Live at the Hollywood Bowl (The Doors album)

Last updated
Live at the Hollywood Bowl
TheDoorsLiveAtTheHollywoodBowlalbumcover.jpg
Live album by
ReleasedMay 1987 (1987-05)
RecordedJuly 5, 1968
Venue Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
Genre Rock
Length
  • 22:19
  • 71:05 (2012 version)
Label Elektra
Producer Paul A. Rothchild
The Doors chronology
The Best of The Doors
(1985)
Live at the Hollywood Bowl
(1987)
The Doors: Original Soundtrack Recording
(1991)

Live at the Hollywood Bowl is the third official live album by the American rock band the Doors, released in May 1987 by Elektra Records. The concert was recorded on July 5, 1968, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the Doors' hometown.

Contents

A VHS video of the concert was also released, containing 14 songs. The full version of the concert, entitled Live at the Bowl '68, was released in October 2012 on CD, LP and Blu-ray Disc. A shortened version of the concert is on The Doors - 30 Years Commemorative Edition DVD.

Recording

The entire concert was recorded using several cameras and is one of only two live performances of the band that was professionally recorded in color (the other being Live at The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 ). The Doors' longtime sound engineer Bruce Botnick recorded the concert direct from the soundboard onto an 8-track machine. The recording of "The End" was used in the film project Feast of Friends , which was not released until November 2014.

Problems with Morrison's microphone made the opening song ("When the Music's Over"), as well as three other songs ("Hello, I Love You", "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" and "Spanish Caravan") somewhat distorted. This was digitally rectified for the 2012 release by Bruce Botnick, using various clips of Morrison's voice from other recordings, including their 1970 live album Absolutely Live. [1] The 2012 edition of the concert also made use of some different camera angles than the version released on video in 1987.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Robert Christgau C− [3]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

Bruce Eder, in a review for AllMusic, gave the album three and a half out of five stars, calling it "a good companion to the other live archival issues of its era, although none of it holds a candle to the New York concert included in The Doors: Box Set [1997]". [2]

Track listing

1987 LP version

All tracks are written by the Doors (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore), except where noted. Details are taken from the 1987 Elektra Records album and may differ from other sources. [5]

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Wake Up"1:40
2."Light My Fire"8:15
Total length:9:55
Side two
No.TitleLength
3."The Unknown Soldier"4:14
4."A Little Game"1:20
5."The Hill Dwellers"2:21
6."Spanish Caravan"1:19
Total length:9:14 19:09

1987 CD version

No.TitleLength
1."Wake Up!"1:40
2."Light My Fire"8:15
3."The Unknown Soldier"4:23
4."A Little Game"1:22
5."The Hill Dwellers"2:20
6."Spanish Caravan"1:19
7."Light My Fire (edit of live version)"3:24
Total length:22:43

2012 version (Live at the Bowl '68)

All tracks are written by The Doors except tracks 3, 4 and 6

No.TitleLength
1."Slow Start/Intro"0:19
2."When the Music's Over"12:52
3."Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" (Written by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill)1:33
4."Back Door Man" (Written by Willie Dixon, Chester Burnett)2:33
5."Five to One"1:29
6."Back Door Man (reprise)" (Written by Willie Dixon, Chester Burnett)1:22
7."The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)"1:52
8."Hello, I Love You"2:14
9."Moonlight Drive"3:21
10."Horse Latitudes"1:08
11."A Little Game"1:20
12."The Hill Dwellers"2:22
13."Spanish Caravan"3:04
14."Hey, What Would You Guys Like to Hear?"0:40
15."Wake Up!"1:30
16."Light My Fire"9:32
17."Light My Fire (segue)"0:38
18."The Unknown Soldier"4:43
19."The End (segue)"1:02
20."The End"17:31
Total length:1:11:05

Video version

Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Video by
Released1987 (1987)
RecordedJuly 5, 1968
Venue Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
Genre Rock
Length62:00
Label MCA Home Video
Director Paul Ferrara
Producer Rick Schmidlin
The Doors videos chronology
The Doors Are Open
(1998)
Live at the Hollywood Bowl
(1987)
The Doors - 30 Years Commemorative Edition
(2001)

1987/2000 version

  1. "When the Music's Over"
  2. "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" (Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill)
  3. "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon)
  4. "Five to One"
  5. "Back Door Man" (Reprise)
  6. "Moonlight Drive"
  7. "Horse Latitudes"
  8. "A Little Game" (Excerpt from "Celebration of the Lizard")
  9. "The Hill Dwellers" (Excerpt from "The Celebration of the Lizard")
  10. "Spanish Caravan" (Edited version)
  11. "Wake Up"
  12. "Light My Fire"
  13. "The Unknown Soldier"
  14. "The End"

