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THE DOORS BOX SET (4 CDs in deluxe box incl. 60-page
book)
Elektra 7559-62123-2 (Europe), Elektra 62123-2 (USA), October 27, 1997 |
Disc one (Without A Safety Net) 1.Five To One/ 2.Queen Of
The Highway/ 3.Hyacinth House/ 4.My Eyes Have Seen You/ 5.Who Scared You/
6.Black Train Song/ 7.End Of The Night/ 8.Whiskey, Mystics And Men/ 9.I Will
Never Be Untrue/ 10.Moonlight Drive/ 11.Moonlight Drive/ 12.Rock Is Dead/
13.Albinioni's Adagio In G Minor
Disc two (Live In New York) 1.Roadhouse Blues/ 2.Ship Of Fools/ 3.Peace
Frog/ 4.Blue Sunday/ 5.The Celebration Of The Lizard/ 6.Gloria/ 7.Crawling
King Snake/ 8.Money/ 9.Poontang Blues-Build Me A Woman-Sunday Trucker/ 10.The
End
Disc three (The Future Ain't What It Used To Be) 1.Hello To The Cities/
2.Break On Through/ 3.Rock Me/ 4.Money/ 5.Someday Soon/ 6.Go Insane/ 7.Mental
Floss/ 8.Summer's Almost Gone/ 9.Adolph Hitler/ 10.Hello, I Love You/ 11.The
Crystal Ship/ 12.I Can't See Your Face In My Mind/ 13.The Soft Parade/
14.Tightrope Ride/ 15.Orange County Suite
Disc four (Band Favorites) 1.Robby: Light My Fire/ Peace Frog/ Wishful
Sinful/ Take It As It Comes/ L.A.Woman 2.Ray: I Can't See Your Face In My
Mind/ Land Ho!/ Yes, The River Knows/ Shaman's Blues/ You're Lost Little
Girl 3.John: Love Me Two Times/ When The Music's Over/ The Unknown Soldier/
Wild Child/ Riders On The Storm |
| Soundquality: |
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| Rarity Of Material: |
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As a long-time collector of Doors material on tapes, LPs, singles and CDs
from all countries and sources I was appalled by the lack of really interesting
new material on The Box Set. In their archives there are tons of live concerts
recorded for Absolutely Live, there are plenty of alternative versions of
published songs, there is a lot of unpublished but recorded material (like
the studio version of Celebration Of The Lizard, the bluesy Paris Blues,
or lost songs they mentioned during interviews like Luther And The Apostle
and Happy For A Night And A Day, early versions of Peace Frog and unedited
versions of The End, plus the unheard jam of Van and Jim Morrison doing Gloria
at the Whisky A Go Go). Where is Carol from their Winterland show, Touch
Me from the L.A.Forum? What turned out to be the long-awaited, long delayed,
much celebrated famous Box Set? A disappointment for the long-time fan. Just
6 new unknown songs of 47 on the box! One live concert, mislabelled and cut,
not even taken from one single concert but from at least 6 different shows.
One totally uninteresting CD of band's favorites. Whole lotta material from
bootlegs we already had in our collections for ages (on this box not even
in better soundquality). Let me give you my comments on the tracks - I am
giving you some extra information which was not given by The Doors in the
accompanying book for the Box Set (The Doors' liner notes are pretty interesting
and amusing to read, all comments are very characteristic for each member
of the band, but there's a lot more you could say about the tracks):
| CD One |
| Five To One (recorded at the Dinner Key Auditorium, Miami, March
1, 1969) does not really capture what was going on that night. It's just
one song of a few they played or - better to say - tried to play. Touch Me
would have been a better choice and although this one was interrupted by
Jim's screaming, it totally set that night on fire. |
| Queen Of The Highway is a great find. A totally different version,
very jazzy! I love it. I can imagine Louis Armstrong singing this incredibly
good alternative lounge-jazz version. |
| Hyacinth House, another favorite. Written by Jim at Robby's house
and recorded there on the spot using Robby's little Sony four-track, spontaneous
and rough. Good one. Not really as dark as most people see it. Robby puts
it straight in his comments. John Densmore played bongos. |
| My Eyes Have Seen You comes from The Doors' Demo disc acetate,
recorded at World Pacific Studios, L.A., September 2,1965. For the Box Set
it was taken from Jim Morrison's copy of the demo, now owned by Ray Manzarek.
