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WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE

The Doors

Proto-Prog


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The Doors Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine album cover
3.82 | 20 ratings | 5 reviews | 20% 5 stars

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Boxset/Compilation, released in 1972

Songs / Tracks Listing

Disc One:

Side One:
1. Break On Trough (2:25)
2. Strange Days (3:05)
3. Shaman`s Blues (4:45)
4. Love Street (3:06)
5. Peace Frog / Blue Sunday (5:00)
6. The Wasp (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)
7. End of the Night (2:49)

Side Two:
1. Love Her Madly (3:18)
2. Spanish Caravan (2:58)
3. Ship of Fools (3:06)
4. The Spy (4:15)
5. The End (11:35)

Total Time Disc One: 50:34


Disc Two:

Side Three:
1. Take It as It Comes (2:13)
2. Running Blue (2:27)
3. L.A. Woman (7:49)
4. Five to One (4:22)
5. Who Scared You (3:51)
6. (You Need Meat) Don`t Go No Further (3:37)

Side Four:
1. Riders on the Storm (7:14)
2. Maggie McGill (4:25)
3. Horse Latitudes (1:30)
4. When the Music`s Over (11:00)

Total Time Disc Two: 48:28

Line-up / Musicians

- Jim Morrison / vocals
- Ray Manzarek / keyboards
- Robby Krieger / guitars
- John Densmore / drums

(Not credited on the cover, plus several uncredited session musicians)

Releases information

2LP Elektra 8E-6001 (1972, U.S.)

2CD Rhino Entertainment Company 81227966034/1, 81227966034/2 (2014, remastered)
2LP Elektra R1 6001 (2014, US, remastered)

Thanks to Guillermo for the addition
and to NotAProghead for the last updates
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THE DOORS Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine ratings distribution


3.82
(20 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(20%)
20%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(70%)
70%
Good, but non-essential (5%)
5%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

THE DOORS Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Guillermo
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This two record set compilation was released in January 1972, after The Doors released their first album without Morrison, titled "Other Voices". I think that it wasn`t a good idea, because the record label didn`t help the Trio to find more confidence as a band: they have to compete with themselves when Morrison was in the band with them! Anyway, this is a good compilation, which, despite looking like a "let`s make more money" decision from the label with a 2 record set release, it has some very good songs. This compilation has songs from all their studio albums recorded with Morrison. But the main interest for fans are the inclusion of two songs which were previously released as B- sides of singles: "Who Scared You" (the B-side of the "Wishful Sinful" single in 1969, also recorded during the "The Soft Parade" album recording sessions, and "(You Need Meat) Don`t Go No Further" (the B-side of the "Love her Madly" single in 1971, and also recorded during the "L.A. Woman" album recording sessions).

"Who Scared You" is a very good song, somewhat commercial in sound with horn arrangements, plus very good solos by Manzarek and Krieger. The song was composed by Krieger and Morrison. It could have been a good inclusion in the "The Soft Parade" album. This song is now available in one compilation of the band released on CD.

"(You Need Meat) Don`t Go No Further" is the cover of a song composed by Willie Dixon. It is a Blues song sung by Manzarek, played in a similiar way to "Close to You", another song on which Manzarek sang lead vocals and which was included in the "Absolutely Live" album. In this song the band sounds a bit like they were asked by recording engineer / co-producer Bruce Botnick: "We need a B-side for the new single. Do you want to record a new song?", and that the band said "yes, let`s do it!". So, the song, with overdubs, sounds like they recorded it very quickly, and Ray`s vocals, unfortunately, are not very good. He even says at the end of the song "Hey, I got it!". This song now is a "rarity", not being released yet on a CD compilation.

The album also has in the gatefold cover an essay written about The Doors`influence in the American culture, so it is "very American" in content, IMO, and not very related to The Doors`influence to the Rock music and cultures of other countries. So, this is the only thing that I don`t like very much from this compilation.

Update: both "Who Scared You" and "(You Need Meat) Don`t Go No Further" recently have been released in the "Perception" CD/DVD Box Set (2006). So, this "Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine" 2 LP compilation now remains mainly for the interest of the The Doors`most dedicated collectors, IMO.

Review by Seyo
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Believe it or not, this was the first piece of music that I bought personally, alone, without my parents' assistance. It must have been around 1980 or so, when I started developing interest in progressive, heavy, psychedelic and experimental rock music, which was about to grow into a die-hard collector direction. Since at that time I even did not have a turntable (that is, I had but it was an old, antique, 1960s model, shaped like briefcase, with a mono speaker built-in inside the cover, almost incapable of playing records), I started my collection with cassette tapes. Unfortunately, at that time in SFR Yugoslavia the music market offer was not sufficiently rich. Still, unlike other "Eastern bloc" countries, we had a relatively developed recording industry, including domestic production of vinyl records. Western, mostly Anglo-American music scene was generally well represented (a fact unimaginable for Soviet Union or even Hungarian citizens at the time) through obtaining licences of release catalogues from the major world recording companies. So there was plenty of internationally relevant music issued on records, albeit in modest quantity of pressed copies. In contrast, the same music was not always available on cassette format, to my sadness and despair!

If you were 15 or so at the time and place concerned, you were more than expected to listen to THE DOORS, for both being extremely popular rock band and as representative for the adolescent "counter-culture", anti-adult protest, "alternative" art and poetry. I had already heard about them and was familiar with several of their songs, but did not own any in my tiny collection.

On the given day I collected my miserable pocket money, went downtown Sarajevo with firm intention to buy THE DOORS, anything I could find. I knew almost nothing of their history, discography, names of albums or even the names of band members (except Morrison of course). A bookstore near the department store "Sarajka" (not existing anymore) had a DOORS cassette on display in their shop window. That's it, gotcha!

