For years, the recording industry has asked fans to purchase the same music from the 1960s and '70s over and over again, via remasterings, repackagings, and, of course, reformattings. The Doors' box Perception (get it?), cleverly packaged as... a door, does hold some astonishing music, but the thing itself is a weird hybrid beast with multiple formats for every release. Each of the group's six albums has not only been re-remastered (this time by the remaining band members plus original engineer Bruce Botnick as the "40th anniversary mix"), but loaded up with a bevy of previously unreleased bonus tracks. But that's not it--for each album, there's a companion DVD, which includes a whole new 5.1 surround sound mix with more tracks, as well as the usual DVD extras, i.e., photo galleries, lyrics, and videos. That makes 12 discs, much of it essentially redundant. If you're cool with that, you're in for a treat. From the spookier, unissued version of "Indian Summer" to the entirely new tune "Push Push" and some super-rad footage of the band rehearsing L.A. Woman, it's easy to fall in love with this swirling, highly sexualized, and often brilliant band all over again. --Mike McGonigal
Product Description
6CD/6DVD Boxed set celebrating the 40th anniversary of this legendary band: All their Jim Morrison-Era studio albums reissued in deluxe 2-disc editions with rare & previously unreleased bonus material, 5.1 mixes, bonus video content, and more!
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Remastering and reissuing back catalog in a box set is all the rage now. Queen, Talking Heads, the Beatles, etc. The Queen box sounds pretty good. Talking Heads even better in 5.1 dual disc format. DD will not play reliably in some machines. The stereo redbook sides of some of my TH box skip or will not play but the 5.1 DVD/DVDA sides play fine in my Marantz universal disc players. The Doors Music Company went all out. They did both. You get cd's and dvd/dvda's of each of the 6 studio albums, remasterd stereo cd's and remastered 2ch, 5.1 and 5.1DTS on the DVD's. Listen to the first disc without reading any of the enclosed booklet. Does it sound a little different, funny, better, worse? I won't give it away. You have to listen and then read. I found the vocal 's buried in the mix on the first disc using the dvd dts layer. I punched up the center channel 2 to 4 db and got the vocals even with the front channels. Not much going on in the rears on the first disc for some reason but by the time you get to the 3rd and 4th discs, there is plenty going on in the rear speakers.
Overall the sound, excepting the first disc for some reason and really only on Break on Thru, the first track, is exceptional. The SS mixes are very nicely done again except for the first disc for some reason. I love the remastered box sets. I am a lazy music collector/lover at heart and the record companies are making it so easy for me to buy their back catalog all over again and again, about every ten years and it just keeps getting better. 5 stars overall, 4 for the content (some of this stuff to me is just drivel while the rest is pure genius, the outakes and videos really do nothing for me but some folks will go ga ga over it and buy just for that, cool but there is a reason these things were outakes), 5 stars for sonics. Well done Bruce and Paul.
