Van Morrison
The Best Of 2004

Download FLAC: Google Drive

Vol. 1

01-Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart-Daring Night(Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)
02-Get On With The Show (Sandefjord-Norway 2004-01-10)
03-Hoochie Coochie Man (Sandefjord-Norway 2004-01-10)
04-Outskirts Of Town (Granada-Spain 2004-01-17)
05-Ain’t Nothing You Can Do (Granada-Spain 2004-01-17)
06-Meaning Of Loneliness (Granada-Spain 2004-01-17)
07-It’s All In The Game (Granada-Spain 2004-01-17)
08-Rambler’s Blues (Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)
09-Bright Side Of The Road (Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)
10-And The Healing Has Begun (Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)
11-It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)
12-Gloria (Malaga-Spain-Late 2004-01-18)

Van started off 2004 slowly with only a few concerts in January and February but I believe
he does much better when he starts off and when he’s not doing a week of concerts continuously
Inarticulate at 11.46 min is one of the best versions ever Get On with The Show was only done 3 times in 2004,
Hoochie Coochie-5 times, Outskirts-1 time, Ain’t Nothing-1 time, Meaning-3 times, Game-this version contains his infamous internet rant, Rambler’s Blues-2 times.

We finish off with a great string from Malaga. I don’t usually include Bright Side and Gloria but there was a nice feeling at this show and he’s on and enjoying himself. On Healing-he does some diggediggeee and he’s way
down the backstreets and at 12.17 min is one his longer outings for this song Baby Blue is one his better versions

Vol. 2

01-Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart-When Heart Is Open (Goteborg-Sweden 2004-01-26)
02-It Once Was My Life (Goteborg-Sweden 2004-01-26)
03-Hoochie Coochie Man (Goteborg-Sweden 2004-01-26)
04-Real Real Gone-You Send Me (Goteborg-Sweden 2004-01-26)
05-Goodnight Irene (Malaga-Spain-Early 2004-01-18)
06-So Complicated (Malaga-Spain-Early 2004-01-18)
07-Baby Please Don’t Go (Copenhagen-Denmark 2004-02-06)
08-Foggy Mountain Top-T For Texas (Copenhagen-Demark 2004-02-06)
09-I’ll Never Be Free (York-England 2004-03-10)
10-Just A Little Bit (York-England 2004-03-10)
11-Help Me (Rome-Italy 2004-03-17)
12-Bring It On Home To Me (Rome-Italy 2004-03-17)
13-Star Of The County Down (Rome-Italy 2004-03-17)
14-Northern Muse-Solid Ground (Rome-Italy 2004-03-17)
15-Did Ye Get Healed-Daring Night-Yeh Yeh (Granada-Spain 2004-01-17)

We start off with another great Inarticulate,coming in at over 11 min then It Once Was with his “famous-bullshit” commentary and only done 2 times in 2004
another great Hoochie
Real Real done 3 times
Goodnight Irene-1 time
So Complicated-1 time
A rocking Baby Please
Foggy-4 times
I’ll Never Be Free-1 time and the only live version I have of 900 boots
Just A Little Bit-1 time-this is the one Ned Edwards has been opening some 2006 shows with-originally sung
by Roscoe Gordon and later by Roy Head then Rome-a great concert with an old style Help Me and an emotional Bring
It On Home then we have the Star-Solid Ground Medley done 2 and 3 times and the infamous “any bootleggers out there-St Patrick’s Day In Rome-that would make a good one” inserted-taken from another source-most versions of this boot have this section deleted and we end with a dynamite Did Ye Get Healed medley
that comes in at over 12 min

Volume 3

01-Good Morning Blues (Boston-Massachusetts 2004-04-08)
02-Don’t Start Crying Now-Custard Pie (Boston-Massachusetts 2004-04-09)
03-One Irish Rover (Francisco-California 2004-04-04)
04-It Once Was My Life (Minneapolis-Minnesota 2004-04-01)
05-The Healing Game (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
06-Get On With The Show (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
07-Caravan (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
08-Summertime In England (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
09-Sack O’ Woe (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
10-See Me Through-Burning Ground (Milan-Italy 2004-03-18)
11-Tore Down A La Rimbaud (NYC 2004-03-31)
12-Into The Mystic (NYC 2004-03-31)
13-That’s Life (NYC 2004-03-31)
14-And The Healing Has Begun (NYC 2004-03-31)
15-It’s All In The Game (NYC 2004-03-31)

I have had many emails and requests for the rest of this series but I’ve had to do real work in my other life as a plumber the last 2 weeks but the job is finished so here we go again.

