Van Morrison & The Blizzards - Deventer, The Netherlands (03/09/67)

Van Morrison
with The Blizzards
Buiten Societeit
Deventer, Netherlands
March 09, 1967 (Thursday)

01. Intro > One More Time
02. If You And I Could Be As Two
03. Gloria *
04. Hey Girl **
05. My Lonely Sad Eyes
06. Mystic Eyes ^

* – Van on organ
** – Van on piano. Also at end of song you here Van say “It’s Too Late To Stop Now”
^ – Van on harmonica

Band Members
Van Morrison – guitar, piano and organ, harmonica & vocals

The Blizzards
Herman Brood – vocals
Eelco Gelling – guitar
Willy Middel – bass
Hans Waterman – drums

 There is a lot of confusion over this show. Van played four dates in Deventer in 1967 (March 04,05, 09, and 10) but only one of them has ever surfaced as a recording. It has been bootlegged numerous times in various forms, often (mis)labeled with one of the other three dates.  Best I can tell this recoding did happen on the 9th.

I know of four bootlegs that contain this show, most of them contain songs from other shows, so I'll list out everything I have on them all.

#1

 

Friday's Child
(bootleg CD)

No label info or release date.

CD1:

1. Into The Mystic (6:33)
2. I've Been Working (6:21)
3. Friday's Child (6:36)
4. Hound Dog (2:33)
5. Ballerina (9:16)
6. Tupelo Honey (6:39)
7. Wild Night (4:44)
8. Just Like A Woman (8:34)
9. Moonshine Whiskey (8:06)
10. Dead Or Alive (5:25)
11. These Dreams Of You (3:30)
12. Domino (6:11)
    Total time: (74:36)

CD2:

1. Call Me Up In Dream Land (3:43)
2. Blue Money (4:46)
3. Bring It On Home (4:29)
4. Buena Sora (sic) Senorita (3:46)
5. I've Been Working (3:47)
6. Caravan (6:43) (not listed on liner)
7. Gloria (3:15)
8. Flamingos Fly (6:20)
9. Cypress (sic) Avenue (10:52)
10. One More Time (3:08)
11. If You & I Could Be As One (3:06)
12. Gloria (3:37)
13. Hey Girl (5:03)
14. Sad Eyes (2:44)
15. Mystic Eyes (3:08)
16. Interview (1:35)
    Total time: (70:11)

Disc one all tracks, and disc two tracks 1-4 recorded live at the Pacific High Studios, San Francisco, September 5, 1971. Disc two tracks 5-8 from Rock City TV (1978). Disc two tracks 9-14 from Deventer, Holland 1967.

Liner notes:
One of the most desirable Van Morrison concerts to collectors is the live in studio performance from Pacific High Records in late 1971. Besides a representative selection of his first three solo ablums, the concert featured a number of performances not to be found anywhere else. Van delved deep into his blues background for the swinging "Dear Or Alive", and the plaintive "Friday's Child" as well as the elvis cover that started it all: "You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog". Particularly amusing is the way this faithful homage starts with the introduction starts with the introduction of Doris Day's "Que Sera"! The highlight of this set has to be the drop-dead beautiful version of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman" which wrings out the gut-wrenching intensity the song has always implied. Capped off with the blues standard "Bring It On home To Me" and the Italian ditty "Buena Sora", this concert was one for the ages.

Rounding out the package are a 1978 appearance most notable for the gorgeous performance of "Flamingos Fly", a version much different and better than the studio take he would release five years later. This one of a kind version was worth the prove of admission. Finally we present the earliest preserved performance of Van on his own after the breakup of Them.

Notes from Brian Heffler:
This is obviously made by the same people as The Lion Roars. I am assuming that because they use exactly the same fonts in their cover, and provide liner note reviews like Lion Roars. It's a very clean set of the 11/71 Pacific Heights shows, some excellent tracks from Rock City TV (including "Caravan", which is not listed on the liner notes) and some of Van's earliest post-Them performances (the sound of the latter is not great, but what can you expect for '67?) from Deventer, Holland. The last track is an interview about Van and the music biz + entering a monastery.

Notes from Russell Parkinson:
This Pacific High Studios material has been frequently booted. It is reviewed in full in the Discography entry for The Inner Mystic. The material also appears (in whole or in part) on a number of other boots, including I've Been Working, Into the Mystic, Moonshine Whiskey, This is Van Morrison, Desert Land, Wild Night in California, and the vinyl Van the Man.

Notes from dcat:
Upon close examination, the 5 songs noted as "Rock City TV 1973" above, appear to be from "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" (noted by collectors only as "April 1973" with no further known details as to venue/location). My tape copy of Kirschner's runs faster than Rock City, and the Rock City speed sounds more correct. My tape of Kirschner's runs about 15 minutes and excludes the first and last song included on Rock City.

As David Walker pointed out, this performance is likely that mentioned by Lester Bangs in words of astonished praise in his Astral Weeks critique. 

#2

 

Over the Rainbow
Goldtone (GT-003)

(Released 1997?)

