Garth Brooks - Double Live
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CD Details
Artist: Garth BrooksEdition: Music CD
Format: Collector's Edition
CD Release Date: 1998-11-17
Music Label: Capitol
Music reviews of Double Live
Music Review: Crass Product, Brooks becomes a sell out
Rating: 1 Stars
After Garth Brooks recorded the six albums that made him a superstar, he began to show himself much more a businessman than a genuine country star concerned with the artistic integrity of the music itself, and this album was one of the first indicators of his corporate attitude. Around this same time, Brooks would make a deal with Wal-mart to package his first six albums into a box set, with each album given one bonus song, and which was only around 30 bucks. Naturally, this is dirt cheap, to pick up six albums for only thirty dollars.
The real reason why he was doing this? Because he was chasing The Beatles' record of moving the most units and records of any band in the world to become the biggest selling musical artist ever. He had already shattered Billy Joel's status as most popular male vocalist ever according to record sales. Because each disc counted for one unit, this box set would help him greatly in that chase to topple The Beatles, though this would be done only by inflated sales totals. That is what a sellout Brooks became.
Despite the rather dubious intentions of Garth's first box set, nowhere else does Brooks so blatantly sound like he's selling product. From the unimaginative title (DOUBLE LIVE, which is exactly what it is), to the various hodge podge of different songs from different concerts (none of the performances are dated or noted what concert they are drawn from), to the uninspired set list, Brooks just sounds like he's not playing the music because he loves it or it documents a historic, well known performance, but because he knows anything he puts out will sell. DOUBLE LIVE sounds like patchwork, because it is not a real concert, but rather assembled from various dates and venues.
Most great live albums give us a rather idiosyncratic tour of the respective artist's catalogue. DOUBLE LIVE doesn't do that, or examine some of the lesser known songs of Brooks' catalogue. Rather, it plays exactly like a greatest hits album, only with live tracks, and sounds like Brooks was trying to sequence the record like a fantasy concert where you only hear the songs you want, or more likely when a causal fan is looking at it in Wal-Mart (because he won't sell it anywhere else), the fan realises it has all the songs he knows on the radio so he know it must be good.
Like most other greatest hits packages (which is really all this album is, albeit live), DOUBLE LIVE also includes three new cuts, to entice the Garth Brooks completest (sad that there is such a thing) out to buy this album.
Everything is professional and played to perfection - to the point where it is distracting. In the rush of great performances, occasionally things are out of tune, mistakes are made, etc, but a great concert can overcome these difficulties and still retain the emotional and powerful elements of the music. Not so here. Everything is so polished, and there are a few moments that one suspects studio overdubbing on the original live tapes. Actually, in several songs there is quite clearly studio work done.
In another effort to move more units in pursuit of overthrowing The Beatles (sorry Garth, they will always be much cooler than you), Garth Brooks also put the album out with six different covers, so the `collectors' will try to purchase all six editions.
Even during some of the songs, Brooks acknowledges it is just product. As noted in the Amazon editorial, Brooks says to the audience at one point that they know what's coming. During the live version of "The Thunder Rolls", he asks what a double live album would be without the missing verse of "Thunder Rolls", and then goes on to sing it.
For all that, DOUBLE LIVE is entertaining, and I can see why people enjoy it. But ultimately the songs on the live album don't really differ from the album version that much. That just makes the live album boring. The most entertaining thing Garth Brooks did during the late 1990s was record the, admittedly misguided and confusing, ... IN THE LIFE OF CHRIS GAINS. There he is entertaining his rock and roll fantasies, and while it's not the greatest music around, it is one of his most bizarrely fascinating records.
What is really offensive is Brooks' business tactics. Brooks' underhanded, sleight of hand pursuit of chasing The Beatles' record with inflated sales total, and feeling he is just trying to sell product, not make great music, makes DOUBLE LIVE give a very sour taste for knowing listener.
Bottom line: it's a decent sounding record (it should be, with all the studio overdubs), but give this one a miss. The Beatles got their status as best-selling artist of all time because they're fantastic musicians and rock and roll royalty. They did it by making great music, not by cheap marketing, making blatant product, or trying to artificially inflate their sales totals.
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