Van Morrison - Listen To The Lion (The Orphanage, San Francisco, July 29, 1974 )

                                   The Orphanage San Francisco, California July 29th 1974

Mario Cipolinna-Bass,John Colla-AltoSax,John Farey-Keyboards,Brian Hogan-TenorSax,Bill Gibson-Drums,Dennis Langevin-Guitar

                                          Sound Hole

In the early 70s Sound Hole became Van Morrison's back-up band. A friend of John Farey who had been painting some covers for Van Morrison introduced the band to Van. Months later Van called the band and Sound Hole went on the road with him, backing him up for several months. One of Sound Hole's concerts with Van Morrison - July 29, 1974 at The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA, was even televised on PBS.

                                          Listen To the Lion (version 1)

  "Listen to the Lion" was first recorded during the sessions for Morrison's third solo album Moondance in 1969 but not used. The longer eleven minute version that is featured on the Saint Dominic's Preview album was recorded during the 1971 sessions at the Columbia Studios in San Francisco and intended for the album Tupelo Honey.

                                             Listen To The Lion (version  2)

 "Listen to the Lion" was one of the 1001 Songs written about in the 2006 book by critic Toby Creswell who says in part: "Listen to the Lion has almost no words, just the phrase 'Listen to the Lion inside of me'...He sings the phrases like an incantation, sometimes desperate and longing for love and at other times boasting of the power of his passion; and then at other times he sings in despair that these emotions have brought him nothing but ruin. He doesn't need to speak, there's nothing more to be said..."