119 of 123 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Doors At The Felt Forum Prove Why They're A Great Band!, November 17, 2009
This review is from: Live in New York, Felt Forum (Audio CD)
After I became a Doors fan one of the first concerts I started hearing about was the Felt Forum shows. Not only did it sound like a great name for a 60's venue, but the shows were said to be great and that you had to hear them. Until now I haven't had the opportunity, so the anticipation has been building for 30 years. Rhino Records release of these shows in their box set, The Doors Live In New York, is what fans have been looking for.
Recorded on two nights, January 17th and 18th 1970. The Doors did four shows and each show is included in its entirety in this box set. Some of the songs have been included on other Doors live albums. You'll hear When The Music's Over that was on Absolutely Live, but just when you think you know the song, you realize there's more. The Absolutely Live version was edited. For The Doors fan searching for something new, each CD contains a veritable plethora of previously unreleased versions of songs. It's good to hear the songs in context with all the strengths and shortcomings The Doors had as a band. These recordings give the listener the full sense and feeling of the concert experience - the false starts, the band tuning up, Jim asking the audience what they want to hear, or the silences as the band consults amongst themselves what they want to play next. Jim Morrison seems to excise one of his demons, his ongoing struggle with lightmen. His, "Hey, Mr. light man!" rap that he did at many shows chiding the lightmen who never seem to do what he wants, seems to resolve itself as he compliments the lighting level at the show! The Doors were never a band to play the album version of songs, Morrison tinkers with the words of songs as well. This was before concerts became slick clones of each other, where the same thing happens at the same time in the concert, identical, from concert to concert, city to city. The Doors were stark theatre, a portrayal of reality through the songs like a novel is a portrayal through words, or a movie through film.
The band opens each show with a couple of songs from Morrison Hotel. It's cool to realize that as you're listening to Roadhouse Blues or Peace Frog the audience is very likely hearing the songs for the very first time. It opens you up to that experience. The Doors also experimented with the songs. Who Do You Love was played at every show yet no two versions of the song are alike! Curiously, Peace Frog, easily one of Morrison's most autobiographical songs, because of the Dawn's Highway section, where Morrison recounts the mystical experience he had as a child of feeling as if the soul of an Indian had leaped into his, as performed at the Felt Forum most of the versions omit that part, only in the last show does he include that portion of the song.
The last disc is a powerhouse of a encore with John Sebastian and Dallas Taylor sitting in. They play a bluesier version of Maggie McGill than is on Morrison Hotel, and this version fit's the song and works much better as a straight forward blues song
The sound on the CDs is excellent. Bruce Botnik in a technical note says in parts that were missing from the 8-track master they inserted live 2-track and the sound might change in those parts, but I didn't hear it. I listened to the CDs on a car CD player and in my computer. I didn't hear any change of quality, in fact it seemed crystal clear. In one section you can clearly hear the maraca Morrison shakes.
The boxed set includes a beautiful 40 page booklet with an introduction by Jac Holzman, and Bruce Botnik provides background details about The Doors playing the Felt Forum. James Henke a VP the Rock "n' Roll Hall of Fame and author of The Jim Morrison Scrapbook has also written an essay for the book. The book also includes about 15 high gloss photographs from the shows.
This is one of the last full blown tours of The Doors career. The next year would find the band finishing L.A. Woman, and Morrison planning his imminent departure to Paris. These shows are The Doors as they wanted be heard, in context and demonstrating the power of what a great rock band can be.
Jim writes The Doors Examiner.
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49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Doors hit a home run with Live in New York release!!, November 22, 2009
This review is from: Live in New York, Felt Forum (Audio CD)
I just finished listening to this 6 cd box set. It's a collection of the Doors 4 performances recorded at New York's Felt Forum on January 17/18, 1970. All I can say is I've been really impressed by the quality of the packaging, the sound, as well as the bands performances! These concerts were expertly recorded! Very clear and atmospheric recordings. The Doors performances were great and often inspired! Jim's voice gave out a little in the final show, but he made up for it with his energy and enthusiasm! Jim was really into these shows and performed very well.
Some may notice that small parts of the song introductions as well as a few sections of songs themselves have been spliced in from other performances on the rare occasion. However, this is very very minor. The vast majority of the original Felt Forum tapes are included here. The problem was since these shows were originally recorded, the tapes had been cut into many fragments for usage in various live releases through the years. From my understanding, Bruce Botnick basically had to assemble the tapes as if they were a jigsaw puzzle. A few very small tape fragments are unfortunately lost forever. With this taken into consideration, I think Mr. Botnick did a great job! The other options were to either a) release what they had with the missing pieces, or b) fill in the missing gaps with lesser sound quality audience recordings. Mr. Botnick chose to keep the flow of the concerts going without a drop in sound quality. I'm fine with his decision all things considered.
