The Doors: Boot Yer Butt! The Doors Bootlegs (2003) [4CD Box Set]

Despite the bald-faced references to bootlegs in the title, this is a totally legit four-CD box set release of live 1967-1970 Doors from numerous shows, all of it previously unissued. À la Frank Zappa before them, the surviving Doors here took an opportunity to beat the bootleggers at their own game, releasing material that's circulated on various unavailable live tapes, though putting it in better packaging and (of course) getting a piece of the retail action themselves. All that should be good news for Doors fans, and it kinda is, but the clichéd warning "for fans only" applies doubly or triply so to this particular package. For the sound quality here really is of bootleg standard, and not good bootleg standard. Virtually all of it sounds like it came from hissy audience tapes, and the best remastering technology in the world can't make it sound much better than it does on actual under-the-counter boots. Only hardcore devotees are going to want to spring for the set, and even hardcore devotees are going to find it tough to play for repeated pleasure.

All that noted, for the very serious fan-verging-on-scholar, this does offer a lot of unusual live performances, the excerpts spanning the very first known live recordings of the band (on March 4, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco) to their second to last show with Jim Morrison (on December 11, 1970, in Dallas). Along the way, you get quite a number of songs that don't surface in many live versions on Doors bootlegs, like "Wild Child," "Spanish Caravan," "Who Scared You?," "Blue Sunday," "People Are Strange," and (from the 1970 Dallas concert) several songs from the then yet to be released L.A. Woman album. There is also a bunch of covers the Doors never put on their albums, including "Little Red Rooster," "I'm a Man," "Money," "Carol," "Rock Me," "Mystery Train," and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," though truth to tell these are generally pretty dire. There are also some pretty offbeat arrangements of more familiar standards, like a "Break on Through" from 1968 with Ray Manzarek subbing for an indisposed Jim Morrison on lead vocals, and a 20-minute "Light My Fire" from 1970 in which Morrison briefly intersperses bits from "Fever" and the Doors' own "Love Hides" in the instrumental break (which also features brief quotes from "My Favorite Things" and "Eleanor Rigby" in Robbie Krieger's guitar solo). And finally, there are some between-song raps as well, including a couple excerpts of such from the infamous March 1969 concert in Miami that eventually dragged Morrison through the courts on charges of lewd public behavior.

Nevertheless, it's often a challenge to cut through the sonic fog to appreciate the tracks to their fullest, though the performances are largely good to excellent. Morrison's vocals in particular often suffer from hollow faintness in the mix, and though two or three times the fidelity improves to verge on decent (the August 1968 "Wild Child," the September 1969 "The Crystal Ship"), those prove to be false alarms, the quality immediately slipping back into cardboard sludge. That's too bad: even if the sound quality was 80-90 percent of official release standard, it would be an extremely enjoyable survey of live Doors. Even on the 1970 Dallas show – from an era usually portrayed as a juncture when the band and Morrison were struggling to keep the ship afloat (or, more properly, the other bandmembers were struggling to keep Morrison afloat) – they sound vital, running through "Love Her Madly," "The Changeling," and "L.A. Woman" with real intensity, in arrangements differing slightly but notably from the familiar studio versions. Also, considering how much better-sounding stuff exists on isolated bootlegs like those of their March 1967 shows at the Matrix in San Francisco and their June 1970 concert in Seattle, the selection seems to be quirkily perverse, as if some of the better-sounding boots were deliberately avoided. At least it's augmented by decent liner notes featuring comments by Krieger on many of the tracks, and doesn't skimp on quantity at all, adding up to five hours of music.

by Richie Unterberger, AMG

Tracklist CD1:

