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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 6:38 pm 
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The Master
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Wasn’t Morrison checked out for that record?


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 6:53 pm 
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he checked out so he could stay at the morrison hotel next


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 7:12 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 7:23 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 9:59 pm 
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Morrison Hotel

I initially intended to listen to one of the live albums, a show, from the era surrounding the prior album, but thought it best for keeping steam to jump straight into the much improved Morrison Hotel. The band hadn’t been this vital and energized since their debut. Roadhouse Blues and Peace Frog are obvious choices here because they are both masterful examples of incorporating blues in the former and a psychedelic pop on the other. Waiting for the Sun (the song), You Make Me Real, Land Ho!, and Maggie M’Gill are the other big highlights here, with lots of range and focus on display. The Doors at the top of their game to this point. Jim Morrison may have been up to the same bonkers behavior around this album, but it feels like someone slapped him into focus for this.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Wed August 11, 2021 10:14 pm 
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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 11:42 am 
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Absolutely Live

The next and I think likely last live album I plan on covering is indicative of what I think may have been typical for the Doors. When they are on, they are nearly untouchable. It all comes down to when the band is locked in and Jim Morrison is focused enough to get through the song. When the Music’s Over and Five to One are both highlights here - band focus and Jim just in control enough to keep it together while still embracing his natural wildness. Break On Through is killer here, with an intentional or possibly unintentional rearrangement in the lyrics that causes the band to stretch the song a bit. Album closer Soul Kitchen is also pretty great here. It’s in these moments of genius that make those other moments, where Jim Morrison is belligerent and the band is in such a state of improvisation as a result that they sound like no one knows what to play so frustrating. On to Jim Morrison’s swan song…


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 1:39 pm 
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L.A. Woman

Throughout this journey, be it the best of their albums or their biggest struggles, talking about the Doors meant talking separately about what the band was doing and where Jim Morrison was. Almost two different entities with one providing the background music for the other. At their best, they transcended this division and delivered many moments of pure fire, the sort of stuff that makes them seem like one of the most talented groups in rock music. Other than the debut and Morrison Hotel, which were both fabulous, these great moments were a bit too few, causing the albums to be solid but fall short of the magic they were capable of. Their live shows seemed a manic lurch between astounding chemistry and abject failures, sometimes bouncing in and out of that division in the same song.

This brings us to the original lineup’s swan song - an album focused on exploring their boundaries when steeped in blues, giving both the band and Jim Morrison a focused goal, and a starting point to build from. The result, for me at least, is far and away their greatest album. Every song crackles with energy, and takes blues music somewhere it’s never been before without losing its base. Jim Morrison finally seems to be getting out of his own way (save for The WASP that is probably the best example of his freewheeling poetry style weaved into a coherent musical movement). The entire first side of this album is blues perfection - The Changeling, Love Her Madly, Been down so Long, Cars Hiss By My Window, and L.A. Woman all bring you in and keep in their space focused and unrushed. Things get a bit weirder on side 2, but it never falls apart. L’America toes that line for a moment and then cuts into a chorus that sits you right down. Hyacinth House grows on you as you move through the song. Crawling Kingsnake is simply in the right hands here, and album closer, Riders on the Storm, which I would start any album with, brings things to a controlled intense finish.

This album reminds me of a childhood summer vacation in that once you’ve finally settled in and figured out the perfect summer, it’s already the last weekend. Unfortunately for Jim Morrison’s Doors, there would be no more first days of school or summer breaks, but just here at the end, they finally all put it together for their greatest work.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 2:02 pm 
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:luv: just a phenomenal album. Morrison Hotel is not quite as stellar but is full of great moments, and for me the Doors start and end with those two records


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 9:38 pm 
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Other Voices

In a mythologized world where there’s some romanticism of rock and roll, The Doors end with Jim Morrison, and we would be left to wonder what could be. That did not happen of course. The band continued on with the remaining few albums to gain some independent footing. I wondered in this journey about whether the Doors would be better off without Morrison, a talented but troubled lead singer who often worked against their potential.

Here, the fear of a band without tumult is realized. The music is good enough, the singing is actually pretty good, but most of the album just doesn’t come together without that sense of danger that it could just as easily blow you away as break down. There are plenty of great moments here. The breakdown in Ships With Sails, the entirety of Tightrope Ride, In the Eye of the Sun and Hang on to Your Life…but other than that it feels middling and safe. The only big swing is a huge miss with I’m Horny, I’m Stoned which has potential instrumentally but is totally botched in its lyrics and vocal delivery.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 10:06 pm 
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liebzz wrote:
When they are on, they are nearly untouchable. It all comes down to when the band is locked in and Jim Morrison is focused enough to get through the song.

This sums up the Doors in general. Where they are all focused on the same goal, the music is so distinct and manages so much with so few musicians. I am not sure there will be a band quite like the Doors again. Somehow they thread the needle of being of their time and timeless.

I admit though that like with the Clash and J Geils Band, I act like the last album and in the Doors case, last two albums absolutely do not exist. Still on the fence about American Prayer. I lean to more out than in.

