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Following last year’s releases of The Essential Van Morrison and The Complete Them 1964-1967, Legacy Recordings continues to mine the Van Morrison back catalogue with the June 10 releases of the remastered 2-CD or 2-LP It’s Too Late to Stop Now and the 3-CD/1-DVD box set It’s Too Late to Stop Now…Volumes II, III, IV & DVD.

It’s Too Late to Stop Now, of course, is Morrison’s 1974 double album with his Caledonia Soul Orchestra, capturing concert recordings from his May to July 1973 tour at Los Angeles’ famed Troubadour, the Santa Monica Civic Center, and London’s Rainbow Theatre.  The remastered original album will be available on both CD and vinyl, while the CDs of Volumes II-IV collect previously unreleased concert recordings from those three venues.  The DVD included in the 3-CD set contains professionally-shot footage from the Rainbow Theatre stand which originally aired on the BBC in the U.K. but has never before been commercially available.

The original It’s Too Late was compiled by Morrison and co-producer Ted Templeman from eight sets of live performances and was famously free of any subsequent studio overdubs.  Volumes II-IV returns to those original performances, first captured on two-inch 16-track analog tapes, as newly remastered by Guy Massey.  None of the tracks on this set are duplicated from the performances on the original album.

“I am getting more into performing,” Morrison commented in 1973.  “It’s incredible…. All of a sudden I felt like ‘you’re back into performing’ and it just happened like that…. A lot of times in the past I’ve done gigs and it was rough to get through them. But now the combination seems to be right and it’s been clicking a lot.”  Supported by his 11-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra (containing two horns and four strings among its players), Morrison revisited his greatest classics to that point including “Gloria,” “Domino,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Into the Mystic,” “Warm Love,” “The Way Young Lovers Do,” “Moondance,” and many more.  He also paid tribute to his own musical heroes with well-selected covers of Sam Cooke, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, and even Sesame Street‘s Joe Raposo.

Both the remastered edition of It’s Too Late to Stop Now and the new box set It’s Too Late to Stop Now… Volumes  II, III, IV & DVD will be available from Legacy on June 10.  You can pre-order at the links below!

Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now…Volumes II, III, IV & DVD (Legacy, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

VOLUME II (Recorded live at The Troubadour, Los Angeles, May 23, 1973)

1. Come Running (Van Morrison)
2. These Dreams Of You (Van Morrison)
3. The Way Young Lovers Do (Van Morrison)
4. Snow In San Anselmo (Van Morrison)
5. I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon)
6. Bring It On Home To Me (Sam Cooke)
7. Purple Heather (Van Morrison)
8. Hey, Good Lookin’ (Hank Williams)
9. Bein’ Green (Joseph G. Raposo)
10. Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
11. Listen To The Lion (Van Morrison)
12. Hard Nose The Highway (Van Morrison)
13. Moondance (Van Morrison)
14. Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)
15. Caravan (Van Morrison)

VOLUME III (Recorded live at the Santa Monica Civic, California, June 29. 1973)

1. I’ve Been Working (Van Morrison)
2. There There Child (Van Morrison, John Platania)
3. No Way (Jeff Labes)
4. Since I Fell For You (Woodrow Buddy Johnson)
5. Wild Night (Van Morrison)
6. I Paid The Price (Van Morrison, John Platania)
7. Domino (Van Morrison)
8. Gloria (Van Morrison)
9. Buona Sera (Carl Sigman, Peter De Rose)
10. Moonshine Whiskey (Van Morrison)
11. Ain’t Nothing You Can Do (Don D. Robey, Joseph Wade Scott)
12. Take Your Hand Out Of My Pocket (Sonny Boy Williamson)
13. Sweet Thing (Van Morrison)
14. Into The Mystic (Van Morrison)
15. I Believe To My Soul (Ray Charles)

VOLUME IV (Recorded live at The Rainbow, London, July 23 & 24, 1973)

1. Listen To The Lion (Van Morrison)
2. I Paid The Price (Van Morrison, John Platania)
3. Bein’ Green (Joseph G. Raposo)
4. Since I Fell For You(Woodrow Buddy Johnson)
5. Into The Mystic (Van Morrison)
6. Everyone (Van Morrison)
7. I Believe To My Soul (Ray Charles)
8. Sweet Thing (Van Morrison)
9. I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon)
10. Wild Children (Van Morrison)
11. Here Comes The Night (Bert Berns)
12. Buona Sera (Carl Sigman, Peter De Rose)
13. Domino (Van Morrison)
14. Caravan (Van Morrison)
15. Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)

DVD (Recorded live at The Rainbow, London, July 24, 1973)

1. Here Comes The Night (Bert Berns)
2. I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon)
3. Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
4. Moonshine Whiskey (Van Morrison)
5. Moondance (Van Morrison)
6. Help Me (Ralph Bass, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson)
7. Domino (Van Morrison)
8. Caravan (Van Morrison)
9. Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)

Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now…Volume 1 (Warner Bros. 2BS 2760, 1974 – reissued Legacy, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do
2. Warm Love
3. Into the Mystic
4. These Dreams of You
5. I Believe to My Soul
6. I’ve Been Working
7. Help Me
8. Wild Children
9. Domino
10. I Just Want to Make Love to You
11. Bring it on Home to Me
12. Saint Dominic’s Preview
13. Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket
14. Listen to the Lion
15. Here Comes the Night
16. Gloria
17. Caravan
18. Cypress Avenue

THE CALEDONIA SOUL ORCHESTRA:

Jeff Labes – piano & organ
Dave Shaw – drums
John Platania – guitar
David Hayes – bass guitar
Jack Schroer – alto, tenor, baritone saxophones
Bill Atwood – trumpet
Nathan Rubin, Tim Kovatch & Tom Halpin – violin
Nancy Ellis – viola
Terry Adams – cello