Live at Last (Black Sabbath album)

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Allmusic[1]

Live at Last is a 1980 live album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Despite its wide distribution and success (it peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart[2]), the album was released without the permission or knowledge of the band, and is thus regarded in some quarters as an unofficial bootleg live album. The album was, however, released legally by the band's former manager Patrick Meehan who owned the rights to the recording.[3] The album was re-released with the approval of the band on 27 September 2010.[4]

The nature of the album's initial release as being without the band's approval is demonstrated by a notoriously embarrassing goof in the original version, which falsely credited the singer as "Ossie Osbourne".[5]

Background

After firing manager Patrick Meehan in the late 1970s, Black Sabbath became embroiled in a long legal dispute with their former management.[3] Later, in 1980, Meehan arranged the reissue of the Black Sabbath catalogue and the release on the NEMS label of a live album of old recordings without the band's consent. The album consisted of a 1973 concert recording the band intended to use for a live album, but shelved indefinitely after being unhappy with the recording.[3]

Recording

The shows were recorded at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on March 11, 1973, and at The Rainbow in London five days later.[citation needed] The album was of great interest to Sabbath fans because the group had never issued a live recording, despite touring heavily throughout the seventies.[citation needed] The shows occurred nine months before the release of the band's fifth album, Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, and contains an early pre-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath version of the song "Killing Yourself to Live." Four songs from the band's previous album Vol. 4 are included, as well as long jam centered around the track "Wicked World" from the band's 1970 debut album. The latter, featuring many improvised sections as well as snippets from other Sabbath tracks such as "Into the Void" and "Supernaught", is similar in presentation to how Led Zeppelin performed their showstopper "Dazed and Confused" during the same period.[citation needed]

The release of Live at Last, combined with Ozzy Osbourne's 1982 release of a live album consisting entirely of Black Sabbath songs, prompted Black Sabbath to release their first official live album, 1982's Live Evil.[6]

Release history

Remastered versions of the original Live at Last recording have been released since the 1990s by various record labels. In the liner notes of the reissue on CD by Castle Communications of 1996, it is stated that the recordings were taken at Manchester Free Trade Hall and at the Rainbow Theatre in North London.[7] This album was re-released by Sanctuary Records in 2002 as the first CD of Past Lives. Past Lives itself was re-released again in 2010 in a "Deluxe Edition". According to the Past Lives liner notes, the Live at Last performance was recorded on the 11 and 16 of March 1973.[8]

Reviews and responses

The album has received a mixed to negative review from Allmusic, with critic Alex Henderson stating that he found the band "in decent form" but criticizing the shortness of the release and the absence of some of Sabbath's best known material such as "Iron Man" and their title track "Black Sabbath".[5] Amazon.com states the album "presents an honest interpretation of a Black Sabbath show as it went down at the time: rough and ready, yet with intensely focused on-stage musical performances delivering a set crammed with the best of their repertoire to date and rapturously received by the fans."[citation needed] Mixed to positive reviews have appeared in the Encyclopaedia Metallum.[9]

Track listing

All songs composed by Butler, Iommi, Osbourne, Ward

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Tomorrow's Dream"3:04
2."Sweet Leaf"5:27
3."Killing Yourself to Live"5:29
4."Cornucopia"3:57
5."Snowblind"4:47
6."Embryo/Children of the Grave" ("Embryo" not listed on the sleeve)4:32
Side two
No.TitleLength
7."War Pigs"7:38
8."Wicked World" (Medley/jam that contains parts of "Into the Void", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Supernaut" and a drum solo; transitions back into "Wicked World")18:59
9."Paranoid"3:10

Personnel

See also

Album Sleeve Design - Dave Field Template:Wikipedia-Books

References

  1. ^ Henderson, Alex. Live at Last at AllMusic
  2. ^ "Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Live at Last". Chart Archive.org. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
  3. ^ a b c Iommi, Tony; Lammers, T. J. (11 December 2012). "50 - Gettin Black and Blue". Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306821455.
  4. ^ "Live at Last". Black Sabbath Online. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
  5. ^ a b http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-at-last-mw0000467846
  6. ^ Iommi, Tony; Lammers, T. J. (11 December 2012). "55 - A Munster in the mix". Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306821455.
  7. ^ Gilmour, Hugh (1996). Live at Last (CD Booklet). Black Sabbath. Chessington, UK: Castle Communications. p. 2.
  8. ^ Milas, Alex (July 2010). Live at Last (CD Booklet). Black Sabbath. London, UK: Sanctuary Records Group/Universal Music Group.
  9. ^ "Black Sabbath - Live at Last". Encyclopaedia Metallum. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
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