I bought this primarily for the Roadhouse Blues outtakes, just one of those favorite songs , hoping to hear some new guitar riff or keyboard solo , but knowing fully well a drunken Jim could render them worthless.
I jumped right to the bonus tracks and was half right, Jim was still out there and pretty difficult to work with and get the best out of him, you can just see by how many takes it took for this cut to evolve, solely because Jim coudn't find a groove or his brains for that matter.
I first purchased this as an lp in the early seventies, it was my 1st doors lp and my favorite, getting countless spins on the turntable and Morrison was a God, little did I know what a jackass he really was and all the credit should go to Robbie, Ray and John for making this lp the classic that it is.
So then this is one of those things I should be reviewing with all the listening time I put into it. Again I purchased it primarily for the bonus material, I thought that Manzarek had done a great job with all the previous remasters and that the original lp would have little or no improvement. I was dead wrong and not prepared for how amazing this album sounds ,truly remixed and remastered, this is what the doors really wanted to put out, hands down. All the cool harmonica, guitar licks and keyboards , and Jim screams, edited out of the original album inserted to give this a much harder and rocking edge than any version ever produced, my hats off again to the living Doors for this gem. I will be wearing out this copy. You won't believe your listening to the same album , I mean it!
Side note, while purchasing this cd in the store it would not scan to register the sale, the girl asked for assistance and remarked how all the doors 40th anniversary cds were not scanning properly, I remarked it must be the ghost of Jim upset about not getting any of the royalties, too bad Jim, you should have hung around a little longer.Hope the other 40th anniversary cds are just as amazing, I'll be waiting for your reviews,oh hell with it why don't I just get a couple more tomorrow.


Let it roll , baby, roll, allnight long!

I've always loved the DOORS, have their albums, their LIVE shows, sheet music, books, poems, DVDs, reunion films, offically licenced products, you name it. But, here comes a remix/remaster of one of their best works, with NEW bonus tracks, outtake photos, and the lyrics. So, more product the Door's fans are going to grab. On one of the outake photos from the photoshoot for the cover, JIM wrote in chalk behind him, "I think I know the reason but I cant spell it." WOW. I'd put the money out just for these outtake photos, cos of the little bits of insight even they reveal. (A picture is worth a thousand words, but i'll limit it to 20-30.) However, let's look at the whole product objectively, if such a thing is possible, after fourty years of books, band reunions, the various films, and modern pop mythology clouding our reaction to changing the sound on songs, that for some of us, are sacrosanct in the canon of rock and roll history. The biggest change in the mix, is that the bass parts are VERY loud, and Jim's yips and yelps during the instrumental parts of the songs, are not edited out. I wonder if Jim would have wanted all that personal yelping in place, or if he might have wanted some of his handclaps, (The Spy), guide vocal bleed thru (Blue Sunday?), or pre-take chatter (Land Ho!) removed? On one take, I think it's Ship of Fools, you hear Paul Rothchild say "16" at the beginning of the song. (meaning take 16 obviously.) Its said over the instrumental vamp that starts the song, and hardly ads anything noteworthy to the song, other than a Cinema veritie vibe. I like to look for the outtakes, and alternate takes, for my Cinema Veritie view of work process. Also, on another song, for some strange reason, the organ and the guitar parts were interchanged between channels. Again, i cant for the life of me figure out WHY that would have been nessacary. I hope, i really do, that this remix wasnt just balanced, leveled, and then allowed to run, without editing out extraneous noise and studio sounds, unconsidered guitar lines, or vocalizations by Jim, which were mixed out when the offical mix was made for valid esthetic reasons. This remixed version, as good as the sound density becomes from the louder bass part, shouldn't replace permenantly the mix made for the album when it was first released. After all, the time, and consideration put into the mix at the time, is just as important, as any other part of the recording process. So, does Jim want his extra vocalizations in the mix? Obviously he is not around to give his imput on this, and personally, I'm tired of hearing Ray tell people what JIM wanted. Only Jim understood Jim, or should ever be expected to speak for him. Think I'm wrong? Dont forget how Jim reacted to the car commercial that the other Door members allowed LIGHT MY FIRE to grace back in the late 60s, and how betrayed Jim felt over that. Jim almost seems to be commenting on the situation, in one of the outtake photos. In it, Jim is in a closet posed over a TV set, that is playing HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. I'm sure that Jim had a lot of conflicts in his life, with "Hollywood Squares".
As for the song alternate takes and outtakes, I can only say that, at least for this edition, they are fantastic. Everyone of them is worth listening to, and definately show the process involved in the band's creative process. As far as I know, no bootlegs have EVER surfaced of the DOORS unused studio outtakes. So this is definately a welcome addition. I do have one last criticism, and it's a big one. With the technology of DUALDISC, I cant understant why the Doors didnt allow the 5.1 DVD mix of these songs, which were included on their third, and latest box set from last year. It would have been nice, to have the 5.1 remix, along with some videos, included with the CD. I have no idea how those 5.1 remixes sounded. Maybe they were not very good, except for those albums recorded on 8 or 16 tracks. I would have gladly paid a couple extra dollars to have that DUALDISC technology involved with this project. Overall, for a true Door's fan, I suppose you are suppost to shell out $200 for the newest BOX SET to get those 5.1 DVD mixes, or live with the 2007 version. Well, fine for the famously rich. So, why did the band release these album remixes, with alternate takes? "I THINK I KNOW THE REASON BUT I CAN'T SPELL IT". ($$$-how do you THAT?)

