Customer Reviews

Live in Detroit (Cobo Hall, 05/08/1970)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Short but sweet: I don't want to ruin it for you... this is the ONE... there is no other DOORS CD like this one. Now if you're a casual fan a hits collection is what you want, but if you've "felt" the Doors in your bones you need this. The stereo mix is superb, it's on par with any of the studio albums. Morrison has his rock n' roll GOD hat on and keeps the poetry reading to a minimum. The band slams away like an acid-rock version of Impulse! era Coltrane. The liner notes claim that this show was the longest Doors gig ever, the encore was over an hour long... every second is on these two CDs. Breathtaking.
This is not the Rock n' Roll hall of fame 'touch me' bubblegummy Doors, this is the evil, MC-5, Stooges, Hendrix, acid-bent dirge Doors. This is the kind of thing you get and loan to that one friend you have that truly "gets it" and you say "man, you're not gonna believe this..."
Really, truly, honest injun... if you dig the Doors you really gotta get this. Package, liner notes, sound, it's all 5 star material. Even if you're not a Doors fan, say you're simply a fan of experimental or psychedelic music, and you happen to be reading this... get this, there are some extended organ-guitar battles that will blow your mind wide open.

In 1970, shortly before they were banned from performing in the U.S., the Doors recorded several concerts in their entirety. Selections taken from these shows surfaced on the 2-disc LP "Absolutely Live", and later on the CD compilation "The Doors in Concert", which also included songs from other tours.

As is so often the case with the cut & paste jobs put together by the record companies (as with the official Stones live releases) you just don't get the impact of the entire show, and the best performances are left out.

At long last, the Doors have issued the entire concerts, including audience response and chit-chat between songs, on their specialty label, Bright Midnight. This one, recorded in Detroit, is the best of the bunch, and if you've only listened to the older releases, this will knock your socks off. "Light My Fire" is blistering (that's the only word for it) and the band has never sounded better.

This isn't a disc for the casual fan; if you want the greatest hits then the Legacy compilation is for you. But if you want to see, hear, feel, and taste just how good the Doors could be in concert, you need this CD in your collection.

...and if you ever thought the Doors weren't all they were cracked up to be --- listening to this will change your mind.

Music evolved over the millennia.
Then The Doors played Detroit,
and evolution was complete.
"The human race was dying out,
no one left to scream and shout."
"When the music's over,
turn out the lights."
"This is The End
of our elaborate plan."

Jim Morrison and The Doors challenged convention, whether it be on the Ed Sullivan Show, where the band refused to change the lyrics to 'Light My Fire', or in Detroit on May 8 of 1970, when they ignored the union curfew and played an extra hour, enlisting a willing crowd in their rebellion with "don't let 'em chase us off". As a result, both were added to the growing list of venues that closed their doors to The Doors. Had Morrison lived longer, they may well have run out of places to perform.

Disc one of 'The Doors Live In Detroit' is an unrelenting education in rock and roll execution. The tracks are much more craftily constructed than the listings on the insert would suggest. 'Roadhouse Vamp', for example, is an instrumental version of 'Roadhouse Blues', which sits down briefly for Morrison to poetically tally the cities on this mini-tour ('Hello To the Cities'), before breaking into 'Dead Cats Dead Rats', which is really 'Break On Through', which it segues into. Fiery organ runs are offered by Ray Manzarek on tracks such as 'Ship Of Fools' and 'Break On Through', while Robbie Kreiger dashes off scintillating lead guitar runs on tracks like 'Back Door Man', 'Roadhouse Blues' (which also includes some fine rock-scat vocals from Morrison), and mimics Morrison's soaring vocals on 'Away In India' (which is played as another suite, teaming up with 'Mystery Train' and the closer, a cover of Robert Johnson's 'Crossroads'). 'Mystery Train' is a work of art in itself, slowly building tempo just like a train gathering steam, and erupting in some ominous Manzarek organ runs. The only respites from this rock and roll tsunami are 'Whiskey Bar', with its sweet pop melody seemingly mismatched to its ode-to-boozing-it-up lyrics, and 'When the Music's Over', one of the band's more psychedelic offerings (how else could you characterize, "Before I die, I want to hear, I want to hear, the scream of the butterfly")? The lyrics often challenge non-musical conventions, such as the revolutionary "the old get young and the young get stronger, they got the guns, we got the numbers, we're gonna win, yeah we're takin' over" from 'Five To One', as well as the spiritually penetrating, "cancel my subscription to the Resurrection, send my credentials to the house of detention" from 'When the Music's Over'. The band created an amazing, full-spectrum of sound despite omitting a bassist or rhythm guitarist, relying heavily on the often medieval texture of Manzarek's organ musings.

Disc two continues the rock and roll rampage as The Doors fulfill a backstage request for 'Carol' ("let me steal your heart away") before launching into a nearly twenty minute long tretise on 'Light My Fire'. When the band is ready to perform their last song, Morrison asks what they want to hear, and despite already having performed it, the crowd proclaims 'Light My Fire' the loudest. Fortunately we're treated to a rare and captivating performance of 'The End'. Aside from those three tracks, however, disc two is heavily blues oriented. On track four, Lovin' Spoonful founder John Sebastian is coaxed onstage, and through track ten the band puts on an exposition in blues standards. Even a reprise of 'Carol' takes on a blues motif, and Morrison offers up some blues-oriented poetry on 'Love Hides'.

Other audience participation includes Morrison parlaying a D mouth harp from a patron for John Sebastian to play. "Well get it up here, man", Morrison urges after mining the instrument from the throng. Since the disc features the entire concert, other 'contributions' from the audience are a trip in themselves. One audience member continually chimes in with "Wake up, Detroit!", which becomes especially poignant when Morrison screams out his own "Wake up!" in the midst of a slow passage in 'The End'. Cries such as "Get it together" and "You're beautiful" create a meaningful time context for the listener.

'The Doors Live In Detroit' is certainly one of the finest representations of the sincere spirit and intensity of the psychedelic era in music. Some brief segments of the recording are less than prime, such as 'Roadhouse Vamp' which sounds quite a bit like an overplayed vinyl record, but all-in-all this is an outstanding performance and well-recorded document. If you're a Doors fan, there is no question this two-disc set belongs in your collection, and the same is true even for the casual Doors fan. If you're not sure what you are, but you like rock or blues music, especially the vintage 1960's variety, give this one a spin. You're likely to be delighted.

Here is 'new' Doors product that's actually worth buying. To correct an earlier reviewer, this has not been released 1,000 times. The 1970 Detroit show was one of the many concerts recorded for the Absolutely Live album, so there are portions of this performance on that release, but it's light years from a re-release in the traditional Doors sense. However, the earlier official live albums were all cut-and-pasted to create the illusion of a single show. In fact, some songs are taken from two concerts, seamlessly edited together.

Since 2000 or so, The Doors started releasing material on Bright Midnight Records, a small sub-label of Rhino. It's an outlet for the (many) unreleased live shows recorded for Absolutely Live, among other goodies (rehearsals, interviews, etc). Of course, for years they claimed these shows didn't exist, though die-hards knew better. And since then, they've begun to trickle out this excellent material. (Both Aquarius shows plus the 1970 Philadelphia show have appeared, among others).

This is basically Absolutely Live-type quality; it's the complete show from Cobo Hall, Detroit during the band's 1970 'comeback' tour, after a rocky 1969 saw them cancel many shows following the 'Miami incident'. Suffice to say, if you love the band and have been yearning for more professional, soundboard-quality live shows--complete shows--then this is a great place to start. Great energy from the band, the tour saw them return to the music without so much antics, and it shows. Check the track listing on these for your favorites, or if you're obsessive, just get them all.

Of course, The Doors continue to release the same material (how many verisons of the original albums can they possibly release?) And while there's a link on their website to Bright Midnight Records, it's not too prominent these days since they're busy promoting the 15th release of the same albums, plus the inevitable Very-Bestest-Greatestest-Hits album.

Highly recommended for Doors fans, new, old, casual, or die-hard, this is still in print and well worth it. Even if you have In Concert, Absolutely Live, or whatever other compilation, this is a complete show (important for purists) and sounds great (important for everyone).

Not the best release for casual fans, but if you need more material to digest from the Doors then you will want this. About 3/4ths of this is outstanding, they play their standards excellently w/a lot of energy; Krieger in particular, shreds on the 1st 10 tracks. The covers are interesting and range from great to kind of meandering. The sound quality is very good and the packaging and liner notes are well put together.

Cons:

Too expensive.

I was a tad disappointed w/Been Down So Long - Ray plays guitar on this so there's no great slide guitar like on LA Woman.

There are a few missteps on some of the improvisation, e.g. awkward or late chord changes.

In closing, I love this and I'm glad The Doors are releasing stuff like this on their Bright Midnight Archives label. I do appreciate hearing the whole performance in its entirety. So why only 3 stars? I'd give it 3.5 if I could and I'm just trying to be objective with this review.

The Doors' "Live In Detroit" (recorded live at Cobo Arena, May 1970/Bright Midnight) is a 2-disc masterpiece performed by the band during one of their true moments of clarity shortly before the band dissolved. This recording captures the band on a night when all members were truly ON!! It was recorded during the time the band was working on its "L.A. Woman" album.

