The Doors: Perception (Disc 1 - The Doors) CD Track Listing

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The Doors Perception (Disc 1 - The Doors) (1967)
Perception - Disc 1 of 6 (The Doors)\n2006 Elektra/Rhino\n\nThis Compilation (Perception Box) Released November 21, 2006\n''The Doors'' Originally Released January 1967\n''The Doors'' CD Edition Released ??\n''The Doors'' Remastered CD Edition Released May 1988\n''The Doors'' DCC Gold CD Edition Released July 6, 1992\n''The Doors'' Released as Part of ''Complete Studio Recordings'' Cube Compilation Released November 9, 1999\n''The Doors'' 96K Remastered CD Edition Released July 2000\n''The Doors'' Released as Part of ''Complete Studio Recordings'' longbox Compilation Released September 9, 2003\n\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (Perception Box) It's hard not to look at the 2006 box set Perception without a skeptical eye, since it is not only the third box set of the Doors studio recordings to be released within the course of a decade, it is the second in a row to purport to house the "complete studio recordings" of a group that released six studio albums -- and this doesn't count the live sets and hits comps that have appeared during that decade, either. Needless to say, the band has been packaged, repackaged, and reissued more than most, but just because there has been more Doors boxes than necessary doesn't mean that Perception lacks value. Indeed, it trumps the 1999 box The Complete Studio Recordings in every sense, since it covers the same territory in a set that is better packaged and better-sounding while also offering many more rarities. It also offers brand-new remasters supervised by the surviving band and their original producer Bruce Botnick, highlighted by the first-ever release of the classic debut album at its proper speed; apart from that, the improvements are by and large marginal in terms of the CD audio, but there are also 5.1 surround mixes of each of the albums on the DVD-Audios that accompany each album in this set, which are the primary sonic enticements to those who have already purchased these albums two, three, four times on CD. The bonus material -- and each of the albums have bonus tracks, ranging from two cuts on L.A. Woman to ten on Morrison Hotel -- by and large presents songs that have been official releases before (including much of the music from the Essential Rarities disc that was included in the 1999 box), but there have been a handful of rarities excavated for this set, including the unheard "Push Push" which has been added to The Soft Parade. All this makes Perception into what the 1999 box promised to be in its title: the complete recorded works, more or less, and it's better-looking and better-sounding, too. Even so, any fan who has purchased the prior sets would be forgiven if they passed on this otherwise excellent box: no matter how well-done it is, it's hard not to shake the perception that you've bought this all before. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review (Perception Box) \nFor years, the recording industry has asked fans to purchase the same music from the 1960s and '70s over and over again, via remasterings, repackagings, and, of course, reformattings. The Doors' box Perception (get it?), cleverly packaged as... a door, does hold some astonishing music, but the thing itself is a weird hybrid beast with multiple formats for every release. Each of the group's six albums has not only been re-remastered (this time by the remaining band members plus original engineer Bruce Botnick as the "40th anniversary mix"), but loaded up with a bevy of previously unreleased bonus tracks. But that's not it--for each album, there's a companion DVD, which includes a whole new 5.1 surround sound mix with more tracks, as well as the usual DVD extras, i.e., photo galleries, lyrics, and videos. That makes 12 discs, much of it essentially redundant. If you're cool with that, you're in for a treat. From the spookier, unissued version of "Indian Summer" to the entirely new tune "Push Push" and some super-rad footage of the band rehearsing L.A. Woman, it's easy to fall in love with this swirling, highly sexualized, and often brilliant band all over again. --Mike McGonigal \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW (Perception Box) \nCLOSE THE DOOR THIS TIME - 5 STARS FOR THE MUSIC, November 26, 2006\nReviewer: Mitchell Cassman (BUFFALO GROVE, IL United States)\nIt's hard not to look at the 2006 box set Perception without a skeptical eye, since it is not only the third box set of the Doors studio recordings to be released within the course of a decade, it is the second in a row to purport to house the "complete studio recordings" of a group that released six studio albums -- and this doesn't count the live sets and hits comps that have appeared during that decade, either. Needless to say, the band has been packaged, repackaged, and reissued more than most, but just because there has been more Doors boxes than necessary doesn't mean that Perception lacks value. Indeed, it trumps the 1999 box The Complete Studio Recordings in every sense, since it covers the same territory in a set that is better packaged and better-sounding while also offering many more rarities. It also offers brand-new remasters supervised by the surviving band and their original producer Bruce Botnick, highlighted