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Album Description: Japanese only double SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) pressing of this rock album. SHM-CDs can be played on any audio player and delivers unbelievably high-quality sound. You won't believe it's the same CD! Universal. 2008.Amazon.com: Described aptly in the liner notes as a "panoramic view of where he's been and where he's going," this weighty double-disc captures Van in all of the guises he adopted in the 1980s and early '90s. There are several devotional pieces, a couple of splendid rants ("Professional Jealousy" and "Why Must I Always Explain"), two collaborations with the Chieftains, and jazzy swingers driven by Georgie Fame's organ. The real heart of the album is Van's evocation of his childhood in lyrics and arrangements that capture the joys of discovering rock & roll while growing up in Belfast amid that city's conflicting passions. There are several high points for connoisseurs of his stream-of-consciousness lyrical rambles, notably "On Hyndford Street" and "Take Me Back." As an album, the mood swings too dramatically to be coherent, but in its individual parts there is evidence of true genius. --Rob Stewart
Customer Reviews:
- Take Me Back....Take Me Way Way Back: "Take Me Back...Take Me Way Way Back". When Van harkens back to Hynford Street, "In the days before television, before rock 'n roll....Help me understand...I remember when life made more sense. Let me understand religion. In the summertime, when you didn't have no worries...When you didn't have no cares. In the golden afternoon....In the golden afternoon...In the golden afternoon. Take me way way way way back when when when....Everything felt, everything felt so right and so good...so right and so good so good so good so good".
I remember when life felt so right and so good. In the days before cyber technology...Before life became a twenty four by seven marathon...In a time when Sunday afternoons felt so bucolic and peaceful...Leaving St Catherine's Church on Fort Hamilton Parkway after nine o'clock Mass. Heading down to Coney Island aboard the Sea Beach Express, looking out along McDonald Ave. Take me back to Scotto's Bakery in Boro Park for lemon ice and fresh canolis.
Take me back Van...Take me way way back. Take me back to Saturday matinees at the Lowes 46th Street on New Utrecht Ave, sneaking cigrettes in the balcony. Take me way way back to summer afternoons at Ebbets Field watching Duke and Campy, Gil and Pee Wee shimmering in the mid-day sun. Take me back to Red's Pizzaria under the el for a slice with anchoy and hot pepper. Take me back to stick-ball games at P.S. 230 on Caton Ave. And take me way way back to Sunset Park for long hot summer days swimming, then walking home in the late afternoon sun down Thirty Seventh Street, alongside Greenwood Cemetery...Stopping to see if the great winged angel atop the mausoleum had moved again.
Take me back Van....Take me way way back. Help me understand...When life felt so so so good. When everything felt so right and so good.....so right and so good.....so right.......and so good....so so so so so right and...so good... - Excellent!!: I've been looking for this for years. I've often looked for used copies here on Amazon or ebay, and I'm glad I never shelled out $40 or more for it in either of those places. IT IS ON ITUNES FOR $9.99. And it's the complete double album too. Enjoy!
- john joseph postiglione: excellant cd disc 2. disc 1 was stolen by someone in amazons shipping dept i complained but never got any results !!!
- It Must Be True!...It Must Be You!...That's What They Say In Those Storytbooks Of Old.: Throughout the late sixties and the seventies Van could do no wrong. Albums like St Dominick's Preview, Tupelo Honey and Moondance were about as close to perfection as one could imagine. I began to notice some cracks developing with A Period Of Transition, Wave Length, Beautiful Vision and Inarticulate Speach Of The Heart. The eighties brought about a change in record labels and a change in the music. No Method, No Teacher, No Guru brought forth a more introspective Van. The trend continued with A Sense Of Wonder and the beautiful Poetic Champions Compose, an album that restored my faith in The Belfast Cowboy.
That brings us to Hymns To The Silence. Van kicks it off with Professional Jealousy...."They say the truth is stranger than fiction". Not Feeling It Anymore..."Too many cooks are trying to spoil the broth" and All Saints Day...."Won't you come and see me on All Saints Day".
This collection just brims over with vintage Van, paying homage to his early days on Hynford Street...Take Me Back and a beautiful cover of the Ray Charles classic I Can't Stop Loving You. Van bares his soul on the very moving Why Must I always Explain..."There were hypocrites and paracites and people that dream". Van covers all the bases here, from R&B to Bee-Bop, Skiffle to Irish Folk, Country & Western and Gospel. He makes all these his own. Green Mansions sums it up best...."The story does unfurl...Waiting on that day to come". And how about that Village Idiot..."He's complicated...He must know somthin'....He's just not saying".
Rave on Van....Rave On ole' Belfast Cowboy...Van The Man...Keep on lifting me...Lifting me up. "It must be true..It must be you...That's what they say in those storybooks of old".
- Wish he's re-issue this one, I loved it!: I had Hymns to the Silence on cassettes, and played them until they could play no more. One of my favorites was "Why Must I Always Explain?", I could relate to that song so much, as well as "Not Feeling it Anymore". As for the hymns, I was newly not a church goer, but I felt his inspirational songs were delivered with a faith and honesty I'd never seen after years of attending religious services. They brought me peace and comfort when peace and comfort were scarcest.
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