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Black Sabbath - Past Lives CD (album) cover

PAST LIVES

Black Sabbath

 

Prog Related

3.96 | 94 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
4 stars While I discover PA some three years and a half ago, I thought that my first prog concert took place in May '74 during the "Welcome Back My Friends" tour (ELP of course). But PA explained to me that my first prog concert was a little earlier : it was my first "Deep Purple" live experience. March 20, 1973 (at forest National).

Since this week-end I know that my first prog live experience took place an inch earlier. By a week or so, I went to see "Sabbath" as well at Forest National (Brussels). Since it is my first concert ever, I konw by now that this is it ! Finally. I had to wait for almost thirty-five years to knwo this. Shame on me...

This only to tell you that I have a special feeling with the first part of this CD since it was recorded in March 1973 (in the UK) and reflects what I had seen at the time in Brussels. My souvenirs of the concert are very vague (Alzeimher you know...) but I remember the comments of one of the most respected Belgian rock critics Piero (who organized the first "Genesis" concert away from England BTW) : "It would be the same to sit outisde and listening for an hour and a half to B-52's taking off". He was right. The Brussels concert was not good (maybe because the band was P.O. since only half of the concert hall was filled).

This first disc was already released in 1980 but against the band will. So it is nice that it officially saw the light in 2002; even if it is VERY late. I guess the hords of fans would have rushed on this in these early middle seventies. Anyway, it is a very good picture of these times. Great tracklist, very good sound. It is also the opportunity for the band that they too can jam. The version of "Wicked World" lasts for about nineteen minutes and this is maybe not really necessary.

Almost the whole of the second disc comes from the Olympia show on the 20th December, 1970. This set was already available (both audio and video) and the images are particularly interesting of course. To see those guys in their youth is quite a document. The original sequence is not respected but the sound here is much better than on the "unofficial" release. The original performance started with "Paranoïd". What a start my friend ! And the complicity between Ozzy and Tony is also nice to see during "War Pigs".

Four stars for these legendary live tapes (seven out of ten would be more appropriate, I confess).

ZowieZiggy | 4/5 |

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