First off I want to thank Harm and Brenda-2 veteran
Vanfanatics for providing me with material either which
I did not have or was damaged. I'm basically a New Kid
In Town but have been helped a lot along the way.
My love of Van's music is not recent but there was
a 20 year gap while I was raising kids. I first saw him in
1966 or 1967-not sure when he was touring with Them. They were
ranked fifth on a bill which featured James Brown-Billy Stewart-
Eric Burdon-The Seeds and last but not least Them. From the first
time I was impressed with him. Then came Brown Eyed Girl which when a teenager thought was really cool. About late 1968 underground FM radio
was starting out in Montreal where I lived and Astral Weeks started to be featured. I was really then hooked. I think it was summer or fall of 69 that he came to Montreal and played a small coffeehouse called The Cave as I remember it which held 400 people tops. He was great.

I saw him another 5 or 6 times up to 1985 in Montreal and Toronto
and that was it until September 2004 when I saw him At Molson Amphitheatre and in June-2005 in Atlantic City. I recorded both these shows and know what it's like to try and get a good recording.

First off you have to be quiet and not move much
Then you have to hope the people around you are quiet-IN MY DREAMS!!!
Then you have to hope he is in the mood
and finally the setlist for the crowd that he thinks they want to hear
Anyways what I'm saying is-it's very rare that everything gels just right and the taper cannot really enjoy himself while the recording
is taking place-so it's with this I say-THANKS to all The tapers out there for continuing to Carry The Torch

Lastly your comments are always welcomed and if there is enough demand I will venture back to 2003-Let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Post-lastly Van mentions on this compilation at the end of Listen To The Lion how it is good to be playing in a small place again-Well Van -What about North America-on this Augusts tour he is playing all big venues and in the case of Toronto is playing in a hockey rink with 20000 capacity-this and the contents of his current tour result in the fact that I will not be going to his Toronto concert so I hope there is someone else to carry the torch of recording it



I want to preface this by saying if you're
looking for Whining Boy, Stop Drinking, Gloria,
Brown Eyed Girl, etc then this Best Of series
is not for you-This compilation features
one of's,great performances of classics
and unusual readings of songs and finally
"Songs That I Like"
They are all blended as seamlessly as possible
to make it seem like each volume is a concert
in itself. When burning to CD use DAO-no pause
in between tracks and you will have great concerts
IMHO


Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Artwork incuded-Thanks to HB

This series will end tomorrow with
Vol. 7 and 8
WHO SAYS HE ONLY PUT OUT CRAP AFTER 2000!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He can still do it when he wants to-it's too bad
he does so less and less frequently!!!!!!!!!!


We end our journey in Manchester with a 9 minute
Did Ye Get Healed-one of his longest workings ever
then to Blackpool with
Haunts of -Coney Island-done once and of which the next most recent version I have of Coney being from 1992-Marvelous
Another great Rough God from Malmo where he always does well
Montreux gives us the only other version of
Just Like A Woman
Then to Brecon-Wales at a small venue where we have the rest of this
compilation which was another of the top 5 of 2004
The other Listen To
Meaning Of Loneliness-done 2 times as well
Beauty Of-done 3 times
Someone Like You-in my collection not done since 2001
A brilliant Saint James
Wonderful Remark
Rambler's Blues-done 3 times
A tremendous Game-Burning Ground which he would use again in 2005
and finishing off with the best Baby Blue of the year


01-Did Ye Get Healed-Rave On John Donne-Yeh
Yeh (Manchester-England 2004-11-05)
02-Haunts Of Ancient Peace-Coney Island (Blackpool-England 2004-11-04)
03-Rough God Goes Riding (Malmo-Sweden 2004-05-03)
04-Just Like A Woman (Montreux-Switzerland 2004-07-09)
05-Listen To The Lion (Brecon-Wales-Early 2004-10-29
06-Meaning Of Loneliness (Brecon-Wales-Early 2004-10-29)
07-The Beauty Of The Days Gone By (Brecon-Wales-Early 2004-10-29)
08-Someone Like You (Brecon-Wales-Early 2004-10-29)
09-Saint James Infirmary (Brecon-Wales-Late 2004-10-29)
10-Wonderful Remark (Brecon-Wales-Late 2004-10-29)
11-Rambler's Blues (Brecon-Wales-Late 2004-10-29)
12-It's All In The Game-Burning Ground (Brecon-Wales-Late 2004-10-29)
13-It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Brecon-Wales-Late 2004-10-29)

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