[Amazon User]
Features:
• 6CD / 6DVD-Audio box set
• 40th Anniversary Mixes included
• Each title housed in Digipak packaging
• New producer's notes by Bruche Botnick
• New liner notes by prominent music writers
• Original album artwork
• 24 Rare & Previously unreleased bonus tracks
• Bonus extras
DVD-Audios features
• 5.1 Advanced Resolution Surround
• Advanced Resolution Stereo
• Dolby Digital Surround and DTS 5.1
• 12 Live Video Clips
• Bonus Videos
• Photo Gallery
• Lyrics
• Discography
Selections:
CD 1 - The Doors (1967)
1. Break On Through (To The Other Side)
2. Soul Kitchen
3. The Crystal Ship
4. Twentieth Century Fox
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
6. Light My Fire
7. Back Door Man
8. I Looked At You
9. End Of The Night
10. Take It As It Comes
11. The End
Bonus Tracks:
12. Moonlight Drive (Version 1)
13. Moonlight Drive (Version 2)
14. Indian Summer (8/19/66 Vocal)
DVD:
Entire Album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced
Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. Break On Through (To The Other Side) (Music Video)
2. The End (Soundstage Performance, Toronto, 1967)
DOWNLOAD CD/DVD-1
CD 2 - Strange Days (1967)
1. Strange Days
2. You’re Lost Little Girl
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Unhappy Girl
5. Horse Latitudes
6. Moonlight Drive
7. People Are Strange
8. My Eyes Have Seen You
9. I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind
10. When The Music’s Over
Bonus Tracks:
11. People Are Strange (False Starts & Dialogue)
12. Love Me Two Times (Take 3)
DVD
Entire album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. Love Me Two Times (Live In Europe, 1968)
2. When The Music’s Over (Live In Europe, 1968)
CD 3 - Waiting For The Sun (1968)
1. Hello, I Love You
2. Love Street
3. Not To Touch The Earth
4. Summer’s Almost Gone
5. Wintertime Love
6. The Unknown Soldier
7. Spanish Caravan
8. My Wild Love
9. We Could Be So Good Together
10. Yes, The River Knows
11. Five To One
Bonus Tracks:
12. Albinoni’s Adagio In G Minor
13. Not To Touch The Earth (Dialogue)
14. Not To Touch The Earth (Take 1)
15. Not To Touch The Earth (Take 2)
16. Celebration Of The Lizard (An Experiment/work In Progress)
DVD
Entire Album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. Spanish Caravan (Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1968)
2. The Unknown Soldier (Soundstage Performance, Denmark, 1968)
CD 4 - The Soft Parade (1969)
1. Tell All The People
2. Touch Me
3. Shaman’s Blues
4. Do It
5. Easy Ride
6. Wild Child
7. Runnin’ Blue
8. Wishful Sinful
9. The Soft Parade
Bonus Tracks:
10. Who Scared You
11. Whiskey, Mystics And Men (Version 1)
12. Whiskey, Mystics And Men (Version 2)
13. Push Push
14. Touch Me (Dialogue)
15. Touch Me (Take 3)
DVD
Entire Album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. The Soft Parade (Soundstage Performance, New York, 1969)
2. Tell All The People (Soundstage Performance, New York, 1969)
CD 5 - Morrison Hotel (1970)
Hardrock Cafe
1. Roadhouse Blues
2. Waiting For The Sun
3. You Make Me Real
4. Peace Frog
5. Blue Sunday
6. Ship Of Fools
Morrison Hotel
7. Land Ho!
8. The Spy
9. Queen Of The Highway
10. Indian Summer
11. Maggie M’gill
Bonus Tracks:
12. Talking Blues
13. Roadhouse Blues (11/4/69, Takes 1-3)
14. Roadhouse Blues (11/4/69, Take 6)
15. Carol (11/4/69)
16. Roadhouse Blues (11/5/69, Take 1)
17. Money Beats Soul (11/5/69)
18. Roadhouse Blues (11/5/69, Takes 13-15)
19. Peace Frog (False Starts & Dialogue)
20. The Spy (Version 2)
21. Queen Of The Highway (Jazz Version)
DVD
Entire album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. Roadhouse Blues (Music Video)
2. Wild Child (Music Video)
CD 6 - L.A. Woman (1971)
1. The Changeling
2. Love Her Madly
3. Been Down So Long
4. Cars Hiss By My Window
5. L.A. Woman
6. L’america
7. Hyacinth House
8. Crawling King Snake
9. The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
10. Riders On The Storm
Bonus Tracks:
11. Orange County Suite
12. (You Need Meat) Don’t Go No Further
DVD
Entire Album in 5.1 DTS encoded Surround Sound, 5.1 Dolby Digital and new Advanced Resolution stereo mixes
Video Content:
1. The Changeling (Music Video)
2. Crawling King Snake (Footage from The Doors rehearsal space filmed for Australian TV, 1971)
