Perception - Dark Publications

Location: Home » music » Proto Punk » Perception

Similar Items:

•	Doors, The
•	Love (CD + Audio DVD)
•	Live In Boston
•	Live in Pittsburgh 1970
•	The Doors Collection (Collector's Edition)

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
For years, the recording industry has asked fans to purchase the same music from the 1960s and '70s over and over again, via remasterings, repackagings, and, of course, reformattings. The Doors' box Perception (get it?), cleverly packaged as... a door, does hold some astonishing music, but the thing itself is a weird hybrid beast with multiple formats for every release. Each of the group's six albums has not only been re-remastered (this time by the remaining band members plus original engineer Bruce Botnick as the "40th anniversary mix"), but loaded up with a bevy of previously unreleased bonus tracks. But that's not it--for each album, there's a companion DVD, which includes a whole new 5.1 surround sound mix with more tracks, as well as the usual DVD extras, i.e., photo galleries, lyrics, and videos. That makes 12 discs, much of it essentially redundant. If you're cool with that, you're in for a treat. From the spookier, unissued version of "Indian Summer" to the entirely new tune "Push Push" and some super-rad footage of the band rehearsing L.A. Woman, it's easy to fall in love with this swirling, highly sexualized, and often brilliant band all over again. --Mike McGonigal

Album Description
6CD/6DVD Boxed set celebrating the 40th anniversary of this legendary band: All their Jim Morrison-Era studio albums reissued in deluxe 2-disc editions with rare & previously unreleased bonus material, 5.1 mixes, bonus video content, and more!

Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

For the People Who Don't Know... November 26, 2006
78 out of 92 found this review helpful

Ok, A few people have written informative reviews on this box set based on previous recordings and releases who know and love the band like me, but for the people which do not know this should:

THIS IS NOT THE 1ST RELEASE OF ALL THE DOORS ALBUMS IN 1 BOX! I have The Complete Studio Recordings Box Set (Which is not all the albums, only the ones with Jim Morrison, meaning leaving out Other Voices and Full Circle)and this Box Set is kind of competing against that box set since it includes the exact same album listing in that box, except THIS BOX has an extra DVD for each album for the 5.1 Surround Mix, which judging by the other reviews does not sound that good anyway for Surround Sound, and also includes a few alternate versions of tracks as well.

The Other Box Set that most are familiar with is the Doors Box Set, which really is 4 Cd's all of rare and mostly live material (and that Box is not competing with this one in any form).

Now that you know that...

COMPARING THIS BOX SET TO THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS BOX SET

PROS:
+INCLUDES Alternate Versions of some songs that are previously unrealesed
+INCLUDES "Celebration of The Lizard" in Stereo, which I can't think of one release that has that song in Stereo instead of Live, (which is also not included at all in the Complete Recordings Box Set)

CONS:
-5.1 Surround Sound DVD's are not as good as one may think.
-VERY PRICY (Almost Double the Price comparing to the Complete Recordings Box Set). Only DESCENT PRICE if you WANT EVERYTHING HERE, not JUST THE DVD'S OR JUST THE ALBUMS, Only good buy for both
-Does NOT INCLUDE MOST OF THE SONGS FROM THE BONUS DISC called "Essential Rarities", which is included in the Complete Recordings Box Set, however, you can also buy seperate if you want to, which I recommend.
-Also, if you are looking for some great footage of the Doors on DVD and have none, get the "Doors Collection" DVD, that shows the best concert footage and films of them.

So I would still suggest the Complete Recordings Box Set over this because of the price, and because the DVD's are not as good as they might seem.

This should sum up the general questions about this box set that you should have, specific questions look at other reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Box Set 40th Anniversary December 9, 2006
46 out of 48 found this review helpful

The audios are good but videos could of included some rare footage. It seemed like an after thought & they picked videos from previous released videos. This was the reason it didn't get 5 stars.

I had The Doors on vinyl and finally decided to get this box set. Now I'm not familiar w/ the previous box set but this includes all the 6 Doors albums. Yeah, American Prayer came out later but that was post-Jim. So you don't know if he would agree w/ the arrangements on that album. Plus you have the remaining Doors who produced 2 more albums post-Jim. Who would of known if Jim ever came back from Paris would he continue playing w/ them. I've read a number of books of The Doors and many speculations of Jim writing screen plays to moving to New York to working on a solo album. I don't own much rare recordings or bootlegs so the bonus tracks are a treat for me. Too bad the video aspect wasn't thought out. All of the videos except for one I have in my Doors DVD collection. As an audio standpoint this is a good deal and really enjoy it.

This package is the 6 albums The Doors includes 2 disc per album.
You have the CD w/ bonus tracks and a DVD disc.
Each Album/CD is a tri-fold that copies the original artwork front & back cover. Inside includes the art from that album as well as a booklet w/ some cool pics gives in detail the making of that record.
Each DVD includes the entire album in 5.1 Surround Sound.
Photo Gallery w/ some very cool photos and 2 videos of the songs from that album.
Now the videos aren't any rare footage. If you have The Soundstage Performances, Hollywood Bowl, and the Dance On Fire DVDs. The only one I don't recognize is Crawling King Snake that was shot in The Doors rehearsal studio filmed for a 1971 Australian TV. This is rare footage I haven't seen of Jim performing a song from L.A. Woman album. Of course there must be some collectors out there who have this whole show. But it was a treat for me to view.

