Do not buy this CD "Absolutely Live" by the Doors. Pay the extra few dollars more & get the double CD, "In Concert" instead. The reason, the "In Concert" double disk has the live albums "Absolutely Live," "Alive She Cried" & "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" all in one package with one exception: an unreleased live version of 'The End' (the main reason to get that double disk just for that song alone!). Get it & it'll be money worth spent.

I'm sorry, but "Alive She Cried" is marred by Morrison's escalating problem of being wasted, sometimes not even appearing onstage. At one such show in France, the band played as a trio and keyboardist Ray Manzarek took over lead vocals and displayed a Morrison imitation I hadn't known he could do. And the later "Live At Hollywood Bowl" is only an EP with less than 20 minutes on it and only two real songs: "Light My Fire" and "Unknown Soldier", the rest of the tracks being loose segments from "Celebration Of the Lizard", which you get on this release in its entirety. But on this album, Morrison is in fairly good voice, only marred by having to transpose the refrain of "Break On Through" because he did that one too late in the show to be able to make the high notes. He does start that one off with the spoken intro to "Soft Parade", an album that wasn't out yet. We also get the blues oldie "Close To You" lead sung by Manzarek, who we only hear on lead elsewhere on the b-side of the single "Wishful Sinful", a track that hasn't reappeared on any rarities sets. This is a bit prophetic, because after Morrison's death the band did two more albums as a blues trio, with Manzarek and guitarist Krieger swapping off lead vocal duties. Those albums are "Other Voices" and "Full Circle" and neither are in print anymore. It figures--after all, you have no Morrison, you have no Doors in many fans' eyes. But the centerpiece of the album is the epic "Celebration Of the Lizard", a work hinted at on the cover of the album "Waiting For the Sun", lyrics printed in full, but the only part of it that actually appeared on that album was "Not To Touch the Earth". They never did get around to doing "Celebration" in the studio.

The Doors were completely different live than they were on the studio albums. In concert, they were much more blues influenced. They were raw, they would stretch out the material and they would experiment and jam. They would cover a lot of blues standards. Although "Absolutely Live" does demonostrate some of this, it is not the best representation of what the Doors could be like live. A better album would be the 2CD set called "In Concert". It contains all of "Absolutely Live", plus it has a second CD containing "Alive She Cried" and "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" plus a previously unreleased version of The End. There is also the Doors Boxset, which contains alot of great live material, but is uneven and expensive.

"Absolutely Live" was released in 1970. Although there are some rough and raw parts and Morrison does go into some rants, I think it was partially santitized by the record company. The best thing about this album is that it is not just live duplicates of the studio material. Most of the material isn't available on other albums. There's a spectacular version of Who Do You Love and the interesting Celebration of the Lizard. The songs that are studio albums are done in new and interesting ways. Especially good are the Dead Rats, Dead Cats intro to Break On Through and an extended version of Soul Kitchen. When the Music's Over is fairly good, but is interrupted by Morrison ranting at the audience. It is interesting and a good example of how he could be in concert, but it interrupts the flow of the song and isn't worth listening to more than once.

While this album is a lot better than the EP "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" it's obvious that they left a few songs out. They have only a few songs from actual albums (they don't even have Light My Fire) and then segments from Celebration of the Lizard. This is a fantastic album if you ignore the previous detail about the song choices; Morrison's vocals are outstanding. I recently saw Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger live with their new band Riders on the Storm and they still kick a$$.
I'm also pretty sure that this is merely the first disc of the double live album.

1. House Announcer-N/A-Kind of funny. It's a guy telling the audience to have people go back to their seats or there's no show. Just kind of interesting.
2. Who Do You Love-4/5-This song is OK, but it's obvious why The Doors never laid it down on album.
3. Alabama Song-5/5-It's a medley, but it's great. Well done.
4. Backdoor Man-5/5-A little extra guitar solo by Robbie Krieger. This is a great song...Obviously. Another damn medley.
5. Love Hides-5/5-This song was never put on album and I'm not sure why. The lyrics to this song kick major a$$.
6. Five to One-5/5-A little longer than the studio version; Morrison improvs on a few things here and it's really cool.
7. Build Me a Woman-5/5-Yet another song never put on album. I highly doubt if Morrison ever had the "poontang blues." A great guitar solo is in this I might add.
8. When the Music's Over-5/5-One of their best songs. Jim Morrison always kicked a$$ at performing this song. During speaking parts not included in the studio version of the song he shows a really good sense of humor.
9. Close to You-5/5-Ray Manzarek on vocals and he's pretty good. I saw Manzarek sing "Alabama Song" with Riders on the Storm.
10. Universal Mind-5/5-I was doing time in a universal mind. This is yet another song never put on album; But lyrically it's really great.
11. Petition the Lord With Prayer-5/5-Funny. Morrison screaming about petitioning the lord with prayer.
12. Dead Cats, Dead Rats-5/5-It's more of a poem than an actual song and it's played with the beat from Break on Through.
13. Break on Through #2-5/5-Not sure why it's called Break on Through #2, it's the same song as just "Break on Through".

CELEBRATION OF THE LIZARD
14. Lions in the Street-5/5-Very cool. The beginning of the long poem.
15. Wake Up-5/5-Then it gets creepy.
16. A Little Game-5/5-"I want to play a little game. This is a game called go insane"...Or something like that.
17. The Hill Dwellers-5/5-Daughters smug with s**en eyes in their nipples. Lines just don't get much better than that.
18. Not To Touch the Earth-5/5-Featured on "Waiting for the Sun". This is an awesome song apart from Celebration. It's really great, really catchy.

19. Names of the Kingdom-5/5-I'm pretty sure this is not a part of COTL. It's great; Morrison speaks in a very sensual voice that's really cool.
20. The Palace of Exile-5/5-It's only like 46 seconds long, but then the crowd chants more which stretches it to a little over two minutes. What Morrison does say is very indian-like.
21. Soul Kitchen-5/5-Morrison's voice sounds a lot different then on the studio version; more tired and sensual. The song is exteneded to about 7 minutes, but it's really good.
A-

A great addition to any Doors collection. I first heard this about 15 years ago and have since bought first the double album set, then the CD. It is classic Doors, and typical Morrison. From the music, and also his reaction to what's going on in the crowd, you get the impression Morrison nevers really cares what the audience thinks about his art. This doesn't take away from his passion for the music though, as testified by the songs included. Each and every piece is a story all on it's own. Highlights include a great version of "Break on Thru", and the epic poetry of "Celebration of the Lizard". The low point of this concert was "Build Me a Women" which is just plain dumb. However it's then followed by a interesting version of "When the Music's over" which has Morrison screaming at the crowd to shut-up. Overall a great concert, and an absolute must for Doors fans everywhere!