Van Morrison – It’s Too Late To Stop Now

Here is a good record for Saturday that I bought for a dollar.  From the Fat Monk himself.  Not an overtly huge Van Morrison fan myself but I do like a lot of his songs, some of which were on this album.  Another gatefold album.  I noticed this while taking pictures of the record covers fro this month.  I felt that there were a lot of gatefolds when I got to this one.  I did not realize that more was to come.  Too many gatefold this month. Need to get better about that ( they are a pain in the rear to edit and post).

This was recorded live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and the Rainbow in London during the summer of 1973.  It was released by Warner Brothers a year later.  Critics have called it one of the greatest live recordings ever.  Which is weird because two years prior, Morrison started experiencing stage fright after ten years of previous stage work.  He took a brief break from performing and when he returned, he favored smaller venues.  

With an eleven piece band with horns and strings, Morrison embarked on a three month tour .  Again, this time is said to be his greatest period as a live performer according to whatever source  Wikapedia used. Decent album.  Kind of all over the place for Morrison’s career at the time as far as track selection.

Lot of good tracks on here, but ultimately went with what is probably one of my favorite Morrison tunes, “Here Comes The Night”.  “Gloria” is probably my favorite but nothing really beats the original.  This track does skip a bit but all the tracks skipped.  Whoever owned this last sure did play it a lot.

Satisfactory.  I would suggest getting yourself a clean copy.

Peter Nero- Plays Tribute to Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

So very close to finishing out this month.  So close.  This was $1.00.  I liked the song list.

Peter Nero born in Brooklyn in 1934, is a Grammy winning pianist who has worked with orchestras, pop stars, television shows, and other forms of entertainment.  I am not even sure this is a proper sentence.  Anyway, he has also worked with the Philly Pops Orchestra, the largest stand alone pops orchestra in the US..  According to Wikipedia, he is transitioning to moving in to an old folks home in Florida.  Probably deserves a bit more exposition on this subject but not going to happen at this time.  Perhaps I will post another one of his records earlier in a month.

Well, this record,  released by Dynagroove in 1967, is Nero’s tribute to the A in A&R Records, Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass.  All the big hits are here:  “Spanish Flea”, ” The Lonely Bull”, “Tijuana Taxi”, and “Flamingo.  Pretty good interpretations and Nero’s skill on the ivory is impressive. Very versatile style. It is saying something that in the liner notes, Alpert commends Nero for his (with his being italicized) interpretations of Alpert’s work.

For a sample, I went with an amazing version of what I normally feel is an overrated song, the “Theme from Zorba the Greek”.  Nero’s version really takes off into a free jazz thing which weaves in and out from the traditional Greek soundtrack song.  Really good stuff.  Also, I wanted to throw in ” What Noe My Love”.

Good record.  Satisfactory. Maybe next Nero post, I will go into more depth.