Full Circle

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

FULL CIRCLE
Released: July, 1972
Produced by: The Doors
Engineered and Coordinated by: Henry Lewy
Cover Concept and Design by: Pacific Eye & Ear
Cover Illustration by: Joe Garnett
Label: Elektra EKS-75038

Get Up And Dance {Manzarek/Krieger} (2:25) Chris Ethridge: bass

4 Billion Souls {Krieger} (3:18) Jack Conrad: bass

Verdilac {Krieger/Manzarek} (5:40) Charles Larkey: bass
Bobbi Hall: percussion
Charles Lloyd: tenor saxophone

Hardwood Floor {Krieger} (3:38) Leland Sklar: bass

Good Rockin {Brown} (4:22) Jack Conrad: bass

The Mosquito {Krieger/Densmore/Manzarek} (5:16) Leland Sklar: bass

The Piano Bird {Densmore/Conrad} (5:50) Jack Conrad: rhythm guitar
Charles Larkey: bass
Bobbi Hall, Chico Batera: percussion
Charles Lloyd: flute

It Slipped My Mind {Krieger} (3:11) Leland Sklar: bass

The Peking King And The New York Queen {Manzarek} (6:25) Jack Conrad: bass
Bobbi Hall, Chico Batera: percussion

Total playing time 40:05
The Doors
Robby Krieger - guitar, vocals, harmonica on "Hardwood Floor"
Ray Manzarek - keyboards, vocals
John Densmore - drums

with
Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Melissa Mackay - the other voices

Full Circle
Released: July, 1972
Billboard peak: # 68




For lyrics, information and sheet music follow the links below.
Full Circle Song Links
The Mosquito

4 Billion Souls

The Peking King and the New York Queen

Hardwood Floor

It Slipped My Mind

Get Up And Dance

The Piano Bird

Verdilac

Good Rockin'


B Side
Tree Trunk

Associated Track
Hoochie Coochie Man



I like Full Circle because its a hint at the jazzier side of The Doors........true lyrically its a load of old toss but musically its really good.....I cringe to this day to 'Get Up & Dance' or 'Verdilac' and the less said about 'The Peking King & The New York Queen' the better.....truly one of Rays worst moments....but love to shut the words out and the godawful vocals and immerse myself in the music......
I am not a musician and have less musical talent than Sting but I have been listening to music long enough to know how good FC really is.....

Not that its all bad of course we have two great moments on it when Screaming Ray Daniels treats us to 'Hardwood Floor' and a cool version of 'Good rockin' and The Mosquito has to be the most infectious Doors track ever.....whenever I listen to it I get driven nuts for days singing it in my head....
John's 'Piano Bird' is not bad either with a cool Ray vocal to boot....

But all the good work is offset by '4 Billion souls' and the worst Doors track ever recorded 'It Slipped My Mind' ...pity the lyric had not slipped RKs mind before he wrote it....
Jim did say the lads should explore an instrumental avenue as a trio and Full circle proves his wise words.....sadly we never found out if they had learned that lesson as Ray called time and The Doors were then rock history.....

Another interesting thing to note is this is the only album without Bruce or Paul involved.....
Still should see the light of day as an Official release...not just some daft Russian pirate....



Check these links

Vote for the Post Jim albums

Other Voices

Tightrope Ride

Best Post Jim Moment

Post Jim Singles

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: Full Circle
Jeez. I enjoy this record way too much. This was the second post-Jim album and I can only assume the first one bombed because this one actually SOUNDS LIKE THE DOORS!!! And that's a good, a very good thing. There's lots of bluesy L.A. Woman-type stuff on here, but also some of the circusy and slithery stuff that made their early work so special. The weak voices hurt some of the tracks ("4 Billion Souls" would be a weirdo classic with Jim, but with Robbie singing, it's just kinda ugly), but all in all, man these are some nice songs. You'd be surprised! Just imagine them with Jim singing and you'll see why I like it so much. Good old Doors. Pulling that full circle.
Mark's Internet Record Reviews

