The Best of The Doors

by

The Doors

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I was in high school when The Doors' debut was released and it remains the one essential album to have in The Doors' catalog. [Although LA Woman and Morrison Hotel are nearly as good.] If you're looking to expand your collection beyond that, this two-disc collection is a no-brainer. It contains all eight Top 40 hits from their all too brief 4-year history and enough key album cuts ("The End," "L.A. Woman," "Roadhouse Blues") to satisfy all but the die-hard fan. [Thankfully, there are no tracks included from either of the two post-Morrison albums released in the early Seventies.]

While the identity of The Doors is linked almost exclusively to the persona of its frontman, there's no denying Ray Manzarek's keyboards and Robby Krieger's guitar playing and songwriting as crucial to The Doors' sound. And Jim Morrison's power as a vocalist was his voice, which would make the listener ignore the sometimes pretentiousness of his lyrics.

My only real criticism of this collection is that for a two-disc set, it's fairly short--only 85 minutes. But it still wasn't enough to make me spring for the box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As I stated in my review for "Legacy: The Absolute Best", no collection will truly ever encompass the best work of The Doors. However, there are still some that are definitely worth owning. "The Best Of The Doors", an imported two cd set, isn't.

The reason that this collection gets three stars is because it is The Doors, one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever and music pioneers. There's some true rock classics here, such as "Light My Fire", "Break On Through (To The Other Side)", "The End", "Hello, I Love You", "Touch Me", "Love Her Madly", "L.A. Woman" and the chilling "Riders On The Storm". These are just some of the highlights.

The fact is, 18 tracks just isn't enough to cover The Doors. And while all the stuff on here is brilliant, there's some excellent stuff left off. For example, their brilliant reworking of Willie Dixon's classic "Back Door Man", one of their best known album tracks, is strangely omitted. Similarly, classics like "Not To Touch The Earth", "My Eyes Have Seen You", "The Changeling" and "Twentieth Century Fox" have also been omitted, and judging by the small amount of tracks on both discs, probably could have all fit.

My suggestion is that instead of this, you pick up "Legacy: The Absolute Best". It is also a two disc collection, but it has 34 tracks on it including all of the songs on here as well as all the songs that I mentioned should have been on here. It even includes an unreleased track, the seventeen minute "Celebration Of The Lizard".

So, while I guess this okay, I recommend either "Legacy", the boxed sets or the whole albums. This really isn't needed.