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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent primer/good "digest" for dedicated fans, May 16, 2008
If, like me, you've been a Doors fan since high school, but never an "uberfan", you've probably had more than one of the studio albums and probably one of the anthologies/best ofs, etc. By first wife sto-, er, "permanently borrowed" and/or sold my copy of "LA Woman" (ironic, hunh?) and one of the anthologies.
Now the discs that were "ex-wife'd", were discs made BEFORE the Industry decided there was a huge vein of gold to be mined by "remasters". So I've been able to replace long-lost discs without spending unnecessarily on albums I already have. (Even ex's have their uses, I suppose.)
If you are a newb to the Doors, this collection is not only a great deal (39 tracks for $15), it sounds great. It has all of the "great" songs which made the Doors legends; tho' I agree only the most casual of fans isn't going to have some quibble with all the choices of any anthology (by any band).
You're still encouraged to buy, at the very least, "L.A. Woman" if this collection confirms your taste for the Doors. The last studio album to be released before Morrison's death in Paris, Many of the greatest songs are on that album anyway.
The "classics" are all here; as are some gems usually neglected by AOR--"The WASP: Texas Radio and the Big Beat" (now condescendingly called "Classic Rock" by these punk kids who think that "rock" began with Nirvana, "Oh ye of little knowledge (and less taste!)"
As for the sound quality, I found it excellent (especially compared to the three or four songs I'd downloaded from iTunes @128kpbs AAC; good codec but at the bit-rate you can't expect much).
Over all, the remastering benefits this set.
In particular, the remaster of "Love Me Two Times" is exactly what a remaster should be. It brings out depths--and heights--here to fore missing in analogue-to-digital transfers of the material. I felt like I sitting at Robby Krieger's feet as he plucked out the jangling signature notes of the song's hook.
"People Are Strange", perhaps the most "perfect" song they ever recorded, sound wonderful clean and its sardonic refrain never cut more precisely.
More generally,
Manzarek's organ has gained a sharpness and a smoothness that I've never heard before on a Door's recording (and my first one was on vinyl--yes I know how I'm dating myself!). The often muddied passages on both analogue and digital media, have vanished, leaving this stop-gap for synthesizers (I'm almost happy that the Doors never had the chance to move into synths; Morrison's voice, as pointed out by another reviewer, WAS the band's primary instrument. The tendency of synths to become the centerpiece of a band's sound regardless of the vocalist's skill/charisma was never something that the Door's had to face.)
The "imitation" bass used on some cuts sounds, unfortunately, even more "imitation." The tracks where session bass players were brought it are immediately noticeable. It's too bad that Krieger was the ace on bass that he was on guitar where he must be placed in the first row of the second tier of World's Greatest Guitarists.
The drums, as they almost always do, gain from having as much of analogue's hiss (and vinyl's snap-crackle-and-pop) eliminated. Always properly-miked, I gained new respect for just how carefully the Doors crafted their sound. While not in the same league as Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin in that department, neither of those two bands had a phenom as a lead singer (no slight intended to Robert Plant, but Morrison has an almost Sinatran [?] ability to control his phrasing; and when he's on his game, he could match Ol' Blue Eyes. A strange comparison, I'll admit, but if you're familiar with the Chairman of the Board and the Admiral's Son, then pick a few tracks of Sinatra's and a few Door's gems and listen to them. You'll see that the Southern California Navy brat had chops almost as polished as the working-class kid from Hoboken.
One downside of the remasters' new clarity is the strain that can sometimes be heard in Morrison's voice, whether from over-singing (perhaps pushing to meet deadlines or simply conscious of how little time he had left) or the insane lifestyle that he led (anyone wanting a guide on how to "live young, die fast and..." and squander talent on loan from God, should check out, "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman, the title coming from the lyrics of "Five to One"; thankfully the book is still in print; search Amazon in books and look for the $10 paperback).
On "Roadhouse Blues" I can hear Morrison straining to reach for the higher notes, probably the results, of drinking, smoking and his industrial promiscuity.
A word on the whole phenomenon of remasters....which has been called one of the greatest rip-offs ever perpetrated by the record companies.
Sometimes this has been true, sometimes not. Though I should think even the most experienced PR flack would be hard put to answer the question, "Why weren't the albums remastered when first converted to digital?
The results haven't always been worth the wait or the extra cash. The Rush Remasters, over all, haven't done much to improve the sound--which was always excellent even the bad, old days of vinyl acetate (don't be fooled by the bellyaching of those pining for snap-crackle-and-pop of LP records: CDs are an improvement in everyway).
The remaster of the Who's seminal classic "Who's Next" sounds almost identical to the first CD I ever bought of it. Apparently, they nailed it down the first time they recorded it; large applications of that questionable medication "Studio Magic" weren't needed.
We can argue whether or not the Doors' NEEDED to issue this remastered set. I say yes. For the reasons I outlined for both newbs and for those of us whose collections went the way of "The Lizard King", this set fills in the crucial gaps for those bereft for those just beginning to explore Jim Morrison's "Doors of Perception."
The "pre-remastered" Zep CDs sounded better, in my view, than Pagey's multiple remastering efforts. They were punchier, "warmer" (subjective as that term is), somehow more raw. The newer versions are sharper, clearer, colder, more precise. Something is gained , something lost.
My BIGGEST complaint is that these discs ARE not SACD Hybrids. I know the format is generally considered to have failed to catch on with all but audiophiles (which, in Industry Speak means jazz and art--"classical"--music lovers), there are still plenty of us who know the Doors deserve the absolute best in digital reproduction and SACD is it!
If you, like me, once had more extensive (music) collection and had it suffer from losses from poverty/fire/theft/ex-wife, etc, and don't particularly feel like buying all six of the studio albums or a hefty (price and other-wise) boxed set (what was the point of including duplicate DVD-As? in that set? the smart thing to do would have been to issue them as single, Hybrid SACDs, that way those interested in the highest fidelity available, would have the option while the SINGLE disc would still work in everyone of the 600M CD players on Earth, this gives you everything you loved about the Doors. After all, SACDs can travel with you and will play in your car stereo CD (or their copies, if you be wise enough to burn personal copies to protect the original--a must if you ask me: it keeps your CDDA collection in pristine condition).
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good grief, this is EPIC, October 12, 2007
I guess it depends on your point of view regarding the mixes found on this collection. If you're like me who's actually listened to the Doors for these past forty years, then you'll probably welcome these "new" versions with open arms. If you're a younger person who missed it the first (or second) time around and are more into "audiophile" integrity of the band, then I would suggest you pass on this or the individual albums that have all been re-released.
Life is way too short to worry about such nonsense. This is a very inexpensive expansive collection of tunes by one of the best bands to ever grace a stage.
Take a deep breath, make the purchase.....and enjoy yourself.
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27 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Jim Morrison ....buried again...by Bruce Botnick, October 1, 2007
I am wondering who let John Densmore mix these tracks? Morrison's vocals are almost left off...they are so reduced in this new mix...just horrible..
and the drums are now the lead instrument...just awful. A wonderful selection of tracks...reMASTERING would be great but reMixed? WHY? and if so..why didn't anybody mention that Jim's voice was the defining instrument of the band...when he died...so did the band. Don't get me wrong I admire Robby and Ray...but without Jim they didn't go anywhere and why he is diminished in these new mixes is just a crime.
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