The pile of release announcements continues with some other releases from the past. As with the Seventh Star & Eternal Idol announcement, I’m here to announce that available now are Deluxe Edition versions of the “Live at Last” album, as well as “Past Lives”. These are available now (they were technically released yesterday).
Both of these have been previously released on CD (Live at Last in Mar 1996 as part of the Castle remaster series and Past Lives in Aug/Sep 2002), and I inquired as to what’s exactly changed in these new packages.
- Live at Last – The recordings have been remastered, and have new sleeve notes, and is in a jewel case.
- Past Lives – Nothing changed in the recordings, just new sleeve notes, and it will come in a digipak. The 2002 Past Lives release had two versions of the packaging. One was a jewel case, and one was a deluxe with a digipak, a poster and a guitar pick. Whether all that is in here, I don’t know yet.
So Past Lives is essentially a re-release as such, nothing new recording wise. However, the 2002 release has been out of print for awhile, so it’ll be nice to get it. It is kind of puzzling somewhat that they’re releasing both like this. Simply because Disc 2 of “Past Lives” IS Live at Last. Unless you want LAL for completeness sake, I’d say skip it and just get Past Lives (assuming you don’t have these already).
Also, as these are part of the Sanctuary release line, this means it’s UK/Europe only. They won’t be released domestically in the US or North America.
Deluxe Edition Albums: “Live At Last” and “Past Lives”
Release Date: 27th September 2010
Universal are please to announce the release of deluxe editions of Black Sabbath’s “Live At Last” and “Past Lives”.
Although controversial in nature due to being released without permission or sanction by the band at the time, “Live At Last” (originally released in July 1980), was regardless, a landmark release for Black Sabbath, it being their first proper live album to feature Ozzy Osbourne on vocals (despite the fact that he had parted company with the band two years earlier). Reaching Top 5 in the UK chart, the tracks were recorded on the Vol. 4 tour some seven years prior in 1973 and specifically from shows performed in Manchester and London. From the opening salvo of ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’ through ‘Sweet Leaf’, ‘Killing Yourself To Live’ and ‘Snowblind’, right up to the finale of ‘War Pigs’, the mammoth ‘Wicked World’ (with snippets of ‘Into The Void’ and ‘Supernaut’) and the inevitable closer, ‘Paranoid’, this is the original Black Sabbath line-up in ferocious form – and when it’s this good, there was no-one better!
Captured between 1970 and 1975, the recordings on “Past Lives” show a band moving along the fast track like a runaway train. Opening disc one, with ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’, this live collection is both bombastic and unrelenting. In some respects, Black Sabbath classics like ‘Sweet Leaf’, ‘Children Of The Grave’, ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ sound even more haunting and powerful on this set because of the transcendent live energy that pervades these songs. Bill Ward has occasionally referred to a ‘fifth member’ joining them on-stage, a non-literal suggestion denoting the sheer power and energy of the four Sabs on stage together. Tracks 1-5 were recorded at the Hardrock in Manchester on Mar 11th 1973 whilst tracks 6-9 were recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on March 16th ’73. Disc two expands the more familiar and available performances on disc one, with further compelling live versions of tracks recorded in Paris at the Olympia Theatre in December 1970 and Asbury Park Convention Hall, New Jersey during August of ’75
Both albums display a raw energy and hard hitting quality like no other. With both albums fully re-mastered they are a must for any Sabbath fan old or new.
Full album tracklistings
Live At Last
1. Tomorrow’s Dream
2. Sweet Leaf
3. Killing Yourself To Live
4. Cornucopia
5. Snowblind
6. Children Of The Grave
7. War Pigs
8. Wicked World
9. Paranoid
Past Lives
Disc One:
1. Tomorrow’s Dream
2. Sweet Leaf
3. Killing Yourself To Live
4. Cornucopia
5. Snowblind
6. Children of the Grave
7. War Pigs
8. Wicked World
9. Paranoid
Disc Two:
1. Hand of Doom
2. Hole in the Sky
3. Symptom of the Universe
4. Megalomania
5. Iron Man
6. Black Sabbath
7. N.I.B.
8. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
9. Fairies Wear Boots
Deluxe editions of “Live At Last” and “Past Lives” are released through Universal on the 27th September 2010.
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