Doors Live At The Matrix CD

 3rd Generation Tape Sources, Out of Sequence & Incomplete,
The Doors and Warner Music Group issued a press release to promote this CD, stating: "Restored and carefully mastered from first generation tapes acquired by Elektra Records and The Doors 40 years ago, these historic shows never sounded better." However, at least 4 tracks here were sourced from 3rd generation or higher bootlegs. The remaining songs were mastered from an edited 2nd generation 1/4" reel to reel copy of a cassette dub made from the master reels. Neither the Doors, nor their corporate record label Warner Music Group (aka the Rhino and Elektra imprints) own the original master recordings. The master tapes are owned by Peter Abram, who had the foresight to record the band at The Matrix (with the band's permission)--more than two years before Elektra and Paul Rothchild got around to recording The Doors in a live setting at The Aquarius theater in 1969. These legendary 1967 live tapes were well engineered by the young Abram and find the rock band at the peak of their prowess as an improvisatory unit. However, the tapes Warner Music Group has published on this 2 CD rip off are vastly inferior to the master tapes, brief samples of which are circulating on the Internet with Peter's permission for comparison purposes. Some fans may choose to believe that Abram is being greedy by asking for cash for his tapes. However, The Doors manager Jeff Jampool has publicly stated the Doors' policy about acquiring live tapes is that they will only provide a small royalty based on sales. According to Abram, he wasn't even approached to sell his tapes to the Doors for this release. And what about all those bootlegs on the market? According to Abram, all bootlegs derive from the missing first generation cassette copies in the Doors archive, which vanished in the 1970s. The fans get a sonically subpar, incomplete product. The legality of this release is suspect since Peter owns the master tapes. Peter Abram receives zero money from this product, even though he owns the master sound recording. Meanwhile, your purchase of this material will make Warner Music Group and The Doors a little bit wealthier. And this is the same rock band that recently sued itself for $5million dollars over issues of "integrity." By the way, how much money was cover designer Stanley Mouse paid for his Matrix album cover art, while they guy that actually recorded the show--on his own nickel and made this cash cow possible for The Doors--doesn't even receive a credit as recording engineer in the liner notes?
Submitted by GoldenScarab (Beverly Hills, USA)
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 BETTER TO WAIT FOR THE REAL THING
Rather than strike a deal with the original taper who owns the nearly pristine originals of these recordings (samples of which can be found on the Wikipedia entry for this album), the band and Rhino decided to master this from the poorly duped bootlegs that have been kicking around for years. If the difference in quality wasn't so striking, this might be worthwhile for the Doors performance. However, once you hear how good the original sounds, you will find the comparison, as one fan recently posted to a forum "The difference between being in the Matrix listening to the band, or standing outside the club with the door closed!" Here are some more quotes from fans who have listened to the "official" release offered here, and the samples below: "WOW! Night and day! What a humongous difference in quality, the official sample sounds awful by comparison." "The official release is embarrassing compared to that mp3 sample." "I want my money back. I feel like an idiot for paying $25 for this. Unbelievable that they had the nerve to state 'the tapes we used were the original, first-generation copies'."
Submitted by Duped Consumer (Everywhere, USA)
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 If icould give 0 stars I would
This recording of the doors is totally garbage, It sounds like it was recorded by some groupie in the audience way in the back with an 60s 8track recorder cmon, dont waste your 25$ on this crap. its just a remaster of a bootleg and not of the master recording. boycot this crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted by joekool666 (rochester ny)
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 I Like it, I Like it alot!!!!!!
I enjoy all the blues covers that Jim and The Doors did on here. And I really like everything on the whole cd. I listen to it all the time. The sound quality, to me is very good. I Love It. Hope to hear more of the old shows released on cd. Please keep them coming.
Submitted by buddha9764 (Akron, MI, USA)
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