This Poison release, 'Swallow This Live' really dates back to 1991. It was originally a double album, with four new studio tracks recorded specifically for this affair. 'Swallow This Live' was notable in that it was the final Poison effort before guitarist C.C. DeVille left the band (he later returned). This version here is a recent reissue of that previously released album.

Here, 'Swallow This Live' is now a single disc which omits several of the cuts from the double album. These include the new studio cuts, such as "So tell me why." The average fan isn't missing too much, because some of those studio tracks were not top notch. They sounded like left overs from earlier Poison albums. The double disc version of 'Swallow This Live' also contained both a drum solo and guitar solo, two very pointless tracks that took up a lot of running time. These did not survive the trip.

On their own, the live tracks are a good retrospective of Poison in concert. If you don't already like Poison, this one won't convert you. However, the Poison performances here are very entertaining. While some tracks sound a little sloppy, all of your favorites are right here.

If you are a devoted fan of Poison who doesn't already own this, skip it. You will want the 1991 double cd version of 'Swallow This Live' by Poison, not this single disc copy. While this streamlined reissue trims a lot of fat from the earlier copy, this stuff that is left off is a necessity for a Poison completist. Some people might even argue that 'Power to the People', a similar Poison album combining live cuts with a few new studio tracks, is a better purchase.

A big disapointment that the new tracks, which are all good songs are not included.

when it first came out i thought they could have saved the new tracks for a future album and left it as live hits only cd, but they included the new songs and therefore they should have been included on the remastered version. Buy the original 2 cd set instead.

Yeah, it's a title that Poison gave to themselves, and it fits pretty well here. Let me preface this review by saying, I am not a huge fan of Live albums anyway, but this one is exceptionally bad. Now, you can tell from my other reviews, that I am a Poison fan and not one of these random Poison bashers, but this album is DOA.

To their credit, it really doesn't sound like they retouched any of the tracks in the studio, and to be honest the songs themselves aren't too bad. Pretty straightforward live versions of the studio tracks. They're not awful, but they're far from great. The entire CD has this awful washed out sound to it. The lowlight of the CDs, are the solos. Now, again, I'm the first to defend CC and Rikki, and if you check out my review of Power To The People you'll know that I give out props when they're deserved. They're not deserved here. These solos are downright painful to endure, even as a Poison fan, they're pretty bad.

So is there any good news? Is there any highlight on this two disc set? Well of course there is. And it's the four new studio tracks at the end of disc 2. `So Tell Me Why' is a spirited high paced, high strung song about love gone bad. The timing and tone of the track is somewhat reminiscent of `Fallen Angel', this is a song that could have been a hit. `Souls On Fire' is a tad slower and tries for that bluesy feel that Poison had on several of the B-sides from Flesh & Blood and Open Up And Say....Ahhh! Still a solid track. `Only Time Will Tell' is the obligatory love ballad, and it's actually a really good one.

Easily as good as some of their other hit ballads like `Something To Believe In', this is probably the stand out track among the four new tracks. `No More Lookin' Back' definitely shows some of the direction the band would be taking on their next album, Native Tounge with their new guitarist. CC's guitar work seems a bit disjointed on this track and the track isn't on par with what's to come on Native Tounge, but it is a nice little preview

Poisons entry into the annals of live albums is a fairly anonymous affair given that the bands live show shenanigans are, obviously, invisible. The band here blast through a brace of their hits such as the brilliant Nothin' But A Good Time, Unskinny Bop and Fallen Angel. In between we get a bunch of ballads and fey attempts at blues connectivity (hey, it was trendy at the time) and even the Loggins/Messina written track Your Mama Don't Dance earns it's writers more royalties by being on a Poison disc. Man, those guys must of bought themselves new houses outta Poison...

Production is OK, but the band sound somewhat lacklustre. The sweat that must of been part of this live experience just doesn't come through in the way it does with some of the more famous 70's live collections. And the fact that so few of the hair metal bands put out live sets - they vastly preferred VHS releases for their live issues - sort of shows there wasn't really a market for this stuff. This is backed up by the sales figures of this album at the time.

Put it this way, I spent two years of high school history classes sitting next to a Poison fanatic - the guy even knew personal details about the band in terms of marital status, personal interests of the various band members etc - and not even he bought this. Which backs up firstly that there wasn't much of a live album market at the time which explains the record buying publics shrug of the shoulders at this release but also that Poison were more of a hits band. They were a story you bought into due to the fun time vibe of optimism the band displayed. Not because you wanted to hear live run throughs of the songs you already had.

The studio tracks tacked unceremoniously onto the end of the album in a desperate attempt to get people to buy the thing don't add much to the story being second rate Poison songs combined with failed experiments.

An album that has the hits and a midly fun vibe but is utterly superfluous. Just get the greatest hits package instead.

Swallow this Live was originally released in 1991 as a two disc set. Included on the two disc set were five studio tracks. Here we have a 2004 reissue from Capitol/EMI abridging the disc to where it can be a single CD. Besides the five studio tracks missing, there is also a drum solo and guitar solo, and the strange placement of Every Rose Has It's Thorn at the very end of the disc, as well as some of the profanity edited out. If you overlook the missing solo's and studio tracks, you're left with a decent live document of Poison's Flesh and Blood tour.In 1991 Poison was still at the top of their game, the single disc should satisfy casual fans, but hardcore fans would probably rather find a copy of the original two disc version.