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Last edited by surfndestroy on Fri August 13, 2021 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 10:34 pm 
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liebzz wrote:
L.A. Woman

Throughout this journey, be it the best of their albums or their biggest struggles, talking about the Doors meant talking separately about what the band was doing and where Jim Morrison was. Almost two different entities with one providing the background music for the other. At their best, they transcended this division and delivered many moments of pure fire, the sort of stuff that makes them seem like one of the most talented groups in rock music. Other than the debut and Morrison Hotel, which were both fabulous, these great moments were a bit too few, causing the albums to be solid but fall short of the magic they were capable of. Their live shows seemed a manic lurch between astounding chemistry and abject failures, sometimes bouncing in and out of that division in the same song.

This brings us to the original lineup’s swan song - an album focused on exploring their boundaries when steeped in blues, giving both the band and Jim Morrison a focused goal, and a starting point to build from. The result, for me at least, is far and away their greatest album. Every song crackles with energy, and takes blues music somewhere it’s never been before without losing its base. Jim Morrison finally seems to be getting out of his own way (save for The WASP that is probably the best example of his freewheeling poetry style weaved into a coherent musical movement). The entire first side of this album is blues perfection - The Changeling, Love Her Madly, Been down so Long, Cars Hiss By My Window, and L.A. Woman all bring you in and keep in their space focused and unrushed. Things get a bit weirder on side 2, but it never falls apart. L’America toes that line for a moment and then cuts into a chorus that sits you right down. Hyacinth House grows on you as you move through the song. Crawling Kingsnake is simply in the right hands here, and album closer, Riders on the Storm, which I would start any album with, brings things to a controlled intense finish.

This album reminds me of a childhood summer vacation in that once you’ve finally settled in and figured out the perfect summer, it’s already the last weekend. Unfortunately for Jim Morrison’s Doors, there would be no more first days of school or summer breaks, but just here at the end, they finally all put it together for their greatest work.


Great review, liebzz. The Doors are definitely a band that I've felt like I've "grown out of" at various times throughout my life, but I haven't given them much thought at all over the last 10 years or so and this makes me want to go back and give them another shot.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Fri August 13, 2021 11:33 pm 
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The song American Prayer is the only spoken word song I've ever enjoyed.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 6:19 pm 
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Full Circle

The second and last album without Jim Morrison, to me, is a big upgrade from the last one. Perhaps it is because they are more comfortable or the songs weren’t at all written for Jim Morrison, but this is I’d say an above average classic rock album. Probably if they called themselves the Manzarek Trio or Robby Krieger Blues Band it would have garnered less of a dismissal. This is basically that bar band you’ve heard and thought they’d be huge if only they had albums. The instrumental breakdowns are great, the songs are not really serious but it sounds like the band is having much more fun with it.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 6:51 pm 
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I had all the live vault releases at one point but some of them suck and they became very scarce eventually so I made a major profit on eBay.

The only one I kept is the Felt Forum box. That one is killer.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 7:50 pm 
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Yeah that is on Spotify and I thought about it in the sequence where the shows were played but I chickened out. I just didn’t have the patience.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 7:56 pm 
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An American Prayer

6 years after The Doors without Jim Morrison cut their last album comes this one - essentially splicing Morrison’s spoken word with mostly previously recorded music, resulting in an awkward release that probably just should have stayed in the bin. Granted, I did enjoy Ghost Song, which for me was really the best fit of music to words - the rest was largely a mess, not unlike the idea of a fan to take multiple takes of Space and/or multiple takes of Dark Star and throw it into one place. Might have its moments but it’s ultimately a bit of a mess.

All in all, I don’t think I need many words on the totality of this journey. A superbly talented band, an enigmatic frontman who sometimes brought them to incredible heights but also paired with significant lows. The best of it all stands with many of the great classic acts, and L.A. Woman this time around is an all time great album for me (I have heard it in the past but maybe not as a triumphant pinnacle to their career - more out of context with the rest of their work).


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 9:02 pm 
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liebzz wrote:
Yeah that is on Spotify and I thought about it in the sequence where the shows were played but I chickened out. I just didn’t have the patience.


The first disc/first show in the Felt Forum box is excellent. Probabaly the best pro-recorded show.


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 9:12 pm 
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Awesome. I’ll give it a spin (stream really - but I am not sure how you can cool-ly say you’re gonna stream something).


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 Post subject: Re: The Doors - A Journey with the Lizard King
PostPosted: Sat August 14, 2021 11:24 pm 
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Here is the sad saga of the official "live" vault releases:

The Matrix Tapes are a blast but bootleg quality.

Hollywood Bowl 1968 is very good but has much audio trickery.

The two Los Angeles 1969 shows are very good but low key.

The New York 1970 shows range from decent to excellent. First show is essential.

Boston, Philly and Pittsburgh are not very good at all and probably best avoided.

Detroit has a very strong first half but eventually dissolves into worthless bullshit.

Vancouver is an audience tape.

Isle Of Wight is decent enough but they took ridiculous and unnecessary liberties "editing" the official release.


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