Live in Europe

Rare and never seen before film footage captures the legendary music of the Doors--live! Filmed during their European Tour in 1968, The Doors swept through the cities of London, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, leaving devastated audiences in their wake. This collection of rare live performances is introduced and narrated by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick who, as members of Jefferson Airplane, shared the bill on this historic tour. Songs: Love Me Two Times, Back Door Man, Spanish Caravan, Hello I Love You, When the Music's Over, Unknown Soldier, Light My Fire, Five to One, Alabama Song. For Doors completists only, this shapeless gathering of rare film clips of the band performing in Europe is hampered by the same old, frustrating problems with attempting to convey, through lousy camera work, the band's power as a live act. The packaging tells us the Doors swept through London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam during a 1968 tour documented here, but there's no way to appreciate that save for a random clip or two of Jim Morrison milling about outside concert venues, talking with fans. Otherwise, we see the same sort of obfuscating on-stage close-ups of Morrison you can see in any footage of a Doors gig, stumbling around, crooning, and reciting poetry to minimalist accompaniment by Ray Manzarek on keyboards, John Densmore on drums, and Robby Krieger on guitar. Unless one can see, in the mind's eye, what the band is up to from the point of view of a kid in the 30th row, there's no way to really get the hypnotic, Dionysian effect for which the Doors were justifiably famous. Thus, for anyone who can imagine such a thing, or take it on faith, there's good reason to enjoy performances of "Spanish Caravan," "Five to One," and two versions of "Light My Fire." There's even a relic of pre-MTV, pop promotion: a silly-looking performance of "Hello, I Love You" shot before a baffled crowd on a London street. --Tom Keogh

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