The Doors: Full Circle
With richer production (credited to the band) than the previous album, Full Circle is easy on the ears, but the songs sound uninspired; the lyrics are often silly in the extreme. On this record it sounds like the band was trying to finally bury Morrison's ghost and go off in their own direction (although the closing track sounds awfully similar to "L.A. Woman"). But the vocal problem is still there. Manzarek sounds more enthusiastic this time around, but his vocals often sound strained; his stilted delivery on the oldie "Good Rockin' (Tonight)" makes one yearn for Morrison. Krieger's vocal turns on "4 Billion Souls" and "It Slipped My Mind" sound rather plain; Morrison could have made something of those. One surprise: "Verdilac" and "The Piano Bird" have a jazz flavor; veteran jazzman Charles Lloyd plays tenor sax on the former and flute on the latter. But did I mention silly lyrics? "Verdilac" has something to do with transcendental meditation, and "The Piano Bird" is about (I kid you not) the bond between a bird and a piano player! "The Mosquito", a mostly instrumental pseudo-Mexican number, is the only really memorable track. The album's title is appropriate; in late 1972, the Doors finally called it a day.
RAREBIRD'S ROCK AND ROLL RARITY REVIEWS

The Doors: Full Circle (EKS-75038)
Released in July 1972, Full Circle is The Doors eighth studio album with Elektra. The album is produced by The Doors and engineered by Henry Lewy.
With the album limping into a chart position of No. 68 perhaps The Doors had reached ever decreasing circles. However, purely for the joy of their art they delivered what is really a studio farewell and went out with some ‘good times’ rock and roll.
Absent are the dark undertones Morrison evoked and the ensuing lyrical eloquence, but replacing it is a newer ‘happier’ Doors that began to smile with the spirit of LA Woman. Clapping us in is ‘Get Up And Dance’ which has Ray and a team of munchkin backing vocalists prompting us to do just that. This will make your head nod, but not much more than that. It is nice however to hear references to the ‘year 2000’ from a 70’s number. I can’t help picturing Charlie Brown walking to school when I listen to this. ‘4 Billion Souls’ is a great track with Robby cleverly handling some impossibly high vocal notes. Ray has a smooth whistle keyboard sound on the instrumental interludes that wonder in after each verse. John’s drums, as ever, are right on the cheese punctuating every nuance‘Verdilac’ If you’re wandering what the word that rhymes with Cadillac is, try a reference to transcendental meditation. This song is groovy.
Veteran jazzman Charles Lloyd delivers superb tenor saxophone on the break that mingles fluently into some nice guitar mirroring. ‘Hardwood Floor’ revisits that ‘You Make Me Real’ sound with Ray pleading poverty into some cheesy blues. This track would sit well in the Rocky Horror Picture Show and perhaps could be described as a ‘filler’, but a good one nonetheless with the novelty of Robbie’s harmonica. ‘Good Rockin’ is the sort of track Ray would keep the audience distracted with while Jimbo was comatose backstage somewhere. The Roy Brown/Elvis Presley penned number is delivered bombastically by Mr. Manzarek and best left to the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis.
Gladly, the album taps me on the shoulder with ‘The Mosquito’, a mostly instrumental pseudo-Mexican number with a porno flick keyboard solo that transports me to the market mazes of Camden. ‘The Piano Bird’ credited to Densmore and rhythm guitarist Jack Conrad is crying out for Morrison’s vocals and in these instances I lament his untimely demise and departure from the band. Charles Lloyd adds some beautiful flute over the ‘Riders’ piano of Manzarek. While the lyrical concept is ostensibly silly, it still conjures up pleasant images and the song fades out sleepily. The penultimate track
‘It Slipped My Mind’ credited to, and sung by Krieger doesn’t really go anywhere. But then again there is a great lyric ‘my mind and body are still out of tune, I hope they run into each other real soon’ which holds my interest for it’s three minutes. Lastly, ‘The Peking King And The New York Queen’ brings us to the end of the album using the ride out from LA Women as the main hook. This track is Ray Manzarek at large with a goofy but funny conversation between Ray and an oriental half-wit in the break. Clydie King, Venetta Fields and Melissa Mackay lay down some ritzy backing vocals.
This track is growing on me and those single notes of Robbie’s stick mercilessly in the mind at bedtime. Total playing time 40.05 highest chart position No. 68

It is the popular thing to do to slate these albums, mostly out of some misplaced loyalty to Jim Morrison. Even the band’s official website ignores them completely in their discography. While the walls do not scream poetry, they definitely scream some good tunes. I love these albums not just because they are The Doors but because the songs endure constant playing. You would agree I’m sure, the enthusiasm contained therein is infectious. The Doors made eight studio albums back in the day, and no collection is complete without Other Voices and Full Circle.

by Alex Wallis from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. 3rd July 2003.
The Doors4Scorpywag Summer 2003

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

THE DOORS - STUDIO WORK AFTER JIM

The remaining members soldiered on without their frontman after a vote of confidence from Elektra Records. But, I think it became rather apparant that one couldn't work without the other. Ray handled the vocal duty but he just wasn't able to sing the songs the way Jim did. But to the band's credit these albums wern't bad. Aware that their fallen singer had cast a rather long shadow the remaining members didn't attempt to recreate. They chose to look forward.

