Published on Feb 4, 2004
In a sense, it’s a shame that the Ozzy Osbourne era of Black
Sabbath was originally closed with a live album,
Live At Last, which was so poorly made that the band all but
disowned the release, claiming it was not an official release. Yet,
prior to
Reunion in 1998, it was the only document of Black Sabbath
in concert with Osbourne you could find without resorting to
bootlegs.
Ah, but time marches on, and so does technology. Taking the
original
Live At Last, sonically cleaning it up, and adding another
disc’s worth of live material never heard elsewhere,
Past Lives tries to become the official document of Black
Sabbath Mk I. And while there are still many weak points with these
performances, it is a marked improvement over the original
product.
Admittedly under the influence, Osbourne often finds himself
struggling to stay in tune with the rest of the band — and when
he’s off-key, it can be quite painful to listen to. But Osbourne
does try to balance things out in the sheer urgency of his
delivery, paired with the performances of his bandmates, and often
that energy is enough to keep things rolling along well. Tracks
like “Tomorrow’s Dream,” “Snowblind” and “War Pigs” try very hard
to capture the power of the original performances, and they come
respectably close, thanks often to the guitar work of Tony Iommi.
In contrast, “Sweet Leaf” is a song which has just never worked in
concert, and this version, while admirable for its full-throttle
solo section, doesn’t quite cut the mustard.
One also has to question the medley which is labeled “Wicked
World” — the tracks on the first disc were recorded in 1974, while
Sabbath was touring to promote
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, so they had five albums’ worth of
material to draw from. They couldn’t have chosen some full tracks
to take the place of this cluttered, albeit interesting,
mishmash?
This is where the second disc of
Past Lives comes into play. Adding material from
Sabotage to the musical stew, Iommi and crew do offer up
more of the more familiar nuggets recorded over a span of five
years, including a nice assortment of tracks from Paris in 1970.
(This particular boot has been making the rounds on KaZaA, and I
believe I have it somewhere in my MP3 collection – guess I’ll have
to dig it out for my own enjoyment.) There are still some skittish
moments, such as Osbourne blowing a verse on “Fairies Wear Boots”
(though he did the same on “War Pigs” off disc one), but these
tracks seem to fill any cracks left by the track selection of the
original
Live At Last, including some real tasty treats like “Hand Of
Doom” and “Hole In The Sky”.
Sure, one can argue that
Past Lives is still the definitive live album of Black
Sabbath’s first incarnation because it’s still the only recording
from that time, and they’d be right. But warts and all, this disc
does seem to capture the essence of what Osbourne and crew were
offering up: raw, unpolished rock played more from the gut than the
brain. It’s occasionally difficult to listen to, but it’s never
boring, and does beling in any Black Sabbath fan’s collection.