REVIEW: Doors, The Doors Box Set (Elektra) / X, Beyond And
Back The X Anthology
- Patrick Carmosino
Besides being two riveting, incredibly creative bands, The Doors and X were truly reflective of the ups and downs of Los Angeles rock culture in their own respective eras. Both very eloquently reflected the beauty and the cost of being amongst those in a mythological wonderland who, as Doors singer Jim Morrison once described "live more freely and powerfully than anywhere else, but it's also where old people come to die. Kids know both and we express both." Two bands: one suffering from the overexposure of classic rock nostalgia; the other, underexposed with a cultish following. The existence of its parts taken for granted because of good living or...for actually still being alive!
The buzz on The Doors Box Set began with the supposed spotlight song: the remaining Doors augmentation of a buried Morrison vocal and piano track, "Orange County Suite". At first observance, this and the mostly outtake-filled box set looks like a exact ripoff of the Beatles' Anthology series and its centerpieces "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love". In reality though, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore beat Natalie Cole and the fab three to the playing-with-the-dead-man punch; and quite tastefully at that. For "Orange County Suite" comes from the same final Jim Morrison poetry and songs session (December 8, 1970) that sparked the Doors to create 1978's An American Prayer . The album, presaging the second wave of the band's popularity was, in more than the surviving member's defense, a carrying-out of one of the wishes the Lizard King wasn't able to fulfill at the time of his death in Paris in 1971: a full-fledged document of his spoken poetry, with sparse instrumentation. "Orange County Suite" fails to live up to the quality of Prayer solely because the song is pretty much already a completed song. Morrison's surprisingly competent piano self-accompaniment is really all the tune needs as one can hear Jimbo try to nail down the lyric melody and the lyric in his creative process. Krieger's bluesy noodling, Manzarek's line-echoing electric piano and Densmore's jazzy brushes make it sound downright 1971 LA loungey as opposed to the starkness of the haunting work-in-progress.
"Orange County Suite" is part of the two discs of outtakes and unreleased live performances, a third disc consists of live performances culled from three nights at New York's Felt Forum in 1970 (which would stand up well as its own release). The fourth and final disc is a rather unnecessary collection of 15 'hits' picked by the remaining members. Box Set 's contents alone don't scream out 'exploitation' as much as 'for fans' only'. Being a fan, it does intrigue me a bit.
Things open up with "Five To One", the only 'complete' song from the notorious 3/3/69 Miami concert where Morrison was convicted of profanity and indecent exposure. With a head full of performances from Julian Beck's revolutionary interactive Living Theater and several hours of airline drinks, Jimbo's latest influences resulted in him calling the audience "a bunch of fucking idiots' and 'slaves' and encouraging them to 'GRAB YOUR FUCKING FRIEND AND LOVE HIM' and later on, probably not whipping his willy out for all to see, despite working the crowd up to a fine frenzy.
Despite the auspicious beginning, the outtakes are a bit revealing. The demo version of "Queen Of The Highway" reminds us of a jazz sensibility matched only by the Doors' love of traditional blues. Sounding more Vince Guaraldi than anything that was the rock revival of "Queen's" original home, Morrison Hotel , this version, along with the inclusion of Waiting For The Sun 's "Yes, The River Knows" on the 'hits' disc, shows that the band had a love and understanding of trad jazz that may have seemed to run contrary to a harder image. Also included here and sprinkled throughout the two outtake discs is the first Doors' demo from World Pacific studios, 1965. "My Eyes Have Seen You", "Summer's Almost Gone", "Moonlight Drive" "Hello, I Love You" and "Go Insane" (from "The Celebration Of The Lizard") made up the tape. What one discovers from this is that producer Paul Rothchild was the studio savior of the Doors. He gave the songs atmosphere that supported Morrison's poems in a way that the demo's poor arrangements couldn't have accomplished. The demo also reveals that Morrison's vocals sounded more like Val Kilmer at one point than Kilmer vice versa in The Doors film.
