LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL

Like YES`"9012Live-The Solos" EP, this live EP was released to promote the VHS video from a concert, in this case, The Doors`concert at the Hollywood Bowl in July 5, 1968.

I have not seen the video yet, but only a videoclip from "Light My Fire".

"Wake Up", "A Little Game" and "The Hill Dwellers" are parts of "The Celebration of the Lizard", a "Drama in Rock" big song which first appeared in the "Absolute Live" album in 1970, and the lyrics of this musical piece appeared in the gatefold cover of the "Waiting for the Sun" album. They sound as "first playings" of these parts outside of "The Celebration...", and IMO, they are a bit noisy, and better played in the full "The Celebration..." from "Absolutely Live".

"Light My Fire" is a good live version. The videoclip that I saw on TV showed how Morrison could handle very well the public. I prefer the live version fom the "Alive She Cried" album.

"Unknown Soldier" is a very good live version, inlcluding the sounds of guns shootings (done hitting the amplifiers). There are some photos from this song played live, and they show how good was Morrison acting the lyrics of the songs. I could consider him as an influence for Peter Gabriel / Genesis, Alice Cooper and other musicians who also "acted" the music and lyrics on stage.

"Spanish Caravan" is played incomplete after the brief "drama" of "The Hill Dwellers". It sounds good, but leaves me wanting to hear the complete song.

Like a "first audio taste" of the video, this brief EP satisfies the aim of the record / video labels: I still want to see the full concert video.

The only song from this EP which was included in the "In Concert" CD package was "Unknown Soldier".

The last before the best!

This is another live album which is actually an EP and probably every Doors´lover should know it, the previous reviewer pointed out correctly that the release of this short EP was in order to promote the Video of the Concert Live at the Hollywood Bowl, but this is not the whole concert, only a few parts of it were taken to this EP.

Only 6 songs and 20 minutes of nice The Doors music, but actually we could divide it in two halves, because 3 of them are actually parts from the main poem "The Celebration of the Lizard" you know it is divided in several parts of pieces, here you will find "Wake Up" as the opener song, "A Little Game" and "The Hill Dwellers" are the other Lizard´s parts taken to this EP, it´s only a kind of a proof of the poem and the hollywood´s concert performance.

The other songs here are "Light my Fire", "Unknown Soldier" which was taken to their best Liv album /comipllation (In Concert) and an awful one minute proof of Spanish Caravan as the final song.

This was then only a promotional EP, a proof of the main Video, so i honestly don´t recommend this particularly, i would recommend the Video itself, this is only for fans and deserves only 2 stars, actually 1.8.

Probably this is my shortest review, but next to it you will find as i said above their best live compilation!

This mini-LP obviously serves a purpose of introducing fans to the video release of the famous L.A. concert of July 1968. And while the video footage is essential watching if you wish to take a glimpse of THE DOORS magic on stage, this live album is just a particle of that show. And not the best one. Several dispersed pieces of "Celebration of the Lizard", a truncated version of "Spanish Caravan" and poor performance of "Light My Fire" (Krieger missed quite a few notes here!) don't make this record justified. Only "Unknown Soldier" stands out - but then again, you should get the entire show on video/DVD, therefore "Live at Hollywood Bowl" makes sense only for THE DOORS completists. * 1/2

About a year ago I went to the store where I usually get my CD's and bought a couple, so the owner told me that being a good customer I could take one album from a special section for free, I checked it and only could find a decent one THE DOORS "Live at Hollywood Bowl", and since I didn't had any of their live albums went for it, at the end it cost me nothing.

I'm a Doors fan but this album was a total disappointment, bad recording, worst sound (In their attempt of cleaning the audience noise they took great part of the high ranges) and the selection is one of the worst I have ever seen.

The album starts with "Wake Up", 1:40 minutes of Jim Morrison in one of his sad attempts of being a poet, simply boring, if I want to listen somebody cursing and shouting, I will visit one of ex girlfriends.

There's no Doors album without "Light My Fire", so they play a extended version, this track might be overplayed (As a fact it is) but has the virtue to never tire me, the voice of Jim even being absolutely wasted was awesome, the instrumental section by Ray Manzarek on his Farfisa organ is incredible as always, I can't get how he was able to get such great sound of this instrument that sounded totally metallic like a toy kit, the man is a genius. "Light My Fire" is a track that I almost always (I'll explain why the almost at the end of the review) listen with extreme pleasure, even this almost 9 minutes version.

"Unknown Soldier" sounds great also, very psyche and hallucinating, Jim's almost narrative style is perfect for the track, and again Ray working directly John Densmore is outstanding, it's obvious as the concert advances that Morrison is getting higher and the quality of the voice suffers a bit.

"A Little Game" is another chance for Jim to babble while his physical and mental condition is deteriorating, terrible, but it lasts only 1:20 minutes.

"The Hill Owellers" is in the same vein, by this point you can hardly understand what Jim is reciting (Not even attempts to sing), two fillers, one after the other is already too much despite it's also very short.

"Spanish Caravan" is simply a relieve, the whole band is better than ever, as they get stronger Jim gets worst, but who cares as long as it sounds well or at least decent.

The album ends with..An edited version of "Light My Fire" (Now you understand why I said almost), they chosen the moments when Jim sounds better but deleted most of the wonderful jamming that is the central point of interest, just a filler for us not to feel robbed by a 21 minutes album.

Sorry, I love The Doors, but this album is a waste of money, the only way I would have got it was for free, and that's precisely how I got it.

Two stars, only for hardcore fans.