This is the latest news for the fake 40th anniversary in 2007........
The Doors 'open the doors' to a new generation with a new documentary and a series of new albums, books and more celebrating the legendary band's 40th anniversary in 2007.
With The Doors celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2007, the legendary band is launching a major effort at introducing a new audience to the music and ethos of one of rock’s most influential forces. From a feature-length documentary to radio and TV specials; from remastered albums to digital downloadable “virtual box sets”; from coffee-table books to twin volumes of Jim Morrison’s poetry; and from remixes and box sets to a traveling memorabilia show, the music and message of The Doors will once more break on through.
“The Doors are absolutely and completely relevant today because we represent freedom,” says Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, who points out that many alternative rock stars seem to emulate Morrison’s look, and that the hip-hop community has been attracted to The Doors’ anti-authoritarian vibe. “When you are at that point in your life where you’ve left childhood but not yet put on the yoke of adulthood, we represent totally liberating artistic, literary and spiritual freedom. We’re about opening the doors of perception in the closed-in, locked-up times we live in now.”
In late 2005, The Doors Music Company and Bright Midnight Archives released the two-CD The Doors Live In Philadelphia ’70, an historic concert digitally transferred from the original multi-track recordings then mixed and mastered by longtime sonic collaborator and original Doors engineer/co-producer Bruce Botnick. (Other never-before-issued live recordings from 1967-1970 will follow.)
There were flash-forwards as well as flashbacks in 2005. Superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold, one of the biggest names in electronic music, who has remixed tracks by Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and U2, reworked The Doors’ “L.A. Woman” for his album The Club. Snoop Dogg’s version of “Riders On The Storm”--with new musical contributions from Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore as well as the original master of Morrison’s vocals--became the lead track on EA’s “Need For Speed Underground 2” videogame. Acclaimed DJ/remixer BT debuted the “BT vs. The Doors” remix of “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” on iTunes and in Activision’s “Tony Hawk Underground II” videogame. Crystal Method, Thievery Corporation, Limp Bizkit’s DJ Lethal, Cypress Hill, and mixmaster Adam Freeland also mated DJ pop culture with The Doors.
“A lot of kids don’t even realize we’re from the ‘60s,” says Krieger. “It’s cool that our sound is perceived as that contemporary. We’re turning new people onto The Doors and also bringing The Doors to a more diverse audience.”
In February 2006, Love/Death/Travel, a special limited edition four-disc box set featuring three discs of studio cuts and one of live performances, some in 5.1 surround sound, will be issued through Rhino Handmade. Only 5,000 individually serial-numbered copies will be produced. Presented in a faux lizard-skin slipcase, half are earmarked for music supervisors (The Doors have been heard in recent TV series such as “CSI,” “Alias” and “Entourage”) and 2,500 will be for sale online. Included are four reproductions of Joel Brodsky photographs and a lithograph of Morrison hand-signed by Shepard Fairey of “Obey Giant” fame.
Later this year, The Doors by The Doors, a coffeetable anthology co-penned by renowned writer Ben Fong-Torres and published by Hyperion, will be in stores. A full-length Doors documentary, produced by Dick Wolf (creator of television’s “Law & Order” franchise) and including a great deal of unreleased footage plus first-time-ever interviews with the Morrison family, will appear in movie theaters. Bright Midnight Archives, The Doors’ joint venture label with Rhino/Warner Bros., will also issue The Doors Live At The Matrix ’67, an ultra-famed, ultra-rare recording culled from the original masters of a series of intimate San Francisco shows offering several significantly different song arrangements than the band played on its debut album.
In October, Rhino will release a new box set encompassing every studio album; the box contains two-disc sets of every studio album--a CD with new stereo mixes by Botnick as well as freshly remastered classic mixes, and a DVD with 5.1 and 96k stereo mixes of the album along with outtakes, alternate takes and video clips. Apple’s iTunes is expected to offer digital albums, virtual box sets and downloads of live and rare tracks. “There’s a whole new world out there,” notes Densmore. “We’re getting our music into those new digital venues.”
Appearing in print will be a Jim Morrison Treasures© coffeetable photo/scrapbook, including reproductions of souvenirs, and two volumes of poetry, Things Known (a compilation of Morrison’s previously released poetry books) and Things Unknown (his unpublished body of poems and song lyrics). On the airwaves, a four- to eight-hour radio special and a TV special are in the works. Even the band’s merchandising has been completely revamped, featuring more than 100 new designs and pieces with a return to the original dies, stencils and vintage Doors look.
The Doors epitomized the ‘60s, forming in Los Angeles in 1965. When their self-titled debut album was released two years later, the LP charted #2 (and is currently certified quadruple platinum). Each of the six albums that followed from the quartet over the next four years charted in the Top 10, including Strange Days, L.A. Woman and the #1 Waiting For The Sun. Every studio album is currently platinum, with Absolutely Live gold. Eight singles were Top 40 hits: “Light My Fire” and “Hello, I Love You” gold #1s and “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Love Her Madly,” “Riders On The Storm” and the gold “Touch Me” equally timeless classics. In total, The Doors have sold more than 75,000,000 records and DVDs.
The Doors’ concerts caused riots, and controversy was widespread as the band was spotlighted in magazines from Seventeen to Time. With Morrison’s passing, he became the quintessential mythic hero of rock, forever the 27-year-old poet-rebel. His gravesite is among the Top 5 tourist attractions in Paris, a city that is home to the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, EuroDisney and the Champs d’Elysees. More than 10 Doors collections have achieved gold or platinum status since his death, including the nine times platinum Best Of The Doors. In the pantheon of rock group icons, there are, arguably, the Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, Who, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and The Doors.
Their words and music changed lives--and are as important today as they were almost 40 years ago. Amid the general apathy of Gen X and Gen Y, the music of The Doors can still inspire the questioning of authority and a desire for personal freedom and enlightenment. “We stood for something,” says Densmore. “We still do. Somebody’s got to!” Manzarek agrees: “The ultimate way to spread peace and joy is one person by one person by one person, and that’s what we’re trying to do for our 40th anniversary celebration.”
With universal ideas and an unmistakable identity and sound, The Doors are a reminder that rock is, truly, important.
Cast Vote via this linkView Results via this linkDensmore has some sense of decorum left or maybe feels guilty at shoving his snout in the trough....
[glow=red,2,300]Densmore Plans 'Quiet' Celebration For Doors Anniversary
(Soundbuzz, Thursday June 1, 9:00 AM) [/glow]
The Doors drummer John Densmore is being very careful about signing on for projects to mark the 40th anniversary of the rock super group's first album in 2007 - because he doesn't want to tarnish their legacy.
The thoughtful star, who now fronts jazz group Tribaljazz, insists he plans to celebrate the anniversary "quietly" and will think very carefully about plans to reunite with band mates Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek.
Densmore won a court battle to prevent the duo from hitting the road as 'The Doors Of The 21st Century'.
He says, "I'll remember the anniversary quietly at home. There's a documentary and a coffee table book that I'm part of. But there was a certain magic that came to the garage in Venice (California), when we all started playing together and it was bigger than us. That magic is not ours."
just realise..star trek!? 