Most fans knew it from scratched bootleg records taken from another copy
of the ony 5 existing ones. All songs from the first demo-recording have
been perfectly restored and digitally remastered for the Box Set. Fine work,
recorded without Robby, but with Rick Manzarek on guitar and Jim Manzarek
on harp. |
| Who Scared You, another one of my favorite Doors songs. Somehow
I always thought it was a bit enhanced by the horn charts, directed by Paul
Harris. The worst thing I noticed was they cut out the line "... and if you
warm it up right I'm gonna love you tonight ...". Why? There was absolutely
no reason to cut that line off. Get the double vinyl album Weird Scenes Inside
The Goldmine to get the complete track. |
| Black Train Song, said to be recorded at The Spectrum, Philadelphia,
May 1, 1970, is just a 12-minute part of a more than 25-minute jam. Again
- I prefer to listen to complete tracks, not just parts. Anyway, this was
never published, not even on bootleg. An alternative version (but the complete
jam) was played by the band at the Center Coliseum, Seattle, June 5, 1970,
published on the bootleg CD Jim's Alive. The intro, People Get Ready, was
written by Curtis Mayfield, and a part of the medley, Crossroads, was written
by Robert Johnson. Why aren't those people mentioned in the credits? |
| End Of The Night, another demo-song from the acetate, sung by
Jim and Ray. Compare the lyrics to the version from the first Doors-album
- different lyrics! ("... take a trip to the end of the night...") |
| Whiskey, Mystics And Men is an outtake from the Morrison
Hotel-sessions. Great chantey, but overdubbed during the An American
Prayer-sessions in 1977 by the three remaining Doors. Compare it to the bootleg
versions known from Missing Links and Jim Morrison - The Lost Paris Tapes. |
| I Will Never Be Untrue, a fantastic bluesy, very ironic version
of a song already known from An American Prayer. Perfect lyrics: "Never stay
out drinking, no later than two." And then this tiny addition which makes
it worth to buy the complete box: "... two-thirty!". You can actually SEE
Jim smiling saying this! One of the most ironic songs Jim ever wrote. Beautiful. |
| Moonlight Drive, another song from the acetate, sung by Jim and
Ray. I still love Ray's cool "Drive On!" and Jim Manzarek's (Ray's brother)
fine harp. |
| Moonlight Drive, second version, recorded on their first recording
session for Elektra in August 1966 after they signed the contract. Comes
pretty close to the third version, published on the album Strange Days. But
this one is not as moody as the Strange Days-version, and Robby's slideguitar
work isn't perfect at all. Anyway - interesting. Listening to this version
we understand why this was not used for the first album - the song wasn't
perfect at that time. |
| Rock Is Dead and Albinioni's Adagio In G Minor are exactly the
versions cut together from an hour long session recorded for The Soft Parade
on February 25, 1969. Responsible for the inaudible cuts was Paul Rothchild
in 1979. Ray didn't play his organ or his piano but a mellotron on this tune.
Just a few overdubs were done on the Adagio in 1997 - Robby added some guitar
playing a pick (he never did that in the old days), and John added some
percussion (Compare it to what was published on the Missing Links bootleg
CD and on the vinyl bootleg Rock Is Dead). Both songs were circulating among
Doors fans since 1980, it wasn't anything new for anyone. |
| CD Two |
| Yeah, yeah, yeah! Jim puts it right: "... everything is fucked up as
usual ..." As usual with official Live Doors releases. Dizzy Doors-work in
the cutting process of the CD. This so-called Live In New York CD was recorded
at the Felt Forum, which is a smaller venue inside the Madison Square Garden.
(The REAL Madison Square Garden concert John Densmore remembers so well in
his book Riders On The Storm took place on January 24, 1969). So, in my opinion,
the CD has got a misleading title. It has been cut from at least 6 different
shows (four at the Felt Forum January 17-18, 1970 and one at the Aquarius
Theatre in Los Angeles, July 21st, 1969 and Cobo Hall, Detroit, May 8, 1970). |
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| Roadhouse Blues comes from at least 3 different shows and was
overdubbed with some great guitar by Robby Krieger in 1996 (first part of
the song is from Cobo Hall, Detroit, not from New York!). I prefer the version
from An American Prayer. Listen to the first verse, it's the same on both
publications. |
| Ship Of Fools was cut from two different versions, greatest part
was taken from the late show on January 18. This also got some overdubs by
Krieger (clearly audible in the middle instrumental break). |
| Peace Frog, great cut with slight lyrical variations. The following
smooth Blue Sunday is one of the few songs (very unstable vocals by Jim,
off-time drumming by John and unusually sloppy bass notes by Ray Manzarek)
from January 17, early show, again Robby's (well-needed) overdubs on guitar.
