THE DOORS-MR MOJO RISIN-BLU-RAY REVIEW-THE STORY OF L.A. WOMAN-BY JOHN EMMS

The longer The Doors are in the public eye, the more you realize just how special their music was.

With this in mind, readers should check out Ray Manzareks’ new album with slide guitarist Roy Rogers titled Transclucent Blues. It is killer. In fact, I picked that disc as one of my top ten blues albums of 2011.

Okay, the first 15 minutes of this blu-ray is a recap of the band’s history. In fact most of these clips at the start you have seen many many times. That is going to irritate some, but not all people.

But hold on! Despite the lack of actual perfomance footage, fans will have to have this in their collection.

The reason.

Getting the low down on what went into making songs like  Riders on The Storm, the title track and Love Her Madly  just to name three tracks is an insightful journey.

Let’s put it this way. If you heard The Beatles discuss the White Album or The Stones discuss Sticky Fingers you are going to dive in. Ditto for this classic.

Some of my fave parts are actually interviews with manager Bill Siddons, recording engineer Bruce Botnick and producer Paul Rothschild. These interviews provide space and some clarity to what actually happened during the time of the album’s release.

More on the technical side, the surviving members demonstrate techniques, how the songs came to be, and various insights on Jim Morrison’s gift for poetry, prose, and lyrical content . Morrison’s death in Paris and how it affected the bandmembers is also discussed in some detail

Excepting for the overview recap at the start, this blu-ray with some very hip extras is going to fascinate fans of the band.  

JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, international radio host  http://emms.podbean.com/ and musician www.johnemms.com