Disc One contains Doors' standards, such as "Break On Through," "Alabama Song," Back Door Man," and "Five To One," all of which were woven together seamlessly - it's difficult to find a break in the music & impossible to ever hit the "Pause" or "Stop" buttons on yer player; the performance continually builds momentum with each passing song!! "When The Music's Over," also included on the first disc, is a dynamite 17-minute show-stopper!! This disc also includes "Mystery Train," "Away In India," and "Crossroads," which are Blues numbers that the band clearly enjoy mixing in their set!

Disc Two continues this lengthy performance. "Light My Fire" is a blistering version! And the remainder of this disc is A+ live Blues/Rock ("Been Down So Long," Carol," Mean Mustard Blues")!! "The End" appropriately closes the night. According to the disc's liner notes, this is the Doors' longest show ever performed, and, much to the chagrin of Cobo Arena's Union regulations, Morrison and Co. pushed the show an hour over it's scheduled midnight closing time...the audience was really lucky to be a part of this electric performance!!

The BEST Doors live album!! MOST other bands' live albums don't even stack up!!!! In a word: PHENOMENAL!!

I had heard that this one was something else but man I wasn't prepared for an all out assault. Morrison is coherent and focused and his vocals sound strong and in tune throughout the show. If anything this set proves that the Doors could still rock the house as late as May of '70. This is the band at their jazz-rock psychedelic best. 'Light My Fire' is definitive on this one with Jim's hypnotic vocal coupled with Kreiger's snake like guitar solos. 'When The Music's Over' is a religious experience...this is my favorite live take of this song ever, period. After Jim announces that they will play for another hour, John Sebastian joins for an improptu bluesy jam session. The shows rounds out with a long version of 'The End' which has some poetry and is missing the 'Oedipus' section in favor of alternate lyrics. Overall this could be the best officialy released Doors live CD ever.....definitely the cream of the crop of recordings from this period.

This is a 2 disc, complete concert set. It is over 135 minutes long, with close to 2 hours of actual music. The sound quality is very good.

This is one of many concerts that the Doors recorded for use on live albums. Some of the tracks from this concert have already been availalbe on Absolutely Live, Alive She Cried and the Doors Boxset.

The sound quality, mix and editing are excellent. It is very bright and clear. What is particularly important is that the audience noise is kept to a minimum while the band is playing. This is a sharp contrast to some of the newer concert CD's, by people like Dave Matthews, where the concert noise is purposely mixed to overpower the band.

It is a great concert with excellent performances on most of the songs. Some of the songs are the best versions that I have heard, live Light My Fire, or Dead Rats/Break On Through (but was already on Absolutely Live).

The me, the outstanding track is You Make Me Real/Ship of Fools. Maybe it is because this is the first live version of it that I have heard.

There is a lot of jamming and flamboyant performances throughout this concert. There is a great mixture of blues, rock and jazz. They even play a bit My Favorite Things, just as John Coltrane used to do.

John Sebastian from the Loving Spoonful joins the band for the last hour. He adds some interesting harmonica playing, but has a pretty lousy guitar solo.

But, I disagree that these whole concert albums are better. I think compilation of the best performances is a better way to go.

First, you get a lot of repeat if own other Doors live albums. When The Music's Over and/or The End are on almost every live album, or concert ablum album the Doors have produced. Although they are both great songs, and the Doors never played them exactly the same twice, it does tend to get tedious to hear them over and over again.

Second, you get a lot of stuff you might not want to hear again. That 20 minute version of Light My Fire is really only 12 minutes long. The rest is Morrison talking to the audience and some instrument tuning. This would be great to be included in a concert video, but does not really work that well on a CD.
I think these long pauses between music really hamper the enjoyment of the music.

I think that the compilation In Concert CD (which includes Absolutely Live, Alive She Cried and others) is just as good as Live in Detroit.

I hope to see more live albums from the Doors with more variety (I don't want another version of When the Music's Over). There are many songs the Doors did live that aren't available on an official release. There's a 30 minute version of Mystery Train floating around out there that is excellent. And I would love to hear one of the live versions of LA Woman.

This is the longest doors concert ever captured on tape. The year is 1970.
The sound is AWESOME (sharp and very well balanced), great mix and mastering.
Morrison is focused on every song, no fooling around - he's just a great singer that night, not drunkard, poet or the 'lizard king'.
Some blues songs, couple of old hits and a new songs from the last 'Morrison Hotel' album are performed.
Cd is published by 'Bright Midnight', (the Doors collectors label) and 'Rhino Handmade'.
Price of the cd is pretty high, but i can't help you with that (actually,i can-it's cheaper at Rhino Handmade site). But, dont worry, for this price you'll get the right one!

This is the best live album I own. Doors or no Doors.
Its abslutely the Doors at their best. Backdoor man is just 10 times more rocked up than the studio version, an the "heartbeat" like bass on When the Musics Over before the "WE WANT THE WORLD"-stuff its just crazy as the whole audience caves in to this hypnotic bass.

I could go on and on. Everyone should own this record. Its the best I have.