il nuovo box set "perception uscira' tra qualche settimana,
per sentire in anteprima 30 secondi di ogni pezzo
http://www.amazon.com
Includes these albums:
The Doors
1. Break On Through (To The Other Side)
2. Soul Kitchen
3. The Crystal Ship
4. Twentieth Century Fox
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
6. Light My Fire
7. Back Door Man
8. I Looked at You
9. End of the Night
10. Take It As It Comes
11. The End
Bonus Tracks
12. Moonlight Drive (Version 1)
13. Moonlight Drive (Version 2)
14. Indian Summer (8/19/66 Vocal)
Video Content
1. Break On Through (To The Other Side) (Music Video)
2. The End (Soundstage Performance, Toronto, 1967)
Strange Days
1. Strange Days
2. You're Lost Little Girl
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Unhappy Girl
5. Horse Latitudes
6. Moonlight Drive
7. People Are Strange
8. My Eyes Have Seen You
9. I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
10. When the Music's Over
Bonus Tracks
11. People Are Strange (False Starts & Dialogue)
12. Love Me Two Times (Take 3)
Video Content
1. Love Me Two Times (Live in Europe, 1968)
2. When the Music's Over (Live in Europe, 1968)
Waiting For the Sun
1. Hello, I Love You
2. Love Street
3. Not To Touch the Earth
4. Summer's Almost Gone
5. Wintertime Love
6. The Unknown Soldier
7. Spanish Caravan
8. My Wild Love
9. We Could Be So Good Together
10. Yes, The River Knows
11. Five to One
Bonus Tracks
12. Albinoni's Adagio In G Minor
13. Not to Touch the Earth (Dialogue)
14. Not to Touch the Earth (Take 1)
15. Not to Touch the Earth (Take 2)
16. Celebration of the Lizard (An Experiment/Work In Progress)
Video Content
1. Spanish Caravan (Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1968)
2. The Unknown Soldier (Soundstage Performance, Denmark, 1968)
The Soft Parade
1. Tell All the People
2. Touch Me
3. Shaman's Blues
4. Do It
5. Easy Ride
6. Wild Child
7. Runnin' Blue
8. Wishful Sinful
9. The Soft Parade
Bonus Tracks
10. Who Scared You
11. Whiskey, Mystics and Men (Version 1)
12. Whiskey, Mystics and Men (Version 2)
13. Push Push
14. Touch Me (Dialogue)
15. Touch Me (Take 3)
Video Content
1. The Soft Parade (Soundstage Performance, New York, 1969)
2. Tell All the People (Soundstage Performance, New York, 1969)
Morrison Hotel
1. Roadhouse Blues
2. Waiting for the Sun
3. You Make Me Real
4. Peace Frog
5. Blue Sunday
6. Ship of Fools
7. Land Ho!
8. The Spy
9. Queen of the Highway
10. Indian Summer
11. Maggie M'Gill
Bonus Tracks
12. Talking Blues
13. Roadhouse Blues (11/4/69, Takes 1-3)
14. Roadhouse Blues (11/4/69, Take 6)
15. Carol (11/4/69)
16. Roadhouse Blues (11/5/69, Take 1)
17. “Money Beats Soul” (11/5/69)
18. Roadhouse Blues (11/5/69, Takes 13-15)
19. Peace Frog (False Starts & Dialogue)
20. The Spy (Version 2)
21. Queen of the Highway (Jazz Version)
Video Content
1. Roadhouse Blues (Music Video)
2. Wild Child (Music Video)
L.A. Woman
1. The Changeling
2. Love Her Madly
3. Been Down So Long
4. Cars Hiss By My Window
5. L.A. Woman
6. L’America
7. Hyacinth House
8. Crawling King Snake
9. The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)10. Riders on the Storm
Bonus Tracks
11. Orange County Suite
12. (You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further
Video Content
1. The Changeling (Music Video)
2. Crawling King Snake (Footage from The Doors rehearsal space filmed for Australian TV, 1971)
Music Review: The Doors - Perception (6 CD/6 DVD Box Set)
Written by Eric Berlin
Published November 07, 2006
First, the packaging of The Doors (latest) box set, Perception, is pretty stunning and original. Eschewing the trend toward slimmer and nano-tiny, this thing is built to replicate a big-ass door. Looking through the peep hole, you can spin your way through a mini-slide show of The Doors at different stages of their career.