2012 version

  1. Show Start/Intro
  2. "When The Music’s Over"
  3. "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" (Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill)
  4. "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon)
  5. "Five To One"
  6. "Back Door Man" (reprise) (Dixon)
  7. "The WASP" (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
  8. "Hello, I Love You"
  9. "Moonlight Drive"
  10. "Horse Latitudes"
  11. "A Little Game"
  12. "The Hill Dwellers"
  13. "Spanish Caravan"
  14. "Hey, What Would You Guys Like to Hear?"
  15. "Wake Up!"
  16. "Light My Fire" (Segue)
  17. "Light My Fire"
  18. "The Unknown Soldier"
  19. "The End" (Segue)
  20. "The End"

Special Features

  1. "Wild Child" (from The Smothers Brothers Show , 1968)
  2. "Light My Fire" (from The Jonathan Winters Show , 1967)
  3. "Gloria" (music video)

Personnel

The Doors

Related Research Articles

<i>The Doors</i> (album) 1967 studio album by The Doors

The Doors is the debut studio album by American rock band the Doors, released on January 4, 1967, by Elektra Records. It was recorded in August 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders, in Hollywood, California, under the production of Paul A. Rothchild. The album features the extended version of the band's breakthrough single "Light My Fire" and the lengthy closer "The End" with its Oedipal spoken word section. Various publications, including BBC and Rolling Stone, have ranked The Doors as one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

<i>Waiting for the Sun</i> 1968 studio album by the Doors

Waiting for the Sun is the third studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released by Elektra Records on July 3, 1968. The album's 11 tracks were recorded between late 1967 and May 1968 mostly at TTG Studios in Los Angeles. It became the band's only number one album, topping the Billboard 200 for four weeks, while also including their second US number one single, "Hello, I Love You". The first single released off the record was "The Unknown Soldier", which peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became the band's first hit album in the UK, where it reached number 16.

<i>Absolutely Live</i> (The Doors album) 1970 live album by the Doors

Absolutely Live is the first live album by the American rock band the Doors, released on July 20, 1970, by Elektra Records. The double album features songs recorded at concerts held in 1969 and 1970 in several U.S. cities. It includes the first full release of the performance piece "Celebration of the Lizard" and several other tracks that had not previously appeared on any official Doors release. The album peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 in September 1970.

The "Alabama Song"—also known as "Moon of Alabama", "Moon over Alabama", and "Whisky Bar"—is an English version of a song written by Bertolt Brecht and translated from German by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny. It was reused for the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and has been recorded by the Doors and David Bowie.

<i>Legacy: The Absolute Best</i> 2003 greatest hits album by the Doors

Legacy: The Absolute Best is a two-disc compilation album by American rock band the Doors. Released in 2003, it includes the uncensored versions of both "Break On Through " and "The End". Also included is a previously unreleased studio version of Morrison's epic poetry piece "Celebration of the Lizard," a rehearsal outtake from the band's Waiting for the Sun sessions.

<i>In Concert</i> (The Doors album) 1991 live album by the Doors

In Concert is a live triple album by the Doors released in 1991. The songs were recorded at several concerts between 1968 and 1970 in Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Copenhagen. The Doors' producer, Paul A. Rothchild, remarked, "I couldn't get complete takes of a lot of songs, so sometimes I'd cut from Detroit to Philadelphia in midsong. There must be 2,000 edits on that album."

"When the Music's Over" is an epic song by the American rock band the Doors, which appears on their second album Strange Days, released in 1967. It is among the band's longer pieces, lasting 11 minutes.

<i>Live in Boston</i> (The Doors album) 2007 live album by the Doors

Live in Boston is a triple CD live album by American rock band the Doors released in 2007. It was recorded at the Boston Arena on April 10, 1970, during the band's Roadhouse Blues Tour. The band performed two shows, one starting at 7 pm and a second scheduled for 10 but not actually starting until past midnight. Jim Morrison appears to be intoxicated during the entire latter show, and continued drinking heavily throughout the performance. The late start ended with the venue's owners cutting power to the stage to force the end of the concert.

<i>The Complete Studio Recordings</i> (The Doors album) 1999 box set by the Doors

The Complete Studio Recordings is a seven compact disc box set by American rock group the Doors, released by Elektra on November 9, 1999. It contains six of the original nine Doors albums, digitally remastered with 24 bit audio. The album includes previously unreleased tracks that had surfaced on The Doors: Box Set, on disc seven. The albums are placed in chronological order.

