Friday, February 10, 2017

The Doors - 2003 Legacy "The Absolute Best"

Legacy: The Absolute Best is a two-disc compilation album by the Doors released in 2003. This compilation includes the uncensored versions of both "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" (the lyrics "she gets high" are restored) and "The End" (with Morrison's liberal use of the word "fuck" during the song's interlude). Also included is an unreleased 1968 studio version of Morrison's epic stagepiece "Celebration of the Lizard" in its entirety.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 on August 30, 2003 at number 63. It remained on the chart for 4 weeks. Wiki.

Truth be told, most casual Doors fans only need a well-assembled single-disc collection, containing all the hits and radio staples. Since that doesn't exist -- Rhino's 2001 collection The Very Best of the Doors missed too many key songs to suit the bill -- they'll have to settle for the comprehensive 2003 Rhino compilation Legacy: The Absolute Best, a double-disc set that replaces the previous double-disc Doors comp, the 1985 set The Best of the Doors. That collection contained 19 tracks, the number of songs that are on the first disc of this exhaustive 34-track overview. Every one of the tunes from The Best of the Doors is on Legacy, but not in the same order, since the songs on this compilation are put in roughly chronological order. Legacy also tries to give equal weight to each of the Doors albums, pulling anywhere from four to eight tracks from all the studio albums, adding "Gloria" from Alive, She Cried and a previously unissued "Celebration of the Lizard" to the end of the record. This winds up giving a thorough overview of the band's peak, whether it's on the familiar hits or on strong album cuts like "My Eyes Have Seen You" or "The Changeling." There are a couple of omissions -- most notably "Love Street" and "Summer's Almost Gone" from Waiting for the Sun and also "Ship of Fools" and "Land Ho!" from Morrison Hotel -- but overall, this draws as complete a picture as possible. It still may be a little bit much for those who just want the hits (they're all here, plus a whole lot more), but there's little question that Legacy is the best Doors compilation yet assembled. All Music.

Wow I'm there Utah them as they play it's like they are in my house playing my system is a jvc 470 watt so you know I'm in Door heaven. Riders on a storm is my fav yet after watching Val Kilmer rocked as Jim and watching other stuff on the doors one night I watched a documentary and I said I must get more of hat I heard this band is solid and stands the test of time I'll say this all the music made by then was classic music and will never be duplicated ever Iam buying all the greats and go back in time when brother and sister was real and the changing times blew our. Minds into truths about ourselves. By coolhandluke 19.

These tracks have been remastered, sounding better than ever, so, soundwise, there is no better compilation out there. No other compilation out there, even the 2CD's, has as many tracks as this. Of course, there will always be a personal favourite left out. One of my personal favs - The SPY - is not here, but its understandable, they cant please anyone. But all the BIG hits, the BIG album tracks are here. So, this compilation gives the newbie the best deal. When the Beatles 1 compilation was issued, many of us attacked it because it was just a cash in, nothing for the fans that had bought those titles dozens of times. Imagine how much better that compilation would have been if they had included the full 40 min jam session of helter skelter. So, why is everyone complaining on celebration of the lizard? This is a gift for the fans, that already have the best live versions of this song, but still want to listen to everything in the vaults. This is an excellent compilation, and except for the terrible linear notes, written by complete fools whom have nothing to say about the music of this band, this should serve as an example for other bands on how to put a decent compilation. By Blues Bro VINE VOICE.

