I’ve been a Doors fan all my life, or all of the band’s life, anyway, since I was only 9 when their first records came out. But I only heard this for the first time yesterday, and I was blown away.
Disregard the singing and the lame lyrics, it doesn’t last long. It then goes into a several minutes long Phish-style jam. Among other things, I love the way Robbie Krieger steps up his playing here. As a guitar player myself I’ve always loved his playing on the studio recordings, but on the concert albums and clips he often seems a bit lazy, or unable to compete volume-wise against the organ. In terms of their general sound they were building strongly on the foundations laid on the last one or two albums with Morrison, particularly L.A. Woman.
I’ll repeat here my comments on the Youtube page.
It’s too bad the surviving three band members couldn’t have kept going and, I don’t know, toured with the Grateful Dead for thirty years. Of course they pretty much hated each other what with that Northern versus Southern California thing.
The Doors were always a band, not just Morrison’s backup band. Robbie Krieger, after all, wrote “Light My Fire.” I think they could have been a success after Morrison’s death, only Jim’s image overshadowed them so people wouldn’t listen to them.
Is Other Voices not in the box set? Or is that already out of print too?
What this performance initially reminded me of was the sort of thing you hear when NPR does a feature on some new obscure band, especially one of the more bizarre ones that don’t really fit into any category very well. Except for the fact that I would hear these features in the early 1990s, twenty years later. They were decades ahead of their time, and were mixing aspects of a jam band with proto-minimalist punk. Robbie Krieger especially had come along light years in terms of his musical ability, compared with the early years. He’s recorded a number of solo albums that aren’t bad, but as so often happens following the breakup of iconic bands, they suffer without the interaction of his former bandmates. The end result of a few short rehearsals with a some session musicians can never equal that of jamming with the people you’ve spent your musical life with.
Like I said, the timing was wrong. At that time you had James Taylor, Carole King, and similar artists dominating the airwaves, especially on AM where there was soon nary a hard rock station to be found. I think AM sort of drove the market in terms of what the youngest listeners were introduced to and became comfortable with, before switching to FM when they got a little older. On FM too, strong country and folk influences were evident in a general mellowing and toning down of hard edged psychedelic influences. The Dead completely stopped recording any extended jams in the studio, even if still playing them to the Deadheads live.
I’m really sorry about this, but I’ve got to disagree. This sounds to me to be not much more than very energetic lounge noodling. This, for me, is exactly why the Doors didn’t continue after the demise of Jim.
(And just to put my interest in context: I love *good *jamming. For example, the Allmans live versions of Whipping Post, or, yes, the Dead’s Dark Star.)
I agree that they were all excellent musicians, but they could not have stayed a trio for much longer than they did. Full Circle, while still showing the musical talent they had, was a dog. They simply ran out of ideas that worked. Say what you will about Jim Morrison (and ignore the Manzarek “mythology” about him), the man was creative, and he made others around him creative. Even when one of the others had a song idea it was Jim that delivered it, in a way that Ray and Robby simply could not make work in the long term.
… That record does have some nice moments, particularly “In the Eye of the Sun” and “Ships w/Sails”, where you can hear the echo of Morrison… those songs at least are well worth checking out.
I think it should also be pointed out that Manzarek and Krieger re-formed the Doors, with Morrison wannabe Ian Astbury on vocals, in 2002, under the name “Doors of the 21st Century” – subsequently changed to “Riders on the Storm” (possibly due to threatened action by John Densmore, who wanted nothing to do with the project). I saw them in concert shortly thereafter – it was quite enjoyable, though a little weird… like, is this the Doors, or a Doors tribute band? So there’s new material by the group out there, if you’re interested.
I have no problem with this, myself. Jim ain’t coming back. If a couple of the original guys want to keep the music alive for a live audience, then more power to them. A couple of years ago I saw a version of Big Brother and the Holding Company with a couple of the original members backing a Janis Joplin soundalike. It wasn’t the real thing, but the real thing simply can’t be had. It was a pretty wonderful reminder of the real thing, though.
One problem with the band that I see, having now heard a couple of other tunes, and aside from no longer having a strong lyricist and vocalist, is that the material doesn’t seem cohesive. Not that all bands necessarily need that kind of cohesiveness, and this band does work well together as far as the instrumental texture goes. That’s what impresses me here; in the absence of lyric driven songs they seem to step up the playing a good deal. They really hadn’t done any long solos or instrumental breaks since “Light My Fire”, unless there’s something I’m forgetting; now without Morrison it’s mostly about the playing. But they really did need a singer. Jim Morrison wasn’t really a musician the way many other singers are, or most instrumentalists, but he did have a basic melodic outline for his songs, and contributed to the songs’ structure with regard to things like where a break should go, or how to get out of a long solo back to the verse.
Some of the playing reminds me a bit of the 2nd Butts Band album, which would have been at least a couple of years later. (Krieger & Densmore with others, sounding a bit soul)
I still like Help Me With This Act Of Love, and a couple of other tracks from it.
Before Morrison’s death I was a Robbie Krieger booster, and thought he was the band’s secret songwriting weapon. But after I snapped up “Other Voices” I lost interest.
“You ask how much I love you; why do ships with sails love the wind?” That’s worse than “In this ever-changing world in which we live in.” The only thing else that has stuck in my memory is Variety Is The Spice OF Life …which is nice.
But they were a fine little combo with a sound of their own. Love that LA Woman.