The weakest and silliest song on the whole box. |
| The Celebration Of The Lizard is worth to compare to what was
published on the bootleg double LP Bring Out Your Dead. Too many cuts on
the Box Set version, especially during Jim's spoken intro. This intro is
SO great on the bootleg, but much too short here. I really do prefer the
bootleg version of the epic from the Felt Forum (Bring Out Your Dead) or
the one we already know by heart from Absolutely Live. I hate the much too
short cut into the "Wake up"-part! |
| Gloria, a mind-blowing dirty version (most probably a complete
one) from the soundcheck at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles, July 21st,
1969. So this is definitely not the version from New York (as published on
the bootleg CD box Stages. At the Felt Forum they played a very soft and
clean version mixed with My Eyes Have Seen You). Why not telling us fans
the truth? Of course it was overdubbed with audience noises if it really
was a soundcheck. Somehow I even doubt it was recorded during the soundcheck
but in the recording studio. But still no certainty on that. Check your Gloria
on your Alive She Cried or In Concert-CDs to know what I mean. |
| Crawling King Snake might be called a definite version but it
doesn't sound like being from the Felt Forum at all. Who knows. |
| Money, a great driving song with the wrong spoken (of course cut)
intro, which Jim did for Light My Fire on Jan. 18, late show. |
| Poontang Blues-Build Me A Woman-Sunday Trucker is a version cut
from two Felt Forum shows (no overdubs for a change this time). |
| The End is a slightly cut version from January 17, including a
few Robby Krieger overdubs from 1996. I think it is the best version ever
published, blows away even the studio version from the first album. Jim's
voice is thrilling, and his "uugh!" after the line "... he put his boots
on ..." is awesome. "Hey you old fool, I'm gonna kill you ...". Heard that
before? "Woman, I wanna fuck you mama, all night long ...", great lyrical
variations. Jim becomes our scaring and overfriendly guest in the living
room. Listen to the climax of the instruments and Jim's screams - isn't it
the chaos of the universe? |
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| A great and cleverly mixed CD, unfortunately not one complete concert. |
| CD Three |
| Hello To The Cities: Not really funny at all. Crap, that's what
it is. I could have missed that one, especially the Ed Sullivan-intro. Absolutely
useless. |
| Break On Through is one of the gorgeous tracks on the Box Set.
I still think this is the best version ever published of this song. Great
intro by Ray. But again - just a part of a good concert. I still don't know
why Hopkins/Sugerman describe the Isle Of Wight concert as being a bad one.
Listen to the almost complete concert on the bootleg CDs Palace Of Exile
and First Flash Of Eden. |
| Rock Me is a great and uncut track from the Pacific National
Exhibition Coliseum, Vancouver, June 6th, 1970, as previously published on
the bootleg CD One Hundred Minutes (best soundquality and complete concert).
This track features the damn good Albert King on guitar, same as the next
track, Money. |
| Someday Soon still is one of the great lost Doors songs. I never
heard of a studio version around - probably never recorded, but you never
know with The Doors. The version on the Box Set cuts the intro off,
unfortunately. Listen to the complete version on the bootleg Jim's Alive,
which even is in better soundquality. Great song! |
| Go Insane, the weirdest song from the demo (on the label it was
just called "Insane"). Later published as a part of The Celebration Of The
Lizard, this is the very early version. It is hard to recognize Jim's voice.
It still had to develope. Great to have the finish of the song now which
was cut off from all bootleg versions - even it is just a very last bass
note! Ray remembers being thrown out by a guy at Liberty Records because
of this song. "I hate you hippies, get out of my office! You guys are sick!" |
| Mental Floss is just rubbish, no poetry, not even funny, just
crap. A stream of improvisational theatrical meant-to-be entertaining raps.
Cut, of course. |
| The very bright Summer's Almost Gone-version from the demo is
next. A lovely duet by Ray and Jim. John is giving a very silly comment in
the accompanying book, "The Doors trying to surf." This comment doesn't capture
the great but sad atmosphere of this early demo. Definitely not a surf-song
but a fine one perfectly made for watching the L.A. sunset at Venice Beach. |
| Adolph (sic) Hitler (I remember from my history lessons at school
his first name was Adolf???) Another hint to Jim's weird humor. Listen to
a complete version of the same poem on Jim Morrison - The Lost Paris Tapes,
the one on the Box Set got cut (why?). I have no idea why Jim liked to perform
this poem in concerts. It's probably just a joke. Bad one, by the way. |
| Hello, I Love You is a great early version of their 1968 hit single.
