The Doors Compilation Albums

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Best Of The Doors (Quad Edition)



Who Do You Love
Soul Kitchen
Hello, I Love You
People Are Strange
Riders On The Storm
Touch Me
Love Her Madly
Love Me Two Times
Take It As It Comes
Light My Fire

The Best Of The Doors
Released: September, 1973
Billboard peak: # 158

This album is a Doors Oddity as it features a Quadrophonic vesion of The Doors Greatest Hits. I remember buying it in 1973 and playing it on my ordinary stereo and being dissapointed as to how poor it sounded as I did not understand that I needed a Quadrophonic player to actually appreciate the sound.
The bootleg Television Bleeding features this album....or at least half of it as a selection of Doors out takes and demos.....in fact it is simply two channels of this Quad LP passed off as something rare.


The Doors Greatest Hits


Hello, I Love You"
"Light My Fire"
"People Are Strange"
"Love Me Two Times"
"Riders On The Storm"
"Break On Through"
"Roadhouse Blues" (live)
"Touch Me"
"L.A. Woman"
"Love Her Madly"
"The Ghost Song"
"The End"



The Doors Greatest Hits
Released: October, 1980
US: 2x Platinum
Billboard peak: # 17


The Best Of The Doors


DISC 1:
1. Break On Through
2. Light My Fire
3. Crystal Ship, The
4. People Are Strange
5. Strange Days
6. Love Me Two Times
7. Alabama Song - (CD only)
8. Five To One
9. Waiting For The Sun
10. Spanish Caravan
11. When The Music's Over
DISC 2:
1. Hello, I Love You
2. Roadhouse Blues
3. L. A. Woman
4. Riders On The Storm
5. Touch Me
6. Love Her Madly
7. Unknown Soldier, The
8. End, The

This double album was the most succesful Doors album to date in terms of album sales.

The Best Of The Doors
Released: 1985
US: 10x Platinum certified Diamond status 14/2/07
Billboard peak: # 32


The Best of The Doors delivers exactly what it promises. Rather than relying solely on the hits, this collection also mines the darker, and often richer, recesses of The Doors material resulting in a fairly representative statement. The hits are here: "Light My Fire" with Ray Manzarek's keyboards on a dizzy, psychedelic spree; "People Are Strange," with Morrison's tortured psyche barely being held in check; "L.A. Woman," with its bluesy sexuality. More important, favorites of fans are here, like the controversially (at the time) explicit "The End," which was one of the first of Morrison's forays into narrative poetry. In hits like "Break on Through," "Hello I Love You," "Roadhouse Blues," and others, The Doors melded psychedelia, blues, hard-edged rock, and poetry from the edge like no other band before. The Best of The Doors is a trip in every sense of the word. --
Steve Gdula @ Amazon

The Doors Classics


Strange Days
Love Her Madly
Waiting For The Sun
My Eyes Have Seen You
Wild Child
The Crystal Ship
Five To One
Road House Blues
Land Ho!
I Can't See Your Face In My Mind
Peace Frog
The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
The Unknown Soldier

Classics
Released: May, 1985
Billboard peak: # 124

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors Soundtrack


The Movie
Riders On The Storm
Love Street
Break On Through (To The Other Side)
The End
Light My Fire
Ghost Song
Roadhouse Blues
Heroin (The Velvet Underground)
Carmina Burana (Carl Orff)
Stoned Immaculate
When The Music's Over
The Severed Garden (Adagio)
L.A. Woman

The Doors soundtrack
Released: March, 1991
US: Gold
Billboard peak: # 8

The Very Best Of The Doors


1. Break On Through (To The Other Side)
2. Light My Fire
3. People Are Strange
4. Riders On The Storm
5. L.A. Woman
6. Love Her Madly
7. Back Door Man
8. Touch Me
9. Hello, I Love You
10. Love Me Two Times
11. Twentieth Century Fox
12. The Crystal Ship
13. The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
14. Peace Frog
15. The End Lis
16. Roadhouse Blues (Live)

Released: 2000


Also originally featured as a 2 disc digi-pack with 4 remixes of Riders On The Storm and a multi media track with an interview with Ray and an e card advert. The Riders On The Storm remixes varies from interesting to awful. Also features a nice set of notes from long time Doors fan Max Bell.
Digi Pack Bonus CD:
1. Riders on the Storm [SpaceBats ReMix] *
2. Riders on the Storm [Ibizarre ReMix} *
3. Riders on the Storm [N.O.W.Mix] *
4. Riders on the Storm [Baez & Cornell Tunnel Club Mix] *




This is very, very close to being The Very Best of the Doors, and it does indeed contain most of the group's biggest hits and best-known songs, but this 2001 compilation does not supplant 1985's double-disc set The Best of the Doors as being the best Doors compilation on the market. It's not because the disc is sequenced non-chronologically, since it does have a momentum of its own (plus it does contain full-length album versions), but because it simply misses too many big songs. "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)," "Peace Frog," and even the group's version of "Back Door Man" may be fan favorites, but they do not replace "Five to One," "Alabama Song," "Waiting for the Sun," or "When the Music's Over," all missing here. That's not to say what's here isn't good, since it is, and it is given the same exceptional remastering heard on the 1999 set, The Complete Studio Recordings. So, it is indeed a good sampler -- but just don't think that it is a proper introduction, or exhaustive retrospective. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide


The Doors
The Very Best of the Doors
The Very Best . . . We Mean It This Time!

