Customer Reviews

The Best Of The Doors

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I was in high school when The Doors' debut was released and it remains the one essential album to have in The Doors' catalog. [Although LA Woman and Morrison Hotel are nearly as good.] If you're looking to expand your collection beyond that, this two-disc collection is a no-brainer. It contains all eight Top 40 hits from their all too brief 4-year history and enough key album cuts ("The End," "L.A. Woman," "Roadhouse Blues") to satisfy all but the die-hard fan. [Thankfully, there are no tracks included from either of the two post-Morrison albums released in the early Seventies.]

While the identity of The Doors is linked almost exclusively to the persona of its frontman, there's no denying Ray Manzarek's keyboards and Robby Krieger's guitar playing and songwriting as crucial to The Doors' sound. And Jim Morrison's power as a vocalist was his voice, which would make the listener ignore the sometimes pretentiousness of his lyrics.

My only real criticism of this collection is that for a two-disc set, it's fairly short--only 85 minutes. But it still wasn't enough to make me spring for the box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As I stated in my review for "Legacy: The Absolute Best", no collection will truly ever encompass the best work of The Doors. However, there are still some that are definitely worth owning. "The Best Of The Doors", an imported two cd set, isn't.

The reason that this collection gets three stars is because it is The Doors, one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever and music pioneers. There's some true rock classics here, such as "Light My Fire", "Break On Through (To The Other Side)", "The End", "Hello, I Love You", "Touch Me", "Love Her Madly", "L.A. Woman" and the chilling "Riders On The Storm". These are just some of the highlights.

The fact is, 18 tracks just isn't enough to cover The Doors. And while all the stuff on here is brilliant, there's some excellent stuff left off. For example, their brilliant reworking of Willie Dixon's classic "Back Door Man", one of their best known album tracks, is strangely omitted. Similarly, classics like "Not To Touch The Earth", "My Eyes Have Seen You", "The Changeling" and "Twentieth Century Fox" have also been omitted, and judging by the small amount of tracks on both discs, probably could have all fit.

My suggestion is that instead of this, you pick up "Legacy: The Absolute Best". It is also a two disc collection, but it has 34 tracks on it including all of the songs on here as well as all the songs that I mentioned should have been on here. It even includes an unreleased track, the seventeen minute "Celebration Of The Lizard".

So, while I guess this okay, I recommend either "Legacy", the boxed sets or the whole albums. This really isn't needed.

A terrific retrospective of one of the most enigmatic rock groups ever, "The Best of the Doors," opens with "Break On Through," then takes you on a wild ride through nineteen cuts that illustrate just exactly why this is such an enduring group. Jim Morrison's mesmerizing vocals, Robbie Krieger's "bottle neck" guitar, Ray Manzarek's keyboards and John Densmore's drums combined to create a unique sound, later imitated, but never duplicated by anyone else since. The songs included on this two-disc album open the doors that lead you into the ethereal, sometimes spiritual world of Morrison's poetry. His use of imagery and metaphor is remarkable, especially on such cuts as "Light My Fire," "The Crystal Ship," "People Are Strange," the impassioned "When The Music's Over," the subtly disquieting "Riders On The Storm," and the quintessential Door's song, the spellbinding "The End." Then there's the hard-driving "Roadhouse Blues," and "L.A. Woman;" the admonishing "Five To One;" and the stoic "The Unknown Soldier." There's a lyrical, almost mystic, quality to the music here; a substance that is rare in rock music, and delivered with a pulsating force that is transporting. Morrison's magnetism prevails throughout, and the more you listen to it, the more you realize how good this music really is.

I got into The Doors kind of late into my long musical appreciation life. It may have something to do with the fact that, while in college, I was next-door to a guy who was Morrison-nuts...the kind of guy that insisted that Jim Morrison had faked his death and was just waiting for the right moment to come out of hiding. As such, he blasted The Doors' albums incessantly for the school year 1981, and I was over the whole thing pretty much by the time I'd graduated.

However, time has unburdened me of this irrational Doors-disgust. Which means that I was really happy to see this CD reissued as a precursor to the massive Doors campaign of 2007. A new box set, all the individual albums remastered, etc. But as a casual fan, "The Best of The Doors" is all I really need. It covers all the obvious radio hits along with some choice album tracks. (And just as obviously, ignores the postmortem Morrison records, 1971's Other Voices and 1972's Full Circle.) It also re-established Morrison's shamanistic personality. There was a deep, deep charisma about the man and it comes through on all the songs here. The other 3/4 of The Doors were just as unique.

Jim Morrison's ghost and the subsequent collapse of the band after his death - not to forget the incessant squabbling since - tends to cloud the surviving members' contributions. Ray Manzarek's keyboards are one of the reasons The Doors never needed a bass player. Those psychedelic swirls and heavy foundations provided The Doors with their pulse. Guitarist Robbie Krieger added classical fills next to Manzarek's keyboards and also wrote many of The Doors' biggest hits (including "Light My Fire"). John Densmore was a jazz drummer who brought that influence to the band, and he remains the member most opposed to the "reunion" projects. The Doors were always greater than the sum of their parts, and once the cloaking charisma of Morrison was gone, the atoms just blew apart.

