It's Too Late to Stop Now

The performances come from a three-month tour of the US and Europe, from May to July 1973, with Morrison's eleven-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra, which had horn and string sections. It was recorded at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and the Rainbow in London. Pianist Jef Labes said Morrison did not want to repeat himself and wanted to create a new show every night, and guitarist John Platania said every performance of each song was different.

Morrison allowed no studio overdubbing. He said the record was just as it happened, and bassist David Hayes said that going back to fix things was not how Morrison worked. The set includes Gloria and Here Comes the Night from the Them years, and songs first recorded by Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Willie Dixon. He left Moondance off because of one wrong guitar note. The album's closing words, 'It's too late to stop now!', give it its title, and the phrase first appears in the song Into the Mystic.

The London shows were his first in that city since Them, six years earlier, and the concert of 24 July 1973 at the Rainbow was shown as the first BBC simulcast on BBC 2 television and Radio 2 stereo, on 27 May 1974.

Reception and legacy

Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, called it Morrison's best record since Moondance. It reached number 53 on the US chart, and critics in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll voted it the 20th best album of 1974. Biographer Johnny Rogan wrote that Morrison was in the midst of arguably his greatest phase as a performer.

A 2008 remaster added a live Brown Eyed Girl. On 10 June 2016 a box set released the three complete shows from Los Angeles, Santa Monica and London, along with a DVD of the BBC footage from 24 July.