<i>Essential Rarities</i> 2000 compilation album by the Doors

Essential Rarities is a compilation album by the Doors, originally released as part of the boxed set The Complete Studio Recordings in 1999, but reissued in 2000 as a single CD, containing studio cuts, live cuts and demos taken from the 1997 The Doors: Box Set.

<i>Live in Detroit</i> (The Doors album) 2000 live album by the Doors

Live in Detroit is a double CD live album by the American rock band the Doors. It was recorded at the Cobo Arena in Detroit on May 8, 1970 during the band's 1970 Roadhouse Blues Tour. It was released on October 23, 2000 on Rhino Records.

<i>The Doors: Vinyl Box Set</i> 2008 box set by the Doors

The Doors: Vinyl Box Set is the seventh box set for American rock band the Doors. It is a seven-record set of the original six studio albums, remastered in stereo from the original analogue tapes and pressed on 180-gram HQ vinyl, and a mono version of the debut album. Artwork, packaging, and inner sleeves are replicas of the original LPs issued between 1967 and 1971. The albums were remastered from 192k/24 bit digital copies and pressed at Record Technology (RTI). An insert booklet includes notes from Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records and Bruce Botnick the Doors' longtime sound engineer/co-producer on all the original studio albums.

<i>Live in Pittsburgh 1970</i> 2008 live album by The Doors

Live in Pittsburgh 1970 is a live album by the American rock band the Doors. The concert was recorded at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on May 2, 1970 and released in 2008 on Rhino Records. It is the sixth full-length live set released from the Bright Midnight Archives collection which contains a number of previously unreleased live concerts by the Doors.

<i>Boot Yer Butt: The Doors Bootlegs</i> 2003 compilation album by the Doors

Boot Yer Butt!: The Doors Bootlegs is a four-disc box set released by Rhino/Elektra Records for the band the Doors, featuring songs that were recorded as bootlegs during concerts of the Doors ranging from the years 1967 to 1970.

<i>Live at the Matrix 1967</i> 2008 live album by the Doors

Live at the Matrix 1967 is a double live album by the American rock band the Doors. It was recorded at The Matrix in San Francisco on March 7 and 10, 1967 by club co-owner Peter Abram. The recording is notable as one of the earliest live recordings of the band known to exist, played to a mostly empty venue. By March 1967, the Doors had recorded only their debut album and "Light My Fire" had yet to be released as a single, and they were still relatively unknown outside Southern California.

<i>Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The First Performance</i> 2006 live album by the Doors

Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The First Performance is a double live album by American rock band the Doors. It was recorded at the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood on July 21, 1969. The album contains the band's first performance that day. The second show can be found on Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The Second Performance.

<i>Live in New York</i> (The Doors live album) 2009 live album by the Doors

Live in New York is a six-disc box set of four complete concerts performed American rock band the Doors on January 17 and 18, 1970 at the Felt Forum in New York City. Two shows were played each night, with 8:00pm and 11:00pm scheduled start times on January 17, and 7:30pm and 10:00pm scheduled start times on January 18. The final show featured an extended encore with guests John Sebastian and Dallas Taylor (drums) that concluded around 2:30am. Select tracks were previously released on the Doors' live album In Concert and as part of The Doors: Box Set. About a third of the material was previously unreleased.

<i>The Doors Collection</i> 1999 video by the Doors

The Doors Collection is a music compilation by the American rock band the Doors, released on Laserdisc and DVD in 1995 and 1999, respectively. It compiles three films previously released by MCA/Universal Home Video: Dance on Fire (1985), Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1987) and The Soft Parade – A Retrospective (1991).

<i>The Bright Midnight Sampler</i>

The Bright Midnight Sampler, is a compilation CD of live performances by American rock band the Doors, released September 25, 2000.

<i>Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The Second Performance</i> 2006 live album by The Doors

Live at the Aquarius Theater: The Second Performance is a double live album of the band the Doors, released as a double CD recorded live at the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood on 21 July 1969. This album is one of the live performances at Aquarius Theatre by the label of the Bright Midnight Archives.

References

  1. "Films Hollywood Bowl | Ray Manzarek of The Doors". raymanzarek.com.
  2. 1 2 Eder, Bruce. "The Doors: Live at the Hollywood Bowl Review". AllMusic . Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  3. Christgau, Robert. "Live at the Hollywood Bowl". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  4. Draper, Jason (December 2012). "The Doors: Live at the Hollywood Bowl '68". Record Collector . Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  5. Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Liner notes). The Doors. Elektra Records. 1987. LP labels. 60741-1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)