The Doors - Live at the Hollywood Bowl [VHS]
WatchingThe Doors Live at the Hollywood Bowlis a sobering  experience, for the viewer must confront the painful truth that popular music,  to judge by its increasingly infantile and banal state, will never see their  like again. Either that, or admit the Doors were an irrelevant footnote in the  history of pop--an idle thought that a few minutes of this extraordinary concert  will dispel. Fortunately for posterity, this July 5, 1968 performance was  captured by four cameras and recorded in 16-track audio, resulting in generally  excellent stereo sound that is far better than most archive footage of this  band.On stage Jim Morrison has the aura of an intense performance artist, whose dark,  smoky voice forms only a part of his complex persona. Guitarist Robby Krieger,  keyboard player Ray Manzarek, and drummer John Densmore complement Morrison's  free-associative outpourings with improvisational, jazz-inspired interjections.  They make music like no other band before or since. Who else could segue  effortlessly from Kurt Weill's "Alabama Song" to Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man"?  And just when they're in danger of becoming too pretentious, Morrison bursts any  lurking self-importance with a wry smile, a jokey aside, or even a belch. But  the seriousness remains, at least implicitly, throughout as Morrison's edgy  lyrics (from "When the Music's Over" to "The Unknown Soldier" and "The End")  constantly hint at disturbing social undercurrents outside the concert arena. Is  it fanciful to imagine that in the minds of his audience the ghosts of the  Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement are hovering just out of view? Such  thoughts are what make the Doors so unique. Their music invites questions,  positively dares the audience to ask them. That's why they remain so endlessly  fascinating well over three decades later. And that's why this concert  performance will find a home with any and every fan of the band. "The time to  hesitate is through."--Mark Walker, Amazon.co.uk