"Dave Marsh at Creem called The Doors’ fifth album “the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard,” and that was a compliment. “When they’re good, they’re simply unbeatable.” It was the best record he’d heard all year.
Rock Magazine and Circus unanimously agreed that it was The Doors’ best record yet, and while it was maybe a little early to be making such pronouncements (‘Morrison Hotel’ was released in February 1970), Circus described it as “one of the best albums released this decade.”
Which, coming hot on the heels of what had been the most tumultuous year in the band’s career so far, must have been music to their ears. Jim Morrison was still reeling from the ugliness unleashed by the Miami bust for obscenity; the band as a whole was still shaken by the almost unanimously hostile reception that greeted their last album, “Soft Parade.”
There was just one solution. [Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek said,] “OK, we’ll go back to the blues and do something down and dirty and funky. Here’s ‘Morrison Hotel.’ The Doors back to the roots. And that’s what we did. The Doors went back to the roots, the tight roots sound... “Morrison Hotel” “was just back to basics.”
... Even better, pick up the 40th anniversary remix (40 years, that is, since the band’s first album) and 10 bonus tracks take your ears even deeper into the sessions, with multiple retakes of “Roadhouse Blues” lining up alongside an alternate take of “The Spy,” a superb “jazz version” of “Queen of the Highway,” and a clutch of false starts and snippets that really do seem to put you in the room with the band." - Goldmine
Compact Disc Pressing
Tracklist:
Hard Rock Cafe
1. Roadhouse Blues
2. Waiting For The Sun
3. You Make Me Real
4. Peace Frog
5. Blue Sunday
6. Ship Of Fools
Morrison Hotel
7. Land Ho!
8. The Spy
9. Queen Of The Highway
10. Indian Summer
11. Maggie M'Gill
Bonus Tracks
12. Talking Blues
13. Roadhouse Blues (11/04/69 takes 1 - 3)
14. Roadhouse Blues (11/04/69 take 6)
15. Carol
16. Roadhouse Blues (11/05/69 take 1)
17. Money Beats Soul
18. Roadhouse Blues (11/05/69 takes 13 - 15)
19. Peace Frog (False Starts & Dialogue)
20. The Spy (Version 2)
21. Queen Of The Highway (Jazz Version)
