SACD The Doors – Waiting For The Sun

Waiting For The Sun as a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ Doors series: Doug Sax mastered it using an all-tube system under the supervision of Bruce Botnick, and the surround programme comes from Botnick’s own 96 kHz/24-bit mixes. All eleven songs play in one sequence – from “Hello, I Love You” to “Five To One”.

Success and a search for new material

Released in July 1968, Waiting For The Sun became the Doors’ only number-one album on the American Billboard album chart – and a lot of studio work lay behind that success. Much of their early song material had already been used, so new ideas had to emerge and older ones were revisited. The sessions began in late 1967 or early 1968 and ran into the spring; after work at Sunset Sound, most of the recording took place at TTG Studios in Hollywood, with Paul A. Rothchild producing and Bruce Botnick engineering.

The eleven pieces show a band pursuing several directions at once: “Hello, I Love You” shares the programme with “The Unknown Soldier”, and “Spanish Caravan” sits right beside “Five To One”. If you know the hit single, this is your chance to discover the album’s full range in context.

Following Robby Krieger’s guitar

“Spanish Caravan” points to Robby Krieger’s love of flamenco and to musical material from Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias. The guitar opens a whole new perspective on the group, and the contrast with the surrounding songs invites you to notice how Krieger changes his approach throughout the album.

“Yes, The River Knows” offers another focus. Ray Manzarek later compared the partnership of piano and guitar here with Bill Evans and Jim Hall – his personal view, and a lovely invitation to listen to the two instruments. Where do they pick up each other’s ideas, and where do they leave space?

What remained of the planned suite

“Celebration Of The Lizard” was originally planned as a long suite for the album. Only “Not To Touch The Earth” made it onto the finished album, while the complete text was printed in the original packaging – a trace of a larger plan, right beside the short, instantly approachable songs.

The bass players deserve your attention too: Kerry Magness is documented on “The Unknown Soldier” and Leroy Vinnegar on “Spanish Caravan”, and Doug Lubahn contributes as well. Alongside Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore, these are names that are easy to overlook – the personnel list below records their documented contributions. Botnick also recalls using Dolby noise reduction on the original recording of this album.

The hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPP 74024 SA is a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ Doors reissue series. According to the publisher, Doug Sax mastered it using an all-tube system, overseen by the Doors’ producer and engineer Bruce Botnick. The surround programme comes from the original 96 kHz/24-bit files that Botnick mixed and mastered for the DVD-Audio release Doors/Perception, made from the original eight-track analogue master tapes; for the SACD, those mixes were up-sampled without filters to DSD with the Weiss Saracon converter and authored by Gus Skinas at the Super Audio Center. For the surround programme you need a multichannel-capable SACD player and a matching setup; the CD layer plays on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the eleven songs of the original album.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

Also in another edition: Waiting For The Sun

More SACDs by The Doors: Strange Days · The Soft Parade · Morrison Hotel · L.A. Woman

Artist page: All titles by The Doors

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Jim MorrisonvocalsParticipation: Album personnel
• Ray ManzarekkeyboardsParticipation: Album personnel
• Robby KriegerguitarParticipation: Album personnel
• John DensmoredrumsParticipation: Album personnel
• Doug Lubahnelectric bassParticipation: track 7 documented; other tracks unconfirmed
• Kerry Magnesselectric bassParticipation: track 6
• Leroy Vinnegardouble bassParticipation: track 7

Kerry Magness: The Unknown Soldier (track 6). Leroy Vinnegar: Spanish Caravan (track 7); Doug Lubahn is also documented there, but his other contributions are not fully assigned by track. Album credits do not imply every instrument on every track.