Customer Reviews

Bright Midnight: Live In America (Limited Edition)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Live in America is a must for hard-core Doors people, and also highly recommended for everyone. It contains a nice selection, many of the group's greatest songs, and the sound quality is fabulous. What the mixers can achieve in these 21st Century CDs of 20th Century Foxy concerts (OK, concert snippets) is remarkable. If you turn up the sound a bit, it is as if you are sitting next to a speaker on stage, with volume and balance personally calibrated to you, a magically funneled sound.

Check out "The Crystal Ship" and Ray Manzarek's trademark lovely organ solo, which radiates ooh so beautifully. "Touch Me" is also superb, as Robbie Krieger's guitar flows through so neatly in stereo, in place of the absent brass and strings! "Been Down So Long" is excellent, slick worksmanship to that cool heavy blues, with harmonica here too. The good sonics make the always-electrifying "Break on Through" even better, and "Roadhouse Blues" cooks. "The End" fills the long cut slot. The only negative is some muffled sound in an extended "Love Me Two Times," too great a song to let it bother me. Overall, Jim Morrison's poise and delivery are good and professional to boot, even as he allows himself some spoken-jive spontaneity, in contrast to his alcohol-infused theater in "Absolutely Live."

Though the Bright Midnight story is just beginning, by now at least one other version of each song on this CD has appeared on that label or Elektra. It will be interesting to see how the many Doors tunes with no previous commercial live version roll out with the passage of time, for the group performed virtually everything at least once in concert, including "L.A. Woman" and "Riders on the Storm." For now, we have this gem of a CD, opening with none other than "Light My Fire," highlighted by Ray's dynamic keyboard tension preceding the bridge between the two instrumentals.

No, Jim is generally not as "hungry" or as vocally flexible range-wise here as in the first couple years of the Doors' existence, perhaps (check out the Soundstage DVD for sheer perfection). But to dismiss these performances as drunken poetry recitals is just plain false--but then, similar criticisms were launched even in 1968 by those who had a set notion of what goods the Lizard King should be expected to deliver. Not only is the sound quality superb, but to these ears there's plenty of energy and magic. I mean, how much more inspired of a performance of "Been Down So Long" could you want from Jim? Or how much more beautifully sung a "Crystal Ship?" "The End" also--though the beginning lines are less than ideal with the band & Jim getting out of synch, some serious mojo is stirred up in the middle, with Jim in a deep poetic space. No, you don't get "the killer awoke before dawn;" why should Jim have to always visit that particular room (fans were singing along to those lines by 1968, for crying out loud) when he had so many others to choose from. The beauty is that, like the Grateful Dead exploring Dark Star, Jim is free to wander wherever he wants each time out so that each is unique & special, for both audience, and just as importantly, for him & the band.
"Touch Me" is a big treat, with Robbie jamming instead of a saxophone--nice to hear this with just the band filling all the space. Really like the "St. James Infirmary" back into "Love Me Two Times," too.
Perhaps this isn't the hottest Doors ever played, but it's pretty damned great--I know I'd have counted myself lucky to have attended one of these shows. And I'm very happy to have this document as consolation.

For another Jim, that famous American philosopher Cheech Marin said, "Let's dig Jim up and get him to lay down a few more tracks." Well they didn't do that, but they did the next best thing.

When I first saw this I couldn't believe my eyes. How good could it be, a live tape that's been in the vaults for more than 30 years? There had to be something wrong. I stood at a listening post and listen to the whole thing before I bought it. And guess what, except for someone clowning with the mixer in "Love Me Two Times", it's all good! I expected off key, bad tape something. It's as good as the Doors live concerts, heck it is a live concert! Through some electronic wizardry, the engineers cobbled together 14 songs from 10 concerts and make it sound like one concert.

In retrospect, the Doors had a strong Jazz Fusion aspect. In "Light my Fire" Robbie Krieger quotes John Coletrane's version of "My Favorite Things". The Blues in "Been Down so Long" is really gutsy, if not too "R" rated for the 60's. Lot's of blues here. In "RoadHouse Blues" Jim sounds as if he's had a drink or two, it's raw, but real, but he still sings on key.

The eerie part is to hear Jim rap about eternal recurrence and re-watching your life over and over after death. Jim says "You'd better have some good incidents happening" to watch forever or words to that effect. Wherever you are Jim, I hope it's good for you.

This is the first of a proposed release of Doors live concerts 30 years in the vaults.

Well worth your money. On my tough grading system, 5 points for performance, 4 for recording quality. Very close to five stars.

Since Jim Morrison's demise in 1971, the band has been subject to countless compilations, live albums and greatest hits packages. What distinguishes this release from the others is that it is on a label the remaining three band members have formed. The performances on the album are very strong and a song like "Break On Through" shows off the hyperkinetic energy the band possessed. The band could jam with the best of them and extended versions of "Light My Fire", the ubiquitous "The End", "Five To One" and "Roadhouse Blues" show off their prowess. Bright Midnight is a solid collection and any fan of the band will be satisfied with the performances.