Another decision Bruce Botnick had to make was regarding John Sebastion's harmonica playing on the January 18th late show. The problem was that his harmonica wasn't miced and thus not picked up on the original recordings. The solution was to have Mr. Sebastion overdub his harmonica playing. I've read those particular songs will be released via download without Sebastion's overdubs. Keeps all sides happy I think.
In conclusion, I'm very happy with this release and highly recommend it to fans of the group! I also encourage them to BUY it. This is the last release from the 'Absolutely Live' concert recordings. Hopefully if this release is supported well and they make a little profit, it could encourage them to seek out rare recordings for future release via download or cd (I'd love Avalon Ballroom 1967 personally). Can't wait for the Matrix master tapes!
Thanks for reading!
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four under the Garden, January 22, 2010
This review is from: Live in New York, Felt Forum (Audio CD)
The Doors, well known for releasing the same material over and over again in a new package (hello original six albums), have done much to atone for those sins since 2000. That year, they set up Bright Midnight Records, which was dedicated to releasing uncut, un-doctored live material from the band's archives...the same archives they claimed were barer than die-hard fans knew. They've released some very excellent product, including most of the material recorded for Absolutely Live. This includes full, uncut and professionally recorded shows from Detroit, LA, Philadelphia, and other locales. They haven't released as many shows as originally envisioned, but what they have put out has been reverent. The only real hiccup along the way was the Matrix release from 2009, which was a great opportunity to finally provide an official outlet for well known bootleg material (the four Matrix shows over two days in early 1967).
Finally, finally, they deliver what fans have been clamoring for, especially since Bright Midnight was established: all four Felt Forum shows in their entirety, uncut, and (for the most part) un-doctored. We get six CDs, and only a little bit of this was ever officially released before; bits were included in Absolutely Live/In Concert, and the 1997 box set had a single disc that cherry-picked tracks from the four shows.
This release, another highly recommended gem, just about rounds out the Absolutely Live material. In January, 1970, The Doors played four shows over two consecutive nights at New York's Felt Forum, the smaller concert venue under the main Madison Square Garden arena. (They played the main arena in January 1969, but for their new tour, post-Miami, they opted for the superior acoustics and intimacy of the Felt.) Both nights they played an early and a late show, and packed a lot of material into each. Not only were these shows recorded in their entirety, but they sound (for the most part) like great shows.
While Absolutely Live and other older Doors live material were the product of Paul Rothchild's great talents as a producer, splicing together numerous takes of a single song to create the best-sounding concert album experience, the Bright Midnight releases revel in what fanatics and the bootleg-obsessed have always been interested in: complete, un-doctored shows. The good news is that the band and particularly Bruce Botnick (original Doors sound engineer) are very open with exactly what was done with the source tapes. Since those tapes were cut up for previous releases, there are gone-forever snippets here and there, and they went through a painstaking process to review the two-track live tapes versus the eight-track masters in order to determine exactly what was missing. In those cases, they swapped in parts of another 1970 show that fit the mood. You would be pretty hard pressed to identify these snippets in your ears, the work is seamless.
The biggest manipulation here is actually the overdubs done by John Sebastian, who joined the Doors on stage for one of the shows but whose harmonica was not picked up by the mic. I believe the 'bare' tracks will be released online, so fans can get both.
Many will note the differences between the early and late shows on each night. Typically, the later shows are longer and a bit more revved up, including longer jams and more improv. However, having four professionally recorded shows is a major bonanza. Once again, all of the in-between tuning, crowd noise, and chatter is included (tracks are titled 'Tuning / Breather', for instance). Yes, these tend to break up the momentum, and we now realize that bootleggers were regularly trimming these breaks to death in order to fit shows on a record or CD, but they reflect how the band performed. You'd be much harder pressed to see a band today that took a long breather between songs, and indeed, The Doors famously never agreed on a set list before each show, but rather let the vibe and the audience dictate where they would go. This was the band getting back to just the music, and returning to the blues work that defined their earlier club days. They also play several tracks from the not-yet-released Morrison Hotel.
Despite the glut of recent quality releases, Doors fanatics know that there is a good chunk of material still out there, ripe for the official outlet. This includes a number of professionally recorded or broadcast shows, including Seattle, 1970 (by many accounts a poor show with a very drunk and distant Morrison), Vancouver 1970 (significantly better), and the Isle of Wight performance, a crisp, broadcast version having been available on bootleg for over a decade. And there's plenty more if they want to get back into releasing audience stuff (the Boot Yer Butt box, while expensive, had some very, very rare material, though some of it was in horrendous quality).
Highly, highly recommended for the Doors fan. New fans, too...if you want a great intro to the live Doors, and a lot of value, this set is a great boon. Note the cover of the box, which reproduces an actual ticket from these shows, and the $5.50 price of an orchestra ticket. You can still go to the Felt Forum today (which has since gone through about 100 name changes), but for $5.50 you might only be able to get a box of Cracker Jacks.
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