Live At The Matrix - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The Doors were still working on arrangements and feeling out their moves when they played the Matrix Club in San Francisco for four nights in March, 1967- just two months after the release of their revolutionary self-titled debut album. These two seminal gigs were captured on tape but were previously unreleased until this new two disc set. 'Live at the Matrix' features over two hours of performances from the legendary band led by lead singer Jim Morrison.

Album Description
The Doors were still working on arrangements & feeling out their moves when they played the Matrix Club in San Francisco for four nights in March, 1967 - just two months after the release of their revolutionary self-titled debut album. These seminal gigs were captured on tape & have since become the most bootlegged Doors material. They were previously unreleased until this new set from Bright Midnight Archives & Rhino. Produced by long time Doors engineer/producer Bruce Botnick, who notes, 'This is likely the closest we've come to a true document of The Doors without constraints.' This release also features 'Get Out Of My Life Woman', by Allen Toussaint, which has not previously appeared on any Doors album live or studio!

Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

3rd Generation Tape Sources, Out of Sequence & Incomplete November 22, 2008
66 out of 74 found this review helpful

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?

1 out of 5 stars

A shameful rip-off November 21, 2008
47 out of 55 found this review helpful

Let me make one thing clear: I am not dissing the people here who have posted positive reviews of this. If this disc had never been issued, the historic performances combined with okay-for-its-time sound quality would make this a must-have disc for Doors fans.

But those positive reviewers obviously did not realize that these performances exist in far better quality than what was issued by the Doors. Worse, the Doors PR machine told a blatant falsehood in its publicity for this, characterizing the tapes used for this release as "first generation" sourced. They are not, and far from it, as sound comparisons to be found on Doors boards and the highly respected Steve Hoffman Music Forum have demonstrated.

Last, the legality and ethics of the Doors releasing this are seriously open to question. They don't own the master tape, and yet they have issued this disc anyway.

This is a shameful release, one to be avoided.

1 out of 5 stars

This CD is a disgrace November 21, 2008
37 out of 43 found this review helpful

This CD is a scam,

Peter Abrams, who made the original recording and currently still owns the master tapes has tried to come to an agreement with The Doors to get this show released.
They never came to an agreement because surviving The Doors are too greedy.
What they did is cleaned up vastly inferior copies of the master tapes. The tapes used for this release are NOT first generation copies like the Doors claim. That is a factual lie so as a consumer you are being ripped off.
Buyer beware !

1 out of 5 stars

a big disappointment November 22, 2008
35 out of 41 found this review helpful

Please keep in mind...I LOVE LIVE CDS and I LOVE THE DOORS music....that being said, this cd is a major disppointment.....I (like other Doors fans) have heard boots of these shows (more complete 4 cd versions too) and they sound terrific compared to this official release (the performances are cool...i cant complain about that)...i mean does remastered mean ray manzarek did some tribal dance in the control room as the tape played....if anything, they denegraded the sound on this tape....just a shame.....while i would rate the perfomace a 4 out of 5 im just tired of the doors weak product...cheesy packaging....poor sound....edited incomplete shows....enough already...plus at a high price in these times...its just not worth it

1 out of 5 stars

DO NOT BUY November 22, 2008
32 out of 37 found this review helpful

This CD is such a mess one hardly knows where to start!

The reason why I am giving this product a bad review is simply because it is NOT what it says it is. This CD is NOT first generation tapes acquired by The Doors.

This CD is just a cleaned-up-in-the-studio copy of the tape from which all the Matrix bootlegs come from, plus some tracks lifted straight off the actual bootlegs. The hiss levels vary dramatically from one track to the next, exposing the fact that this is just a collection of different sub-par sources.

The fact that The Doors and their management lie to their fans like this is a real disgrace, and shame on them for advertising this CD as quality "first generation" product when IT IS NOT. It is just a rip-off, plain and simple.

This material has been out there for years. Don't waste your money on an incomplete, out-of-sequence copy of a bootleg.

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