Morrison Hotel

MORRISON HOTEL, released in 1970 in the wake of Morrison's infamous indecency bust, hit #4 and introduced "Waiting For The Sun," "Roadhouse Blues," and "Ship Of Fools." Insightful liner notes from David Fricke. Ten bonus tracks include eight previously unissued takes of "Roadhouse Blues, a run-through of Chuck Berry's "Carol," a jazz version of "Queen Of The Highway," and the previously unreleased "Money Beats Soul."

The next-to-last Doors album, recorded prior to Jim Morrison's still mystery-shrouded death in a Parisian bathtub, eschewed much of the band's previous penchant for baroque musical, poetic, and philosophical pretensions (this was, after all, the back-to-roots era of the Beatles' Let It Be, the Stones' Let It Bleed, and Dylan's Nashville Skyline). Instead, the Doors circa 1970 wisely seeped themselves in a bluesy, no-frills approach that might have hinted at creative exhaustion in a lesser band. Instead, the Doors of "Roadhouse Blues" and "Peace Frog" reinvented themselves into arguably one of the greatest bar bands ever, with Morrison's well-documented demons frolicking in a welcome new ambience. "Waiting for the Sun" and "Ship of Fools" may hearken back to the band's cabalistic and Kurt Weill leanings, respectively, but framed in an edgier, more effective way. --Jerry McCulley