Even more powerful than the known hit-single it delivers more invisible sexuality
than the later studio version. By the way, what's so bad about The Monkees,
John, (remember your comment in the booklet?) Ever heard Randy Scouse Git,
Mommy And Daddy, Tapioca Tundra or the great Pleasant Valley Sunday? Don't
think so. Hello I Love You has great lyrics. And so have those four Monkees
songs. There are even more great lyrics out there from the Monkees and the
people who wrote songs for them. |
| The Crystal Ship and I Can't See Your Face In My Mind are
two good songs from The Doors' Matrix concerts in San Francisco in March
1967. Good choice from the most well-known Doors bootlegs. Everybody already
knew them. Thanks for having them again on an official CD. I prefer to listen
to the complete concerts of The Matrix on - sorry - the bootlegs, where those
two songs were copied from. |
| Already published before on the video The Soft Parade, we could have
easily missed this version of the song The Soft Parade, recorded at
eight o'clock in the morning on May 13, 1969, in New York at PBS-TV Studios.
We all bought the video. Thanks for letting us buy the song again to whoever
decided to put that song on the Box Set (this version is great, but don't
you have a good alternative version performed in front of an audience?). |
| Tightrope Ride: Fine song, Ray, your tribute to Jim Morrison,
representing the feelings you had about him in 1971. Good vocals But what
is this song doing on the Box Set? Out of place, out of time, out of context.
Just a filler? |
| Orange County Suite: Great overdubs. Great bass, great guitar.
Great timing of Jim's voice to the instruments. Everything done by computers.
They even streched out single words from the original version, recorded in
March 1969 at Elektra Studios (not at his home on his private piano, as some
silly newspapers reported). Listen to the pure and uncut version on the bootleg
CD Jim Morrison - The Lost Paris Tapes, and you know the incredible difference
of moods - and to my great surprise - for the first time I am uncertain to
decide which version I like more and prefer. The one on the Box Set is crystal
clear, polished, combined with great music (especially Robby's guitar. I
love to listen to it following Jim's piano chords) for the new generation
of Doors fans; the one on the bootleg is more direct, more intense but unpolished
(for the Jim Morrison fan). If one can't decide, why not listen to the third
version, recorded in Paris two weeks before he died, being totally drunk
(as presented on Jim Morrison - The Lost Paris Tapes)? Strange lyrics, though.
"'Orange County Suite' is like The Beatles' Free As A Bird ... John (Lennon)
wrote the song and his mates completed it for him; and that's exactly what
we did with Jim", Ray Manzarek told Mojo Magazine last December. Why is this
song credited "Written by The Doors"? It was definitely written by Jim Morrison,
later overdubs by The Doors. |
| CD Four |
| A waste of plastic, time, money and other things. Another useless BEST
OF-compilation nobody is interested in. A mention in the book would have
been enough. All fans would have preferred a fourth CD with rare material
mentioned in the intro of this review. Plus TV rarities like the Jonathan
Winters Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Smothers Brothers Show, the Now Explosion
Show, the Murray The K-Show, a rare take from the Copenhagen Show or another
great alternative take from a recording session, all those tracks are available
in brilliant soundquality. Light My Fire was written by Robby Krieger,
definitely. But on the original album it was credited to "The Doors". This
leads to the question - why was Orange County Suite credited to "The Doors"
(which is not true), but their very original song is now credited to Robby
(which is true)? |
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The accompanying book is great, featuring some fine and excellent (ah
- too small!) unpublished photos, liner notes to all songs by all three Doors,
well-written articles by Michael Ventura and Tom Robbins and most insightful
insider stories. Great to see photos of some master reel-to-reel boxes on
the inlays (hey, what's the tune called PUSH-PUSH on the box labelled "Doors
Spares"?) Are you guys saving this for a kind of Box Set Vol.2?
But I am sure - if they had only asked the fans, this Box Set would have
been very different. This is definitely not the one that we expected. This
is definitely not the GREAT LOST DOORS ALBUM that we have been awaiting for
years. This came out because of public demand, or because box sets have become
fashion. Thanks it is not another compilation album. This was released to
top and beat the bootleggers. In my opinion, the Box Set fails compared to
the rare material published on bootlegs for the past 25 years (despite just
6 great new songs and versions). Pity. Being a collector of Doors music for
30 years, I am quite disappointed about the Box Set.
So are many fans and journalists who reviewed the 4 CDs. Disappointed in
a way to say this could have been done much much better. Much more satisfying
for everybody. Everybody can't wait for a Volume 2, but be sure to carefully
think over what the fans would like to hear. Even if it was the worst Morrison
vocal ever, we would be happy to listen to it. As long as it is new to our
ears. And - don't cut it! There's nothing better than the real, uncut Doors.
But they're not on this Box Set. Pity. |
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