Albums That Should Exist: The Doors and Friends - VH-1 Storytellers, Hollywood Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA, 11-22-2000

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Doors and Friends - VH-1 Storytellers, Hollywood Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA, 11-22-2000

This is possibly the strangest episode of the "VH-1 Storytellers" TV series, because it highlights the music of the band the Doors, despite the fact that that band's career effectively ended when its charismatic lead singer Jim Morrison died way back in 1971.

The band's three surviving members Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, and John Densmore continued for a year or two, but it wasn't the same without Morrison and they broke up. Every now and then, they reunited for some tribute or another. For instance, in 1993, the Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the three of them played a few songs with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam serving as the lead singer. But these occasions were rare.

Then, in 2000, the tribute album "Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors" was released. But this was different than almost all tribute albums, because members of the Doors played on the songs, with a variety of lead singers. There even were some songs incorporating unreleased recordings of Jim Morrison's voice before he died. Unfortunately, it wasn't well received by critics, and didn't sell well.

There was no tour to support it... except for this one Storytellers episode. Again, the three surviving members of the Doors reunited to perform on all the songs, as well as do most of the talking and reminiscing between songs. Many (though not all) of the lead singers from the "Stoned Immaculate" album participated: Scott Weiland of the band Stone Temple Pilots, Ian Astbury of the band the Cult, Travis Meeks of the band Days of the New, Scott Stamp of the band Creed, and Perry Ferrell of the band Jane's Addiction.

I believe this was the last time the three surviving members of the Doors performed together in concert. Ray Manzarek died in 2013, so there could be no further reunions.

We have a lot more than the typical 45 minute long episode in this case because a DVD performance was released. However, even that wasn't the full show. And weirdly, a couple of songs were only included as "bonus tracks," so they were tacked on at the end instead of fitting into the concert with all the others. I moved one of those to fit with other songs sung by the same lead singer. But moving the other one wasn't so easy, so I left it at the end.

Unfortunately, for some bizarre reason, the DVD kept to the TV show's weird habit of including only part of the first song. This was frustrating because it appears that this concert was the one and only time the lead singer Perry Farrell sang this song, "L.A. Woman," with the surviving Doors members. He did do the some in concert some with his band Jane's Addiction, but that had been about a decade earlier, and the versions were fairly different. On the "Stoned Immaculate" album he sang one song, but it was a different song "Children of the Night" (which by the way wasn't an original Doors song, though it used some of Jim Morrison's poetry and his voice). So I had to leave this song incomplete. It's especially frustrating because it's only about a minute out of what is at least an eight minute long song.

All in all, this episode is a bit strange, but I think it works. The lead singers all sang well, and the banter between songs by the surviving members of the Doors was interesting. It seems this actually was much more successful than the "Stoned Immaculate" album, which had a lot of misguided efforts to use Morrison's voice and/or modern music styles that didn't fit the Doors.

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.

01 L.A. Woman [Incomplete] (Doors & Friends with Perry Farrell)
02 talk (Doors & Friends)
03 Love Me Two Times (Doors & Friends with Pat Monahan)
04 talk (Doors & Friends)
05 Alabama Song [Whisky Bar] - Backdoor Man (Doors & Friends with Ian Astbury)
06 talk (Doors & Friends)
07 The End (Doors & Friends with Travis Meeks)
08 talk (Doors & Friends)
09 Break on Through [To the Other Side] (Doors & Friends with Scott Weiland)
10 talk (Doors & Friends)
11 Five to One (Doors & Friends with Scott Weiland)
12 talk (Doors & Friends)
13 Light My Fire (Doors & Friends with Scott Stapp)
14 talk (Doors & Friends)
15 Roadhouse Blues (Doors & Friends with Scott Stapp)
16 talk (Doors & Friends)
17 Riders on the Storm (Doors & Friends with Scott Stapp)
18 talk (Doors & Friends)
19 Wild Child (Doors & Friends with Ian Astbury)
20 talk (Doors & Friends)