The Doors
debut album includes some of my favorite tracks The Crystal Ship, Light My Fire and The End. Also 3 bonus tracks. 2 versions of Moonlight Drive. The 2nd version was previously unissued. Matter of fact version 2 of Moonlight Drive reminds me a little of Alabama Song. 3rd previously unissued track is Indian Summer which is on Morrison Hotel CD. This is a sort of acoustic song that shows off Jim vocals.
Videos include Break On Through, which is on Dance On Fire DVD.
The End is from The Soundstage Performances DVD Toronto performance, 1967

Strange Days
one of my favorite Doors albums has my all time favorite track When The Music's Over . The bonus tracks comes w/ People Are Strange false starts & in studio talking. It's John Densmore talking to producer Paul Rothchild. This is only about a minute long so it's no alternative version of the song just the talking before they start.
The other bonus track is Love Me Two Times which is listed as Take 3. I really couldn't hear a difference.
The videos include Love Me Two Times and When The Music's Over both from Europe Concert, 1968. These are on The Soundstage Performances DVD.

Waiting For The Sun
has 5 bonus tracks. Albinoni's Adiago In G Minor an instrumental that was included in American Prayer lp. Not To Touch The Earth has a minute of dialogue w/ Jim. If only a minute long it was interesting hearing Jim goofing around.
Then you have 2 more takes of Not To Touch The Earth. Take 1 time is 4:22 as Take 2 is 3:58.
A 17 minute poem of Celebration of The Lizard which was printed inside the album cover. This is noted as "work in progress" there are some lines that are not in the printed version of the album.
Videos in Spanish Caravan from Live Hollywood Bowl, 1968 from the DVD of the same name.
The Unknown Soldier is the performance from The Soundstage Performances DVD.

The Soft Parade
The Soft Parade is my fav song from this album. The 6 bonus tracks are Who Scared You that is on Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine album. Good song btw. 2 versions of Whiskey, Mystics And Men, a very good tune. Push Push is more of an instrumental reminds me of Vince Guaraldi (Charlie Brown song) w/ the only chorus of the band singing repetitively "Push Push"
They list 2 versions of Touch Me but really version 1 is just 27 seconds of talking in the studio. It's maybe Paul Rothchild producer talking to John Densmore about the positioning of the snare drum mic.
Videos include Soft Parade and Touch Me both from Soundstage Performance DVD.

Morrison Hotel
Is The Doors going back to basics w/ bluesy tunes. One of the biggest hits was Roadhouse Blues. Another good tune I like is Queen of The Highway. Now for bonus tracks I would say this is the best CD that included 10 bonus tracks. 3 versions of Roadhouse Blues which Jim starts off w/ Money Beats Soul poem. There is also a funny line on Peace Frog w/ a false start. It seems the band is dragging before Jim sings. Jim says to the band "Boy you guys sound like a drunken cripple walking up a flight of stairs, man...drunken flight of stairs". A jazzy version of Queen of The Highway which I find interesting for an alternative sound.
2 videos from Dance On Fire DVD are Roudhouse Blues and Wild Child.

L.A. Woman
Final album of The Doors w/ Jim that includes my all time favorite "Riders On The Storm." The bonus tracks are only 2 compared to previous CD this is pretty dismal. You have Orange County Suite a song about Jim's girl Pamela. I know Jim pitched this to The Doors but they passed on it a number of times. To tell the truth it's very good song. This was also on The Doors Boxset. The other track is (You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further which is on Weird Scenes In The Goldmine album.
Videos include The Changeling that was edited from the Soft Parade DVD..The second video is Crawling King Snake which I haven't seen before footage. This is from 1971, The Doors rehearsal space filmed for Australian TV. It was a very cool performance I would like to know more about this TV appearance.

5 out of 5 stars

Follow me down... May 15, 2007
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

Quite simply, outstanding!

I'll be the first to admit, at 28, I'm a young Doors fan. I grew up with kids in the late 80's and early 90's who worshipped the Doors, especially Jim, as their messiah, and I never got it. I've known their hits, enjoyed them, and that's kinda where it stopped. I didn't even own a Doors record (The Doors) until I was in college in '99... that's when I started to understand what was so great. However, I never investigated further.

This past year, at the end of '06, the Perceptions box set came out and I made it my mission to save and buy it, 'cause my old copy the The Doors sounded horrible. Well, before I knew it, it was gone, but thank you Warner for atleast re-issuing it ASAP in a slimmed down, frill-less box.

