ABSOLUTELY LIVE

"Absolutely Live", THE DOORS' only official live release during the band's life, is generally acknowledged largely because of the presence of "Celebration of the Lizards" poem in its integrity. It is, no doubt, a strong performance all the way, but what this live set makes interesting is more than that. Obviously, it is not a typical live "greatest hits" sort of issue because there are none of the most popular hits from the band, with possible exception of "Break On Thru". More than that, it contains several songs that were never released before, the best of them being slightly psychedelic "Universal Mind" and successful cover of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love". Slightly longer versions of "When the Music's Over" and "Soul Kitchen" are excellent. So the whole picture shows that the band during 1969/70 was still very strong when playing live in constrast with relatively weak studio albums of the period ("The Soft Parade", "Morrison Hotel"). This is not a wild, energetic piece of live show. It sounds more intimate, dark, slightly withdrawn. But it mostly relies on the selection of material. To some it may present a second-rate songs lacking real rock drive, but given the centre-piece of the album is Morrison's "Lizards" poetry performance, it all makes sense. I would like to recommend this live material as quite representative of the Wes Coast psychedelic era. This album is subsequently incorporated into "In Concert" double live CD set.