The Doors made two further studio albums and provided some music to recordings of Jim's poetry.

Full Circle (1972) [elektra] - After a glimmer of hope presented itself on the previous album 'Full Circle' went about snuffing it out. Maybe a break would've benefitted the remaining members. The burnout here is so apparant. All of a sudden the gaping hole left at the mic stand becomes just too easy to see. Shame really.

ReleaseRoger from BBC Collective
Tuesday 10 February 2004

SOME INTERNET FAN VIEWS.
This little-known album from post-Morrison days is highly underrated. It’s a good collection of varied styles. There are rocking blues tracks such as “Good Rocking”, the Stones-like “Peking Man and New York Queen”, “Get up and Dance” and “Hardwood Floors”. “Verdilac” is an funky laid-back number, with some jazzy sections. “The Piano Bird” is a catchy under-stated number with flute. It calls to mind a bit of Jethro Tull or the Moody Blues except for the signature Doors keyboard.
“It slipped my mind” is a fun and groovy bit of Psychelia. “The mosquito” is bizarre but strangely enjoyable with its connecting Latin chorus lapsing into all sorts of intervening styles between including some hard-core organ. “4 Billion Souls” almost sounds a B-side Monkees song!
Apart from the signature organ and occasional sax, there is not too much to connect this to earlier Doors albums, which may explain its poor rating from fans of Jim Morrison. As a groovy album though, it delivers the goods.
tezza Jan 09, 2004

" An optimistic Doors album? Full Circle from what, in other words? Is Jim Morrison dead. 'Good Rockin' (Tonite) and what the fuck is a Verdilac. Indeed a rhetorical mishmash like this should prime some kinda pump. Let's hump 'em.
LA Woman was a perfect album, literature and boogie, mind dorking escape holes twixt cerebral ditties, with more than apt attention to our old friend production values. Fact is every single one of The Doors albums was optimistic, made me smile anyway. If they haven’t been a comfort to me. LA Woman and its predecessors, well, Other Voices was simply a fuzzier version of the same damned thing. Loved it. If you couldn’t hack the other voices then you’ve let your situation run away with you.
Maybe that’s a bit harsh. Morrison is unique. He has stopped putting out new records though. It’s been over a year since he released his last one. Anyway my Jim Morrison is not dead. Shame about yours.
If you don’t take things too seriously one of the greatest laugh riots of Newt Journalism is to be found in the June 1972 Esquire article on ‘The Real Life & Death Of Jim Morrison’. Why wuz the snake seven miles long, huh Jim? This is important. What Full Circle is, is distinctly unimportant. When you pass through he mid section of the infinity loop, full circle in other words, what happens is you squeeze out the intellectual doodoo and that’s what The Doors have done in this album. In fact in the headier boogie movement Manzarek’s organ work sounds as neat as that on live punk rock album ‘Joey Dee & The Starlighters Doin’ the Twist @ The Peppermint lounge’. If you think that means I don’t like it sport you better check out the bargain bins so you can be as sharp as I am!
I’ve had trouble getting past side one. In fact I don’t care about getting past side one, bass beat orientated hardwood floor stompin’ good rockin’……let yore verdilacs hang out! If I say it’s perfect music for a Coke date at the local teen club, you might get me wrong. So I’ll just say what the fuck is a Verdilac?

By Buck Sanders from Creem magazine November 1972.

Full Circle (8 stars) – A “Doors” album done a year after Jim’s death; it is however a fine album in it’s own right with just a couple tracks which are lacking consistency.
Jon Blanton 2004

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: Full Circle

Manzarek is a follower of Chinese numerology which states that all beings have nine incarnations, (according to Manzarek) Morrison was in his first while he himself was in his last. Here The Doors come Full Circle releasing their ninth and final album. Unfortunately it falls a long way short of bringing their art to its perfection. Indeed creativity sinks to an all time low on material like ‘Get Up & Dance’ and ‘Hardwood Floor’. The band plays like they know the game is up. Manzarek’s memoir of the Doors ‘Light My Fire’ begins and ends with the death of Morrison without so much as a mention of this album. Here’s why!
Record Collector July 2002

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

In retrospect Full Circle was a bit of a disaster but at the time we had our hearts in the right place. Then about halfway through the songwriting thing started to get on everyones nerves....Which song are we going to do. Ray's turning this way, Robby that way...so it all got a bit touchy which is why I don't think the album turned out that well.
John Densmore 1984