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 off’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

We start off Vol.3 with 2 tracks from Boston and then go to San Francisco where he does a great version of One Irish Rover-only done once in 2004 Then It Once Was My Life-done 2 times and then on to Milan-One of the top 5 concerts of the year. He was on and his setlist was great.
The Healing Game-only time
Get On With The Show-done 3 times
Caravan-only time-There is a small glitch at the start when someone in the audience goes ohoh which cannot
be repaired-this is on the original source shn files
Summertime In England-only time
Sack O’ Woe-only time
See Me Through-only time
A great show all in all
We then move on to NYC where he gave his best US show of the year in the theatre at MSG
He seems to like this venue and he had just had a 2 week break and it shows.A great performance.

Volume 4

01-I Like It Like That-Kansas City (Swansea-Wales-Early 2004-04-25)
02-Custard Pie (Benidorm-Spain 2004-12-11)
03-Fast Train (Swansea-Wales-Late 2004-04-25)
04-Smokestack Lightning (Coventry-England 2004-04-20)
05-Give Me A Kiss (Coventry-England 2004-04-20)
06-Melancholia (Coventry-England 2004-04-20)
07-Rough God Goes Riding (Malmo-Sweden 2004-05-02)
08-When The Leaves Come Falling Down (Malmo-Sweden 2004-05-03)
09-I Can’t Stop Loving You (Utrecht-The Netherlands 2004-05-19)
10-I Just Want To Make Love To You (Utrecht-The Netherlands 2004-05-20)
11-Streets Of Arklow (Utrecht-The Netherlands 2004-05-20)
12-Bring It On Home To Me (Utrecht-The Netherlands 2004-05-20)
13-Carrying A Torch (Utrecht-The Netherlands 2004-05-20)
14-I Believe To My Soul (Paris-France 2004-06-16)
15-In The Afternoon (Newport-Wales 2004-05-14)
16-Star Of The County Down (Reading-England 2004-10-08)

We Start off Vol.4 with a track from Swansea where he seems to like to perform. Then Benidorm where we have the only performance of Custard Pie alone of the year. Back to Swansea with a great reading of Fast Train.
Smokestack Lightning-done 2 times
Give Me A Kiss-done 2 times
Melancholia-done 3 times
Rough God-done 4 times but he mentions Hopalong
and he always does well in Malmo. Then a beautiful reading
of When The Leaves.
On to Utrecht where he gave 2 of his best shows of the year
I Can’t Stop Loving You before the pedal steel came aboard
I Just Want-done 1 time
Arklow-done with feeling
Bring It On Home-done 4 times in 2004
Carrying A Torch-done 3 times and with feeling
And then on to Paris with a great rendition of I Believe To My Soul.
On to Newport-Wales where we have a nice Afternoon and we finish With Star from Reading-done 3 times

Volume 5

01-So Complicated (Glasgow-Scotland 2004-06-29)
02-Early In The Morning (Edinbugh-Scotland 2004-08-06)
03-Steal My Heart Away (Brighton-England 2004-11-26)
04-Fire In The Belly (Bonn-Germany 2004-07-11)
05-Here Comes The Night (Bonn-Germany 2004-07-11)
06-Baby Please Don’t Go (Bonn-Germany 2004-07-11)
07-And It Stoned Me (Bonn-Germany 2004-07-11)
08-Beautiful Vision (Liverpool-England 2004-06-03)
09-Help Me (Liverpool-England 2004-06-03)
10-Did Ye Get Healed-Yeh Yeh (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
11-You Make Me Feel So Free (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
12-I Believe To My Soul (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
13-All Saints Day (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
14-Crazy Love (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
15-Somerset (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
16-In The Afternoon (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)
17-Just Like A Woman (Antwerp-Belgium 2004-06-17)

