Pacific High Studios '71

Product Information

It was recorded in Pacific High Studios, a recording studio in San Francisco, in front of a small audience. That studio was used by the Grateful Dead to record "Workingman's Dead" in 1970, and Morrison used it around this time to record "St. Dominic's Preview." Local radio station KSAN used it to record live shows and play them over the radio, which is how this got bootlegged. So the sound quality is about as good as a live album from 1971 could possibly get. I said there are three great Van Morrison full concert recordings from 1970 to 1971, and I'm going to post them all here before I start posting my compilations of his best live songs from other shows around that era. Here's the third of those three shows. The first show was kind of a live version of the "Moondance" album. The second show was notable for having lots of cover versions and other rarities, such as acoustic versions. This show doesn't really stand out in any particular way. It dates from less than a month from the second show (at the Lion's Share in San Anselmo, California), so it's not surprising that the song selection isn't that different. However, the performance is excellent and the sound quality is too, so the show is a must-have because there are so few concert recordings this good from this early in his career. Also, at one hour and 35 minutes it's a long show, 20 minutes longer than the Lion's Share one.

The Pacific High Studios' material is simply essential. It has been frequently booted (Fridays Child, I've Been Working, Into the Mystic, Moonshine Whiskey, This is Van Morrison, Desert Land, Van Morrison, Wild Night in California, the vinyl Van the Man, ...) Many live recordings have been made over the course of Morrison's career, but none is more celebrated or captures Morrison in better form than the live recording presented here. Recorded before an intimate audience of 200 at Pacific High Recording Studios and broadcast on KSAN radio shortly before the release of the Tupelo Honey album, this performance captures Morrison at a pivotal turning point in his life. He had recently relocated from the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York to the Bay Area. (Right from the start of his solo career, San Francisco embraced Morrison and arguably was the epicenter of his North American following during the early years of his solo career.) In addition to the move, Morrison was now a father; his daughter Shana was born the previous year. On the career front, he had just completed negotiations on a new recording contract, and the saxophone-fueled single, "Wild Night," had just been released, with the soon-to-be-released Tupelo Honey album destined to become the most popular album of his career.

Except "Caledonia Soul Music": Silver boot (Hawk 78/79 Disc 2 15-4052) > Easy CD-DA Extractor > FLAC > WAV > remastering and pitch correction > FLAC

Cummings, Howard (August 1979). "The Outspoken, Irreverent Roy Thomas Baker" (PDF). Recording Engineer Producer . Retrieved 1 September 2022. Perry, Charles (27 September 1973). "Alembic: Sound Wizards to the Grateful Dead". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 1 September 2022. a b Davies, Bren (July 2009). "Elliot Mazer: Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Janis Joplin". Tape Op . Retrieved 1 September 2022.In 1973, Alembic decided to focus on manufacturing electric guitars and basses, and sold the recording studio to Elliot Mazer. In 1977, Journey (band), who had recorded Next (Journey album) at the studio, [15] chose to record their follow-up, Infinity, at His Masters Wheels, with Roy Thomas Baker producing what would be the band's first album with vocalist Steve Perry. At some point in the recording sessions, Baker sprayed everyone in the control room with a fire extinguisher, soaking the Neve mixing console in the process. The resulting fallout between Mazer and Baker led to the band finishing the album at Cherokee Studios. [8] Sly and the Family Stone recorded their album Life at the studio in 1968, and returned the following year to record its follow-up, Stand!, which would mark the height of the band's artistic and commercial success. [6] Miller, Jason (19 May 2011). "Yes, That Was Recorded In San Francisco: Sly & the Family Stone- Stand!". thevinyldistrict.com . Retrieved 30 August 2022.