Yea, now I just need the debut & The Soft Parade to complete my Morrison-era collection.

Like I mentioned earlier, I've been a somewhat casual fan of the band, digging the hits when the mood was right. Even as I started purchasing full albums, I still found it to be "mood music". Not something I'd play allot but if I wanted a little 60's psychedelia, it fit the bill.

LA Woman however has that blues influence moreso than some of the other albums I've heard. I think that one will get more repeated spins. The 2 bonus tracks ('Orange County Suite' and 'Don't Go No Further') mix in nicely with the rest of the album too.

I have three more postings to go before this thread is complete, I have one more live album and another posting which will be brief commentary that I am going to include in one posting on three Doors releases I do not own and will include a brief review of the DVD (now out of print due to legal reasons) of The Doors of the 21st Century, which Krieger and Manzarek tried to resurrect the band with Ian Astbury as their lead vocalist.

IMO this maybe the best disc so far of all the 1970 shows the Doors have released. The band is setting the night on fire and unlike the Boston show, Jim is not drunk and seems to mean business letting the music do the talking. He does not address the audience once til near the end of the set when he introduces Ray Manzarek who sings the lead vocal on 'Close to You'

He leds the band thru a set list that is both familiar and inspired, during the 20 minute plus 'When the Music is Over' Jim Morrison begins to sing 'Break on Through' and the band for a few bars keep playing 'When the Music' is over and switch songs, and then turn around and beginning playing 'Soft Parade' catching their vocalist by surprise.

The band as a whole seem intent to not repeat the mistakes of the Boston show and Miami fiasco and seem to be out to prove to the fans that this is not a freak show but an honest to goodness kick ass rock n roll band.

At the end of the almost 80 minute disc you can tell that both the audience and band are spent. Highly recommended if you are a Doors fan and a fan of live albums in general.

FF, The Soft Parade is coming to Largo (about 20 miles away from me) on Aug 27 I am going to try to check them out.

I do not own (as of yet ) the following releases but I will make a quick commentary on the following:





These are some if not the earliest live recordings of the Doors, recorded shortly after their release of their debut album. Recorded and compiled from live performances on March 7 and 10 in 1967 at San Francisco's Matrix club, the band was virtually unknown outside of L.A. at this point. 'Light My Fire' had yet to be released as single and the band played this club that barely held a 100 people, and they didnot even come close to even filling up the room. The band treated this as a rehearsal and played a very straight forward set and kept the arrangements close to the original arrangements which was unusual for the band. I am basing my review on the bootleg recording I have of one of the shows titled 'Crawling King Snakes'




This boxset releases two night/four set stand the Doors did on Jan 17 and 18. The demand for the band was so great that they added two matinee shows along with the two evening shows already scheduled and sold out. The band kept the set loose and flowing, the set list changing slightly with every show to keep it interesting for both themselves and the audience. Part of these shows where released on disc two of The Doors Box Set titled 'Live In New York'




This is simply a soundtrack to documentary recently released, only thing different is Johnny Depp reads Jim Morrison's poetry in between studio and live cuts.



I will review tomorrow the now out of print DVD of The Doors of The 21st Century and this thread will be completed.

I want to see that documentry

This DVD was recorded during The Doors of the 21st Century one and only tour, at least under this name. In 2002 Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger asked John Densmore if he would like to join them in reforming The Doors, Densmore said no and further more it was a terrible idea that they had tried this in early 70's without Jim and it did not work, the other two disagreed and recruited former Cult vocalist Ian Astbury to join on vocals and Stewart Copeland of the Police on drums.

This line up lasted a couple of gigs and where billed simply as The Doors, Copeland got injured and was fired and he sued the band, and make matters worse former Doors drummer John Densmore and Jim Morrison's estate sued the two Doors over the use of the name The Doors. To try to avoid legal hassels they called themselves The Doors of the 21st Century.

This concert filmed in 2001 during a successful tour is a great performance by the band and Ian Astbury does a great job on the vocals, also of interest is the band plays the entire L.A. Woman live, an oppurtunity Jim Morrison never had. As good as the show is and as good as the performances maybe it still comes off as a glorified tribute show to their own history. No matter what good, bad or indifferent this band will never escape the shadow of Jim Morrison.

The band lost their lawsuit and they cannot use the name The Doors no matter what format due to this the DVD is was taken off the market and it is out of print. They changed their name to Riders of the Storm and Ian Astbury left in 2003 and former Fuel vocalist Brett Scallions. joined for awhile til the band gave up and now play an occassion gig as Manzarek and Krieger, with former Steelheart vocalist Minjenko Matijevic singing in place of Jim Morrison.

This is the last entry on this thread, at least til the next release and this ends my thread, thank you again for all those who read and responded, and I hope it inspired to revisit the old albums or discover the band for the first time.

Updating the Doors thread, this album was released late last year and give overview to update this thread.

I have had a copy of this show for years on bootleg but it is nice to have a legit version of this concert. Another excellent show for what would turn out to be Jim Morrison's final tour.

The band and Jim in particular seemed relaxed, the band kicks off with 'Roadhouse Blues' and the set during this concert was one they played many times before the main difference is that they bring up bluesman Albert King to jam with the band on 'Little Red Rooster ' 'Money' 'Rock Me' and 'Who Do You Love'

The concert ends with 'Light My Fire' and 'The End' which the band stretches both out past the ten minute mark but never sounds boring or self indulgent, and during 'Light My Fire' Jim Morrison does not even improvise any poetry like he tended to do during this number, he seemed to have been enjoying listening to his bandmates as much as the audience, excellent live concert, worth owning, live Doors without the hype, they let the music do the talking.

Just doing a quick update on this thread, Jan of this year the band released the 'LA Woman-40th Anniversary' edition, the band overlooking the fact that the original album was released in April of 1971, just a few short months before Jim Morrison's death.

The first disc features the so called 40th anniversary mixes, which are not bad, add a bit more punch and features new sounds in the mix, such as an unused backing vocal track from Morrison extended solos etc.

Disc 2 is the biggest draw on this disc, featuring alternative takes of the classic songs. Apparently the band recorded this disc live in the studio, with overdubs added in later, the songs do not change all that much from the more famous versions, the song 'The Changeling' features studio chatter and Morrison begins the proceedings by announcing what his favorite note is, which apparently was a scream.

The main thing you get from these alternative takes, is the band seemed to be having a great time. It is strange to hear 'Riders on the Storm' without the second vocal track of Jim Morrison double tracking his whisper vocal in the song. But even on this take the sound effect of thunder has been left in place.

The version of ' WASP ( Texas Radio and the Big Beat) is not ok, but it sounds like Jim Morrison was not into it on this take and the version on the original album is superior

The intro of Riders features the band vamping on the theme to Rawhide

The new recordings discovered are the unreleased tune 'She Smells so Nice' a track that I doubt was ever meant to see the light of day, since it has a rockabilly feel and leads to the old standard 'Rock Me' which they seem to have enjoyed performing, and at the end of this tune Jim Morrison included his famous 'Mr Mojo Risin' that was later included on the title track.

A good release but not an essential release unless you are a major Doors fanboy like myself.