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BLACK SABBATH
Past Lives (Divine Recordings/Sanctuary)
OZZY OSBORNE
Blizzard Of Oz (Jet)
Reviewed by Alan Wright
Wow, what a fantastic release Past Lives is. It's the Live At Last album, remastered plus a whole extra CD of more live stuff. Comes in a cool digipack with a guitar pick and a cool booklet! I always liked the Live At Last album, and it sounds even better here. From the opening guitar riff of "Tomorrow's Dream" to a kickass version of "Paranoid," it's about 50 minutes of live 1973 Sabbath that can't be beat. The second disc draws on various sources, although it's edited seamlessly to give the impression of one show. It doesn't say where or when any of it was recorded, though, just that it is from "various dates and locations in the '70s." Still, there is good stuff here, including an insane version of "Symptom Of The Universe," a great, although not that well known Sabbath tune. Lots of Sabbath faves are here: "N.I.B.," "Iron Man," "Behind The Wall of Sleep," and many more.
I wish the same could be said for the newly "remastered" CD of Ozzy's debut solo album. Due to a dispute over songwriting royalties, the story goes, between former drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Bob Daisley (who incidentally wrote almost all of the lyrics of Ozzy's first two solo LPs), and Sharon/Ozzy, their tracks have been replaced. That's right, this isn't just remastered, it's been horribly tampered with. Due to the dispute with Lee and Bob, they took the original master for this and wiped their contributions off, replacing them with newly recorded parts by Robert Trujillo (Faith No More) and Mike Bordin (Suicidal Tendencies). Whoever thought this was a good idea is an idiot. I hate to have to point fingers, but it was obviously Sharon's idea. Now, Sharon may be a great business woman and responsible for saving Ozzy's career, but if she honestly thinks this is an improvement artistically over the original album, she doesn't know shit about good music. Really, this is an absolute travesty and a real slap in the face to the original players, Bob and Lee. I don't think I've heard something as horrible as this since those mid-70s Hendrix LPs made up of unreleased tracks where they took off Mitch Mitchell's drums and Noel Redding and/or Billy Cox's bass work and added new parts played by studio hacks! The new parts are hackneyed at best, and totally inferior to the original release. On top of that, the whole LP has been remixed to sound more contemporary and it just sounds all wrong. The drumming in particular is really uninspired and dry sounding, and on some songs it sounds like Trujillo had no idea what notes he was supposed to be playing. For instance, on the album opener "I Don't Know," the great "walking bass line" or descending bass line isn't even there. As if removing their recorded parts wasn't enough, they even removed them from the back cover photo! While the original album may have had its flaws - it was really just a demo when they recorded it - it was the rawness and spontaneity that made it such a cool record. Don't be suckered into buying this, or the follow-up LP Diary Of a Madman which apparently gets the same treatment. Get the 1995 CD issue if you can find it. That's the way this album was meant to be heard!
© 2003 - Alan Wright