ABSOLUTELY LIVE

This live album, recorded after "the Miami concert incident", shows the band in good form, but less "wild", like "behaving themselves good". It has a very good recording being recorded between 1969 and 1970. Still, some Morrison`s antics appear, like some "wild screaming" in excess which I don`t like very much.

The album starts with the announcer suggesting to the audience to "behave well" because if they don`t do it "The Doors couldn`t arrive to the stage". It is known that in those days, after the Miami incident, promoters were not very confident in The Doors because they expected riots like the Miami incident, and the band was also nervous because many promoters banned them. Still, the record label wanted a live album, which the band recorded during several months.

The band had the idea to include in this album some new songs not released before on any album.

"Who Do You Love" is a cover, and it is a good song, with Krieger`s slide guitar.

The Medley of "Alabama Song / Backdoor Man/ Love Hides/ Five to One" is good, but Morrison`s screaming marres it a bit, IMO.

"Build Me a Woman" is a new song, not very interesting.

"When the Music`s Over" is a good version, with Morrison saying "silence" to the audience to let him sing. It is a funny moment. It is a song full of drama and with a good climax.

"Close to You" is another new song, a cover again. Morrison says "we have a special thing for you...not that...not that" referring with a joke to the Miami incident. The special thing is Manzarek singing lead vocals in this song, doing a good job.

"Universal Mind", another new song, is the best of this album, with Morrison singing very good lyrics with feeling and the band playing very good arrangements.

"Break on Thru No. 2" starts with Morrison shouting the first lines of "The Soft Parade" song before the band starts a brief improvisation on which Morrison sings new lyrics for the song. That`s why it was called "Break on Thru No. 2". It is a good version of this song.

"The Celebration of the Lizard" is a theatrical piece, somewhat noisy in parts, but good and interesting. Here Morrison`vocals work very well. I could consider this long song as an influence for other bands, some of them of the Prog Rock style, to write long pieces of music with several parts. Maybe Procol Harum, YES and Genesis were somewhat influenced by this song in their music.

The album is closed with "Soul Kitchen" as an encore,and the band plays a good version of this song.

This album sounds very polished, like the band had in mind to record good versions of each song. It also shows how good the band was as a team following each other during improvisations, like "reading each others`minds".

This album was re-issued in the mid 90s with a new cover design, which is shown in this website. Morrison didn`t like the original cover design.