It's been a while since The Doors' actually released NEW material. Oh sure they've released new albums (well, new Best Of collections with songs we already have), new DVDs (that great tribute VH1 special with Creed, The Cult etc.) but fans were always wondering what happened with all the unreleased live material. Well, The Doors have given us an answer with their new record label, Bright Midnight, on which they plan to release every single complete concert over the next several years. Here we get their sampler, "Live In America." It is one of the best Doors CDs to buy right now if you already have the other albums and collections. It contains some truly rare performances and it is refreshing to hear stuff we haven't heard before (unless you got a bunch of bootlegs). "Light My Fire" is still a fun tune and here we get a pretty good performance of it. The version here of "Backdoor Man" is one of the more passive performances, but with a nice bluesy atmosphere powered by Robby Krieger's edgy riffs. "Five To One" is not as edgy, but still in your face. "Break On Through" is as always exhilarating and active. But the true gems here are the songs we really HAVEN'T gotten live before. "The Crystal Ship" is dreamy and soft with Ray Manzarek's organ which stands out here and we get some of Jim Morrison's best poetry. "Touch Me" is absolutely cool considering all the jazzy, orchestra elements were taken out and it just sounds like rock n' roll. A disappointment is the "Love Me Two Times" track, which is a poor, muffled recording that is of real grainy quality, the version in "In Concert" is better. In fact, a lot of the songs in "In Concert" are better than the tracks here. But still, this is a CD worth getting for any true Doors fan. "The End" is a poetic trip, a little more menacing than the usual live material we've heard. "Live In America" is a sampler and it makes you get interested in what's coming up next. The music of The Doors remains timeless as does the influence and here is some new recordings to add to the legend.

I hated this...for taking so long to come out! The Doors LIVE IN AMERICA is by far their best live CD. Standouts include Touch Me, without the studio orchestration.The result is a straight rocker! The live,Been Down So Long is better than the version on the LA WOMAN album! Certainly one of Morrisons' best blues vocals. Roadhouse Blues is loud and sexually loaded during the middle part of the song. Morrison simply rants like a mad man on, Bellowing, one of the most hallarious live tracks on LIVE IN AMERICA. While Five to One and Love Me Two Times are a bit rough on the edges they still sting melodically. The fact that the music on this CD has survived all these years without ever being released is amazing becasue it is extremely good! Finally a very unusual The End, with alternate lyrics and an extended section that is sure to light anyones fire!!!!pun intended!

Think about it. Who's going to buy this? Thank God it's limited--at least they admit they'll try to get a quick buck and run. If you're really into rare live Doors material, chances are you'll go out and get the full double-disc sets from Bright Midnight that this single disc is culled from.

BUT, of course, this disc has tracks appearing nowhere else. So now you can kindly pay the Doors once again for material you already have (if you get the other sets.)

The Doors will pretty much never miss a chance to sell you something you already have. I love this band, but the treatment of the live and recorded output by both band and record company has been shameless. At least they got Bright Midnight going. (After claiming that the tapes they're releasing now didn't exist.) But hey, they already got fans to buy a box set that had yet another greatest hits in it as well as another box set of studio albums remastered yet again...and didn't even both releasing the non-Morrison Doors albums.

If you can find this used somehow, get it to hear the stuff that hasn't been released on other Bright Midnight discs. Otherwise, go and get the full shows. The Doors are rich enough already.

Jim, Ray, John and Robbie roll, explore and climax on this recording. Excellent mood setter...sensous delivery...highly recommended if you're a Door's fan and love "this is the best trip; the part I really like," while understanding the jazz tonality and blues traditions as seamless aparitions that ensconced and nurtured this band to its height. Awesome delivery...and emplifies the lyrics: "take a journey to the bright midnight." Get it if you get off to this band.

The Doors: Bright Midnight - Live In America was released in 2002. It contains 13 songs from live performances in Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Hollywood, New York, Boston, and a Bakersfield, CA stage recording.

My favorite songs on this live album are Been Down So Long, Light My Fire, and The End.

It seems to me that if you've heard one live Doors album, you've heard them all. When they released their box set back in 1997, there was a disc that had an entire New York concert on it. When I compare the song Build Me A Woman from the box set to the version from Absolutely Live, they're almost identical. So, my point is that if you want live Doors material, all you really need is one good live album. The one album I recommend the most is the double CD called The Doors - In Concert, which came out in 1991. I don't know if it's still available, but this double CD contains every track from Absolutely Live as well as Alive, She Cried. In addition, it contains songs from An American Prayer and Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

The Doors are notorious for (and masters of) re-releasing the same material over and over again, whether it's studio albums, live albums, remastered versions of albums, remixed versions of albums, versions with new guitar and drum overdubs, "greatest hits" and "best of" packages, and on and on and on. Trust me - unless you're a really die hard fan who wants every piece of material The Doors ever recorded, just settle on one live album of your choosing, or take my previously mentioned recommendation.

By the way, congratulations Jim on being pardoned by Florida governor Charlie Crist for your behavior at the March 1, 1969 Miami concert.

Released in 2002, "Bright Midnight: Live in America" offered previously unissued 1969-70 recordings of The Doors in concert. Now that the complete shows are available, this disc serves as a tantalizing sampler of the Hollywood, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Detroit engagements. Along with the excellent sound quality are memorable versions of "Break On Through," "Five to One" and "Light My Fire." From an unvarnished standpoint, Jim Morrison's drunken interpretation of "Roadhouse Blues" tells you all you need to know about the group's wild and unpredictable Boston gig. Though derived from the same concert tapes, "Bright Midnight" remains a more satisfying Doors compilation than "Absolutely Live."