A Night in San Francisco cover
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A Night in San Francisco

Polydor 314-521-290-2
(Released May, 1994)

CD1:

  1. Did Ye Get Healed? (4:18)
  2. It's All in the Game / Make It Real One More Time (4:19)
  3. I've Been Working (3:24)
  4. I Forgot That Love Existed (6:17)
  5. Vanlose Stairway / Trans-Euro Train / Fool For You (6:55)
  6. You Make Me Feel So Free (3:14)
  7. Beautiful Vision (4:11)
  8. See Me Through / Soldier Of Fortune / Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin (10:18)
  9. Ain't That Loving You Baby? (4:44)
  10. Stormy Monday / Have You Ever Loved A Woman? / No Rollin' Blues (6:08)
  11. Help Me (6:10)
  12. Good Morning Little School Girl (3:33)
  13. Tupelo Honey (4:01)
  14. Moondance / My Funny Valentine (9:09)
    Total time: (76:45)

CD2:

  1. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid (4:47)
  2. It Fills You Up (4:43)
  3. I'll Take Care Of You / It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World (16:23)
  4. Lonely Avenue / 4 O'Clock In The Morning (14:51)
  5. So Quiet In Here / That's Where It's At (5:00)
  6. In The Garden / You Send Me / Allegheny (9:41)
  7. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (3:51)
  8. Shakin' All Over / Gloria (11:29)
    Total time: (70:48)

Recorded live at The Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco, Saturday, December 18, 1993, and at The Mystic Theatre, Petaluma, on Sunday, December 12, 1993

Review by Scott Thomas:
By the early 1990's, Van Morrison had stopped participating in formal tours preferring instead to play scattered concerts at times and venues of his own choosing with a constantly evolving set of musicians. For these late 1993 West Coast concerts, he takes a kind of Irish showband approach: band members Georgie Fame and Brian Kennedy, his daughter Shana, and blues greats Junior Wells, Jimmy Witherspoon, and John Lee Hooker all get their turns at the mike. This, however, is not Ringo's All-Starrs. Van weaves his guests into the program without ever losing the overall thread of the performance: clearly, it was his show even when he was watching from the wings.

His first live album from twenty years earlier, It's Too Late to Stop Now!, distinguished itself with its mix of Morrison originals and covers of soul and blues classics. A Night in San Francisco takes this a step further and interweaves the originals and covers in a series of medleys that betray VanŐs fecund imagination and expansive musical database. Thus, "Moondance" turns into "My Funny Valentine," and "In the Garden" morphs into Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" which, after briefly quoting "Real Real Gone," becomes "Allegheny," a modern folk song written by Bill Staines.

This is a gargantuan collection; two discs and almost two and half hours of music. Unfortunately, it peaks early with "Vanlose Stairway / Trans-Euro Train / Fool For You," brought to the heavens with Ronnie Johnson's chaotic, but somehow angelic electric guitar break. It is tremendous, but nothing else that follows it is, and only the tenacious listener makes it beyond the first quarter of Disc Two.

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