Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. House Announcer
2. Who Do You Love?
3. Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)
4. Back Door Man
5. Love Hides
6. Five to One
7. Build Me a Woman
8. When the Music's Over
9. Universal Mind
10. Petition the Lord with Prayer
11. Dead Cats, Dead Rats
12. Break on Through (To the Other Side) No. 2
13. Celebration of the Lizard: Lions in the Street
14. Celebration of the Lizard: Wake Up
15. Celebration of the Lizard: A Little Game
16. Celebration of the Lizard: The Hill Dwellers
17. Celebration of the Lizard: Not to Touch the Earth - The Doors
18. Celebration of the Lizard: Names of the Kingdom
19. Celebration of the Lizard: The Palace of Exile
20. Soul Kitchen

Disc 2:

1. Roadhouse Blues
2. Gloria
3. Light My Fire
4. You Make Me Real - The Doors
5. Texas Radio and the Big Beat
6. Love Me Two Times - The Doors
7. Little Red Rooster
8. Moonlight Drive - The Doors
9. Close to You
10. Unknown Soldier
11. End

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8738 in Music
• Released on: 1991-05-21
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Customer Reviews

The live album that still stands above the rest
From the first track you know you are in for a treat. An unruly and uncooperative crowd has surged into the aisles and front rows in "House Announcer" in anticipation of the band, and it's exactly the tone and mood that will take you through an incredible and exotic journey of 31 tracks of rock & roll, cabaret, performance art, and poetry readings.

The Celebration of the Lizard (King), tracks 13 through 19, are perhaps the highlight of this album. Morrison's poetry rings true to the feeling of the uncertainty of the era, shamanism, Greek tragedy, and mysticsm reminiscent of Omar Khayyam, all backed by a hard rock band that had few peers equal to the drums of Densmore, the classically trained guitar style of Krieger, and magician-like hands of Manzarek playing a bass line on one keyboard and simultaneous rythm/lead on another.

Other highlights for In Concert include an extended version of "The End" that supercedes the studio version in its soul and ambience. Also, the Doors lighten up the dark mood set by their more epic pieces, excellent unto themselves ("When The Music's Over", "Light My Fire" w/ an excellent inclusion of the brooding and picteresque "The Graveyard Poem"), with fun versions of "Dead Cats"/"Break On Through" and "You Make Me Real".

The list goes on and on, song after song of a band that was moving forward in its abilities and destined for something even greater and more unique, halted by the death of their charismatic and insufferable lead singer Jim Morrison. Note the comparisons of this album to other live albums, and you will see "In Concert" is a little bit of everything, a comprehensive collection of the "better" live recordings available commercially.

At the time this album was issued, my initial reaction to some of the song selections was of slight dissapointment. Yet many bootlegs and live Doors albums later, "In Concert" now reigns supreme and is a trusted old friend.

Essential...
This is a great live collection. It compiles music from three old Doors live albums, "Absolutely Live" (disc 1), "Alive She Cried" and "Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine" (disc 2). It will give you a great idea of what this great band was like live in concert. Several of the highlights are 1) the wonderful "Universal Mind", 2) a great "Roadhouse Blues", 3) the excellent combo of "Dead Cats Dead Rats" and "Break On Through", 4) a killer cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster" with John Sebastian playing a mean harmonica, 5) the excellent performance of "Celebration of the Lizard", and finally 6) my personal favorite recording of "The End". I love Morrison's improvisation during it.

The Doors were a great band and this CD shows why. The music is great from start to finish. They do a lot of blues stuff on here and flesh out their own songs with instrumental and lyrical improvisation. Must have for any Doors fan.

If you're only going to buy one live Doors album...
...this is the one to get. This album was released in 1991 and was digitally remastered from the original master tapes by Paul A. Rothchild (The Doors' original producer) and Bruce Botnick (The Doors' original sound engineer). The sound quality of this release is outstanding, particularly in comparison to today's overly compressed mastering and remastering techniques.

'Aboslutely Live' was The Doors' only live album to be released while Jim Morrison was alive and that album (originally a double disc set on vinyl) is presented almost in it's entirety on Disc One ("Close to You" has been inexplicably moved to the second disc). Disc Two opens with the definitive 'An American Prayer' live version of "Roadhouse Blues" before presenting the 'Alive She Cried' album in it's entirety. The last two numbers on Disc Two are taken from the 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' video. "Unknown Soldier" was previously available on the 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' EP (now out of print) but the live version of "The End" from that show had never been available on CD prior to this release.

For a multi million record selling pop band, their live show often skirted their most popular hits in favor of lesser known album tracks, unreleased tracks, covers and epic pieces. This set is no exception. Missing from this set are hits like "People Are Strange" and "Touch Me" in favor of lengthier pieces like "The End," "When the Music's Over," and the (at the time) otherwise unreleased "The Celebration of the Lizard."

Morrison is at times austere and a times humorous but is always engaging. The band is a crack unit and genuinely shines on the epic pieces.

At nearly two and half hours with no repeated songs, this is a great value.