Once back in LA after the Other Voices tour the recording of a new album commenced. The Doors moved from the Doors Workshop to the A&M Studio in Hollywood and co-producer/engineer Bruce Botnick was gently dropped in the move. Jack Conrad was retained on bass for several songs and several other bassists were brought in to augment the sound. Chris Etheridge, Charles Larkey and Leland Sklar who were all noted session players..
Additional percussion was handled by Chico Batera and Bobbi Hall whilst veteran jazzer Charles Lloyd came in to handle sax and flute. Something that must have given Doors fans considerable pause for thought...sax and flute on a Doors album?
Also for the first time backing vocalists were included Clydie King, Melissa Mackay and Venetta Fields.
As it transpired the release of Full Circle demonstrated that it was for his jazz pedigree Lloyd had been invited to contribute and the LP also underlined the bands continuing indecision. On Other Voices the writing credits assigned all songs to The Doors whereas on Full Circle individual song credits were the order of the day. And its tempting to suppose that as per Soft Parade someone didn't want it thought they had contributed to such and such a track.
As before the album suffers from vocals ranging from the aceptable to the decidely dubious. Equally as before musicianship on all tracks is up to the usual Doors standard (i.e. impeccable).
Unfortunately the material is more often than not as dubious as the vocals not helped by substandard production.
The Doors: John Tobler & Andrew Doe

[pep]

Chris Etheridge was an original member of The Flying Burrito Bros the band Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman formed after leaving The Byrds he also played and recorded with later line ups after the death of Gram Parsons in 1973 ;D

[othercircles]

Ive heard it like 3 times now.. and I think.. i have to say Ray sucks bad on this one. His keyboard playing is great of course.. but his vocals sound like hes trying to hard.. i liked him better on OV when he did his "Close To You" style singing.

Robbies songs are the best.. and I think John Densmore relaly shines on this one. Lotta good playing.

Bruce Botnick was dropped for this? No wonder! Big mistake there. I was wondering why the mix sounded so... bad. Vocals and piano are too low on a few.. and the guitar is too loud on most of em. When I listen to this i often think I could have done a better job mixing it lol

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I been listening to it for over 30 years now and pretty much echo your sentiments. Musically its very good but its pretty lost in all other departments.....over-produced, lyrically bereft of any ideas and vocally challenged.
And what the hell they were thinking about with girlie backing singers boggles the mind....

[othercircles]

Yea i mean your the doors.. not fuckin MeatLoaf

[othercircles]

I'm referring to the female singers that is.

I love meatloaf otherwise tho ;-)

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Yeah that was without doubt the lowest spot in the bands history....female backing singers.....probably felt like a good idea to them at the time but hindsight is a great tool and looking back it was nothing of the sort

[sandwood]

A verdilac is a french vampire. I'm afraid I have no further explanation of what the song is about.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

sandwood said:

A verdilac is a french vampire. I'm afraid I have no further explanation of what the song is about.

I wonder if Ray knew anything about that or just liked the word...the song is bonkers
......wish the guys would tell the tale of the Other Voices/Full Circle era.........

[jimbo]

yeah that just all comes back to a LMF2 by Ray or if Robby would ever write a book have it go to at least 1973. Someone on the lizard longue is trying to write a post-morrison book on Ray, including all his solo material and the post-morrison Doors

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Thats cool ....good luck to them on that one.......

I think it would be better to have someone outside the band write about that period and get the members recollections than have one of them write it.

Its damn hard to find out stuff about that era....I had some great post Jim articles from 1971 and 1972 from the Brit press but sadly lost all my cuttings in the late 80s.....

[jimbo]

thats too bad, because its definitely an intriguing three years in the band's history

[stuart]

Does anyne here love"Get Up and Dance"? i think it's a great tune, love ray's singing on it.

[othercircles]

I dig it the more I hear it. I noticed too its off pitch... at record speed its impossible to play along with...they sped it up. I pitch corrected it till the guitars sounded in pitch.. and suddenly rays voice sounded much less annoying and more normal. Why oh why they sped it up I don't understand.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: Full Circle

Year Of Release: 1972
Record rating = 5
Overall rating = 9

A little more dark-sounding, and still has some hooks, but the bad stuff is really bad.
Best song: THE PIANO BIRD

Track listing: 1) Get Up And Dance; 2) 4 Billion Souls; 3) Verdilac; 4) Hardwood Floor; 5) Good Rockin'; 6) The Mosquito; 7) The Piano Bird; 8) It Slipped My Mind; 9) The Peking King And The New York Queen.

