Van Morrison - All Around the World - Non-Album Tracks (1976-1977)

Here's the next in my long line of Van Morrison stray tracks albums. This one is kind of a twist, because every single song on it remains unreleased, and every single song is a cover version.

I've written in the past how, from about 1969 to 1976, there's about one full album worth of stray tracks for every single year. That's truly incredible, especially considering how consistently good those songs are, as well as the fact that there's probably still more from this period that has remained unreleased and unbootlegged. But it seems Morrison's creative fire started to burn lower around 1976. That year, he hardly recorded anything at all. His next album, 1977's "A Period of Transition," is widely considered to be just okay, after a long uninterrupted string of classics.

I'm guessing the fact that all the 1977 stray tracks I can find are covers are a sign that Morrison was having an extended songwriting dry spell, but he still wanted to try out new songs to stay fresh. Luckily, Morrison remained a great live performer, so these performances are all strong. Most of the songs here come from a performance in the Netherlands for the Dutch radio show "Wonderland." Pianist Dr. John and guitarist Mick Ronson were part of the backing band.

Morrison messed up on one song, "Hallelujah, I Love Her So." He forgot the words to the second verse, and quietly mumbled his way through some incorrect words instead. So I patched in his singing from another verse to cover his mistake.

01 Grits Ain't Groceries [All Around the World] (Van Morrison)
02 Who Do You Love (Van Morrison with Eric Clapton & the Band)
03 Call It Stormy Monday (Van Morrison with Eric Clapton & the Band)
04 Hallelujah, I Love Her So [Edit] (Van Morrison)
05 Nobody's Fault but Mine (Van Morrison)
06 Fever (Van Morrison)
07 I'll Go Crazy (Van Morrison)
08 Baby, Please Don't Go (Van Morrison)
09 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Van Morrison)
10 Shakin' All Over (Van Morrison)
11 Misty (Van Morrison with George Benson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15257414/VanMrsn_1977_AllArundWrld_atse.zip.html

The cover is from a bootleg called "Wonderland Rehearsals" that covers much of this music. I changed the text.