1. Bootlegger's Chat [Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, TX 10.07.68]
2. Announcer Intro [Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA 06.07.67]
3. Moonlight drive [live at Avalon Ballroom 04.03.67]
4. Back door man [live at Avalon Ballroom 04.03.67]
5. Break on through (To The Other Side) [live at Continental Ballroom 06.07.67]
6. Light my fire [live at The Family Dog 30.09.67]
7. People are strange [live at Danbury High School 11.10.67]
8. Alabama song (Whiskey Bar) [live at Swing Auditorium 16.12.67]
9. Close to you [live at Winterland Arena 26.12.67]
10. I'm a man [live at Winterland Arena 26.12.67]
11. Love me two times [live at Back Bay Theatre 17.03.68]
12. Soul kitchen [live at Chicago Coliseum 10.05.68]
13. The WASP (Texas radio and the big beat) / Hello, I Love You [live at Dallas Memorial Auditorium 09.07.68]
14. Money [live at Dallas Memorial Auditorium 09.07.68]
15. When the music's over [live at Sam Houston Coliseum 10.07.68]



Tracklist CD2:

1. Never Before In Public [Singer Bowl, Queens, NY 02.08.68]
2. Wild Child [Singer Bowl, Queens, NY 02.08.68]
3. Gonna Have A Real Good Time [Cleveland Public Auditorium, Cleveland, OH 03.08.68]
4. Spanish Caravan [Philadelphia Arena, Philadelphia, PA 04.08.68]
5. Five to one [live at The Roundhouse 07.09.68]
6. The unknown soldier [live at Kongresshalle 14.09.68]
7. Vince Treanor's Announcement [Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Holland 15.09.68]
8. Break on through (to the other side) [live at Concertgebouw 15.09.68]
9. Little Red Rooster [Minneapolis Concert Hall, Minneapolis, MN 10.11.68]
10. Wild Child [Minneapolis Concert Hall, Minneapolis, MN 10.11.68]
11. Love Me Two Times [Minneapolis Concert Hall, Minneapolis, MN 10.11.68]
12. Touch me [live at L.A. Forum 14.12.68]
13. The celebration of the lizard [live at L.A. Forum 14.12.68]
14. The soft parade [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
15. Tell all the people [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
16. Who scared you [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
17. Does anybody have a cigarette? [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]



Tracklist CD3:

1. Back door man [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
2. Five to one [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
3. Forget this is the square garden (Rap) [live at Madison Square Garden 24.01.69]
4. Hitler Poem [Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 24.01.69]
5. I'm talkin' about having a good time (Rap) [live at Dinner Key Auditorium 01.03.69]
6. No limits, no laws (Rap) [live at Dinner Key Auditorium 01.03.69]
7. The crystal ship [live at Varsity Stadium 13.09.69]
8. Carol [live at Winterland Arena 06.02.70]
9. Rock me [live at Winterland Arena 06.02.70]
10. The Spy [Long Beach Sport Arena, Long Beach, CA 07.02.70]
11. Is There Any Left? [Long Beach Sport Arena, Long Beach, CA 07.02.70]
12. Blue Sunday [Long Beach Sport Arena, Long Beach, CA 07.02.70]
13. Petition The Lord With Prayer / Maggie M'Gill [Long Beach Sport Arena, Long Beach, CA 07.02.70]
14. Will The Circle Be Unbroken? [Chicago Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL 15.02.70]
15. Roadhouse blues [live at Winterland Arena 06.02.70]
16. Peace frog [live at Winterland Arena 06.02.70]
17. Mystery train [live at Winterland Arena 06.02.70]



Tracklist CD4:

1. Light my fire [live at Honolulu Convention Center 18.04.70]
2. Love her madly [live at State Fair Music Hall 11.12.70]
3. Ship of fools [live at State Fair Music Hall 11.12.70]
4. The changeling [live at State Fair Music Hall 11.12.70]
5. L.A. woman [live at State Fair Music Hall 11.12.70]
6. The end [live at Singer Bowl 02.08.68]
7. Announcer Outro [Cleveland Public Auditorium, Cleveland, OH 03.08.68]



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