This compilation was released in 2002, and I’m not sure whether it was an afterthought or not. During Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward’s time with the band through the 1970’s, Black Sabbath hadn’t released an official live album, which seemed like an oversight. As it turned out, it wasn’t until the band had recruited new singer Ronnie James Dio that a live album of those years appeared. Titled “Live at Last”, and despite its success, the album was released without the permission or knowledge of the band. The album was, however, released legally by the band's former manager Patrick Meehan who owned the rights to the recording. The first official live album from Black Sabbath was 1982’s “Live Evil”, and album that will be reviewed later in Season 3. Then, in 1998, the original foursome got back together for a tour and released the live album “Reunion” to wide acclaim. So, was there a reason that this album needed to be released? By the time 2002 rolled around, it appeared that any pretence that Black Sabbath would ever record another album had gone, and that they were just playing their annual gig at Ozzfest. Was it just for nostalgia? An attempt to keep the band in the limelight in the modern day by releasing recordings from the past? Or was it just an excuse for the band to say, “okay well, we accept that ‘Live at Last’ existed, but now we are going to release it on our own terms”? I don’t know the answer, but I know that as a fan of the band I still found a way to procure a copy, just to satisfy my own interest in what they had released along with that long held old fashioned album.
“Past Lives” contains two discs. The first disc is the re-release of the “Live at Last” album. That album was taken from recordings over two nights in March 1973 from Manchester and London. Now, something that has cropped up in recent reviews of other live albums has been the action of not having the songs in the order they were played in the concert they are taken from. And that occurs here again. Now while it doesn’t disturb the listening pleasure of the album (especially when you don’t KNOW what the order of the songs was when they were played) that still sticks in my craw a little. Of course, I was completely unaware of this being the case, until the recently remastered and deluxe edition of the album “Volume 4” was released. As a part of that package, the original analog tapes of these two gigs were remastered and released as a part of the boxset. They left in the onstage banter that this album eradicated, but also put the song back on the order they were played! Imagine my surprise when I first heard it. Now as I said, it isn’t a big thing, and this album is great to listen to, but if you happen to get a chance to listen to that remastered edition of the tapes on “Volume 4”, check it out.
The second disc here contains recordings from 1970 and 1975. Again, it’s interesting that they mix these up a little, with the 1970’s tracks acting as bookends to the 1975 tracks. Now it’s easy to pick up the differences in when and how these were recorded, and even in the way Ozzy sang the songs as the years differed. In 1970 it was at the high point of his range. By 1975 he occasionally adapted to compensate for the ridiculousness of his vocals on some studio versions of the songs.
This isn’t a clean live album, and by that I mean that it hasn’t had a dutiful effort to record these shows to the ultimate sound. But neither are they bootlegs, recordings made by fans with their cheap cassette players. If anything, this is an excellent compromise, live recordings with all of the pieces intact but with a rough and ready sound that exemplifies just how a Sabbath show must have sounded in those early to mid 1970’s. You get the incomprehensible drumming of Bill Ward, where you can imagine his hair and beard flowing over the kit as he rained down upon it, the gutteral bass guitar of Geezer Butler that is perhaps the one thing that gets missed a bit in the recording mix, the massiveness of Tony Iommi’s guitaring, and Ozzy’s quite brilliant live vocals that still stand the test of time. And the songs – it is just a who’s who of the great Sabbath tracks of the 1970’s. There is really nothing to complain about.
Prior to the re-release of the Black Sabbath early album with the deluxe versions coming out with unreleased live concerts that had been remastered, “Live at Last” had been the one peek at that time in the history of the band. To be fair, even now it is worthy. And its re-release as a part of “Past Lives”, with the extra disc of two other years of the band live, is really amazingly important. For the very reason that Black Sabbath, and this original foursome, is so significantly influential on heavy metal actually becoming a thing, and growing to what it is now, 50 years later.
All those who were old enough and fortunate enough to see the band live in those days must still be grateful for the experience. And for those of us since who have seen pieces of that genius by seeing those four artists performing in other arenas in later days, such as Ozzy on his solo gigs, Heaven and Hell with Tony and Geezer, and then the final almost-complete reformation on the album “13” and the two subsequent final tours, have at least seen that genius in those forums. But it wasn’t the original band, and the band in those early days at their peak, before drugs and arguments killed the vibe. And that is what makes “Past Lives” such an important release, one that gives you a window to that time, and lets you experience what it must have been like.
This is an album worth listening to, probably in a darkened room and letting it all sink in. This continues to be such an enjoyable experience, and one that if you haven’t heard all the way through before, you should definitely consider doing.
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