The title "Weird Scenes inside the Goldmine" (Elektra Records released through local Yugoslavian label Suzy) meant nothing to me. To my enlightenment and joy, it had "Riders on the Storm", a wonderful ballad that I already knew from radio. But it was not all - I immediately discovered a handful of odd, strange, disturbing and yet beautiful and captivating songs that were present on this tape. Namely, "Take It As It Comes", "L.A. Woman", "Five to One", "Maggie McGill" and a screaming psychedelic magnum opus of "When the Music's Over". Wow, that was a sort of what in certain religions they call "conversion", "insight" or "vision". That's it - the final truth about the universe!

Later on, I learnt that this tape was only a second part of a double album release (double cassettes were available to buy each individually and the shop obviously had not had the first tape of the set), that it was not a "real" album and that it contained two songs that were never released on any other "real" studio album ("Who Scared You" and "You Need Meat/Don't Go No Further").

Unlike the previous compilation "13", this collection focuses less on obvious hits but more on the band's musical diversity, avant-garde and "progressive" leaning. Only the song "The Soft Parade" is missing from the picture that was supposed to present more artistic and less commercial aspect of THE DOORS. In any way, this is an excellent compilation and together with "13" can offer a compact package of this band's musical importance in the context of XX century popular culture, for those who had no wish to collect individual albums.

With advent (and flooding) of CD packages, this old vinyl title may seem redundant, but for the sake of authenticity and historical merit (and for the personal "insight" as described above), I must give this release a high mark.

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Since Jim died recently, their record company could not wait longer to release a compilation effort to capitalize on Jim's sad end. I guess that, marketing wise, it was a good idea.

To make this compilation appealing to collectors, it contains two B-sides numbers : "Who Scared You" and "Don't Go No Further". The first one has a nice groovy tempo, the mood is bluesy but interesting. Good work from Krieger and some brass can also be heard in the background (remember "The Soft Parade"). Actually, this number wold have really deserved to have fit in there. It could have easily replaced "Wishful Sinful" (the A-side of this single !) or "Easy Ride" IMO.

I am so enthusiastic about "Don't Go No Further". It has the the flavour of their last album L.A. Woman which sounded too much blues-oriented. This is 100% blues classic, on the heavy side like they were often used to. Not essential by any means.

Something great here : thanks to its format (a double vinyl album) we are lucky to get "The End" as well as "When The Music's Over". These are of course the central pieces of this release. Two great rock songs all time, no doubt.

Some great numbers are featured here as well as : "Break On Trough", "Strange Days", "Love Her Madly", "L.A. Woman", "Riders on the Storm" and "Maggie McGill". Other tracks are not so great and might not appeal to the casual Doors fan.

At the time of release, it was really complementary to "Thirteen", the first Doors compilation. None of the tracks are on both ones (on purpose I guess). This is sufficiently rare to be mentioned. It might have been a good idea to have released both of them on a double CD but as far as I know, none will get on CD.

So, my recommendation is the same : get "The Best Of The Doors" (on a single or double CD). If you are a collectionist, you might get "Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine" rather cheap though on the web (from as little as 11 ?).

Three stars.

Review by Finnforest
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars One of rock's few great compilation albums

I'm one of those annoying purists who hates the "greatest hits" albums and pointless compilations put out incessantly by bands. I rarely buy them as I believe most old school bands made albums best heard in context. There is nothing more absurd than some of the prog "best ofs" which provide such a convoluted presentation of the songs (think Floyd's "Great Dance Songs"). "Weird Scenes" is one of the rare exceptions and it's a crime that the title has not been released on CD as of this date. Here is a collection that served a purpose beyond collecting hits, the songs appear to have been chosen to create a worthwhile listening experience as opposed to purely commercial considerations. Unlike most collections it has maintained listenability over the years because it contains songs you don't hear on the radio much, even some hard to find rarities.

The album culled Doors tracks from various albums which might be referred to as the more "mystical" songs, the "stoned immaculate" songs as Jim would say, songs which leave you off balance and take you on a journey through the desert. These are songs which mostly show off the Doors "late night" side. Their dark side, their psych-bluesy side, and their wild side. Blissfully free of "Light My Fire" and "Touch Me" this album is solid cover to cover and shows how truly great this band could be. While there are a few hits here and there, the stars of "Weird Scenes" are the oddities like "Shaman's Blues" and personal favorites like "Love Street," "Spanish Caravan," and "When the Music's Over." There are groovy jams like "Peace Frog" and "The Wasp." And then you are served up some of the Doors most iconic epics such as "The End" and "Riders on the Storm." Two singles B sides made the album an even better value, to my knowledge those tracks were not available again until latter day box sets. You never get tired of "Weird Scenes." It's one of those albums that will always do the job.

This is a compilation album that stood on its own and one that felt like somebody actually gave a damn. This is carried through to the outstanding artwork and the heartfelt liner notes. You can currently only get it on vinyl, but someday, perhaps one of the suits will figure out this album has a following all its own. We'd buy it again on CD, provided it is duplicated per the original. In fact, they should try being classy and doing a gatefold mini-lp sleeve of this---now THAT would be a gold mine.

Latest members reviews

4 stars This is "13" part 2, as far as I'm concerned. This is a very good collection of Doors music for the novice. I got it because it had "Who scared You" from the "Soft Parade" era. Other than that, I owned everything they put out, though I'm not proud of a few of their records. I suppose that I cou ... (read more)

Report this review (#273160) | Posted by Keetian | Saturday, March 20, 2010 | Review Permanlink

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