There are also plenty of overblown blues workouts that fill the unreleased material. Two of the more inspiring ones is the in-studio workout, "Rock Is Dead" and "Black Train Song" from the Spectrum in Philadelphia 1970. Although "Rock Is Dead" is perhaps the most guilty of overextension (almost 17 minutes at that!), you can hear the beautifully brutal drive of a rocker that had the potential to be another "Roadhouse Blues" had things been a bit more trite and the lyrics more realized. "Black Train Song" ponders the classic "Mystery Train" and traces the history of rock and roll right up to that particular night in Philly.
The Live In New York disc shows the band in prime form during the post-Miami period; a time when the uncertainty of the future and the end being always near probably filled those involved with more dread than it did excitement. From the opening Morrison Hotel power trio of "Roadhouse Blues", "Ship Of Fools" and "Peace Frog/Blue Sunday", Morrison's playfulness and the band's expansive response was a joy to hear and probably witness. The only drawback here is "The End", not for its lack of beauty but because the blues growl that drinking and smoking had reduced Morrison's voice to, at that point, just didn't do justice to the song's atmosphere. This is something particularly heartbreaking on the outtakes discs. Made up of a good amount of 1969/1970 material, what's left of his voice on much of this stuff, when compared to, say, the live prime Lizard King-era takes on "The Crystal Ship" and "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" leaves a bit to be desired. Hear the way "The Crystal Ship" magically appears from the endless night of 1967 via lo-fi tape as it follows ragged, hoary versions of "Break On Through" from the Isle Of Wight 1970 and the r&b classic turned blues romp, "Money" and you'll see what I mean.
The 'Band Favorites' disc points to a few hidden treasures that a fan of the 'greatest hits' may not have paid attention to, such as "Wishful Sinful", "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind", "Yes, The River Knows" and "Wild Child". Besides that, I think Krieger put "Light My Fire" on there to make sure everyone knows he wrote the song. That's about all I could figure as to why the disc exists here. The Doors Box Set (Jeez! With all of Jimbo's great poetry, you think the group could've come up with a better title!) would have best been a finely edited, one disc set succinct enough to grab new fans. Perhaps what Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore should really work on for the fans is refurbishing the Feast Of Friends documentary and, if it was finished, Highway, the 1969 Morrison-produced/directed film. Now let's address a band that could actually use some more exploitation.
Indeed on the contrary, Beyond & Back: The X Anthology , keeps the energy and the magic, at a constant level. It is no secret as to what Ray Manzarek found so appealing in this group for him to produce their first four albums. As far as raw energy goes and an uncanny feel for the dark side of Americana, X took up a mantle in 1978 that was suddenly dropped in 1971.
The first of the double-disc set is a veritable chug-a-thon; filled with unreleased demos and live stuff (some in piss-poor but energetically exciting condition) mixed with released versions. The rhythmicallly-themed sound that spoke of the human condition and punk rock came from the mournful tones of John Doe's and Exene Cervenkova's harmonies and Billy Zoom's country/rockabilly/Chuck Berry-tinged licks coming from his Gretsch Silver Jet. Tracks such as "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss" and "The Once Over Twice" was the sound of the American west obtaining a punk identity unique unto itself.
"The New World" starts off disc two with a less immediate, more expansive approach that characterized 1983's More Fun In The New World as well as the records that followed. With the exception of their one fluke hit (mistake?), a rather Joan Jett-ized version of "Wild Thing", the band's increasing country revelations, with the help of country-rockabilly-punk god Dave Alvin (who took over from Zoom), X had beaten the likes of Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Bottle Rockets, Jayhawks et al to the No Depression punch. Their 1985 release Poor Little Critter On The Road , under their Knitters nom-de-terre fully revealed this. The poignant Alvin-penned "4th Of July", here in demo form, as well as "Burning House Of Love" and "Country At War" presented X in a circle that couldn't be unbroken.
Paced economically and effectively, Beyond & Back ranks amongst the Rodney On the Roq collections, the Minutemen's Double Nickels On The Dime and Black Flag's Damaged as the ultimate documents of a time and place that was LA post 60's enlightenment/70's hangover. It does this more effectively in 2 discs than The Doors Box Set does in 4.