This latest release of the remastered tracks in Morrison Hotel and the ten bonus tracks is astounding in some places and dull in others. But one could never expect the near-perfection of their first two albums to be rivalled by the follow-ups. But still, Morrison Hotel, especially this remastering, is a great spiritual victory for Doors fans and for the surviving band members, producers and engineers.

The long liner-notes are a must read for those of us too lazy to read whole books on the doors. Indeed, if one reads the liners to all these re-releases, one will get a tremendous and condenced and poetic sense of the doors and their mission. Just because the Doors were egomaniacs, and just because they were rather primitive musically, does not mean that they were not giants. Critics often make the mistake of believing that skill, professionalism and accurate self-assessments are some profoundly determining factor in art. They are not. Many of the most competent and sane folks on the planet are also the dullest and finally the most discouraging.

Doors believers, of which I am one, having been a real member of the now dormant "Church of The Doors," can truly take solace in this re-release series. The focus on the multiple takes of Roadhouse Blues reveals not only a certain lack of technical talent, but also a wonderful and child-like curiosity and experimentalism, which, finally, is more important that excellent craftsmanship. Sorry, you classical music didacticians and cynical, nihilist rock critics.

One great gift on this album that bears retelling is the simplistic and Wagnerian "Waiting for The Sun." The song was dumped from the album which bears its name, and one can see why, because it's a rather half-complete concept. However, as the graces would have it, many projects in which the gods cut us short are the best ones. This song, had they thought it out too much, would have lost its wondrous simplicity. True, they only put it on this record because they were in a bit of a slump, but, astounding, it's rather fun and has an almost early british invasion meets the Ventures kind of all-wrongness that comes out just magestically.

Another forgotten and underated song is "The Spy," which is really fantastic even though they could only think of one verse and simply repeated it over and over again. But, as one commericial songwriter I know, one who has sold tens of thousands of albums once said, "The problem with certain songs is that they only have one verse, but that often ends up being the whole genius of them."

Indian Summer is another almost Half-Song which, if the Doors had felt like they were on a hot streak, might have never let see the light of day. But, as it is, the song is nearly a nursery rhyme, one that is amazingly powerful in its innocense.

The truth was, Jim Morrison was not really a singer. And, as snobby literary critics love to point out, was not the great poet that he thought he was. But, as Cosmic Fate would have it, had he been a true professional at either, the whole force of Jim Morrison's massive, albeit flawed, character would never have created the half-century stir that they have. Genius is not what great craftsman do with their natural talents, it's what people with big gaps in their talent do to make up for it. (A concept I stole from Vonnegut's Bluebeard.)

Morrison Hotel caught The Doors right in an awkward middle of their career, but even so, this re-release is just a fabulous gift to us all.

If you want the same version of Morrison Hotel you had way back when, you might avoid this version. You might be better off with the remastered edition from 1999. But if you want to hear this classic Doors album with some unused vocals and instruments mixed back in, pick up this latest release from Rhino/Elektra. If you're a longtime fan you'll probably want to have both in your collection. I have been digging these in a big way. Highly recommended!!!

Yes, the sound is great but the tracks are remixed, often with new vocal and instrumental parts. These are NOT the original mixes. Caveat emptor!!!