The Doors' 2003 2-CD retrospective entitled Legacy : The Absolute Best of The Doors was released in August of 2003.
The band had been subjected to compilations before this like 1970's 13, 1972's Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine, 1973's Best Of the Doors, 1980's Greatest Hits and the 1987 2-disc version of The Best of The Doors. Then in 2003 came Legacy : The Absolute Best Of the Doors which was brilliantly put together by the three surviving Doors members (keyboard player Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore) plus longstanding engineer Bruce Botnick with remastered sound plus an informative booklet with essays from T.C. Boyle and Jim Ladd plus album credits and chart position listings of tunes that were singles. This collection is still the best Doors compilation in my view, as I found out when I acquired in its first week in August of 2003.
Disc one focuses on material from the band's first three brilliant studio albums. The Doors' classic 1967 self titled debut album is represented by eight tracks which were the classic opener "Break On Through" (which is the uncensored version with the phrase "she get high" (which was eliminated from original mix)), the bluesy "Soul Kitchen", the relaxing "Crystal Ship", the rollicking "Twentieth Century Fox", the classic version of "Whiskey Bar (The Alabama Song)", plus the band's first #1 hit "Light My Fire" in all its 7 minute glory, their excellent version of "Backdoor Man" and the closing epic "The End" which is here uncensored with the late Jim Morrison letting out a barrage of "F bombs".
The band's October, 1967 second effort, the Top 10 charting Strange Days is represented by the title cut plus the album's big hit single "People Are Strange", the slithering "Moonlight Drive", the deep cut "My Eyes have Seen You" and the other classic epic closer "When The Music's Over" which is one of the best Doors tracks ever.
Then the band's only US #1 album, 1968's Waiting For the Sun is represented by the band's second US #1 hit "Hello I Love You", the fittingly Latin-tinged "Spanish Caravan", one section of the proposed side long track The Celebration Of The Lizard out of "Not to Touch the Earth" (which closes CD 1 of this compilation), the anti-Vietnam war track "The Unknown Soldier" (which has always been one of my favorite Doors tracks with Jim Morrison acting out the firing squad part brilliantly) and that album's rocking closer "Five to One".
Disc two picks up with 1969's controversial album but another Top 10 called The Soft Parade. It's represented by the album's opener "Tell All the People" plus the album's biggest hit "Touch Me" and also included is one of my favorite Doors rockers called "Wild Child" and the excellent "Wishful Sinful".
The classic back to basics album Morrison Hotel (another US Top 5 effort from 1970) is represented by the rollicking rocker "Roadhouse Blues", "Waiting For the Sun" (I believe written for the third album but scrapped until Morrison Hotel), the brilliant "You Make Me Real" and of course the rocker "Peace Frog".
Then half of the band's final album with charismatic frontman Jim Morrison, 1971's L.A. Woman is represented by the excellent opener "The Changeling", the Top 20 hit "Love Her Madly", the eight minute epic title cut, the excellent rock radio staple "The WASP (Texas Radio and Big Beat)" and of course the closing track "Riders On the Storm" (which fittingly was the last track Jim recorded with the band before his untimely death in July of 1971.
We fast forward to the 1983's posthumous live album Alive She Cried for their classic version of Van Morrison (no relation) and Them's "Gloria" which The Doors brilliantly made their own although they didn't ever do a studio version.
We close with the studio version of "The Celebration Of the Lizard" which is an excellent epic length piece.
Legacy : The Absolute Best Of the Doors did reasonably well on the charts but is now discontinued as the 2007 2-CD Very Best Of The Doors package which has all of the songs remixed with mixed results and some tunes replacing what is on here. If you want a best of with the original mixes remastered in an uncompressed manner, this is the Doors collection for you!
RECOMMENDED!!! By Terrence J. Reardon.
 
Track listing:

Disc one

  1. "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" (Jim Morrison) – 2:29
  2. "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon, Chester Burnett) – 3:34
  3. "Light My Fire" (Robby Krieger) – 7:08
  4. "Twentieth Century Fox" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 2:23
  5. "The Crystal Ship" (Morrison) – 2:34
  6. "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" (Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill) – 3:19
  7. "Soul Kitchen" (Morrison) – 3:35
  8. "The End" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 11:46
  9. "Love Me Two Times" (Krieger) – 3:16
  10. "People Are Strange" (Krieger, Morrison) – 2:12
  11. "When the Music's Over" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 11:02
  12. "My Eyes Have Seen You" (Morrison) – 2:29
  13. "Moonlight Drive" (Morrison) – 3:04
  14. "Strange Days" (Morrison) – 3:09
  15. "Hello, I Love You" (Morrison) – 2:16
  16. "The Unknown Soldier" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 3:25
  17. "Spanish Caravan" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 3:01
  18. "Five to One" (Morrison) – 4:27
  19. "Not to Touch the Earth" (Morrison) – 3:54

Disc two

  1. "Touch Me" (Krieger) – 3:12
  2. "Wild Child" (Morrison) – 2:38
  3. "Tell All the People" (Krieger) – 3:21
  4. "Wishful Sinful" (Krieger) – 2:58
  5. "Roadhouse Blues" (Morrison) – 4:04
  6. "Waiting for the Sun" (Morrison) – 4:00
  7. "You Make Me Real" (Morrison) – 2:53
  8. "Peace Frog" (Krieger, Morrison) – 2:58
  9. "Love Her Madly" (Krieger) – 3:18
  10. "L.A. Woman" (Morrison) – 7:51
  11. "Riders on the Storm" (Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison) – 7:10
  12. "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" (Morrison) – 4:15
  13. "The Changeling" (Morrison) – 4:21
  14. "Gloria" (Van Morrison) – 6:18
  15. "Celebration of the Lizard" (Morrison) – 17:01
    • "Lions in the Street"
    • "Wake Up!"
    • "A Little Game"
    • "The Hill Dwellers"
    • "Not to Touch the Earth"
    • "Names of the Kingdom"
    • "The Palace of Exile"
Line-up / Musicians:
 
- Jim Morrison / vocals
- Ray Manzarek / keyboards
- John Densmore / drums
- Robby Krieger / guitar

Additional Musicians:
- Douglas Lubahn / occasional bass (tracks 9-19, disc 1; tracks 1-4, disc 2), electric bass (track 17, disc 1)
- Kerry Magness / bass (track 16, disc 1)
- Leroy Vinegar / acoustic bass (track 17, disc 1)
- Harvey Brooks / bass (tracks 1-4, disc 2)
- Curtis Amy / sax solo (track 1, disc 2)
- Paul Harris / orchestral arrangements (tracks 1-4, disc 2)
- Ray Neopolitan / bass (tracks 5-8, disc 2)
- Lonnie Mack / bass (track 5, disc 2)
- G. Puglese (alias for John Sebastian) / harp (track 5, disc 2)
- Jerry Scheff / bass (tracks 9-13, disc 2)
- Marc Benno / rhythm guitar (track 10, disc 2)
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