AN AMERICAN PRAYER

I was very sceptical before I listened to this album. To dub some Morrison poems with music eight years after they had been recorded sounds very weird to me. I also have to honestly admit, that I had never been ableto really get into his poetry universe.

"Ghost Song" has the typical Doors background music, with a great Manzarek on the organ. I must say that this track combines very well the recitation and the music. "Dawn's Highway" has been commented so many times... It will be the source of inspiration of an early sequence of the movie picture "The Doors" from Oliver Stone. "Newborn Awakening" is the continuation of "Dawn's Highway"

"To Come Of Age" features the march sounds from "The Unknown Soldier". Several "tracks" does simply not work well with me like "Black Polished Chrome", "Angels and Sailors" and "Stoned Immaculate".

The very short "American Night" with its "Zieg Heil" at the end fades nicely into the live version of "Roadhouse Blues". Since it is a true song, it is my preferred moment on this album. This only shows that the whole idea of this temptative attempt to rise Jim from dead does not really speak to me. This one is the version featured on the double CD "In Concert" but I could not find any reliable source which can identify from which concert it was. It was just placed before the list of tracks which appeared on "Alive, She Cried".

"The Hitchhicker" features "Rider On The Storm" in the background. The rain and thunder sounds works very well with the poem's theme. I only had wished that there would be more of such moments. But, again, there is nothing new on this little piece. Just a mix between a great Doors song and some lines of spoken text...

The title track is another of the good moment of this work : very nice rhythm, groovy sound and great guitar work.

"The End" gets along while the text form "Freedom Exists" is recited. Another fave (but very short) of mine. On the original release this piece is called "The End" by the way.

"A Feast Of Friends" is a very nice symphonic piece of music. It is 100 % prog (believe me or not) ! Extremely melodious. I wonder why it has another title (as the previous song) on the remastered and extended version. It was called "Adagio" on the original realease. At least, the relation with prog was more obvious with the original title.

One of the bonus track is an extended version of the first number of the album. Since it was one of my preferred track because it was so close to the Doors sound, I can only be happy to get it.

I do not know what Jim would have thought of such treatment nor do I know what were the reasons that pushed the surviving trio to create this posthumous effort. Was it only a tribute to this great character ? Were they moneywise in need to do so ? If so, they were successful since this album sold apparently very well.

It is really difficult for me to rate this effort. You can call me a die-hard Doors fan but swallowing these poems for over forty-five minutes is rather harsh. Here and there I can reasonably appreciate the background music that goes along with Jim's narration effort but this album is only interesting for collectors and fans only. I can not reasonably believe that the man (or the woman) in the street would be interested in this album. Two stars.