplyDeleteAlways wanted to see Roy Harper. Sorry it was bad.
DeleteI saw Roy many times in the 80’s and 90’s, he was generally very good, but sometimes he would be stoned and chatted too much, also some of the audience would join in having a chat - get on with it Roy! His son Nick is worth seeing live if anyone gets the chance.
DeleteMy power was out for a day and a half. You probably didn't miss me but I'm glad to be back.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed with the one time I saw Van M., but I think that was as much me as him. He wasn't grumpy, or any sin like that. I just thought his mid-80s set was ... languid; I really wanted to hear more material from Moondance through St. Dominic's Preview (and not the slow stuff).
ReplyDeleteI did once lose my enthusiasm for a band and their show as they were starting to build to a close. Rodney Dillard, of The Dillards, launched into an ode to the Second Amendment, for no reason I could discern. My thought was, "what about the First Amendment, which keeps the Sheriff from busting you for inciting fights in the crowd?" I get that not everyone who like music thinks the way I do, and it isn't ridiculous to weave your politics into your patter... but I decided that was the very last time I was ever spending any money to support his art.
D in California