Van Morrison Gig Review
Morrison threw out a tasteful cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Think Twice Before You Go”, followed by a most surprising song choice in honor of recently-deceased jazz multi-instrumentalist, Joey DeFrancesco, whom Morrison had played with. He performed “You’re Driving Me Crazy” (written in the ’30s, the song was made popular by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians).
Except for moments as when he dedicated the song to DeFrancesco, Morrison kept the between-song chatter to a minimum.
While he did not join him onstage, Peter Wolf (lead singer of The J. Geils Band) was spotted in the Pavillion during the evening. Not surprising, as the two have had a decades-long friendship going back to when Morrison resided in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the late ’60s.
After the spiritually-inspired “In the Garden” and “Down to Joy”, which was most recently featured in the 2021 film, “Belfast”, Morrison’s set really caught fire. Beginning with a raucous “Wild Night” and an outstanding interpretation of Sonny Boy Williamson’s blues classic, “Help Me”, Morrison concluded the show with his iconic “Brown Eyed Girl”, followed by an epic version of “Gloria”.
While “Gloria” was penned by Morrison during his time in Them, it was The Shadows of Knight who recorded the most popular version of the song, which cracked the Top-10 in 1966. Sadly, The Shadows of Knight’s lead vocalist, Jimy Sohms, passed away last month. Although Morrison never said a word about his death (being a man of few words), it very well may have been his unspoken tribute to Sohms.
Morrison left the stage during “Gloria” and his phenomenal nine-piece-backing band continued to jam on “Gloria” for nearly another 10 minutes, each taking brief solos on their respective instruments. And while the crowd seemingly expected Morrison to return at some point, he never did. So, when the jam ended, the concert did as well.
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![Adam Regan](https://i0.wp.com/markmeets.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/AR.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
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Features and account management. 3 years media experience. Previously covered features for online and print editions.
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