The Doors will release a new live album later this year. The band’s two surviving members, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, supervised the upcoming “Unbound and Dangerous” with the band’s longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick.
The “Unbound and Dangerous” collects tracks from the Doors’ 1970 Roadhouse Blues tour, which began shortly after the release of the band’s fifth album, “Morrison Hotel“, in February.
Densmore and Krieger, along with the band’s keyboardist Ray Manzarek (who died in 2013) along with singer Jim Morrison (who died in 1971), recorded several shows on the tour, resulting in the concert LP, “Absolutely Live“, in July 1970.
“I knew Jim was ‘dangerous’ from the beginning,” Densmore noted in a press release announcing the album. “Talented and dangerous.” “He seemed to want to challenge everything. Then there were his words. That’s what seduced me … those words were about freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to be free. He wanted to free us all. What a gift. This live album captures that wild spirit.”
“I’m not sure why the Doors were considered dangerous,” added Krieger. “It was the ’60s, man, anything goes, and we didn’t really think of Jim as being dangerous.
“Once the Kennedys were gone and Vietnam was happening, that was the danger, not the Doors. The closest we came to being dangerous was in Miami or in Cleveland when the audience went crazy.”
“Dangerous equates to excitement,” said Botnick. “The fans came in the thousands to Doors concerts looking for danger and excitement. Jim was always reading the room and knew how far to push the envelope … there was always, ‘Will he do something really dangerous?'”
Most of the songs on “Unbound and Dangerous” were recorded during stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit.
One song, “Soul Kitchen,” comes from a 1969 performance at Hollywood’s Aquarius Theatre. (In addition to “Absolutely Live”, recordings from the tour have appeared on other live albums over the decades.)
The Doors’ arrival on the rock scene in 1967 marked not only the start of a string of hit singles and albums that would become stone classics, but also of something much bigger – a new and deeper relationship between creators and audience. Refusing to be mere entertainers, the Los Angeles quartet relentlessly challenged, confronted and inspired their fans, leaping headfirst into the heart of darkness while other bands warbled about peace and love. Though they’ve had scores of imitators, there’s never been another band quite like them. And 50 years after their debut album, The Doors’ music and legacy are more influential than ever before.
The set will be released on October 23rd, and features concert performances culled from the Doors’ 1970 Roadhouse Blues tour.
The Fat Angel Sings 