I'm brought back to when I was 14 or 15, discovering The Doors for myself. The classic rock music shop-meets-stoner hangout in my town, called Mr. Cheapo's for who-knows-why, would carry rare box sets and collections behind the counter. I used to stare at these artifacts longingly, wishing I could take each home (away from the incense and strange bearded dudes) and give it a special place.
The physical object of Perception recalls those giddy feelings, having a huge collection of brilliant and daring mood-altering music within your very and tangible grasp.
That said, the older and wiser side of me knows that I already own a hell of a lot of Doors music, and pushes me to articulate what, perchance, is special and unique about this particular round-up of remastered Doors classics, rare tracks, and other added-on goodies and treats.
I should state up front that I can only review the audio portion of Perception as I was not able to get my hands on the six DVDs that accompany the six Doors studio albums. So on to the music, then.
Each studio album (The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For The Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, and L.A. Woman) includes all of each album's original tracks plus some small number of additional tracks, outtakes, or studio banter. In terms of the musical component of Perception, I'll say that if you were waiting for the right time to finally snatch up and own all six Doors studio albums, this is a great time to hop in and do just that. For longtime Doors fans, however, there are some very nice additions to the Doors canon but perhaps not enough to warrant a substantial outlay of cash. (Again, perhaps the DVDs are the X factor in this equation – I'd love to hear from anyone who has checked them out.)
I wasn't all that impressed with the digital remastering. There are places where it makes a subtle difference – and this may spin audiophiles and Doors acolytes off to new planetoids of wonder – but to me it just sounded like I was listening to The Doors. Great stuff, but great stuff that I've already been digging for near on 20 years now.
Therefore, I'm going to concentrate my review and whatever remaining attention I can steal from anyone who has been brought along this far to the additional tracks and outtakes that can be found at the end of each of the six reissued studio albums.
The highlight on The Doors is a surprisingly light, poppy, bouncy, and sweet "Moonlight Drive (Vers. 1 & 2)". It's quite a contrast from the darker, more sensuous version that shows up on Strange Days and really hearkens to The Doors' early pop roots. Ray Manzarek's carnivalesque organ really shows him off at his best, and it's a hell of a ride.
On Strange Days, we get a tiny feel for what life was like in the studio on "People Are Strange (False Takes and Dialogue)." An unnamed producer or engineer refers to the band as "gentlemen" with a surprising and amusing lack of irony by our modern standards. "Love Me Two Times (Take 3)" then provides an interesting sonic take on this classic track. There's an airier and more spacious feel to it then the version we're used to, and we get a nice isolation on Jim Morrison's lyrics. Once again, Manzarek's bouncy keyboard gets more play, as Krieger's normally dominant guitar twang is softened just a touch.
Waiting For The Sun brings us the heartbreaking and melancholy journey of "Albinoni's Adagio In G Minor." It's kind of a perfect ode to the best of the Doors' music – classic and mystic and modern and radical all at once. I'm more used to hearing this as a backdrop for Morrison's poetry on An American Prayer. It's very pleasant in a sense here to have the burden of Jim's heavy and troubled words lifted away. One line from his poetry will stay with me always: "Oh God, I'm sick of doubt." My lord, ain't that the case!
