The Doors

There ought to be a warning label on this double-CD set, and not for parents (though with the Doors you never know) but for fans -- thanks to the "40th Anniversary Remixes," almost every song here is so different from the established versions of the Doors' classic repertory, that it is certain to annoy the hell out of longtime fans and will give new listeners a very misleading picture of what the group's hits sounded like and what their music was about sonically. The Doors were already one of the most heavily anthologized bands of the 1960s -- like the Who, they've had more hits collections and best-of compilations issued on them than the number of official albums that they ever released, which is testimony to their continued popularity across the decades, and this double-CD set is certain to double or triple the confusion associated with that mass of compilation albums. To top it off, this U.S. version of The Very Best of the Doors released in the fall of 2007 comes on top of Rhino UK already releasing two different compilations (single- and double-CD) called The Very Best of the Doors in England earlier in 2007 -- and follows another The Very Best of the Doors issued in the U.S. in 2001. The 2007 U.S. version has the same name as the U.K. set, the same cover art, even the same first disc as the U.K. double-disc compilation, but it is not exactly the same as that U.K. set. Its second disc spans 19 songs, just like the U.K. version, but five songs -- "Bird of Prey," "Orange County Suite," "Runnin' Blue," "Stoned Immaculate," and "Whiskey, Mystics and Men" -- are swapped out from the U.K. edition, and have been replaced by "Twentieth Century Fox," "My Eyes Have Seen You," "Tell All the People," "Not to Touch the Earth," and "Gloria" on the U.S. edition, and the sequencing is shifted slightly. This gives the set a slightly less psychedelic bent in favor of a slightly more straightforward rock & roll feel, which may mean that it's targeted more toward the tastes of an American audience, but it's such a subtle difference it hardly matters; the difference in sequencing just seems like a way to create collectibles in the catalog. In any case, the American two-CD version of The Very Best of the Doors is as good as the British -- not better, not worse, just different -- and either one serves as a comprehensive look at the group. But there's the rub -- it's a very misleading look where it counts, in the listening.

Original engineer and producer Bruce Botnick, in collaboration with the surviving members of the Doors, has remixed most of what is here from the original multi-track session tapes, which has radically transformed the sound on most of what's here. (There was a point, circa 1989, when Ray Manzarek, representing the group, said in an interview that they would never approve remixes of the classic catalog because the sound of those recordings, as represented by those original mixes and the balances between the instruments and Jim Morrison's voice, was inviolate; he even used the word "sacred" in describing those original mixes.) The result is a complete alteration of the sound of almost every song on this set -- Morrison's voice is still what it was, in terms of performance and nuance, but now the instruments have been moved forward in the mix on almost every song, so that John Densmore's drumming, in particular, from the softest hit of his hi hat to the merest touch of the bass drum, is now almost as prominent as Morrison's singing and almost the lead instrument on many of the early songs, and the nuances of Manzarek's keyboards and Robbie Krieger's guitar work are now pushed up and forward as well.

Among other problems, "Love Me Two Times," "Alabama Song," "Strange Days," "Light My Fire," "People Are Strange," "Back Door Man," "Love Her Madly," "Hello I Love You," etc. now sound very different from the original releases, and the way that most of us remember them, which doesn't mean they're bad, just different, and not always for the better. Krieger's guitar and Manzarek's piano on "People Are Strange" now sound almost like exaggerated parodies of the playing they were known for; and while one realizes that Manzarek was never regarded highly for his keyboard bass work, which was probably unfair, moving that instrument so high up in the mix on most of what's here was probably not the answer, as it really results in the complete remaking of the textures of the songs involved. The balances will throw longtime listeners off, while new listeners may get a very different impression of what made these records special -- Morrison's voice was much more the focus of the original records, enough so hat he seemed larger than life -- not that he's easy to lose sight of here, but one was never this up-close-and-personal with the rest of the band at the time they were making their reputation, and the change has altered something essential to what made the Doors unique. Manzarek has said that in listening to the multi-tracks, he heard things that he now recognizes were important to their sound and the members intended to be part of these songs, which he and the others wanted restored. And that's all well and good -- but to deliver them to the public, perhaps they should have thought of something other than a "very best of" package, maybe more along the lines of an anniversary anthology -- just so the established library wasn't altered or remade for the next generation of listeners. ~ Bruce Eder & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide