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Absolutely Live

The Doors - Absolutely Live Audio CD

A fair review of the The Doors "Absolutely Live" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Doors reviews here, or go back to the The Doors tabs.

Band: The Doors
Title: Absolutely Live
Rating:

Release Date: 1996-10-15
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: House Announcer 2: Who Do You Love? 3: Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) 4: Back Door Man 5: Love Hides 6: Five to One 7: Build Me a Woman 8: When the Music's Over 9: Close to You 10: Universal Mind 11: Petition the Lord with Prayer 12: Dead Cats, Dead Rats 13: Break On Through (To the Other Side) No. 2 14: Celebration of the Lizard: Lions in the Street 15: Celebration of the Lizard: Wake Up 16: Celebration of the Lizard: A Little Game 17: Celebration of the Lizard: The Hill Dwellers 18: Celebration of the Lizard: Not to Touch the Earth 19: Celebration of the Lizard: Names of the Kingdom 20: Celebration of the Lizard: The Palace of Exile 21: Soul Kitchen

Showing The Doors at there ultimate fall
There singer Jim Morrison as you can often hear on this album is drunk or high and yells and just doesent sound as good. Live concerts ranging from 1969-1970 show the Doors falling apart. Its a good documentary album showing the Doors falling apart. Its a weird live album and is recommended for those who love live recordings and The Doors.

Nobody like the Doors
It was in the dead of winter, sub-zero temperatures. A long time ago, my friends and I took some acid. We were in someone's basement, the air thick with incense and marijuana smoke, black light posters ripping colors through the darkness. Then someone put on "Celebration of the Lizard" from Absolutely Live. It was the first time I ever heard it.

Hearing that "song" in a room where florescent colors are the only illumination and with a head full of purple haze and Columbian gold was an experience I would not soon forget.

Afterward, we walked through the freezing winds and icy ground to the lake. The details of what followed are unimportant; except that we dove headfirst into a misadventure that almost cost us our lives; that spooky, surrealist music and poetry still reverberating through our heads like the voice of a mad spirit. Driving us forward and inspiring us to face death at the hands of the merciless elements. Challenging us to survive.

New band claim to be rebellious; yet are little more than petulant children who insist upon poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol; with no talent or depth of vision to back up their rebellious nature. And certainly Morrison and the boys did plenty of drugs and booze. But while most rock groups play rebel, the Doors were truly dangerous in that they used a unique musical form and poetic incantation inspired by Blake and Nietzsche to deftly manipulate the primal essence of the human psyche. Ask yourself how many can be considered true threats to social order? How many can offer an experience of real adventure, danger; an initiation ritual from which one emerges transformed?

This is what's missing in much of today's music.

Close to essential
I have found that this is more for Morrison's antics - inciting riots, indecently exposing himself, etc, then the music. The Doors' live performances are, of course, legendary. But the music itself is pretty good, displaying the Doors as a loose blues band - much like on LP's such as Morrison Hotel and L. A. Woman. If nothing else, fans should have this for the amount of otherwise hard-to-get material, including the worthwhile blues "Close to You" and the moody psychedelia of "Universal Mind", which quotes "My Favorite Things". There is also an electrifying performance of "Break on Through" - along with an even more intense "Five to One" and the lengthy finale "Soul Kitchen", it's the only real hit they play. Don't be fooled by the "No. 2" subtitle (which I believe was applied because "Dead Cats, Dead Rats" uses the organ part) and the fact that it's about twice as long as the studio version, it's still "Break on Through". As for the blues songs, they rule: a funky "Who Do You Love?", a menacing "Back Door Man". But the real reason to get this is for the infamous "Celebration of the Lizard", that sidelong beat poetry reading-meets-jam pitched for Waiting for the Sun that Jim couldn't pull off in the studio because of his alcohol problems. I think it's one of their finest achievements myself: Jim's dark, disturbing lyrics are his best of the kind since "The End", and the group adds several layers of mysterious intrigue to it with Manzarek's moody organ and Densmore's tribal drumming matching Jim's dramatic intonations. Plus the dynamic shifts add a lot of power. Of course, if you hate the Doors, this will fuel the fire. The big downside is an interminable "When the Music's Over" that goes from a lengthy, kinetic groove on the studio version (one of their best, by the way) to total bombast that's just an excuse for Jim to scream his head off; there are other fillers such as a brief "Whiskey Bar", but they're no big deal. If you ask me, any Doors fan should have this one. It's pretty high up there. .

For me it was everything
What I can say though is that it is a true testimony of the quality and depth of the Doors' music on many levels, even the most unimaginable. There isn't really much I can honestly add to the comments here and the many reviews that exist of this album.

As an 8 year old in 1978, I liked the usual commmercial music you heard on the radio in those days in the US: Bee Gees, Village People, Stevie Wonder, etc. . Then one day my older cousin left this tape at my house and I found it. I put it my portable cassette recorder (the rectangular, mono ones with the extractable handle) and my life changed. I had no idea what Jim symbolized in popular culture, what he was talking about, nothing. All I knew was that it somehow spoke to me in a way I would only find out when I was old enough to grasp what the Doors message was. So I obviously would recommend this album to anyone and everyone. By the way, I think the performance is way above average considerinf�g that Jim was often too wasted to sing, and the sound is great, almost studio-like. .

great for longtime fans not beginners
but if your a longtime fan than this albums for you great live stuff here though jim morrison sounds a little stoned on some of this like on the song, 'Wake Up', or on Back door man other than that its a great album sound quality is the best for live stuff, also i'd like to say that on the song, 'Soul Kitchen', the band must of been pretty stoned cause it sounds all weird the organ and everything it dosent sound right anyway go out and buy this if your the guy who needs all the doors and yes this is. if your a beginner fan on the doors then this album isnt really for you it dosent include a lot of the common songs. . . . . . ABSOUTLEY LIVE!!!!.

You can see a complete list of all The Doors discography, or go back to the The Doors tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.