On an alternate version of "Not To Touch The Earth" there is some beginning dialogue that is a welcome light exchange where someone talks about things getting "psychedelicized." Morrison then affably welcomes everyone to get their headphones on. And then we're whisked into "Not To Touch The Earth," the most fully realized section of the much longer musical epic, Celebration Of The Lizard. The first version here is not nearly the best – Morrison's vocals are dry and raspy, though he does put in an effort. Take two is more compelling – Morrison begins far more subdued and mysterious, allowing the luscious and hypnotic psychedelic pulse to take front-and-center. Morrison's vocal powers then remain under control throughout the wildest sections. It's fascinating to listen to how songs build themselves in the studio, take-upon-take. What's not a little bit annoying is the fact that the studio version of "Not To Touch The Earth" is a far cry from its full powers. Take a listen to the version on The Doors In Concert and tell me I'm wrong.
Waiting For The Sun provides a full version of Celebration of the Lizard, something that the band strove for but could not quite achieve during the album's original creation. It's always a treat to hear a different rendition of this strange, transitive musical journey. "Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin." However, the version revealed here doesn't add a lot to the journey, unfortunately. It's somewhat flat and overly mellow and doesn't create the peaks and valleys of excitement, emotion, and energy that The Doors are famous for.
It's really too bad that "Who Scared You" never made it onto any of The Doors' studio albums. In my view it's head-and-shoulders better than some of The Soft Parade's "softer" numbers, which are arguably among the worst pieces the band ever produced. (Yeah, "Do It" doesn't really do it for me, sorry).
"Whiskey, Mystics and Men," also included at the end of The Soft Parade, is a wonderful sea shanty, and Jim's commanding yet soulful take at the helm gives Version 1 particularly a rollicking and playful quality. Version 2 builds more slowly, with the
instrumentals joining Jim as the song develops. While Version 1 works more as a whole, there's a truly joyous and ethereal section in the middle of Version 2 that builds up to an explosive climax that's really worth a check-out.
On "Push Push," you can almost imagine stopping into a local dive in 1964 and
hearing Ray Manzarek fronting his Ray and The Ravens, UCLA students drinking beer, rocking away to beach-flavored party tunes. "Push Push" is an ode to The Doors' very early influences, but not an extraordinary piece of music. Finally, on "Touch Me (Take 3)," there are a few subtle touches that differentiate it from the polished studio version (such as a groovy jangle to Krieger's guitar at the outset) but not much more than that.
Morrison Hotel's extras begin with "Talking Blues," a minute long little ditty with Morrison playing bluesman. Fun stuff. There are then several lengthy versions of "Roadhouse Blues," which kicks off with great frustrated producer talk: "Come on Robbie, start that song, from out of the closet you started it! We're going to the roadhouse, not the bathroom, now come on now, let's cut it!" Later: "Let's make it nasty, man!" Meanwhile, Morrison is blues-talking obscenities to himself in the background. In between takes of "Roadhouse Blues," Morrison kept up chatter about how money beats soul. He expands a little bit on "Money Beats Soul" with blues-drenched backdrop, stating things such as, "Your soul's worth about as much as you can get on Wall Street, my dear." Overall, the multiple takes of "Roadhouse Blues" don't do a lot to add to the legacy of one of the classicist classic rock Doors' hits of ever.
"The Spy (Vers. 2)" might be the greatest surprise on the box set, a very pretty and light take, gentle and playful but with tremendous energy. There's also an excellent and groove-lounged up version of "Queen of the Highway (Jazz Vers.)." "Carol" is a fun little snippet of roadhouse jamming - unfortunately it only lasts for a minute.
L.A. Woman's extras are a bit sparse and disappointing. "Orange County Suite," Morrison's ode to Pam Courson, is a bit draggy and wandering while "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further" is average Doors-blues-with-Ray-on vocals, but I'm a much bigger fan of songs like "Close to You."
In terms of real exploration of rare Doors tracks, I highly recommend 1997's The Doors Box Set. But for new Doors fans and crazy-insane Doors maniacs like myself, Perception is a fine add to be perceived.