Okay, yes, they're one of the greatest rock bands of all time, but do we really need another repackaging of the Doors? We've already got a Greatest Hits and a double-CD set called The Best of the Doors, along with innumerable box sets and live albums -- and you can bet a lot of old fans are still hoarding their vinyl copies of 13 and Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, the original "best of" albums that have sadly gone out of print to make way for the more recent packages. Isn't this enough for a band that only managed to record six studio albums before its lead singer famously drank himself to death and croaked in a Paris bathtub?

Apparently not. Now, the greedy bastards at Elektra and their mega-corporate parent AOL Time Warner have seen fit to grace classic rock fans with The Very Best of the Doors, the "very" presumably included to distinguish this leaner, single disc set from its double-CD cousin The Best of the Doors, which has been kicking around since the '80s and has nearly the same song list. The question is: why? Why did Elektra release this? Did some marketing survey reveal that there are fans out there who simply won't pay the extra six bucks for a double album? And why couldn't those fans just go out and buy The Doors' Greatest Hits? I don't get it -- but maybe that's why I had such a short-lived career in music marketing and promotions.

But let's put aside my distaste for corporate rock for a moment and look at whether The Very Best of the Doors is indeed any good. Well, compared to The Doors' Greatest Hits, it's excellent -- there's more material here, and "The End" is included in all its sprawling Dionysian glory instead of the pathetic Apocalypse Now edit featured on that earlier release. It's probably also a little bit better than The Best of the Doors (that's the double-CD package -- stay with me, now). Casual fans can do without several of the tracks on that earlier compilation, like the rambling rock poetry of "When the Music's Over" (essentially a weaker follow-up to "The End"), as well as such mediocre numbers as "Waiting for the Sun", "Spanish Caravan", and their insufferably hokey Vietnam protest song, "The Unknown Soldier". But then again, this time around the Elektra execs have chosen to include "Twentieth Century Fox", a psychedelic rock ditty that's such a throwaway the Doors themselves chose to exclude it from their first greatest hits package, 13.

This is the problem typical of so-called "best of" packages for most great bands, especially the ones who don't always create radio-friendly material (and despite the popularity of stuff like "Light My Fire", there are plenty of Doors tunes that you'll probably never hear on the airwaves). There's always going to be one or two tracks you could live without, and a lot of material excluded that will have you scratching your head. Where, for example, is the seductive menace of "Moonlight Drive"? The leering cabaret grotesquery of "Whiskey Bar (Alabama Song)"? The swampy swagger of "Five to One", which featured one of Jim Morrison's best vocal performances? Where, in particular, is the blues-rock masterpiece "Roadhouse Blues", one of the Doors' best studio jams, or even the raucous live version featured on The Doors in Concert? Here we get a different live take on which the band sounds tired, with guitarist Robbie Krieger delivering a sleepy solo and Morrison intoning the words like he's forgotten what they mean. If you're familiar with any of these songs, and love them as much as I do, my advice is to go out and buy the Doors' original albums. Sure, they're famously uneven affairs -- for every blistering "Roadhouse Blues", there's a simpering "Blue Sunday", a pretentious "Queen of the Highway" -- but it's worth it, I think, for any halfway serious fan to own all the songs, in the order in which the band originally put them together.

For everyone else, The Very Best of the Doors is as good an overview as any of the band's biggest hits and most important songs, all in their original album versions (offending lyrics like "She gets high" on the song "Break on Through" -- which still gets truncated to "She get" on most radio stations -- are here in all their anti-establishment glory). There's the pop majesty of Ray Manzarek's organ on "Light My Fire", the creepy jazz-rock of "Riders on the Storm", the raunchy blues of "Back Door Man", the theatrical raga rock epic "The End" (yes, all eleven minutes of it), and all those great '60s pop tunes that classic rock radio just can't seem to get enough of -- "Love Her Madly", "Love Me Two Times", "Hello, I Love You". Even the much-derided "Touch Me", with its overwrought horns and string section, is back around for another greatest-hits appearance -- it was a top ten song, dammit, so it's gotta turn up here, no matter how much it sucks.

And, of course, there's the gloomy, riveting "L.A. Woman", which just may be the Doors signature track, with all the band's members (including two unsung session men, bassist Jeffy Scheff and rhythm guitarist Marc Benno) jamming together masterfully over the song's simple three-chord blues riff, propelling Morrison's oft-repeated lyrical portrait of L.A.'s dark side (so oft-repeated it's become a cliché, but still sounds like it could have been written last week -- "Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light? / Or just another lost angel / City of night") down a dark tunnel of echoing barrelhouse piano licks and grinding guitar chords. I find "L.A. Woman" to be a kind of Rorschach test for Doors listeners -- most people who love the band rate it among their best songs, and most folks who can't stand the Doors' particular brand of rock-god pretension find "L.A. Woman" unlistenable. To me it's the kind of song only bands like the Doors and U2, so utterly determined to Make a Statement, have ever been able to pull off -- a song so pretentious it actually becomes unpretentious, laying forth its message in terms so direct and simple (cryptic "Mr. Mojo Risin'" bridge aside) that it succeeds where many another subtler track has failed.

My other favorite moment on The Very Best of the Doors is an unjustly overlooked track called "Peace Frog" off the band's fifth and bluesiest album, Morrison Hotel;. Probably not as well-known simply because it's too intense for rock radio, "Peace Frog" is a masterpiece, with an irresistible rock groove led by Krieger's scorching guitar and some of the creepiest, most hallucinatory lyrics Morrison ever penned ("Blood screamed the veins as they chopped off her fingers / Blood will be born in the birth of a nation / Blood is the rose of mysterious union"). Kudos to whoever decided to include it on a greatest hits compilation.

It's also worth mentioning the other track here that doesn't appear on any other current Doors "best" package: "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)", a swampy blues-rock jam accompanying some of Morrison's more interesting spoken word ramblings ("Out here on the perimeter there are no stars / Out here we is stoned / Immaculate"). It's a cool song, but hardly as essential as "Peace Frog" or the more familiar tracks on this disc. Presumably it was chosen as a good example of the Doors jamming to Morrison's poetry, and indeed it's certainly a lot better than, say, the unbearably pretentious "Horse Latitudes", or the doggerel Morrison's bandmates posthumously set to dreary jazz-rock fusion on An American Prayer.

So is The Very Best of the Doors worth owning? It probably comes down to "Peace Frog", actually. If you agree with me that "Peace Frog" ranks right up with there with "L.A. Woman", "Roadhouse Blues", "Hello, I Love You" and "Break on Through" as the Doors' best work, then this is the first time all those tracks have appeared together on a single disc. On the other hand, if you really can't live without "Five to One" and "The Unknown Soldier" (or the studio version of "Roadhouse Blues", for that matter), by all means cough up the extra bucks and go get the Best Of double CD. It just depends on which tracks you judge to be more important.

The rest of us can go out and buy the original albums -- and mourn the loss of those earlier "best of" packages, 13 and Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, which for my money were better than any of the current best-of Doors compilations -- even better, in some ways, than the original albums themselves. These two early forays into repackaging the Doors catalog went about it in a way that actually made sense of the band's conflicting impulses toward art and pop. 13, released in 1970 to tide fans over while the band labored over their sixth and final album, L.A. Woman, showcased the Doors as creators of great pop songs, culling all the catchiest tunes from their first five releases. Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, released shortly after Morrison's death, flaunted the band's more experimental, arty side, highlighting poetic epics like "The End" and "When the Music's Over" as well as some of their weirder, moody little numbers like "The WASP" and "End of the Night". Compared to these collections, The Very Best of the Doors is as much of a mess as the Doors' own albums were, although that very messiness may, in the end, better reflect the spirit of this most Dionysian of rock bands. Whether you buy this latest greatest hits collection or not, I encourage anyone who's not familiar with the Doors outside of their oldies radio classics to hear more of them. Love them or hate them, their wild pretensions and stylistic excesses really did redefine what rock 'n' roll was capable of.
by Andy Hermann PopMatters.com

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

THE DOORS
Legacy: The Absolute Best


Break On Through (To The Other Side)
Back Door Man
Light My Fire
Twentieth Century Fox
The Crystal Ship
Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
Soul Kitchen
The End
Love Me Two Times
People Are Strange
When The Music’s Over
My Eyes Have Seen You
Moonlight Drive
Strange Days
Hello, I Love You
The Unknown Soldier
Spanish Caravan
Five To One
Not To Touch The Earth
Touch Me
Wild Child
Tell All The People
Wishful Sinful
Roadhouse Blues
Waiting For The Sun
You Make Me Real
Peace Frog
Love Her Madly
L.A. Woman
Riders On The Storm
The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
The Changeling
Gloria
Celebration Of The Lizard (now removed from the disc)



Very bizarre album Legacy! After lying their arces off about the plethora of out-takes they planned to bring out ...indeed putting BMR on hiatus to do just that .......and lying about the existence of an out-take of Celebration Of The Lizard The Doors release another Best Of with a version of COTL. Many (me included) thought it a cynical ploy to get fans to purchase another best of they already had and the equally cynical assertion that the version of COTL was a one from The Doors archive went toward making another shabby example of The Doors selling of The Doors.
As it turned out the version of COTL was just the bootleg version tarted up by Bruce Botnick which made their lies even worse and the distrust fans felt increased. Now astoundingly COTL has been removed from Legacy completely a marketing bollock of monumental proportion which begs the question do they want that bootleg for their 2007 lie fest as they celebrate the fake 40th anniversary of The Doors (the band).
A good compilation true for new fans to discover The Doors but the level of trust that The Doors and their fans had ten twenty years ago has been eroded by the constant distortions and utter lies that have come out of The Doors Ivory Towers in the last decade. I as a fan of nerer 40 years than 30 would not trust them as far as I could throw my record collection.

The Doors - Legacy – The Absolute Best
The Doors … just the mention of that name brings thoughts of the ‘60s, Los Angeles, sex, drugs, and the poignant and mysterious lead singer Jim Morrison. Legacy - The Absolute Best is a two CD set that successfully encapsulates the legendary and seemingly surreal career of one of rock music’s most important and timeless bands. Their music is still incredibly vital and strong today and that is exactly why best of sets such as this will continue to fly out of the stores. This music is sheer magic that will continue to find new audiences as long as man remains in the physical form he now inhabits, ummm … sounds like something Jim Morrison would have said while cruising along on an LSD trip.

The legend of the music will continue to evolve and gather attention for many years to come no doubt. There is something spooky and magical about this music and when you watch footage of Morrison singing and then look into his eyes, you see pools of darkness that are indefinable; it always gives me a chill. He was a troubled soul but a true poet and musical icon that will go unmatched in the chronicles of music.

So what makes this set the ultimate and absolute best in comparison to others? I am not sure I can agree it is the very best but I did enjoy every millisecond of it. Okay, it is the absolute best 2 CD set I have ever heard. It has one previously unreleased track, which is an ultra rare thing in and of itself when pondering the glut of best of sets that have hit the racks over the years, so it has that going for it right from the get go. The sound and production are beautiful and clear and the liner notes thoughtful, deep and descriptive, capturing the spirit of the band and the time they made the music. The pictures in booklet are wonderful as well, each one telling a story. For me all of these things are extremely important while listening to Doors music. Robbie Krieger (guitar), Jim Morrison (vocals), Ray Manzarek (keyboards) and John Densmore (drums) are looked upon as Shamans, holy men of music in the liner notes. Okay, I will buy that description. Today they sound like the saviors of rock ‘n’ roll compared to some of the bands that only pale in comparison. Despite that fact, the bands that cannot even cast a shadow on the Doors legacy are selling millions of copies of their albums. Unfortunately, there are not bands like them in existence today.

They were just as important and distinctive as other ‘60s legends and as revered and idolized now as they were at the height of their success before Morrison’s death. Morrison was the maniac genius with the heart and soul of an American poet and hero. What a package he was. How much more dramatic and cinematic does it get than the lyrics and music of this band? I would venture to say that this band would always give you plenty for your entertainment value.

The absolute best, that is debatable, if I listen a few more times it will become believable. This music holds a certain animal magnetism and power over me like no other; it is comparable to the appeal of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who. Nothing can touch that kind of feeling nor duplicate it, it's special. I highly recommend this CD set. Play it loud and remember when the music was real and every word was felt like the sting of a bee. It does not get any better than this; it will have your brain squirmin’ like a toad. The Lizard King lives…
Rating: 5/5

Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck, from Progressive World August 2003

The Doors Legacy the Absolute Best
'Greedy Liars Try To Empty Doors Fans Wallets!'
'Celebration of The Lizard'.
For a long time The Doors via thier website promised that due to a 'plethora' (thier word) of studio out-takes that had been 'discovered' they were going to release a new CD of unheard material including COTL. So important was this release that they put the release of live concerts 'on hold' until they had sorted out this plethora.
But as so often with these people it was a pack of lies used to give them time to come to terms with BMRs disatrous showing caused totally by the incompetence of Bright Midnight management. Finally they just stopped talking about this plethora and released a 'Best Of' instead. Whats such a big deal about a Best of you might say....its a cool way to bring in new fans..
True. But this Best Of had a rather unusual selling point.
A studio version of COTL. So instead of an out-take disc including COTL we were instead treated to another Best Of to go with the seemingly endless number of Best Ofs we already had but with the Doors 'Holy Grail' of the studio Celebration to ensure long time fans bought it as well as new fans....
Very cynical ploy from very cynical people...
Add to this the rumour that this version of COTL was in fact a new version different to the one doing the rounds as a bootleg and it becomes even darker.
As it turned out the version was in fact the same as the bootleg one and just tarted up by Botnick. I was lucky I had the studio COTL and someone burned me part 2 of Legacy with the upgraded COTL which is very nice BTW but not worth paying £25 for.
So once more Doors fans manipulated by greedy people and fed lies to make a $ for them.
Legacy is a nice compilation true and great for new fans but it exposed the darker side of The Doors PLC money making machine.
BMR was shelved because of this?
What followed was Boot Yer Butt a high priced bootleg box set and we are soon to have Best Of BYB which will be most likely equally expensive as a 2 CD set I imagine.
So was Legacy worthwhile to you or are you like me just a tad fed up with being manipulated to keep these people in biscuits?
Alex Patton


The Doors Essential Rarities


1. Hello To The Cities - (live)
2. Break On Through (To The Other Side) - (live)
3. Roadhouse Blues - (live)
4. Hyacinth House - (demo)
5. Who Scared You - (demo)
6. Whiskey, Mystics And Men - (demo)
7. I Will Never Be Untrue - (live)
8. Moonlight Drive - (demo)
9. Queen Of The Highway - (alternate version)
10. Someday Soon - (live)
11. Hello I Love You - (demo)
12. Orange County Suite - (demo)
13. Soft Parade, The - (live)
14. End, The - (live)
15. Woman Is A Devil - (outtake)

The Doors - Essential Rarities
This collection, originally available only as a bonus disc in The Doors: The Complete Studio Recordings box set (fleshed out here with another outtake track, "Woman Is a Devil," from that set) is split just about evenly between a sometimes motley collection of outtakes and demos and a better slate of live material. It also argues that while most rock bands cut their teeth on blues and other roots music, then develop a distinct sound (or sell out to pop fashion trends), the Doors seemed to evolve ass-backwards, the band's, and particularly Jim Morrison's, college poet-nihilist pretensions slowly giving way to more blues-based influences. Indeed, after a few legendary years of late-1960s success and excess, Morrison had more than enough reasons to sing the blues. The studio leftovers here underscore why they're called "outtakes" (1965 demos of "Hello, I Love You" and "Moonlight Drive" are historically interesting, if a bit bubblegummy) though there are some highlights. "Whiskey, Mystics and Men" showcases another side of the band's tastefully odd Kurt Weill fetish; a '69 alternate of "Queen of the Highway" is almost lounge hipster chic; and "Orange County Suite" is a dirge from '70. Live cuts (all from '69 and '70) range from a baroque, affected PBS telecast of "The Soft Parade" to an apocalyptic, overwrought "The End."
--Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

These were interesting Vinyl ones I used to have back in the 70s......



THE DOORS Star Collection
Volume 1
1973
1. Waiting For The Sun
2. Roadhouse Blues
3. My Wild Love
4. Unhappy Girl
5. Light My Fire
6. Maggy M'Gill
7. Back Door Man
8. Land Ho
9. Peace Frog
10. Wishful Sinful



THE DOORS Star Collection
Volume 2
1974
1. Hello I Love You
2. Sould Kitchen
3. My Eyes Have Seen You
4. Runnin' Blue
5. The Soft Parade
6. Touch Me
7. The Crystal Ship
8. Wild Child
9. Love Street
10. Horse Latitudes
11. Riders On The Storm


Mexican Edition!

Also this one from the 70s which contained the first two albums.


And this CD of three of The Doors albums released by WEA.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

This was another special edition of The Very Best Of The Doors with 37 original remastered Doors recordings on 3 vinyl LPs. Featuring Mosquito from Full Circle as a bonus Densmore, Manzarek & Krieger track and a bonus vinyl 12" single featuring two of the "Riders On The Storm" remixes that the CD version had as well as four new ones.



• Triple LP on 150g vinyl
• Bonus 12" features Riders on the Storm remixes 2000
• Inc. Bonus Densmore, Manzarek & Krieger track

Selections:
LP 1
1. Light My Fire
2. Hello, I Love You
3. People Are Strange
4. Love Me Two Times
5. Touch Me
6. Strange Days
7. Spanish Caravan
8. Moonlight Drive
9. We Could Be So Good Together
10. The Unknown Soldier
11. Queen of the Highway
12. Shaman's Blues
13. The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
14. L.A. Woman
LP 2
1. Whiskey, Mystics and Men
2. Summer's Almost Gone
3. You Are Lost Little Girl
4. When the Music's Over
5. Densmore, Manzarek & Krieger - No Me Moleste Mosquito
6. Riders on the Storm
7. Break on Through
8. Roadhouse Blues
9. Soul Kitchen
10. Love Her Madly
11. Alabama Song
LP 3
1. Peace Frog
2. Waiting for the Sun
3. Who Scared You
4. The Crystal Ship
5. Wishful Sinful
6. Love Street (Doors)
7. Wintertime Love
8. The Spy
9. Back Door Man
10. My Eyes Have Seen You
11. Five to One
12. The End

Bonus LP:
1. Riders on the Storm [Revival Mix] *
2. Riders on the Storm [Ibizarre Mix} *
3. Riders on the Storm [N.O.W. Sofa Mix] *
4. Riders on the Storm [PNAU Club Mix] *
5. Riders on the Storm [Baez & Cornell Radio Mix] *
6. Riders on the Storm [Baez & Cornell Club Mix] *

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Selection Of The Doors
1. Break On Through To The Other Side
2. Light My Fire
3. People Are Strange
4. Love Me Two Times
5. The Unknown Soldier
6. Hello, I Love You
7. Love Street
8 Touch Me
9. Wild Child
10. Roadhouse Blues
11. Waiting For The Sun
12. Land Ho!
13. Love Her Madly
14. LA Woman
15. Riders On The Storm
16. The End


Rare 1991 Japanese 16-track DJ promotional ONLY CD anthology sent to radio stations and reviewers in advance of the release of The Doors Soundtrack. Including such classic tracks as Light My Fire, Hello I Love You and Break On Through, it is issued with a custom picture booklet with full album discography, Japanese bio and promotion for the Soundtrack.



THE DOORS Super Deluxe Rare 1973 Japanese only 14-track LP on the blue Elektra label, unique gold embossed gatefold picture sleeve with integral picture/lyric booklet & 'star' obi-strip.

1. Light My Fire
2. Touch Me
3. People Are Strange
4. The Unknown Soldier
5. Wild Child
6. Back Door Man
7. Love Street
8. Hello I Love You
9. Land Ho
10. The Crystal Ship
11. Love Me Two Times
12. Moonlight Drive
13. You're Lost Little Girl
14. Roadhouse Blues



THE DOORS Grandes Exitos De.
Rare 1971 Mexican-only Elektra/ Gamma label 35-track 3-LP box set, superb unique picture slipcase picture sleeve with all titles in Spanish with English translation.


8-Track Greatest Hits

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

THE DOORS Golden Doors Volume 2
Very rare Japanese-only Elektra blue 'guitar player' logo label 12-track vinyl LP, unique textured gatefold picture sleeve with integral lyric sheet
SWG-7188.



1. Touch Me
2. You Make Me Real
3. Tell All The People
4. Runnin' Blue
5. Wishful Sinful
6. The Soft Parade
7. Land Ho!
8. Wild Child
9. Moonlight Drive
10. Horse Latitudes
11. Spanish Caravan
12. Five To One

THE DOORS Golden Doors Vol. 2
Very rare original 1968 Japanese only Elektra blue label 5-track stereo 7" EP.


1. Touch Me
2. Tell All The People
3. Runnin' Blue
4. Wishful Sinful
5. Wild Child

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: The Best Of (Elektra)**

DOES THE WORLD honestly need another Doors compilation?
The policy makers at Elektra appear to think so. And they could be right. But The Best Of The Doors isn't the one.

There have already been three Doors compilations albums, one of them (Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine) a double. You could reasonably call Best Of a compilation of the compilations. Would you believe that only two of the eleven tracks have not been compiled before?

Now, the Doors with Jim Morrison cut six studio albums, and released a live double set too.

That's a lot of tracks, and since the band's albums all maintain a very high standard – there isn't one Doors track that doesn't have redeeming features at the very least – there's enough obviously commercial, 45-style music to just about keep 2 single and one double compilation albums distinct from one another. Barely.

But, as I've already said, there's a lot of tracks untouched, and it isn't coincidence that they're all the ones that demonstrate Jimbo testing the outer limits of normal human behaviour. It was the hint of madness underlying Jim's work that gave him such a fatal fascination for both sexes. His appeal relates to the thrill of living on the San Andreas fault, threatening daily to envelop the whole of L.A. and San Francisco in one almighty, shuddering, volcanic, churning gape and gulp.

If you check Best Of, it's all chirpy, uptempo numbers – 'Hello, I Love You', 'Touch Me', 'Love Her Madly', 'Take It As It Comes' and so forth. All those songs are favourites of mine; they certainly deserve their place on the album in terms of musical merit, no question. But where's the mad, bad, and dangerous to know Morrison who intones with such crazed, stupefying splendour, "When all else fails we can whip the horses' eyes and make them sleep and cry..."? next time Elektra's planning on buying some new office furniture courtesy of Jim Morrison's posthumous charms, they should release the long-awaited
out-takes from live tapes and studio sessions.

Vivien Goldman
Sounds
30th October 1976

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

THE DOORS The Very Best Of: 2007 UK 'Deluxe Limited Edition' 3-disc set celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their first release and comprises a 34-track 2-CD collection of of their much-loved classic hits including 'Light My Fire', 'Hello I LoveYou', 'Riders On The Storm', 'L.A.Woman', 'Love Her Madly' and more plus BONUS DVD featuring 5 live performances filmed during their Historic 1968 European tour, all presented in a deluxe foil-stamped digibook complete with 32 page booklet complete with rare photos, extended liner notes and lyrics!.

CD1:
1. Break On Through
2. Strange Days
3. Alabama Song
4. Love Me Two Times
5. Light My Fire
6. Spanish Caravan
7. Crystal Ship
8. The Unknown Soldier
9. The End [Full Version]
10. People Are Strange
11. Back Door Man
12. Moonlight Drive
13. End Of The Night
14. Five To One
15. When The Music's Over

CD2:
1. Bird Of Prey
2. Love Her Madly
3. Riders On The Storm
4. Orange County Suite
5. Runnin' Blue
6. Hello I Love You
7. The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)
8. Stoned Immaculate
9. Soul Kitchen
10. Peace Frog
11. LA Woman
12. Waiting For The Sun
13. Touch Me
14. The Changeling
15. Wishful Sinful
16. Love Street
17. The Ghost Song
18. Whiskey Mystics And Men
19. Roadhouse Blues

DVD:
Filmed during their European tour in 1968:
1. Light My Fire
2. Hello, I Love You
3. Spanish Caravan
4. Unknown Soldier
5. Love Me Two Times


THE DOORS The Very Best Of (2007 UK CD album celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their first release and features 20 of their classic hits including 'Light My Fire', 'Hello I Love You', 'Riders On The Storm', 'L.A.Woman', 'Roadhouse Blues', 'Love Her Madly', 'Peace Frog' and more...).

1. Break On Through
2. Light My Fire
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Hello I Love You
5. People Are Strange
6. Strange Days
7. Riders On The Storm
8. L.A.Woman
9. Touch Me
10. Roadhouse Blues
11. Peace Frog
12. Love Street
13. Crystal Ship
14. Soul Kitchen
15. Love Her Madly
16. Back Door Man
17. Alabama Song
18. Moonlight Drive
19. The Unknown Soldier
20. The End

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: Album Guide - Essential Rarities (2000)

Originally made available as part of the exhaustive 1999 Doors boxed set The Complete Studio Recordings, but reissued, on demand, as a stand-alone 15-track CD in 2000, this intriguing mix of cracking live tracks from different eras of the band’s career, fascinating alternative takes of existing classics, previously unreleased bonus tracks and some unexpectedly high-quality demos going back to the stunning original 1965 tape that landed them their deal with Elektra Records, while most of us, in truth, can probably live without it, again this is an absolute must-have addition to any serious Doors fan’s collection, offering an insightful alternative history to a story that’s now been told in countless books, documentaries and film (or an imaginative blending of all three in Oliver Stone’s much-maligned but fun 1991 film). Timeless, like the band itself…

Tracklist: Hello To The Cities / Break On Through / Roadhouse Blues / Hyacinth House / Who Scared You / Whiskey Mystics And Men / I Will Never Be Untrue / Moonlight Drive / Queen Of The Highway / Someday Soon / Hello I Love You / Orange County Suite / Soft Parade / End / Woman Is A Devil

Mick Wall 2008

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

With Diamond Award Certification, The Doors Records Join Select Few 10 Million Plus Sellers



The Best of The Doors, the compilation of hits from The Doors records released throughout the band’s short lived career, has been awarded Diamond Certification. For those in the know, the RIAA tracks CD and record sales and has awarded Diamond status (that’s also known as 10 x Platinum) to only 104 releases in its history. Along with The Best of The Doors, Rhino publishes dozens of other Doors CDs, including remastered versions of The Doors records, the Perception box set collection and The Band box set of seven limited edition vinyl albums (dressed in faux lizard skin, naturally).

Doors singer Jim Morrison died in 1971, one in a long line of rock front men (and women) who have died prematurely. Fans of New Order cds likely know that the Manchester band was created when Joy Division singer Ian Curtis committed suicide; the rest of the band stayed together and vowed to continue recording but changed their name to New Order. The three surviving Doors members, (John Densmore, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger) put their differences and feuding over use of the band’s name aside at least momentarily to accept their Diamond Award in New York City. Interestingly, given that Diamond indicates sales of over 10 million copies, every single person living in New York City could have been given a copy of the doors records and still not matched the 10 million copies The Best of The Doors has sold. In an age where the top selling CDs of the year are lucky to sell a million copies, this performance for a “best of” compilation nearly four decades after the band’s demise is especially impressive.



Doors receive Diamond award for 1985 Best Of LP in December 2009 but interestingly not together..

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Promo poster for The Best Of The Doors

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Doors: The Best Of (Elektra)**


DOES THE WORLD honestly need another Doors compilation? The policy makers at Elektra appear to think so. And they could be right. But The Best Of The Doors isn't the one.

There have already been three Doors compilations albums, one of them (Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine) a double. You could reasonably call Best Of a compilation of the compilations. Would you believe that only two of the eleven tracks have not been compiled before?

Now, the Doors with Jim Morrison cut six studio albums, and released a live double set too.

That's a lot of tracks, and since the band's albums all maintain a very high standard – there isn't one Doors track that doesn't have redeeming features at the very least – there's enough obviously commercial, 45-style music to just about keep 2 single and one double compilation albums distinct from one another. Barely.

But, as I've already said, there's a lot of tracks untouched, and it isn't coincidence that they're all the ones that demonstrate Jimbo testing the outer limits of normal human behaviour. It was the hint of madness underlying Jim's work that gave him such a fatal fascination for both sexes. His appeal relates to the thrill of living on the San Andreas fault, threatening daily to envelop the whole of L.A. and San Francisco in one almighty, shuddering, volcanic, churning gape and gulp.

If you check Best Of, it's all chirpy, uptempo numbers – 'Hello, I Love You', 'Touch Me', 'Love Her Madly', 'Take It As It Comes' and so forth. All those songs are favourites of mine; they certainly deserve their place on the album in terms of musical merit, no question. But where's the mad, bad, and dangerous to know Morrison who intones with such crazed, stupefying splendour, "When all else fails we can whip the horses' eyes and make them sleep and cry..."? next time Elektra's planning on buying some new office furniture courtesy of Jim Morrison's posthumous charms, they should release the long-awaited out-takes from live tapes and studio sessions.

Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 30 October 1976

[wplj]

Please pardon my ignorance, but could you please provide the provenance of the version of COTL that appeard first on Legacy, and then on the 40th Anniversary Edition of WFTS?

You state this version had previously made the rounds on bootlegs and that the official version is the same, but "tarted up" by Botnick. What was done to "tart it up?" Was it a remix, re-EQ, what? Surely it had to have been better quality than a boot ...

Also, do you know if it is one complete take, or an edit of 2 or more takes? I have heard conflicting stories. Also, anyone know the recording date(s)?

Thank you.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The recording date would be sometime between February 19th and late March 1968. No information better than that I am afraid.

Regarding COTL.
The first time fans got the chance to hear the studio COTL was when a version recorded from a tape, supposedly through a TV amplifier to boost the sound, came into the hands of DCM and was released without DCM knowledge to the trading world.

This bootleg version appeared on Legacy tarted up and passed off as something from The Doors archive.
Tarted up how?
How do I know I am an engineer who built roads and bridges not mixed records
It sounded a slight upgrade from the tape I had of the thing.

The 40 year version was first reported to be the same version as Legacy but in fact may well have been either the original version of the tape that was recorded by fans through the TV or maybe the master of that tape from The Doors archive itself.
Botnick described it as 'a demo' recorded by him 'without Paul Rothchild as a work in progress.'
Which is as far as I am aware all the information we have on that.
I am sure the tape trading community knows more about this but I have never been a trader so am not privy to their secrets.
It seems to be the same version as the bootleg but a lot better.

As to whether it was a complete take or not.
Botnick described it as a demo so the answer to that would seem to me to be yes.

[wplj]

OK. Thought you meant tarted up as in overdubbed or remixed or something.

The version the Doors released was probably just from a better source. Never heard the boot, obviously. I (usually) don't play that game ...

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I been into bootlegs since the 70s. Used to tape gigs and give away and sell the tapes to mates and basically anyone who wanted the stuff. Doors boots were always like penguin shit in the Gobi desert until the 80s.

Yep I meant tarted up in the respect it sounded slightly better than the bootleg copy. The Legacy release was I am pretty sure the same source as the bootleg.
But the 40 year mixed one I am not as certain.
It's difficult trying to play one against the other and my old ears ain't what they used to be due to Geezer Butler in the 70s.
But I would put money on they are all the same source but it's probable that the 40 year mix was one The Doors actually had.
I think that's why the Legacy COTL dissapeared. Maybe they did actually discover a copy themselves.
Still does not alter the fact a lot of lies and deceit have come from The Doors camp about COTL. But that's par for the course for that lot.
To be honest I no longer trust anything these liars say anymore and the latest bullshit about discovering some lost out takes from LA Woman shows the lengths these assholes will go to just to make a buck.
They must have drawers full of 'lost' material just waiting for an opportunity to rip us off with some revamp of one of the albums with a rare 'lost' track.

Being a fan of hundreds of bands since the 60s and 70s I notice how these guys treat their fanbase as well as how our guys perform and generally most of the bands from that period are fair to their fanbase and do not milk their back catalogue unduly.

The Doors are a bunch of lying thieves in my eyes who would steal the pennies from our dead eyes if they could.
Just look at how they treated Morrison alive and even dead.
If they do that to their so called mate then we have not got a fucking chance of a decent shake from these crooks.

[wplj]

I hear ya.

But, being the sucker I am ... I will check out the new LA Woman reissue this fall ... and the Hoffman-mastered box next year ... and (if I have a player by then) the HB Blu-Ray when it comes out!



You are correct. They are very shitty to their fan base compared to most acts.

Ah the perils of being a music nerd!

[wplj]

I did just order the Soundstage Performances DVD from amazon.co.uk ... from a private seller; Used.

They aren't getting money from me for the moment, anyway!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Jul 21, 2011 7:09:23 GMT wplj said:

Ah the perils of being a music nerd!

Never suffered from audiophilia myself as I prefer the rawness of the lower tech end.
The 40 year mixes are amazing but I am old fasioned and think too much tech is too much sometimes and just because you can remix something does not mean always that you should.
I am sure Steve H is excellent at what he does but can he 'improve' on the 40 year mixes.
I deliberately put improve in quotation marks as once again it depends on how you define the word.
An improvement does not always equate into something 'better'.
Once again quotation marks as it also depends on how you define the word better.
It's a minefield the English language

One of the things I enjoy about The Doors is how deep you can get into this kind of shit with them.
They are not just the most unique rock act ever they are for me the most interesting and I have been listening to rock since it pretty much started as a genre.

The leap from vinyl to CD was awesome but with some bands it came with a price. Sometimes something essential would be lost. I have noticed that with a few bands I happen to love from the 60s and 70s. Luckily I felt The Doors got away with it probably due to Rothchild and Botnick being involved. Since Paul died Bruce has kept up an interest and I feel he has done a good job in keeping the essential spirit of the albums alive.
But how far can we go with these things until that 'spirit' is lost.
Again it depends what you mean by spirit and that is a personal thing.

I remember when Page remastered Zeppelin and eliminated Jones bass from the albums.

Sometimes you go too far with this kind of stuff.
It's like The Soft Parade nude argument. Be interested to hear your audiophile take on that one.
Should we alter History to suit our mood and whims?
It's a diffcicult question and merits tend to come from both
arguments.

I will of course get LAW this autumn as I too look forward to hearing it all but will not give those crooks one cent ever again