by the first-ever release of the classic debut album at its proper speed; apart from that, the improvements are by and large marginal in terms of the CD audio, but there are also 5.1 surround mixes of each of the albums on the DVD-Audios that accompany each album in this set, which are the primary sonic enticements to those who have already purchased these albums two, three, four times on CD. The bonus material and each of the albums have bonus tracks, ranging from two cuts on L.A. Woman to ten on Morrison Hotel by and large presents songs that have been official releases before (including much of the music from the Essential Rarities disc that was included in the 1999 box), but there have been a handful of rarities excavated for this set, including the unheard "Push Push" which has been added to The Soft Parade. All this makes Perception into what the 1999 box promised to be in its title: the complete recorded works, more or less, and it's better-looking and better-sounding, too. Even so, any fan who has purchased the prior sets would be forgiven if they passed on this otherwise excellent box: no matter how well-done it is, it's hard not to shake the perception that you've bought this all before. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW (Perception Box) \n*****, November 22, 2006\nReviewer: Craig (Newport Beach, CA)\nI had bought a couple Doors CD's recently to replace my vinyl records, and was on my way to buying all six Doors studio albums on CD, when I heard about "Perception" coming out, so held off. I bought "Perception" yesterday and finished listening to the set today, and am very pleased. I bought the "Doors Box Set" a few years ago and was very disappointed with that. But I really like "Perception." Maybe it's just my personal taste, but when bands try to pass off recordings of live performances as collectors' gems, I'm never ever thrilled. I just don't get too thrilled listening to live performances on record (which is why I'm not keen on the "Box Set"). What I love are studio outtakes. And that's why I love "Perception" so much. To hear the studio version of "The Celebration of the Lizard" is really wonderful. I much prefer it to the version on "Absolutely Live." To hear the development of "Roadhouse Blues" over multiple takes, with Paul Rothchild encouraging the Doors in his hilariously dated sounding hippy-speak is wonderful. To hear--during a work up of "Peace Frog"--Jim mildly berate the other Doors for sounding like "a drunk cripple" walking up "drunken stairs" (and he's right, they're playing is way off!) is a treat. And even though it's literally snippets of seconds, to finally hear the original studio version of "Break on Through" with Jim singing "She gets HIGH," before "HIGH" was edited out, is great. Also on "The Doors" album in this set, the mix for "The End" is like the "Apocalypse Now" version, in that Jim's ranting toward the climax is brought forward, so you can hear him say, "eff me, babe." That was mixed down in the original album because of the profanity. The Doors liked how Coppola remixed the song for "Apocalypse Now," so they obviously took Coppola's remix as inspiration when remixing "The End" in this "Perception" set. The other studio outtakes are great, too (especially of "Touch Me" and "Moonlight Drive," meaning the "Moonlight Drive" take that was not on the "Box Set," of course). These outtakes are fairly plentiful on "Perception" and that's why I like it. \n\nP.S. Rasmey Lewis fans will love the instrumental bonus track titled "Push Push" at the end of the "Soft Parade" disc, because Ray's piano playing and the song itself are wonderfully derivative of Ramsey Lewis's song "The 'In' Crowd."\n\nHalf.com Details (Perception Box)\nProducer: Bruce Botnick, Paul Rothchild \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Doors: Robby Krieger (guitar); Ray Manzarek (keyboards); John Densmore (drums).\n\nAdditional personnel: Marc Benno (guitar); G. Puglese (harmonica); Jerry Scheff (bass instrument); Lonnie Mack, Ray Neopolitan (bass guitar).\nRecording information: 1967 - 1971.\n\nTo celebrate the Doors' 40th anniversary, Rhino is releasing this incredible box set with six CDs and six DVDs, including remastered album tracks, bonus tracks (some never released), music videos, archival film footage, and lyrics. This ambitious, sprawling offering drops November 21.\n\nREVIEWS OF THIS TITLE: (The Doors)\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: A tremendous debut album, and indeed one of the best first-time outings in rock history, introducing the band's fusion of rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry with a knockout punch. The lean, spidery guitar and organ riffs interwove with a hypnotic menace, providing a seductive backdrop for Jim Morrison's captivating vocals and probing prose. "Light My Fire" was the cut that would top the charts and establish the group as stars, but most of the rest of the album is just as impressive, including some of their best songs: the propulsive "Break On Through" (their first single), the beguiling Oriental mystery of "The Crystal Ship," the mysterious "End of the Night," "Take It As It Comes" (one of several tunes besides "Light My Fire" that also had hit potential), and the stomping rock of "Soul Kitchen" and "Twentieth Century Fox." The eleven-minute Oedipal drama "The End" was the group