CD cover
(click on cover image
for larger version)

That's Life
(bootleg CD)

EURO BOOTS (EB-89-2)
(First reported September 2001)

CD1:

  1. Days Like This
  2. All Saints Day
  3. Back On Top
  4. That's Life
  5. Cleaning Windows
  6. Tore Down A La Rimbaud
  7. Dead Or Alive
  8. Bright Side Of The Road
  9. Hang On
  10. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
  11. Falling Rain
  12. One Irish Rover
  13. Don't Worry About A Thing
  14. Philosopher's Stone
  15. It Once Was My Life
  16. Why Must I Always Explain

CD2:

  1. Precious Time
  2. Star Of The County Down
  3. Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
  4. In The Afternoon
  5. Foreign Windows
  6. One Irish Rover
  7. Crazy Love
  8. And It Stoned Me
  9. It's All Over Now Baby Blue
  10. Real Real Gone
  11. I Shall Be Released
  12. Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
  13. More And More
  14. Blue Suede Shoes
  15. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

CD 1 all tracks; CD 2 tracks 1-4: Warsaw, Poland, May 25, 2001
CD 2 tracks 5-6: Athens, Greece, June 27, 1989
CD 2 tracks 7-8: Athens, Greece, June 28, 1989
CD 2 tracks 9: Dublin, Ireland, February 6, 1993. Featuring Bob Dylan, Bono, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello, Kris Kristofferson, Stevie Winwood
CD 2 tracks 10-12: Dublin, Ireland, April 11, 1995
CD 2 track 13: New York City, January 18, 1998
CD 2 track 14: New York City, January 21, 1998
CD 2 track 15: Birmingham, England, June 24, 1998

Notes:
The line notes mention that tracks 5-15 of CD2 feature Bob Dylan.

Review by Rolf:
Just received the package with the newly available boots from my preferred deliverer. He's announced that it will contain a new boot of Van's May 25, 2001 appearance in Warsaw. And what a suprise: at first sight, That's Life is none of these unkindly produced bulk-ware boots which has become the standard in today's bootleg world. It comes without a jewel case but with a full-colour cardboard box opening up to four sleeves, mostly full with new and old pictures of Van at the mic. On the inner two sleeves, the discs are held by transparent trays spliced with invisible glue to the pictured cardboard.

So, great packing and artwork, but boy, what have they done to the music? If you know that great sounding recording of the Warsaw appearance that was treed as Van In Warsaw, you feel shocked after the first few tones of That's Life. It is certainly a recording of the same broadcast, but the pitch is much too low. Van and his band sound like they are on heavy tranquillizers -- terrible to listen to! Additionally, the sound is not at all as splendid as that of the treed recording, and the whole audio mastering appears to be done by dummies: Between each and every track you can hear these annoying 0.2 sec dropouts like those produced by low cost HiFi CD recorders -- EURO BOOTS, if you master your next boot, use professional equipment and not your children's toys! And if you don't know how to make pitch corrections, pls. never bootleg any artist again!

All in all, the packing and artwork is really great, but the Warsaw audio content of the boot is a mess. No one needs That's Life, unless you want to use the fine cardboard box to store the Van In Warsaw CDRs.

Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website