Not just Sabbath but if around in say 20 years when so many of our hero’s will be playing loud music in the sky we will be truly in Estate Profit Mode. If we think it’s bad now heaven (excuse pun) forbid what future holds. Attempting to milk the cow will obviously be even more difficult, quality less, content less, and profiting at its peak. Tom Petty’s Wildflowers is an example of the Estate milking that honey pot of diminishing returns of what’s left in a back catalogue. Whilst in this case the product brilliant, profits were to the maximum selling what was an additional 2 laps in the super box set including customs, package and actual album for me in theUK at £240 then releasing the 2LPs 8 months later for£21.
AFAIK, nobody here has provided any insider information regarding the questions you're asking. Yes, the broadcast versions are differently mixed than the complete version on Wolfgang's Vault and on bootlegs (which have the siren almost inaudible). We don't know if the official release will contain the same mix as the complete versions already available or a new mix. And after the experience with Live in the UK 1973, I am not sure what I hope for, given that a remix might actually turn out to sound worse than the one we're familiar with.
Given that Tony seems to be the largest blocking factor when it comes to Sabbath releasing or not releasing vintage recordings, I am not so sure that's true for this band. Anyway, I want them to be alive and release the goodies.
Was the Ashbury show recorded specifically for a live album that was never released? Listening to the soundboard online I can't believe how good this sounds; I would have been thrilled if Sabbath would have released this back in the day. I'll probably buy the set just to get a good copy of this show--to have an official document of how good they were.
Do you think the new Asbury will sound similar to the songs already released on Past Lives? that's my expectation.
Thanks for the info, interesting that at the time there was a different mix and a fix was made on the vocals yet with Past Lives it appears to be a direct transfer from the source were familiar with. Your hesitation with a new mix is understandable but we have what we have so I’m hoping they put some work in for a different perspective. I also hope the book that’s included will offer some history of the tape and how it all unfolded. For certain it’s a multi track and it will bring a end to one of the best unreleased(booted) recordings.
It is very possible that the new release will sound similar to the tracks released for Past Lives, but given the sound of Live in the UK 1973, it is equally possible that it will sound even worse. Chances are that if the upcoming release contained a new mix of the Asbury Park show, they would say so in their marketing, since "new mix" or "remix" is always a great term for marketing. I also imagine that purchasing the multi tracks (or the rights for the multi tracks) from Wolfgang's Vault would be more expansive for the band than just purchasing a transfer of the master tape (or rights for that). "Putting work in for a different perspective" is what they tried with the album remaster and live bonus disc of the recent Vol. 4 SDE set - which demonstrated that "different" perspectives aren't always enjoyable. Chances are that the official Asbury Park release will sound worse than many of the bootleg copies. I am very sorry for being so skeptical, but being disenchanted again and again is a bit painful - I had to adjust my expectations. I'll always be happy to be pleasantly surprised.
As long-time fans we're trained to hope for the best while we expect the worst. Personally, I'm not worried about what the future may bring in terms of archival material. If it looks like value for money, I'll purchase; otherwise not. It doesn't really matter to me who's in the driving seat.
Yeah, I agree that if this were newly remixed, I think they'd be making sure to point that out. I fully expect this to be the same mix as the bootleg. I'm even half expecting to find out it was sourced from the bootleg. Which I'll likely be able to confirm. Honestly, I might be more than half expecting it. Look how long they used readily available inferior sources, for things like Wicked World and Paranoid quad, rather than workout some deal to use the master tapes. I don't know how the rights work with the KBFH material. I don't know if Sabbath really have to make a deal with WV just to release the material or if it's just a matter of use of the master tape. Because if they are able to release the material by grabbing it from the bootleg and avoid having to involve WV or pay for use of the master tape, I fully expect that they just grabbed the bootleg. Hopefully it was more complicated than that and use of the master tape was involved.
I'd like to imagine they're using tracks from the Millard and Lampinski Tapes, as well as some from Asbury, but that'll never happen. I still don't think I've seen anything confirming the show is in fact Asbury.
16 live tracks — 13 unreleased — recorded during the band’s North American tour in 1975 pretty much confirms the show is Asbury.
They advertised it as one complete concert and 3 of the 16 tracks are previously released. That can only be Asbury.
Well, for those that never acquired the underground recordings from that era of the band, Past Lives was a nice compilation of classic era live Black Sabbath material.
I agree. It was great having two CDs of live Sabbath with Ozzy and it was all I had for a few decades. With the release of the live shows on these deluxe editions it's gonna have to go on the "to sell" pile.
I understand that. I guess I was thinking more of the band and their record companies than of us fans when I wrote that comment: There was never any need for them to put out something as sh**y as Past Lives - basically an inferior mastered re-release of an earlier live album, combined with an absurd compilation of tracks from two live shows that are both great yet could hardly sound more different from each other and are further degraded by compression - when they could easily have released a live box set along the following lines: CD1: Brussels (aka Paris) 1970 (complete) CD2: Manchester 1973 (complete) or London 1973 (complete) CD3+4: Asbury Park 1975 (complete) DVD: Brussels (aka Paris) 1970 (complete video)
Well, that's at least one live album that is not gonna happen for good reasons: combining tracks from two great but very differently sounding audience recordings and one professional recording for an official live album would be a disaster. If you're doing that as a ROIO collector at home for fun, great. As an official album, no way. And why would they do that, given that those shows basically have identical set lists and the Asbury Park pro recording is stellar and complete?
For me the last 2 minutes of Symptom is the highlight of the whole album. To my knowledge Sabbath never performed the finale to Symptom live, which is a shame. Unless someone can verify otherwise.