For another Jim, that famous American philosopher Cheech Marin said, "Let's dig Jim up and get him to lay down a few more tracks." Well they didn't do that, but they did the next best thing.

When I first saw this I couldn't believe my eyes. How good could it be, a live tape that's been in the vaults for more than 30 years? There had to be something wrong. I stood at a listening post and listen to the whole thing before I bought it. And guess what, except for someone clowning with the mixer in "Love Me Two Times", it's all good! I expected off key, bad tape something. It's as good as the Doors live concerts, heck it is a live concert! Through some electronic wizardry, the engineers cobbled together 14 songs from 10 concerts and make it sound like one concert.

In retrospect, the Doors had a strong Jazz Fusion aspect. In "Light my Fire" Robbie Krieger quotes John Coletrane's version of "My Favorite Things". The Blues in "Been Down so Long" is really gutsy, if not too "R" rated for the 60's. Lot's of blues here. In "RoadHouse Blues" Jim sounds as if he's had a drink or two, it's raw, but real, but he still sings on key.

The eerie part is to hear Jim rap about eternal recurrence and re-watching your life over and over after death. Jim says "You'd better have some good incidents happening" to watch forever or words to that effect. Wherever you are Jim, I hope it's good for you.

This is the first of a proposed release of Doors live concerts 30 years in the vaults.

Well worth your money. On my tough grading system, 5 points for performance, 4 for recording quality. Very close to five stars.

Think about it. Who's going to buy this? Thank God it's limited--at least they admit they'll try to get a quick buck and run. If you're really into rare live Doors material, chances are you'll go out and get the full double-disc sets from Bright Midnight that this single disc is culled from.

BUT, of course, this disc has tracks appearing nowhere else. So now you can kindly pay the Doors once again for material you already have (if you get the other sets.)

The Doors will pretty much never miss a chance to sell you something you already have. I love this band, but the treatment of the live and recorded output by both band and record company has been shameless. At least they got Bright Midnight going. (After claiming that the tapes they're releasing now didn't exist.) But hey, they already got fans to buy a box set that had yet another greatest hits in it as well as another box set of studio albums remastered yet again...and didn't even both releasing the non-Morrison Doors albums.

If you can find this used somehow, get it to hear the stuff that hasn't been released on other Bright Midnight discs. Otherwise, go and get the full shows. The Doors are rich enough already.

Live in America is a must for hard-core Doors people, and also highly recommended for everyone. It contains a nice selection, many of the group's greatest songs, and the sound quality is fabulous. What the mixers can achieve in these 21st Century CDs of 20th Century Foxy concerts (OK, concert snippets) is remarkable. If you turn up the sound a bit, it is as if you are sitting next to a speaker on stage, with volume and balance personally calibrated to you, a magically funneled sound.

Check out "The Crystal Ship" and Ray Manzarek's trademark lovely organ solo, which radiates ooh so beautifully. "Touch Me" is also superb, as Robbie Krieger's guitar flows through so neatly in stereo, in place of the absent brass and strings! "Been Down So Long" is excellent, slick worksmanship to that cool heavy blues, with harmonica here too. The good sonics make the always-electrifying "Break on Through" even better, and "Roadhouse Blues" cooks. "The End" fills the long cut slot. The only negative is some muffled sound in an extended "Love Me Two Times," too great a song to let it bother me. Overall, Jim Morrison's poise and delivery are good and professional to boot, even as he allows himself some spoken-jive spontaneity, in contrast to his alcohol-infused theater in "Absolutely Live."

Though the Bright Midnight story is just beginning, by now at least one other version of each song on this CD has appeared on that label or Elektra. It will be interesting to see how the many Doors tunes with no previous commercial live version roll out with the passage of time, for the group performed virtually everything at least once in concert, including "L.A. Woman" and "Riders on the Storm." For now, we have this gem of a CD, opening with none other than "Light My Fire," highlighted by Ray's dynamic keyboard tension preceding the bridge between the two instrumentals.

Since Jim Morrison's demise in 1971, the band has been subject to countless compilations, live albums and greatest hits packages. What distinguishes this release from the others is that it is on a label the remaining three band members have formed. The performances on the album are very strong and a song like "Break On Through" shows off the hyperkinetic energy the band possessed. The band could jam with the best of them and extended versions of "Light My Fire", the ubiquitous "The End", "Five To One" and "Roadhouse Blues" show off their prowess. Bright Midnight is a solid collection and any fan of the band will be satisfied with the performances.

Here I will insert my detailed review of this album which is taken from the comments section over at MarkPrindle.com
I can be reached at cddude24@yahoo.com for any questions or comments.
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I'll start this off by saying that I'm a huge fan of The Doors. I have all six of their albums with Jimbo, Other Voices, Full Circle, In Concert, I've heard their box set, and I attended one of their concerts this year under the name "The Doors Of The 21st Century." It was with a live bassist and drummer that was actually better then John Densmore, singing for them was Ian Astbury, {yeah the 80s Cult singer who belted out 'Fire Woman,' to Mtv,} who was absolutely astonishing. Whether you actively despise the Cult or not...this man could sing those songs margins BETTER than the untrained Morrison and the soul and the energy that night was unbelievable. You can purchase Doors Of The 21st Century live albums at http://www.disclive.com ...it'll blow your mind. And you're wallet if you're not careful.

Anyway, Live In America to me is another document of Mr. Manzarek, Mr. Krieger, and Johnny "Appleseed" Densmore being in their signature psychedelic trance that made everything the Doors ever did so enjoyable, {it's as Ray once said, "people say this is Jim's music. It's not. Jim never made music, he wrote words,"} with an often unenthusiastic [and uninspired] Morrison on top. His commentary is often philosophically brilliant however, as stated, moments like "Bellowing," are god-awful and it often doesn't get a whole lot better. Always interesting but now in the 21st century when the Doors have an extensive catalogue of official material, bootlegs [of better quality], and a touring band that features the key original members, songs, and a singer who is alive and can really keep up, Live In America I find is merely inferior.

--- Jon Blanton 2004 (C) cddude24@yahoo.com