Again, underrated, but for some good reason. The critics that tended to look with condescendence on Other Voices suddenly decided to massacre the Jimless band's second effort - it sold miserably, got basically no positive reviews at all, and prompted Manzarek to abandon ship, which, of course, led to the band's final disappearance. Indeed, this second and last Morrison-less album caught the boys in a 'transition' phase that they just could not survive.
On one hand, there's a strong tendency to 'popularize' the sound, carried over from Other Voices: most of the songs are rather light and poppy. However, where the light and poppy songs of Other Voices were at least fun and displayed some limited creativity (read: decent original melodies), these numbers are usually just stupid. The rockers all follow the same simplistic pattern and end up all being based on the same melody that was moreover already present on 'In The Eye Of The Sun'. The opening 'Get Up And Dance', for instance, has the most un-Doorsish, banal, jazz-pop sound that could be expected from a half-professional lounge jazz band, much worse than 'Tell All The People', in fact. Jim must have rolled over in his grave on hearing that stuff. And Krieger's 'Hardwood Floor' begins as a lame take on 'Proud Mary' and ends as a carbon copy of 'Get Up And Dance'.
Even more horrid, though, is their decision to have a take on 'Good Rockin' Tonight': a song that has as much to do with the Doors' image as a Rembrandt painting has to do with a Picasso. It isn't sloppy or anything, but just to hear 'Good Rockin' Tonight' with Manzarek playing his usual keyboard style and trying to imitate Jerry Lee Lewis... an 'unforgettable' feeling indeed. I far preferred Manzarek's take on all those blues numbers, such as 'Close To You' on Absolutely Live, because, well, blues is blues, and good old time rockabilly is good old time rockabilly: leave the latter to CCR and concentrate on the former. And the other 'rocker', the overlong 'Peking King And The New York Queen' that closes the album, shows that by now the guys couldn't handle even a self-penned decent fast song. It's oh so painful for me to realize that by that time Krieger was wasting that magnificent guitar tone of his on such senseless trivialities.
The other tendency is quite the contrary: to return to their 'dark' image and conjure a few old tricks that would remind fans of what really was the music base behind Jim's overshadowing image. This leads to a couple interesting, if not very solid, songs like '4 Billion Souls' and the ominous, wah-wah-driven 'Verdilac' that have their hooks firmly in place and could have been hits in the hands of Jim; as it is, the lack of a forceful vocalist really cuts 'em all down, however good they might play. That said, the 'don't you see that we could be the first in history' bit is exceptionally moody, if not really in a Doorsish way: it reminds me far more of some late Sixties psychedelic Britpop a la Pretty Things, as there's basically no menace at all in the song. This is, in fact, the boys' main flaw: however dark or disturbing they try to make their songs, they always lack Jim's authenticity and end up sounding rather novel as a result. I mean, I do get my kicks out of 'Verdilac', but it's just a wah-wah driven catchy rocker to me, with a lengthy brass solo. I just don't notice all that atmosphere.
The record's high points, however, occur when they try to join both of these tendencies, especially on 'The Mosquito' - a song that begins as a silly Latin-influenced throwaway ('no me moleste mosquito...') and ends in a superb guitar jam with Krieger at his very, very best and gloomiest. I mean, we got the first part that's stupid but catchy and the second part that's unmemorable but solid, so the song as a whole is okay. The 'best-of' vote, however, goes to the oh so pretty ballad 'The Piano Bird' sung by Ray in a Jim-emulation tone; again, it mostly suffers from the lack of a good vocalist, because the melody is near magnificent and displays a strange tenderness and 'lone romanticism' that's mostly missing on here.
What I just want to say is that, all odds given, the boys were really anything but spent creatively - contrary to the usual opinion, the musical skeleton of the Doors is still here. If only Jim had still been sticking around at the time to add his unique touch of atmosphere, magic and 'lethal energy', at least half of these songs could have easily made it onto L. A. Woman Vol. 2 if graced with his voice. Yeah, I said that the rockers are bad, but imagine 'You Make Me Real' sung by Krieger and that'll sure make you turn away from it (if you haven't already, of course). The problem is that the band was doomed anyway after Jim's death - whatever they would try to do, hell, even if they'd found a new vocalist ten times as strong or as 'specifically charming' as Jim, they'd still be bound to live and record in his shadow. Which would be unbearable, of course. Good thing for them they understood it and disbanded themselves before they'd lost the last shreds of the band's reputation.
George Starostin from Only Solitaire.com

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Mexican Edition.