will check it out this weekend....putting on the live Bolin here again.....that cat could play.....Jesus....
Even worse, all of that between-song noodling/tuning/babbling is sequenced as separate tracks on every release.
now I think I will skip it.....doesn't sound like my style. Love the doors though.....have all their DCC discs...
Do they do this so The Doors can get more songwriting credits? I mean, is "The Crowd Humbly Requests" now an official Doors track? Do they make extra money by doing it this way? I just don't understand why 30 seconds of crowd noise needs a title.
Detroit is personal. My parents were at this show...all throughout my childhood I heard the story of how they played through curfew with the lights on inside Cobo. Out of all the Detroit shows in the 60s and early 70s they both agreed this was the best, including countless shows at the Grande Ballroom. It was unbelievable to buy this for them, and tell them this was obviously a special show for the band as well.
Was Seattle '70 released officially?...any way that's my favorite one to listen to from the tour....really long and interesting version of Mystery Train, and a rare version of Someday Soon... Second vote goes for Bakersfield....drums have more punch and bottom than any of the other recordings on the tour.....plus, a really great, long and different improvisation of Universal Mind....that alone is worth price of admission! I also like the Dallas early show.....lotta LA Woman tracks played.........a very different show than previous....
I, for one, like the noodling banter and Morrison talk ... I don't for a second want to leave it to band or its management to make those cuts for us. That they released these sets unscathed is nothing short of a miracle.
I think that is one of the issues that plagues the Vancouver concert. The Doors were not particularly good at in-concert improvisation and experimentation. When they stretched out with things like Mystery Train circa 1970, the expended 15 minutes piece did not deviate from its basic structure and recycled elements . The Doors simply could not take a piece of music like The Grateful Dead or The Allman Brothers Band and run with it. As brilliant as they were in some ways, improvisational virtuosity was not one of their strengths.
The first half of the Detroit concert may be among the best concerts The Doors ever performed, or at least that has been preserved officially or unofficially. However, once the band goes into a long, very flat, pedestrian Been Down So Long; a nearly 20 minute blues jam with lead vocals by Ray Manzarek; and very disjointed attempt at The End -- there is a significant drop off in quality.
Yes, that's true, they were musically compromised compared to the Dead and the Allman Bros. but, I do think those two songs did, for better or worse, allow them to at least attempt improvisation, often times, with mixed results; at least it gave them room to experiment. They certainly weren't capable of doing a "Dark Star" or "Stormy Monday", though, that's for sure!
The Philadelphia show was the biggest disappointment in my opinion. I've since lost it, but I used to have a book by Greg Shaw called The Doors: On the Road. In that book, Shaw hyped up the Philly show as being one of the best of their career. I couldn't wait to hear it because of that review. When I finally did, I remember it being very tame and average. I didn't like that the house announcer band introduction (used on Absolutely Live) was missing, either.
Not so sure I agree with that. I think they were a very good improvisational band instrumentally. Far above average. Maybe not as good as the Grateful Dead, but who was? For example, no two Light My Fire solos (by Ray or Robby) were the same. However, when the Doors were really at their improvisational best was when Jim would quote bits of his poetry and the band would lay down a hypnotic groove behind him. Good examples would be The End from Boston 1968, When the Musics Over from Singer Bowl 1968, etc. Sadly, they got away from this by the 1970 tour.
The band had to be extremely improvisational. they had no idea where Jim was going to take them....and they always did a stellar job of following along....amazingly so....On the Hollywood bowl show, they were incredible as to hanging in there. I believe they were even better than the Dead.
The Doors couldn't improvise a 30 minute 'Dark Star' type jam like the Dead could (which I love), but the Dead/Jerry couldn't make up lyrics live on the spot and have the band follow behind him like the Doors could (which I also love). Equal but different I'd say.
