Other Voices & Full Circle Still ignored in 2011

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Other Voices & Full Circle, Why are The Doors still ignoring these albums?

Other Voices & Full Circle are a couple of decent albums which happen to bear The Doors name but are still criminally ignored on the lamentable Official Doors Website.
The discography only recognises albums which can be flogged with Jim's face on but cannot even acknowledge that The Doors made one fine album after Jim died and followed it up with a damn good musical album albeit lyrically and vocally bereft of any ideas.......
I have heard it argued that they are not on the discography because they are long since deleted from the Elektra catalogue but that argument is a one born of 'material' considerations not 'Historical' ones....just because the Doors can't flog these albums on thier website through I-Tunes does not mean they are NOT an important part of Doors history.
Both Ray and Robby acknowledge these albums on their websites and it can be hoped John will too whenever his site gets a discography up and running so why NOT The Doors official site......

Is it just the History of this great band that can be used to sell T Shirts and Best ofs that will be acknowledged or will some semblance of integrity......if Doors PLC even know the meaning of the bloody word.....filter through to these people and the History of this fine band become more important than just 'selling' 'stuff' to 'people'...

True its a part of Doors History that never really captured the imagination of the 70s Doors fans let alone the X Box generation but it DID happen nontheless....for good or bad these albums were made and did bear the name The Doors and they did contain some fine examples of what was great about this band......

So WHY? do the people who control Doors thought on the internet refuse to acknowledge they exist......in this the 40th Year of this great American band THAT should be put to rights at once.....add the covers of BOTH Other Voices & Full Circle to the band discography section and hang your heads in shame that we 'the fans' know damn fine that all that concerns you people is NOT the History of The Doors just the merchandising opportunities this legendary name can bring you all.....
While you are looking up 'INTEGRITY' check this one out too as it wont be too far away 'IGNOMINY'......

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

"I think we’ll get into some explorations of light as opposed to darkness. We’ve spent a lot of time exploring the dark side of the soul…..a lot of time in the unconscious mind, the subconscious mind, finding all the strange, weird things down there. Now we’re going to come up for a breath of air. Come up for some light, for some sunshine and get some light into those dark corners."
Ray Manzarek Phonograph Record magazine April 1972.

This is an interesting quote from Ray.
And I can find myself in harmony with his sentiments to some extent. He is of course talking about the Doors trio period and and I have always thought it an interesting postscript to The Doors story.
I will criticise and take issue with these boys over many things that is true but I always respected the way they tried to carry on after Jim's death. Regardless of the less savoury aspects of this time period which we now have become aware. Other Voices and Full Circle were indeed two very good examples of how good these three were as musicians.

There is a lot of daft fun evident in these recordings and anyone who has seen the complete video from the Bremen TV studio for Beat Club in May '72 will have seen three Doors really enjoying themselves playing music.

I do think the three did indeed deserve that brief respite of fresh air and sunshine but sadly events have shown that they were never able to capitalise on that.
Nontheless FC and OV are without doubt worthwhile additions to The Doors catalogue and hopefully one day the band will recognise that and put out a release worthy of those two LPs.
This year sees not only the 40th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death but also the 40th anniversary of The Doors very worthy attempt to carry on with 'Other Voices'.
I just thought that it deserved a salute and I may even give it a listen later this weekend.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

"I think there was some good stuff on those albums. But, there was just a lack of direction after Jim died. Because before, when he was alive, the four of us had a balance. Then when he died it was totally gone. The Doors were Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore – four equal parts. Take away any part and it’s not The Doors. We lost our number one part – the singer, the word man. We shouldn’t have called ourselves The Doors anymore. It should have been Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore.”
Ray Manzarek

I have always thought that the best quote ever about The Doors. Even though I don't agree with all of it as I believe that the band did the right thing to call the albums Doors albums at that time.
Remember that it was recorded a month after Morrison died and released in October that year so the band had every right to use the name and the same applies with Full Circle.
Ray's argument is of course cogent and rational as well but I just feel as a fan from the period of Other Voices that it would have been disrespectful to call the album anything else than what they called it.
The title poignant and perfect for an album that was in a a tribute to the dead singer and what he helped create as the band tried to carry on and create something newer without his input.
Of course there is a negative darker side to this with contract wrangles, rumours of leaving the band and the possible search for a new singer whilst the old one was still alive and that cannot help but be factored in to everything else surrounding this time period.
But that aside this album was indeed an excellent addition to The Doors catalogue.
'Tightrope Ride' for me is the best tribute to Jim I have ever heard with Robby playing some of his best guitar work on this track and 'Ships w/ Sails' among the most beautifully constructed Doors songs.
I never had a problem with Rays vocals and he is a highlight of this album for me and although Robby does not enhance the record with his vocal contributions he does a passable job.

I do agree with Ray that they seemed to be looking for a direction and Full Circle confirmed that search was never going to be realised but both albums produced some excellent musicianship and even the odd bit of lyrical genius.
Several songs on this album were around at the time before Morrison left for Paris and there is even evidence to suggest that he rehearsed one or two.
The Tobler/Doe book is the best source for this and the only book ever to really examine these two albums in any depth. The bass players on the tracks seemingly the best way to discern which era each track was from.
It has been documented that 'Down On The Farm' was a track from the LA Woman session and that Jim was reluctant to either include it on the album as it had too similar feel to 'Runnin' Blue' or just downright refused to sing it as he hated it completely. The lyric is rather interesting considering the circumstances surrounding what happened after.