The band, as members to a whole, mixed all those influences up. From the pop sense of "Light My Fire" to the Oedipal weirdness that fueled "The End," they were totally fearless about following their collective muse. They responded to accusations of pop-sellout by going to the deep blues of "LA Woman" and by nailing a cabaret number like Brecht/Weill's "The Alabama Song." They even managed one of the most paranoid mellow songs ever in "Riders On The Storm."

That is what makes "The Best Of The Doors" worth it. You may find yourself tempted to get some of the singular CD's later (I'd suggest the debut and "LA Woman"), but for a load into the MP3 player, this double CD set fills the gap. Jim Morrison remains a mystery, a loaded question that exited the world before the answers had time to form. (Or he got old enough to be boring.)

Obligatory "Wish it was on this set" songs: "The WASP," "Running Blue" "20th Century Fox."

It is difficult to find words that can express the way i feel about this cd, it changed my life. I am 16 years old, and it was just last year that I found this cd in my dad's truck. I had never heard of the doors or Jim Morrison at the time so I decided to give it a chance and listen to it. I was entranced from the very first song, I was absolutely captivated by Morrison's sultry and sexy voice, and the powerful lyrics that lead you on a journey of the mind. Krieger's guiter work is excellent especially on track 12. Densmore's drumming is superb, and Ray Manzarek's keyboarding is amazing! The band complements one another perfectly. Every single track on this cd is different, yet it blends well together creating a perfect sound. My favorite track is "The End" the lyrics paint a picture in my mind and it opens my perceptions and my imagination. Of course I can't just recommend this particular Doors cd, because it is merely a stepping stone, an introduction into the band and their original style of music. In order to fully experience the doors, I would recommend buying all of the original LP's. The Doors expanded my mind, and introduced me to a new world and a new type of music, and changed my life forever.

Morrison, Densmore, Krieger, & Manzarek fit & balanced each other like a sprawling jigsaw puzzle. They are the best American band to date. Yes, the Doors, not Nirvana! Here the 1960's aesthetics hit one of their musical highs. Sarcastic instincts & reason clash in the lyrics & the droning guitar riffs & are made new. This compilation captures the brooding dark mystique that the band wore like a cape. The long majestic "Light My Fire" has stood as a sensual anthem for over forty years. The raucous "Break On Through," a true modern rapture. The Medieval "The End, & the "Crystal Ship," are my favorites. In the latter they delicately explore intimacy. That is something you would not expect from this band.

I had never known what the Doors were like until I found this CD and bought it because of their legendary place in rock'n'roll history. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised: it is simply brilliant. The production is polished and there are no improvisations here, although sometimes our psyche may want to think that.

Originally I couldn't identify some songs through their titles, but once they started playing, I knew they were classics. Who could resist the guitar solo in "Spanish Caravan" or the traditional "Light my fire"? This collection also includes old time classics like "Break on through", "L.A. woman" and "Love her madly".

I would define the music of The Doors as a special kind of mystical rock. It has such a unique sound, one knows right from the beginning it could never be repeated, and has never been heard before either. Jim Morrison is the perfect front man, dark, attractive, but never really upstaging the others. This quality probably sets out The Doors as unique in the rock world, where the contributions of the members of a band are usually overshawdowed by the singer.

I admire The Doors because, obviously, they had talent; but I also admire them because they had courage. It took a lot to sing what they sang during the sixties, when everyone was still uptight and full of taboos about issues that are of common knowledge nowadays. I love the idea of Morrison refusing to change his lyrics because they were deemmed inappropiate. It shows his strength of character and his authenticity. In "the end", this is all that matters.

I agree wholeheartedly with all the reviews that praise the content of this recording but i have to say that the audio quality is second rate which makes it rather difficult to listen to. when they remastered it the digital seems to have put emphasis on protions of the instrumentation that were never there in the original recordings.

ive heard about the doors just from kids around school. there is someone or another always wearing the doors t-short or something. so i thought i would look into them. i was very pleased with this album i had to listen to the tracks a couple of times but i love it. i thought i would hate the keyboards but they add something to it. jim morrisons deep voice which is sometimes raspy is terrific. my favorite track was crystal ship. i would definately recommend this album to someone who doesnt know a lot about older rock but wants to get into it

This cd is packed with all the stuff that made the Doors, well the Doors. The best 60's band and one of the most musical groups ever. These guys had real talent and this 2 disc marathon shows what they accomplished.

From "Break on Through" an anthem unto itself, but a breakaway hit for the group to "The End" there isn't a song that isn't listenable on this album. And most of the songs are great and worthy of many repeats. Among those are "Light My Fire", "People are Strange", "Love Me Two Times", "Waiting for the Sun", "Spanish Caravan", "Hello, I Love You", "Riders on the Storm", and "The End". It also represents how these guys could mold themselves into different styles with ever losing the ability to create memorable and very musical songs. These guys songs will forever be a part of American culture. And that is not a bad thing.

Get this cd today.