Coming on October 9th from the Doors is the Morrison Hotel “50th Anniversary Deluxe,” a two-CD and single LP edition. The collection includes the original album newly remastered by Tthe Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer Bruce Botnick, plus a bonus disc of unreleased studio outtakes, and the original album on 180-gram virgin vinyl.
For the set, the original album has been expanded with more than an hour of unreleased recordings taken from the sessions for Morrison Hotel. These 19 outtakes “transport listeners into the studio with Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek for an unprecedented perspective on the making of the album.”
Bruce Botnick explained in the announcement, “There are many takes, different arrangements, false starts, and insightful studio conversations between the band — who were in the studio — and producer Paul Rothchild — who was in the control room. It’s like being a fly on the wall.”
According to the press release: “Several of these unheard recordings spotlight how 'Queen Of The Highway' and 'Roadhouse Blues' evolved across multiple sessions. It’s especially interesting to hear how the band played with different bass players on 'Roadhouse Blues.' Early versions include Harvey Brooks, who played on the band’s previous album, The Soft Parade. Later takes feature guitar legend Lonnie Mack on bass along with the Lovin’ Spoonful‘s John Sebastian on harmonica who, due to contractual restrictions at the time, had to be credited as 'G. Puglese.'”
Just prior to his 2013 death, Ray Manzarek told us he understood that the public would always be fascinated by Jim Morrison's short time on Earth and long for more of the long-dead “Lizard King”: “I love the fact that people love the Doors. When you say 'The Doors,' it's very important to know the psyche of Jim Morrison. America cannot figure out the psyche of Jim Morrison. And they are having a marvelous Freudian struggle trying to figure out who he was, why he was that way, and they just can't figure it out. So I understand completely why they're so intrigued with him. And want more and more and more.”
Morrison Hotel was the Doors' fifth and second to last studio album.
The set, which was released on February 9th, 1970, peaked at Number Four in the U.S. featured such in instant staples as “Roadhouse Blues,” “Waiting For The Sun,” “Peace Frog,” “Ship Of Fools,” and “Blue Sunday,” among others.
