Product Description
A very interesting double LP retrospective two years after Jim Morrison’s version of the Doors had officially closed. Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine contained the first album release of two B-sides, Willie Dixon’s “(You Need Meat) Don’t Go No Further,” sung by Ray Manzarek, originally on the flip side of the 1971 45 “Love Her Madly,” and the beautiful “Who Scared You,” “Wishful Sinful”‘s flip with Jim Morrison on vocals from a session in 1969. Both are worthwhile additions not found on their first “greatest hits” collection, 13. This compilation is a strange amalgam of their music, the LP title taken from a line in the song “The End,” which concludes side two. Five of the 22 songs are from the L.A. Woman sessions, including the title track of that album and the full length “Riders on the Storm,” both clocking in at seven-plus minutes. With “The End” and “When the Music’s Over” at 11:35 and 11:00 respectively, that’s 38 minutes and 38 seconds between four titles, more than a third of the 99-plus minutes of music on this collection. Nothing from Absolutely Live is included, and surprisingly, the classic “Waiting for the Sun” is not here, though that Morrison Hotel number would fit the mood perfectly. “Love Street,” the flip of “Hello I Love You,” is here, but pertinent singles like “Wishful Sinful” or “Do It” and its flip, “Runnin’ Blue,” from The Soft Parade, are all missing in action. The cover art pastiche by Bill Hoffman is worth the price of admission if you already have all this material, while the inside gatefold picture looks like an outtake from the first album. Bruce Harris’ liner notes are truly the ’60s merging with the ’70s; he calls Jim Morrison “merely the index of our possibilities” and states that Morrison didn’t want to be an idol “because he believed all idols were hollow.” The essay is all the more silly when you realize it isn’t tongue-in-cheek in the way Lou Reed’s incoherent ramblings inside Metal Machine Music are more enjoyable than the disc. Harris seems to actually believe what he pontificates. But the music is awesome, so put it on and read the Metal Machine Music scribblings instead. Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine is a work of art in the first order, the way the Beatles #1 album is wonderfully redundant, and it should see the light of day again. This time they could add “Tree Trunk,” the flip of the “Get Up and Dance” 45 RPM from 1972’s Full Circle album. ~ Joe Viglione
About Movie Mars
Back in 1973 I was in a trio with Jack Inza on drums and another Jack on guitar. Two guitar and drum band, sometimes keyboard. The fellow contacted me a couple of years ago to try to resurrect the past but…45 years or so later when I already am rocking out there at my convenience …well…but the interesting thing is that “I’m A Star” was written about him …he would denigrate my songs, my lifestyle…God bless him but his negativity was difficult to navigate. He idolized Neil Young yelling out “I Love You” at a concert at the Music Hall back in the day…anyway, here it is in all its glory, the first track off of my first album on Flamingo/Carrere back in 1978. Enjoy.
LIV and LIVINGSTON TAYLOR reviews on http://joeviglione.com/?page_id=113
Review of the Day – Livingstone Taylor: Back in the day my AMG Reviews were published in the NY Times (my film reviews,) Rolling Stone onlne, MSNBC, Billboard magazine…over a dozen sites, possibly dozens of sites. Now they are on eBay too. Here’s my Livingston Taylor on Rolling Stone.com
http://joeviglione.com/?page_id=113
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Directed by Paul Norman of the Uplift show