Don't need none today
Masters gone away
His mind has gone astray
'Cause we don't need none today
Did you hear what I say?
Don't need none today

'I'm Horny, I'm Stoned' and 'Wandering Musician' also included Jerry Scheff on bass so it can be concluded were from the LAW era too. IHIS would have been the perfect track for Jim to parody his Lizard King image, which is probably why he never sang it on LAW.
Whether any of the other tracks are from the LAW period is not so clear. Perhaps they were in development and Morrison even dabbled in their construction. I doubt we will ever know as The Doors never bother with this period and are not reliable when it comes to their own History anyway. ‘In the Eye of the Sun’ and ‘Hang on to Your Life’ along with ‘Ships’ are tracks I would have loved to have heared with a Morrison vocal.
Whether Tightrope Ride would have seen the light of day if Morrison had not died is unlikely and to be honest I feel Ray was the perfect vocalist for that song.

Regardless of the politics behind the LAW/OV sessions and regardless of the distrust and intrigue that tarnished the end of the Doors quartet story Other Voices can stand proudly on it’s own as a bona fide Doors album and a testament to just how bloody good the three musical Doors really were.

A fact I was able to remind myself of by listening to Other Voices as I typed this post.

[wplj]

It looks as though The Doors might be lightening up about Other Voices and Full Circle. Jampol had mentioned a few months back that these two albums were being readied for iTunes ... a few weeks back they showed up in the iTunes store. Jampol said physical CD reissues would come later. We'll see. Just thought you might like to know that, technically, after all this time, OV and FC have finally been reissued (officially).

itunes.apple.com/us/album/other-voices/id466329116

itunes.apple.com/us/album/full-circle/id466330442

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Jeff Jampol is a liar and has been exposed as such so many times anything he says is worthless
maybe FC and OV will end up back in stores as a remaster...if so good...but the scumbag who manages The Doors has told too many lies to make anything he says worth any attention

Just looked at i tunes. hard to say from the samples whether this is just the vinyl rip or has been digitised.
I have just as nice a copy from the guy who designed the forum Other Voices logo.
He was a clever guy and remastered both albums on proffesional equipment correcting speed and removing hiss.
Did a damn good job.

OV especially is worth checking out as The Doors 7th studio album.

[wplj]

Grant downloaded the grey market "two-fer" CD of OV/FC ... I've listened to OV and rather like it. Have not managed to listen to FC yet, for some reason.

Since "they" say the 2-track masters are missing for these records, the iTunes versions could be sourced from vinyl, like TR on the box set, and the grey market CDs. I bet they have the masters (or know where they are) and these are from the 2-tracks. I haven't checked out the samples at iTunes. If they do a proper CD release for both records, I'm there. I must say they are quite reasonably priced on iTunes. Noticed how these were put out there with no publicity. Guess they figure word of mouth among the hard-core fans will be enough to sell these to that particular section of their audience. In the end: at least they are available thru official channels. Funny, they aren't selling these albums in the download store on the official Doors site. Weird fuckers.

[wplj]

Time to change the title of this thread to "Other Voices & Full Circle Still SOMEWHAT Ignored in 2011" !

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

FC is worth a listen as the music is good. The songs are pretty awful and Krieger can't sing for shit.
Ray is a good vocalist but most of the songs are dross.

The Doors don't want to bother with OV or FC as there is no Morrison connection.
Even Densmore is as full of shit as Ray and Robby.
He won't talk about The Butts Band or even tribal Jazz anymore. Not that he ever did.
The three of them are huge hypocrites.
They sell an image of their dead mate that is sensational whilst defending him against the attacks that come from their own lies and distortions.
As people they make me sick.
As musicians I love 'em.
Weird being a Doors fan

[wplj]

And the madness continues: The Doors have licensed (AGAIN!) the 6 core albums for reissue on 200g 45 rpm double-LP and Multichannel Hybrid SACD (No SACDs for SP and MH, strangely).

And, I'm sure you're aware of the Black Friday RSD L.A. Woman 7" singles box set ... sort of a taster for the L.A. Woman box (if it ever fucking happens, ha ha!). $49.99 USD.

LP/SACD reissues are $50 USD and $30 USD, respectively. I just today recieved MH (2007 mix) in the mail, so I am done with the core albums on CD. I don't like some of the remixes, but I have stopped caring ... it's so fucking outta control!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I don't keep up with Doors news much mate as the three of them and their liar of a manager make me wanna vomit.

They promised LAW with the out takes they lied about not having when they released the 40 year remixes and that was of interest to me.

The rest is simply milking the product to death.

Me and Sara bang on here about how the Doors community has been devestated in the last ten years and one of the reasons is this endless reselling of the 6 core LPs.

I have discussed it many times myself with fans that are just as sick of all this as I am. Jampol is a LIAR and soils the good name the band had in the 70s and 80s with his lies. The damage he and people like Ray do to The Doors is incalculable but Doors fans are too meek to speak about it.
For me the Doors fanbase is pretty pathetic nowadays compared to what it was when I first came to the Net.
A bunch of sheep looking to scum like Ray and Jampol for direction.

The grand ideas of the Danny Sugerman era now replced with lies and distortion. Doors History rewritten to maximise the product. Jim Morrison betrayed totally by the three guys he imagined The Doors with.

Sadly Doors fans don't care that much about any of that and simply like the sheep they are lap up the bullshit and say thank you.

[wplj]

Don't have a link, but I saw last week that Robbie stated in an article re: his reunion gig with Densmore that he would like to see OV and FC reissued. I wonder if he is aware that they are on iTunes/Amazon for DL? Hopefully, he means "reissued on CD."