Inspired Evenings cover
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Inspired Evenings
(bootleg CD)

Music for the People (no product number)
(Released 1998)

CD1:

  1. I Will Be There (2:04)
  2. Whenever God Shines His Light (5:30)
  3. Cleaning Windows (3:27)
  4. Orangefield (2:59)
  5. When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God (4:16)
  6. Thank God for Self Love (3:12)
  7. Raglan Road (3:44)
  8. Carrickfergus (3:21)
  9. Summertime in England (11:47)
  10. Caravan (7:18)
  11. Moondance / Fever (10:41)
  12. Star of the County Down (2:12)
  13. In the Garden (7:32)
    Total time: (68:03)


CD2:
  1. Have I Told You Lately (3:51)
  2. Gloria (4:29)
  3. It Serves Me Right to Suffer (5:21)
  4. Boom Boom (3:54)
  5. She Moved Through the Fair (4:32)
  6. The New Symphony Sid (3:53)
  7. Ain't That Loving You Baby (3:37)
  8. That's Life (4:22)
  9. Moondance (6:25)
  10. Satisfied (5:05)
  11. All Right, Okay, You Win (3:07)
  12. Early in the Morning (5:43)
  13. Days Like This (3:02)
  14. I Will Be There (3:32)
  15. Your Mind is on Vacation (2:25)
  16. Full Force Gale 96 (4:20)
  17. Look What the Good People Done (3:34)
    Total time: (72:12)


CD 1 tracks 1-13 and CD 2 tracks 1-5 from November 30, 1989, Beacon Theater, New York City, NY
CD 2 tracks 6-10 from December 17, 1995, The Point, Dublin, Ireland
CD 2 tracks 11-15 from August 6, 1995, Festival of Jazz, Edinburgh, Scotland [ED: liner incorrectly notes August 8, 1995, as the date]
CD 2 track 16 from the CD single for "The Healing Game"
CD 2 track 17 from the same CD single, and also on the Japanese release of The Healing Game

Guests:
CD 1, track 6: Mose Allison
CD 2, tracks 3 & 4: John Lee Hooker

Review by Ron Spicer:
This package has to rank as one of the best boots ever produced. This is a commercially-produced bootleg, no home-PC produced CD-R here. While the material is not all that rare for serious Van fans (Beacon material is the same set as released on the commercial "In Concert" laserdisc/VHS, Point material was previously released on The Night was Full of Space, the Edinburgh material was previously available on Edinburgh Castle, and the unreleased tracks were available on the Japanese commercial release of The Healing Game), the audio is crisp and clean, the album design top-notch.

The set comes in a glossy cardboard, fold-open digi-pak, with superb quality, full color photographs on all four sides. The producers of this release obviously knew what they were doing, and had a sense of humor to boot. As a subtitle on their label designation on the back cover were the words, "Unauthorized duplication, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing!" The artwork on the CDs themselves reflect the creators knowledge of Van. They read "Shana's Daddy" as the artist, and "Beacon Blues" as the title of the album. Perhaps done intentionally to avoid overzealous customs or RIAA agents, a nice touch nonetheless.

Art Siegel notes:
The bootlegger seems to have copied the Beacon video, the "Live At The Point" promo, two bonus tracks from the Healing Game singles, and some of the radio broadcast from Edinburgh. Then put it all together and marketed it for 40 or 50 bucks. Also, more than half of this stuff is a straight dub of commercial product that Van produced, though it's out of print now.

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