I now own the best box I've ever owned. I've read all the reviews for the LTD version, from people saying it's a waste of money compared to previous Doors boxes (fools!), to the the 5.1 mixes being poor (fools again!), to everything being redundant (yeah, but between 2 formats, not on the same disc or anything). Here's my opinion... this is AWESOME! Seriously. I haven't even touched the CD's yet. The 5.1 high-res audio mixes are blowing my mind, not to mention, for me, the exposure to a whole slew of songs I've never heard before. Sure, The Doors doesn't benefit much from 5.1, but the high-resolution is what makes it better than any other mix you've ever heard previously. Starting at Strange Days you can start to hear clever use 5.1. Never anything to be distracting, but maybe just some good ambience, or background vocals actually being in the back. The real fun starts at Waiting For The Sun and Soft Parade. Those two, in 5.1 high-res are leaving me breathless. I carry on rediculously to my girlfriend about the clarity of the mixes and little nuances to the point where she's just ignoring me!

If you can't tell yet, I'm a huge fan of DVD-A's and high-res sound (SACD as well). I've heard some people complain about 5.1 mixes, from saying that it ruins an original recording (too fancy, sounds swirling around), to there's nothing but abmience and it's nothing special (nothing fancy, no sounds swirling around). I think it's obvious when listenin gto this what the band and engineers intentions were. To place you in the studio, or in the case of some songs, sort of... transport you into the heart of the music. I got sucked in. I heard someone say it wasn't as good as Beatles' Love. Well, Love is all studio trickery my friend, based on original Beatles songs. That is not, in any way, how the Beatles intended for those songs to be heard. These are easily as good as DVD-A's for Eagles' Hotel California and Queen's Night At The Opera.

Anyway... enough rambling. Go to a high-end stereo shop, ask if they have it as a demo to hear it properly. Don't use MP3's as a basis for this. Borrow it from a friend, or better yet, trust a strangers opinion and buy this for an amazing listen. If you're already a Doors fan and you think you've heard this stuff before and this won't be a reason for you to dig out your collection any more often, you're wrong. Sell your old stuff (even your LP's, they're re-releasing those in August '07!) and get this. You'll never be happier.

5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional Perception in 5.1 December 13, 2006
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Remastering and reissuing back catalog in a box set is all the rage now. Queen, Talking Heads, the Beatles, etc. The Queen box sounds pretty good. Talking Heads even better in 5.1 dual disc format. DD will not play reliably in some machines. The stereo redbook sides of some of my TH box skip or will not play but the 5.1 DVD/DVDA sides play fine in my Marantz universal disc players. The Doors Music Company went all out. They did both. You get cd's and dvd/dvda's of each of the 6 studio albums, remasterd stereo cd's and remastered 2ch, 5.1 and 5.1DTS on the DVD's. Listen to the first disc without reading any of the enclosed booklet. Does it sound a little different, funny, better, worse? I won't give it away. You have to listen and then read. I found the vocal 's buried in the mix on the first disc using the dvd dts layer. I punched up the center channel 2 to 4 db and got the vocals even with the front channels. Not much going on in the rears on the first disc for some reason but by the time you get to the 3rd and 4th discs, there is plenty going on in the rear speakers.

Overall the sound, excepting the first disc for some reason and really only on Break on Thru, the first track, is exceptional. The SS mixes are very nicely done again except for the first disc for some reason. I love the remastered box sets. I am a lazy music collector/lover at heart and the record companies are making it so easy for me to buy their back catalog all over again and again, about every ten years and it just keeps getting better. 5 stars overall, 4 for the content (some of this stuff to me is just drivel while the rest is pure genius, the outakes and videos really do nothing for me but some folks will go ga ga over it and buy just for that, cool but there is a reason these things were outakes), 5 stars for sonics. Well done Bruce and Paul.

5 out of 5 stars

It won't stop... December 27, 2006
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

The Doors just keep on going into the 21st century with this, yet another release of the same freaking albums.

I didn't buy 'The Complete' studio album box set ('Complete' is a lie). I didn't buy the other remasters I've seen. But this...how many more times can something be remastered? How good does it need to sound? By virtue of the fact that I 'only' have the 'old' remasters or whatever they were, the discs from the mid-90s or so, I considered picking this up.

Sure enough...I found this half-price at a music store liquidating its stock (a common thing these days). And it's certainly well worth it for that much. So I can sort of recommend depending on how many other versions of the albums you already have. If you've not been through the 38 or so versions of The Doors, Strange Days, and the rest, this might be a real treat to hear the material remastered and interestingly, remixed.

Once again, they've bothered to once again trickle out some unreleased material (another take of this song, some studio chatter, another jam, etc, etc, etc). Do they have tapes of Morrison passing gas that perhaps they can release, too? These guys intend on living forever, so that by 90 they finally release some 'unreleased' song nobody has heard in 70 years. And more photos.

The box certainly looks nice, shaped like a door and all, complete with a peep hole on the box itself. When you look inside, the see the zeros on Manzarek and Co's bank accounts.

Of course, it's very overpriced. I guess they want to target this to, you know, the millions of people out there with no Doors albums and a hundred bucks to blow on a whim. The Doors are evil...they bother to put out 'Boot Yer Butt' a few years ago, compiling bootlegged material (including some very rare stuff as well as other bits in awful quality) and limit the run to a few thousand copies, but they push this thing out...the same albums. And still no sign of the two post-Morrison albums on CD. They are unbelievably and completely shameless. Okay guys, you got me. Here, take more of my money. And now I'm updating to write that they have indeed taken my money.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic