Doors - Essential Rarities
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Free Music Notes for Essential Rarities
Free Music Review: Rarities, maby. Essential, no.
Hit: 3 Stars
Let me start off by telling you that this IS NOT the "Best of the'97 Box Set" as it claims to be. There were some songs on the box that were much better than some of these [bad] basement demos.
Let's take a look at what is on this disc and what should have been on this disc...
1."Hello To the Cities"- uh... should have been left off, just
Jim saying hello to people in several different cities.
2."Break On Through"-a very good live take of this song, this one
deserves its spot on the disc.
3."Roadhouse Blues"-this is the edited version of this tune (missing intro), good but it's on the latest US "Best Of" release.
4."Hyacinth House"-the only really good demo on here, not bad.
5."Who Scared You"-should have been added to the album "The Soft
Parade", still good though. Was included on 1972's "Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine".
6."Whiskey, Mystics, an Men"-uh, good but not essential, should have been added to an album.
7."I Will Never Be Untrue"-an exceptional take,deserves it's inclusion.
8."Moonlight Drive"- another cheesey early demo that really gets annoying after a while.
9."Queen Of the Highway"- alright,but that song was never very good anyway.
10."Someday Soon"-the sound quality on this one is really bad!
11."Hello,I Love You"-another annoying demo, even Manzarek admits that it makes the Doors sound like the Monkees(ugh!).
12."Orange County Suite"-an overdrawn tribute to Pam.
13."The Soft Parade"-better than the album version, this is the
only live version of this song.
14."The End"-one of the only four live takes of this song. Good but Jim sounds like he's about to give out through most of the song.
15."Woman Is A Devil"-um... well it is a bonus track, if that says anything.
What should have been...
This is the way this disc should have looked (all of these songs are from the box set)
1."Hyacinth House"-this one was included
2."Black Train Song"-an exuberant take, easily the best song on the first disc of the box, an excellent energetic preformance.
3."I Will Never Be Untrue"-was included
4."Roadhouse Blues"-just because it's a good take.
5."Ship Of Fools"-a rare live occurrence, beautifully executed.
6."The Celebration of the Lizzard"- the best song on the whole set and they left it off!? Maby because it's so long, but this version even surpasses the take from "Absolutely Live".
7."Gloria"-no it isn't the Doors' cleanest song, and no it really wasn't preformed in New York, but it is good.
8."The End"- this one is a maby, it might just be a little to rambling.
9."Break On Through"-this was included
10."Mental Floss"-Jim at a sound check, not a song but it is a good example of how Jim thought.
11."The Soft Parade"- this one was included
Now all but one of these songs are live so you may have to retitle the disc "The Essential Live Rarities", but this out does the actual disc by far, you'd know if you heard these all on one disc.
Free Music Review: Something different, not essential
Hit: 3 Stars
This disc is, of course, a sort of 'greatest hits' for the 1997 box set. As we all know, The Doors have about as many collections out as The Who and Gary Numan, making this non-essential.The box set was not all it could have been, but it was nice to finally get. I would suggest buying the box at less than full price. The box is four discs, but essentially it's three, because the band had the gaul to actually release a 'band favorites' disc of material from the studio album, essentially including a greatest hits of stuff we already have. This is par for course, though.
The Doors are a great American rock band, however their release practices and sonic trickery on many releases is very frustrating for fans.
There are some very good tracks here, but be aware of some of the details.
Hello To The Cities is a brief intro by Morrison taken from a concert opening. That leads right into Break On Through from the 1970 Isle of Wight performance, one of the Doors' last. The track is definitely doctored compared to the soundboard-bootlegs that have been floating around. Infuriatingly, there are also guitar overdubs on the track by Krieger(!) Why he felt the need to doctor his own performance 20-odd years later is beyond me.
The trickery does not end there, of course. It's nice to have Who Scared You on CD, but why have they cut out an entire verse?
Then there's Someday Soon, a never released song only performed twice. The version here is from Seattle, 1970, which has been on every other Doors bootleg for decades. Of course, they butcher the beginning of the song, overdubbing crowd noise. A bootleg box set that appeared in 1998 actually included the other and better performance of this song, recorded for Absolutely Live.
The Soft Parade is, of course, the version we already own from The Soft Parade video. Thanks, guys!
There are some neat gems on here, though. The Hyacinth House is a demo done at Krieger's home, I believe, with someone on bongos. Always nice to hear the development of a song.
Queen of the Highway is a jazzy, alternate take on the Morrison Hotel track, and it's one of the best tracks here.
Orange County Suite is The Doors returning to the studio to lay down tracks around a recording of Morrison on piano, a good ballad, though it depends on how you feel about this kind of thing, sort of like the Beatles did a few years earlier.
Overall, the disc might be worthwhile if you're a more casual fan. But diehards will want the box, which was a bit of a disappointment, but at least you'll get everything rather than just a slice. Also, be aware that many of the live tracks on the box and on this disc are not even single takes from one concert, but rather spliced-together tracks in an effort to produce the 'perfect live' version, sort of defeating the purpose of a live album.
Such shameless practices continue to taint Doors releases, though they have made some amends by releasing previously 'lost' concerts through Bright Midnight Records on their website.
Free Music Review: Neat.
Hit: 3 Stars
Is there a band that releases more collections than The Doors? Every year we see new Best Of, Unreleased, Remastered sets coming out. A few are worth having (the new Best Of The Doors CD is superior in quality to the original 1985 release) and some aren't. "Essential Rarities" is half and half. There are some great cuts here and some lame ones. "Break On Through" is an exhilarating live track of the song, the best live version I'v heard while "Roadhouse Blues" is edgy hard-rock party music as it is meant to be. The live recording of "The Soft Parade" is also a great performance and a must have. "The End" is also worth a listen, it is a dark, atmospheric, epic rendition of Jim Morrison's masterpiece (it is edgy to hear Morrison at the beginning screaming "bring out your dead!"). But some cuts seem worthless. "Hyacinth House" is a pretty boring, weak tune while the demos of "Moonlight Drive" and "Hello I Love You" are cheesy and annoying. Sure it's interesting to hear them maybe once, but what's the point of actually owning them? "Whiskey, Mystics And Men" is operaish and interesting but you can already get it on The Best Of The Doors (Canadian Import). "Woman Is A Devil" however is another good song, a rare true blues trip by the band. Overall, "Essential Rarities" has some good rarities, but not everything in it is exactly essential. What for? The Doors are known for taking you on a poetic trip, what's the point of buying the pit stops?Free Music Review: Interesting curiosity. Not quite essential.
Hit: 3 Stars
It's not immediately obvious what audience this CD is aimed at. It condenses the 1997 Doors Box Set down to one CD. The hard-core Doors fans will already own the Box Set. Casual listeneres will most likely not be interested in any of this. "Casual" listeners would be advised to buy the Doors' studio albums before this, anyway. Upon owning all the studio albums, however, they would cease to be merely "casual" listeners. So, I guess if you're a big Doors fan, but you're on a budget and cannot afford the box set, then Essential Rarities would be a good choice. The choices for inclusion here are pretty good. It's good stuff overall. A mix of live tracks, early demos and unreleased songs. The live versions of "Break On Through", "The Soft Parade" and "The End" are the most worthwile. Also, as a boon for collectors, this CD contains a previously unreleased song that was not on the Doors Box Set, "Woman Is A Devil", a fine 12-bar blues song, which I happen to like a lot.
The Doors Box Set itself is uneven (featuring a completely wasted fourth disc), but it has a lot of good material that will be of interest to big fans of The Doors. If you buy Essential Rarities, you're missing the live CD, Live In New York, and several other worthwile tracks. This however, is a good condensing of the box set, so if you can't spend big bucks for the box, this is a much cheaper alternative.
Free Music Review: Most Of This Collection Has Been Done Better Before!!
Hit: 3 Stars
Essential Rarities, that unexceptional disc of Doors outtakes that started out as a bonus disc on a 1997 box set, consists of one really good studio performance (which provides a sharp contrast to the rest of the material here), some mostly good live performances, particularly of Doors classics, and several rather forgettable demos. The studio masterpiece is, of course, "Who Scared You," which was inexplicably left off The Soft Parade in favor of such lesser songs as "Do It" and "Running Blue". Highlights of the live performances include a very good version of "The End," a fine rendition of "Break on Through," and a rather lounge-lizard-style take of "Queen of the Highway". Most of the demos are (as singer Jim Morrison so aptly puts it) works in progress; they simply show that Morrison's fabulous lyrics alone aren't enough to carry the material without the band's special brand of studio polish. Probably the most interesting of these "early versions" is "Hyacinth House," a fine performance which features bongos and a genuine "beatnik poet" feel. In short, an interesting disc, but far from essential, as the only truly essential works in the Doors canon are the six glorious studio albums, all of which feature far superior versions of the tunes offered here.