Grateful Dead

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Sorry Thin I guess I was just pointing out how you can look at almost any band and find faults not to our liking. I don't consider that coming all unglued. I defended the Doors and pointed out that a lot of your opinion is as I said previously a bit insulting. It's all good and you are entitled to your opinion. But just know that it may rub people that like that band the wrong way. There was a bunch of love for Kiss here a ways back. I kept quiet and let them enjoy who they enjoy. And if I did say something it would not be a negative shot at Gene or Paul that insults their character or what not. It's all about the music and I take many of your points as being valid. Sorry for getting a bit combative there. And yes this is the internet, if your harsh unfiltered opinion comes out in open forum, you may find people who disagree and will shoot back. I think I am in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time.

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I don't know shit, but I thought the bass line on his B3 was carried by the foot pedals? Took organ lessons a whole year and right hand lead, left hand rhythm, left foot bass line, right foot swell (volume). The rest of the time you spent changing which pipes you were gonna use! .....you can not petition the lord with prayer.

Thanks in advance!

I have to agree with Thin that The Doors great music seems to have been recorded in the studio, not played live. Particularly, their first album and Strange Days. The song Strange Days may be my favourite recording of theirs. I liked the mysterious, psychedelic sound of their earlier music much more than their later blues based music. But just on record-I am not keen on the live recordings I have heard from 1967. I would also think that the thinness in sound came from the way they tried to reproduce bass, using an organ instead a bass guitar. But there have been plenty of very convincing and powerful live rock/blues bands who haven't used bass guitars. Off the top of my head-The Cramps, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, The White Stripes, The Black Keys... They didn't use an organ either, though.

Ok so be it. The Doors broke some sort of rule that you must have a stringed bass player in your live Rock band configuration. And I totally get the preference of wanting to hear the standard rock instruments as they should be. I too hated Jerry on Midi and Bobby with that awful early solid state 90's processed distortion. I much prefer the Europe 72 era sound of strats, gibson's and tube amps. And speaking of the dime-store sandwich: Brent committed all types of fouls plinking away on that faux sounding keyboard rather than sticking to the B3 or an acoustic piano. I too appreciate more of a heroin laid back abuser on stage rather than a belligerent drunk in a leather rock and roll outfit. Basically I could go on and on. I just think you are a bit insulting to the Doors as a live act & Morrison as a person. To each their own, many of us like the Doors live. And their really are no rules in Rock and Roll (and there is no H in Wimp)

I love some of the Doors stuff, but they are really a studio creation. When live, they sounded thinner than a dime-store sandwich. The reason? Ray Manzarek was the bass player in addition to the keyboard player. He played bass lines on the keyboard with the left hand, organ with the right. This has A HUGE HUGE impact on the music. A hammond organ is practically a wind instrument, with the sound being "blown" up the Leslie cabinet and diffused with the rotating whirly-speaker thingy - it makes a "whoosh" sound instead of a "thump". Hammond organs have a very airy, round sound.... and this is NOT very effective for the "bass"! A stringed bass through a solid state amp, by comparison, has a very immediate, punchy attack that ya need in a "rock" band. I'll use my local heroes as an example. The B3 Kings in Boston (the Saunders/Garcia-type band who I recently saw with Sixtus) do some small gigs in a 3-person formation with no bass player - Hammond B3 player does the Ray Manzarek left-hand bass thing. Super-chill dinner music. The guitarist said "You should come see us in Boston with full band - we rock harder there...". I saw them, and it was so different... stringed bass added punch and groove and percussion - elevator music vs a true, weighty rock sound. Whenever I hear a live Doors recording it sounds like a douchey restaurant band turned up too loud, punching WAY above their weight in a huge concert hall (which makes the organ-bass even more diffused!). I LOVE a lot of the studio stuff - Peace Frog, Riders, WASP, LA Woman.... But at the end of the day, they were just a good studio band with a few hits and an overblown "mystique" that couldn't translate live, and whose leader was a drunk, belligerent a-hole with a Messiah complex. Pass.

Johnny Hype-meister here... apparently... maybe I just get a bit jumpy as spring arrives and I'm gonna hit the road soon, with highlights of recent releases in my pickup's CD player. BUT! Now that DaP 26's release (or sale) is announced -- and I am always grateful for more Pigpen, especially his return to the fold in December '71 -- how does that bode for the Anthem reissue announcement ? Another '68 show emerging from the crypt, Sweet Jesus! And then: the mystery box. Bolo said bacon would kill me, but he didn't say when. Operator, can you hep me Hep me if you please Give me the right area code And the number that I need My rider left upon the midnight flyer Singin' like a summer breeze............

I have the Janis CD and it is very nice. I will certainly buy the ABB release. As I went to sign in to this account on my phone it said ‘website not secure’. Never seen that before. Seems that Count Vlad is still trying to steal back the Bettys.

I've always been impressed with the sound of the cds in this collection. It seems better than that found on earlier editions released on cd, and better than the vinyl editions that came out in the late 70s. Maybe I have been seduced by the presentation!