Vol. 5 starts off with So Complicated-done 2 times
We then have a nice version of Early then on to Brighton with Steal My Heart Away-done 1 time and on to Bonn where he gave a great concert We have Fire In the Belly and then some oldies Then on to Liverpool with Beautiful Vision-done 1 time and a nice version of Help Me and we end up in Antwerp where he gave one of his top 5 concerts of the year.He was on and enjoying himself as evidenced by the song selection A great Did Ye Get Healed.
You Make Me Feel So Free I believe To My Soul-done 5 times
All Saint Day-done 7 times
Crazy Love-done only once
Somerset-done 4 times
A beautiful In The Afternoon and close with Just Like A Woman a great version and only done twice this year

Volume 6

01-I Will Be There (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
02-Raglan Road (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
03-Star Of The County Down (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
04-In The Afternoon (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
05-All Saints Day (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
06-This Love Of Mine (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
07-Only A Dream (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
08-Lost John (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
09-Vanlose Stairway (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
10-The Beauty Of The Days Gone By (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
11-Little Village (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
12-Baby What You Want Me To Do (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
13-Raincheck (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
14-Georgia On My Mind (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)
15-And The Healing Has Begun (Torquay-England-Late 2004-08-14)

volume 6 should be called the best of Torquay because the whole concert is a combination of the early and late shows and what shows they were The taper has got superior sound-the setlist is great- the crowd is appreciative but quiet during songs and Van is dead on and having a grand old time He must really like this venue because every show
I’ve heard from here is pretty good Raglan road-done 1 time
Star-done 3 times
In The Afternoon-Perfect
This Love Of Mine-done 5 times
Only A Dream-done superbly
Lost John-done 2 times
The Beauty-done 3 times
Little Village-the best of the year
Baby What You Want-done 2 times
Raincheck-right on
Georgia with feeling
And The Healing with Norman Bates In The Attic
What more could you ask for?????

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!!!!!!!!!!

Volume 7

01-Celtic Swing (Benidorm-Spain 2004-12-10)
02-Dead Or Alive (Torquay-England-Early 2004-08-14)
03-Tore Down A La Rimbaud (Torquay-England-Early 2008-08-14)
04-Centerpiece (Cheltenham-England 2004-09-23)
05-Who Can I Turn To (Cheltenham-England 2004-09-23)
06-Evening Shadows (Prague-Czech Republic 2004-09-18)
07-Somerset (Yeovil-England 2004-09-15)
08-Fever (Cardiff-Wales 2004-10-14)
09-Real Real Gone (Marbella-Spain 2004-08-20)
10-Hey Mr DJ (Swindon-England 2004-10-21)
11-Listen To The Lion (Swindon-England 2004-10-21)
12-There Stands The Glass (Swindon-England 2004-10-21)
13-More And More (Swindon-England 2004-10-21)
14-Muleskinner Blues (Swindon-England 2004-10-21)
15-Sometimes We Cry (Saratoga-California 2004-08-31)
16-Satisfied (Saratoga-California 2004-08-31)
17-In The Afternoon (Saratoga-California 2004-08-31)
18-Moondance (Saratoga-California 2004-08-31)

Vol. 7 is quite a mish mash of different concerts and different styles. We start off with Celtic Swing-done only once in Benidorm at the end of the year Dead Or Alive-done 6 times and Rimbaud from Torquay which I couldn’t fit on Vol. 6
Centerpiece-done 1 time
Who Can I Turn To-done 1 time and not since 2001
Evening Shadows-done 1 time
Somerset-done 4 times-this time with Acker Bilk guesting
Fever-done 2 times-and done rarely since the times he would combine it with Moondance
Real Real-done 4 times and one of my favorite Van songs
Hey Mr DJ-done 4 times
Listen To The Lion-done 2 times-the other will be on Vol. 8 and another of my all time favorites
There Stands The Glass and More And More-both done only once and not since 2000 when he started his disastrous experiment with Linda Gail in his first concert with her-and before his equally disastrous Pay The Devil era-remember this is IMHO-to me these versions are far better than what he’s done in the Pay The Devil era Muleskinner-basically a country song but done with a jazz tinge-IMHO And we end with Saratoga-his Birthday concert
Sometimes We Cry-with Shana
Satisfied
In The Afternoon with the Happy Birthday segue and we finish with Moondance-the best version I could find of his
lousy 2004 readings. I just wish he would do Moondance and HITYL as they were originally recorded
That’s it for my criticisms as Vol.8 returns to more of
what I like but I wanted to include these one of’s as well

Volume 8

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)

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

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

Enjoy!!!!

Artwork included-Thanks to HB