Album Description
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The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).
Additional personnel: Larry Knechtel (bass).
Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California.
The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).
Includes liner notes by Danny Sugarman.
Digitally remastered by Bruce Botnick.
The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (piano, organ, bass); John Densmore (drums).
Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California in September 1966. Originally released on Electra (74007).
Digitally remastered by Steve Hoffman.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
The Doors: Jim Morrisson (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).
Producers: The Doors, Bruce Botnick, Paul A. Rothchild.
Includes liner notes by Max Bell.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).
Additional personnel: Marc Benno (guitar); Curtis Amy (saxophone); Douglas Lubahn, Harvey Brooks, Ray Neopolitan, Jerry Scheff (bass).
Producers: Paul Rothchild, Bruce Botnick, The Doors.
Compilation producers: The Doors, David McLees, Gary Stewart.
Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders, T.T.G./Sunset-Highland Recording Studios, Elektra Sound Recorders and The Doors Workshop, Hollywood, California. Includes liner notes by Max Bell.
Digitally remastered by Bruce Botnick.
The Doors: Jim Morrison (vocals); Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).
Producers: Pual A. Rothchild, Bruce Botnick, The Doors.
Compilation producers: The Doors, David McLees.
Recorded between 1967 & 1983. Includes liner notes by Jim Ladd.
Released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the first Doors album, THE VERY BEST OF THE DOORS supercedes all former Doors compilations. At two discs and 34 tracks, this is quite comprehensive for a band whose key lineup released only half a dozen albums. In addition to all the expected hits like "Light My Fire," "Hello I Love You," and "Roadhouse Blues," this compilation delves much deeper into the catalogue with fan favorites such as "Not To Touch the Earth" and "Wishful Sinful," as well as a handful of previously obscure rarities. Remastered and newly remixed by original engineer Bruce Botnick and the surviving members of the Doors, THE VERY BEST OF THE DOORS is a solid tribute to the band.
The first Doors album was an important development in the evolution of rock, representing the dark underbelly of the '60s counterculture, the Jekyll to the Beatles/Beach Boys' Hyde. The Doors were the antithesis of windblown Californian pop. Dark, brooding and alienated, every element of the quartet's metier was unveiled on their debut album. In Jim Morrison they posessed one of rock's authoritative voices, while the group's dense instrumental prowess reflected his lyrical mystery. Highly literate, they wedded Oedipian tragedy with counter-culture nihlism and, in "Light My Fire", expressed exotic images previously unheard in pop. Howlin' Wolf, Brecht and Weill are acknowledged as musical reference points, a conflict between the physical and cerebral that give THE DOORS its undiluted tension. Or you can just enjoy it as a brilliant album that sucks you in as it breathes out the '60's.
In 1965, University of California student Ray Manzarek invited a fellow student, singer/songwriter Jim Morrison, to join his and his two brothers' R&B band, Rick And The Ravens. Manzarek then recruited drummer John Densmore. His brothers then dropped out of the group, replaced by guitarist Robbie Krieger. The group, now named the Doors, became popular on the Los Angeles club scene. Elektra recording artists Love recommended the group to their label, which signed them in 1966. THE DOORS, released in 1967, showcased Manzarek's flowing organ and Morrison's dramatic voice.
The group achieved massive success, but Morrison's frustration with his role as a pop idol grew ever more pronounced. In July 1969, following a concert in Miami, he was indicted for indecent exposure, public intoxication and profane, lewd and lascivious conduct. Although he was later acquitted of all but the minor charges, the incident forced the group to cancel its next few months of concerts. MORRISON HOTEL, a tough R&B-based collection, matched the best of their early releases. However, Morrison now preferred to write poetry. Having completed sessions for a new album, he escaped to Paris to pursue a literary career. On 3 July 1971, he was found dead in his bathtub. The official cause was a heart attack.
LA WOMAN, Morrison's final recording with the Doors, is one of their finest achievements, including 'Riders On The Storm'. The surviving Doors soldiered on for two more albums before disbanding. Interest in the Doors flourished throughout the 70s and in 1991, the film biography The Doors appeared.
The Doors were the antithesis of windblown Californian pop. Dark, brooding and alienated, every element of the quartet's metier was unveiled on their debut album. In Jim Morrison they posessed one of rock's authoritative voices, while the group's dense instrumental prowess reflected his lyrical mystery. Highly literate, they wedded Oedipian tragedy with counter-culture nihlism and, in "Light My Fire", expressed exotic images previously unheard in pop. Howlin' Wolf, Brecht and Weill are acknowledged as musical reference points, a conflict between the physical and cerebral that give THE DOORS its undiluted tension. Or you can just enjoy it as a brilliant album that sucks you in as it breathes out the '60's.
At a time when most of American pop culture was immersed in flower power and hippie notions of peace and love, the Doors were the dark princes of '60s rock. The West Coast equivalent of the Velvet Underground (sort of), they embraced the seamy underbelly of American society and the dark side of the human psyche. The fact that they were able to do so while crafting outrageously catchy songs full of poetic lyrics and innovative music made them indelible rock legends. This collection, which offers a more generous song selection than the pre-existing BEST OF, kicks off appropriately with "Break on Through to the Other Side," the Doors' anthem to pushing the socio-cultural envelope. From there it's off to the blues-powered lust of "Back Door Man," the decidedly gritty wages-of-war excursion "Peace Frog," and of course the epic, once-controversial Oedipus-complex exploration "The End." For a crash course in one of the most important bands of the '60s, it's difficult to do better than THE VERY BEST OF THE DOORS.
There's been no shortage of Doors compilations over the years, but this two-disc 2003 collection is looking like the one to beat. It spans the seminal band's entire (though admittedly brief) career, and perhaps most importantly, it goes well beyond the usual hits and radio fodder. LEGACY digs deep into the Doors' catalog, fully capturing the mysterious beauty and hypnotic intensity of their work. Naturally all the standards are included ("Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Hello, I Love You," etc.), and truth be told those are fully as majestic as their more obscure brethren, whether or not they've been overplayed throughout the decades.
It's a pleasure to scour the less traveled corners via the poetic-yet-visceral "Peace Frog," the twisted carnival of souls that is "Not to Touch the Earth," and the mystical narrative of "Celebration of the Lizard." "Strange Days" is true psychedelia, full of transcendent intrigue and absent of flower-power nostalgia. "Tell All the People" is something of a celebratory anomaly with a gospel-revival tint. Traveling the full breadth of the Doors' recordings makes one realize exactly why their appeal has lasted for so long.
