WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE

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.