Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Professional Jealousy
2. I'm Not Feeling It Anymore
3. Ordinary Life
4. Some Peace Of Mind
5. So Complicated
6. I Can't Stop Loving You
7. Why Must I Always Explain
8. Village Idiot
9. See Me Through Pt. II
10. Take Me Back

Disc 2:

1. By His Grace
2. All Saints Day
3. Hymns To The Silence
4. On Hyndford Street
5. Be Thou My Vision
6. Carrying A Torch
7. Green Mansions
8. Pagan Streams
9. Quality Street
10. It Must Be You
11. I Need Your Kind Of Loving

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6473 in Music
• Released on: 1991-09-24
• Number of discs: 2

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

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".