Jeff Jampol: Doors working on Hollywood Bowl 1968 restoration

Not necessarily. Ratings are very subjective, especially when it comes to audience recordings.

 

Aside from the HILY situation, for the most part, I am really enjoying the audio from this project. This concert has always had somewhat negative reputation based on comparisons to other 1968 concerts. But, it is still a 1968 concert in multitrack sound. The COTL segments are well performed. I have been wondering why the band didn't try to perform the entire piece?

 

They wanted to use all the amps, but weren't allowed.

 

Yes, it says in the liner notes that if they exceeded 75dB (or maybe it was 85?) the grounds would pull the plug immediately on the power, and thus the concert.

 

There's a review here with a nice pic of the different editions of the show:

www.thissideofthetracks.ca

 

just watched it ! well done to the everybody involved with the release it is really high quality in the picture and sound !

 

I finally got a chance to watch the Blu-ray a few days ago. I have to say, I really enjoyed it and (for the most part) thought that it was well done. They perhaps could have done a few things better/differently, but all together they did a great job restoring the thing based on what they had to work with.

Also, I thought the 3 documentaries included as extras were entertaining as well.

 

Hi David,
Got the EU vinyl today. It has "Lacquers Cut at the Mastering Lab", on a sticker on the cover, and the deadwax indeed has TML-M;-) - so it looks like it was pressed using US Metal parts? (Much like most of the recent EU Rhino/Warner records, and also the EU Live at Felt Forum, I just verified)
(Elusive Disk mentions the Bellman/Grundman combo, btw)

It sounds really good to my ears! Very dynamic, too many examples, but Wake Up! does wake you up;-) Densmore's drum fills and climaxes in Light My Fire sound so musical, not to mention Robbie's guitar work...

Someone mentioned they thought parts of the performance were lackluster, bored, etc...can't say I agree from just listening to the records. Haven't seen the (partial) video in 20 years or so, so can't really comment on the visual aspect.

Side 2 with Moonlight Drive, Horse Latitudes, A Little Game Hill Dwellers, and ending with Spanish Caravan is probably my favorite..

Overall it has a wide sound stage, perhaps too much reverb for some, but I don't really mind. Not wide in the "all over the place" sense, but spacious, yet very well balanced - Drums are nicely in the middle.

The flown in vocals in Hello I Love You are noticeably differently sounding than the "live" vocals, but hey, it's still a great sounding overall performance.

Never been to the Hollywood Bowl, but I could imagine it sounding "wide". Did a quick comparison with the Felt Forum set and that one definitely sounds closer miked/more intimate.

 

the picture quality is better than the past dvds....but it wasn't the revelation i was hoping for....the film is just too dark... they should have had more lights on the stage.

 

I watched this again today. I'm quite pleased with it, but i still feel that both Texas Beat and Hello I Love You should have been added as a bonus material.

BTW, What happened to the The Doors message board?

 

Anyone know if there are 2 different pressings of this? Is it strictly EU only as stated above, or a US pressing also. If there is a US pressing, it would be good to know which plant it is.

 

I wonder how the multitracks for the Bowl were laid out.

 

Having played a decent amount of Doors music the past week, I revisited this audio release the other night. Putting aside some of the post-production "creative repairs" and "overdubs," overall, I do find this a pretty enjoyable listening experience. One of the main reasons being that there are few examples of The Doors' live work prior to the Absolutely Live recordings, which are not the best representation of the band's live prowess. Granted there are plenty of bootlegs in varying degree of sound quality, but one cannot deny the pleasure of hearing the band in multitrack quality. Many fans will agree that The Doors were at their best in concert during 1968. And while the Hollywood Bowl concert is generally regarded was one of the weaker concerts from the era, it still provides a glimpse into how great The Doors were during that period. Even with all the flaws that have been noted on this thread, this Hollywood Bowl CD release still is one of the best ways to experience The Doors in all their glory live in concert. This is due to the fact that the 1969 Aquarius shows are inconsistent and subdued, the 1970 multitracks are slightly above average concerts (although New York arguably is as good as it gets from that year), and the Matrix recordings have yet to be released from the master tapes. 1968 was a great year for The Doors and I am thankful that at least one concert was captured via multitrack, albeit in semi-incomplete form.

 

I finally bought this a while back and returned it due to what I thought was a glitch.

During "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" there is a noticeable sound which sound like digital clipping (like a spikey crackle) during the line "Others, mean and ruthful of the western dream"

I checked it with another copy of the BluRay and the same "glitch" appeared. I then checked YouTube and found the noise again [@ 0:28]



Its faint (better heard in HD) on the YouTube clip but on the BluRay it is REALLY clear and jarring. What is it?

 

Those 2 songs are new to home video and some fans thought the glitch had to do with bad digital editing. Not that I think isolated Jim vocals are used here and they are shying away from close-ups of Jim's lips moving. The footage of Kreiger's slide solo is from another early 68 show since his breath is visible and he's wearing different clothes.