1. Take Your Hands Out Of My Pockets (4:11)
2. Here Comes The Night (3:23)
3. I Just Want To Make Love To You (5:40)
4. Brown Eyed Girl (3:15)
5. Moonshine Whiskey (7:16)
6. Moondance (5:26)
7. Bring Me My Nightshirt (2:41)
8. Domino (4:40)
9. Caravan (8:46)
10. Cypress Avenue (5:41)
11. One More Time (3:01)
12. If You And I Could Be As Two (3:14)
13. Gloria (3:35)
14. Hey Girl (5:07)
15. My Lonely Sad Eyes (2:42)
16. Mystic Eyes (3:06)
    Total time: (71:44)

Tracks 1-10: Rainbow Theatre, London, July 27, 1973
Tracks 11-16: Deventer, Holland w/Cuby & the Blizzards, 1968.

Review by David Walker:
This should've been a classic boot. The material is, at the very least, of significant historical value. But the disc is disappointing. The Rainbow sound, though quite listenable, isn't nearly as good as its TV/radio simulcast origins would promise. The Deventer sound is poor, even damaged at times -- worse than Amsterdam's Tapes.

This historic show -- Van's earliest booted live performance? -- has only appeared previously on the rare vinyl boot Please, No Moke!. This first CD appearance sounds as though it could've been taken straight from that notoriously bad-sounding lp. But the new CD's worst offense, and the one that actually ruins the disc for me, is its mutilation of "Cyprus Avenue" - the dramatic climax of the Rainbow performance. Halfway through the song -- just as Van gets intensely quiet with "And you were standing there...." -- there's a loud buzz of static, a Dutch voice introducing VM's first Deventer number, and an electronic whistling sound; Van and the Blizzards start playing "One More Time," and it's the Deventer show from there till the end. Damn! Just when "Cyprus Avenue" was beginning its final four-minute climactic build. Talk about your coitus interruptus! This rude yank out of "Cyprus" totally devastates the disc, imho. It's hard to tell if it's accidental or some misguided, deliberate attempt to fit everything onto the one disc; the disc as is runs just a few seconds over 71 minutes, so four more minutes of "Cyprus Ave." shouldn't have been a problem.

Other notes:
Much of this Rainbow show was used for Van's 1973 live LP, It's Too Late To Stop Now. This show is notable for three songs ("Moondance", "Brown Eyed Girl", and "Moonshine Whiskey") that weren't on ITLTSN or the unreleased acetates of this LP.

The show was broadcast simultaneously on stereo FM radio and on BBC TV's Old Grey Whistle Test. I think this was one of the earliest stereo radio broadcasts, and the first simultaneous TV/radio broadcast of a "rock" concert. (Alan Lloyd, London, England)

#3

 

Please, No Moke!
SPYS - Free Music INC. MR19
(Released in 1984)

Side A

1. One More Time
2. If You And I Could Be As Two
3. Gloria
4. Hey Girl
5. Sad Eyes
6. Mystic Eyes

Side B

1. Mechanical Bliss - demo
2. Ain't Working For You - demo
3. Misty (w/George Benson) - USA TV 1984
4. Nothing You Can Do - Rotterdam 1981
5. High Place In Your Mind - London 1982

Produced by "UZZO" and Maurice Pigeons.

All of side A recorded in Deventer, West Germany (sic. - should, of course, be Holland) 1968

Source: Diana De Roo

The Deventer tracks were recorded with Cuby and the Blizzards and are more recently available on the Over the Rainbow CD. It would appear that this LP was the source of the master.

See also the Discography entry on the 2003 vinyl boot Please No Smoke!

#4

 

 

Please, No Smoke!
KUX 009 (Released April 10, 2003)

Side A

1. One More Time
2. If You And I Could Be As Two
3. Gloria
4. Hey Girl
5. Sad Eyes
6. Mystic Eyes

Side B

1. Just For Fun
2. Appleknockers Flophouse
3. Travelling With The Blues
4. Hobo Blues
5. Window Of My Eyes (symphonic version)
6. Gli Uragani - Your Body Not Your Soul (Italian cover)

See also the Discography entry on the 1984 vinyl boot Please No Moke!

All of side A recorded in Buitensocieteit, Deventer, Holland, March 1967 (note: vs the 1968 date given on Please No Moke!).

Notes:
The first vinyl Van-content bootleg in many years. 500 were pressed. Brian Heffler notes: "The first side is identical to Please No Moke. The second side is entirely different. The front cover is the same except for the "S" in front of MOKE. The back cover is entirely different. The labels are different."

From the Dutch eBay site where this was first noticed: "Fantastic LP of Cuby + Blizzards featuring Van Morrison of Them. On this album you will find unique recordings from 1967 when Van Morrison played with Cuby + Blizzards in Deventer, Holland . The songs were broadcasted in the programme "TIEN-R", on medium wave Dutch radio. 12 Tracks on this album including a symphonic version of "Window Of My Eyes" and a rare Italian cover of the killer "Your Body Not Your Soul". The other tracks are : One More Time, If You And I Could Be As Two, Gloria, Hey Girl, My Lonely Sad Eyes, Mystic Eyes, Just For Fun, Appleknockers Flophouse, Travelling With The Blues, Hobo Blues."