at their most daring and, some would contend, overambitious. It was nonetheless a haunting cap to an album whose nonstop melodicism and dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered. -- Richie Unterberger\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nThe Doors exploded onto the scene in early 1967 with one of the most fully realized sounds of any debuting rock band up until that time. The group's three stylistically overlapping instrumentalists--classical-blues keyboardist Ray Manzarek, blues jazz guitarist Robby Krieger, and jazz-rock drummer John Densmore--complemented each other perfectly, giving lead singer Jim Morrison wide sonic backdrops for his dark-hued poetic visions. Equally adept at both short, tightly arranged tunes ("Break on Through," "Take It As It Comes," "Soul Kitchen") and lengthy, experimental fare (the solos-driven "Light My Fire" and the Oedipal complex-driven "The End"), the Doors' highly theatrical approach raised the bar for late 60s rock's artistic ambitions. --Billy Altman \n\nRolling Stone Online Review (1987)\nSixteen years after Jim Morrison's death, the Doors' immense popularity continues unabated, and all the reasons for that are embodied in their inspired debut album, "The Doors." Along with "Sgt. Pepper," "The Doors" provided the soundtrack to the Summer of Love. \nIt was an album of startling breadth --~particularly for a debut. "Light My Fire" and "Break On Through (on the Other Side)" were calls to Dionysian ecstasy. A bold coupling of covers --~Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" and Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man" -- indicated the Doors' willingness to take on both avantgarde theater and deep blues. And "The End" was a staggering, eleven-minute Oedipal drama that broadened the thematic scope that rock music could encompass. Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, John Cale, Billy Idol, Jim Carrol, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Cult are just a handful of the artists who were profoundly influenced by the wildly poetic persona Jim Morrison defined on "The Doors." \n\nThe Doors' legendary live shows -- powered by Morrison's charismatic stage presence and the musical versatility of keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore --~had already made them a major force on the L.A. club scene when they began recording their first album in late 1966. The trick was capturing on record what producer Paul Rothchild calls "the very powerful drama, the psychology of the song that the Doors are so famous for now." According to Rothchild, he and the band set one goal. "Every song had to be perfect in that it took you on an aural, visual and psychological journey." \n\nKeyboardist Ray Manzarek compares the spiritual atmosphere of the sessions to a "seance in which we tried to communicate with the basic power of the act of creating music. That was what we attempted to capture and communicate to the individual listener." \n\nRecording was completed in about a week, and the songs were done live, typically in about two or three takes. Candles were lit and incense burned to set the mood, but according to Manzarek, the Doors required little external assistance to get where they wanted to go. \n\n"This was the culmination of everything we had worked for," he says. "There were very few drugs; nobody needed to get high on anything. One of Morrison's lines of poetry is 'In that year we had an intense visitation of energy.' Well, in that two-week period we had an intense visitation of energy. The muse descended upon us." \n\nThe most intense visitation came during "The End," which was done in two takes. Rothchild, who has produced nearly 150 records, describes it as "one of the perfect moments of rock recording." When it came time to do 'The End,' a very different mood took Jim over," Manzarek says. "Jim became shamanistic and led the small group on a shamanistic voyage. He put himself into a trance and, through that, put us all into a trance." As the Doors were performing "The End," Manzarek says, Rothchild turned to engineer Bruce Botnick and said, "I don't know if you know what's happening here, but magic is being made. We are recording magic." \n\nWhen he heard a complete playback of the album, Manzarek had a basic but suitably Oedipal response: "This is a motherfucker." Despite the band's hopes for success, the record didn't take off for some months; the first single released from it, "Break On Through (to the Other Side)," quickly disappeared. "I think it went to 106," Manzarek says. "We thought, 'Oh, shit, man. Ooh, God, that's scary.' We were hoping for Top Forty, at least." But when Rothchild shortened the seven-minute "Light My Fire" (which was written by Krieger) so it could be released as an AM-radio single, it shot to the top of the charts, and the Doors were on their way. \n\n"Jim Morrison is now referred to as a poet, a rock immortal," says Manzarek proudly. "He's become a god." Those descriptions correspond perfectly to what he feels the Doors' visionary music was all about -- and may explain why it has lasted. "That's what we tried to convey: a spiritual force in the music, and poetry on top of that," says Manzarek. "People today are just as attuned to that as the people in the Sixties were." (RS 507) \nCopyright

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