SACD The Doors – Morrison Hotel

Morrison Hotel as a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ Doors series: Doug Sax mastered it 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 “Roadhouse Blues” to “Maggie M’Gill”.

A hotel as a signpost

An unassuming hotel in downtown Los Angeles gave the Doors’ fifth studio album its name, and Henry Diltz’s photograph turned its window into a stage. The music itself was recorded at Elektra’s studios, with Paul A. Rothchild producing and Bruce Botnick engineering. Released in 1970, Morrison Hotel put the spotlight back on the band after the horns and strings of The Soft Parade: blues forms, guitars, keyboards and the interplay of the rhythm players.

That never meant giving up the Doors’ individuality. The eleven songs show several ideas of what a song can be – a direct opening gives way to images, interruptions and quieter passages. The original release even titled its two halves “Hard Rock Café” and “Morrison Hotel”, linking the programme to the photographed places without forcing one continuous story onto the songs.

The people behind the blues

“Roadhouse Blues” is the perfect introduction to the line-up. Alongside the four Doors, Lonnie Mack plays bass and John Sebastian adds harmonica – credited under the name G. Puglese. Mack was famous as a guitarist, yet here he plays bass, and he also turns up on the closing “Maggie M’Gill”: a lovely link between the first and the last track.

Ray Neapolitan supplied bass on much of the album, broadening the foundation beneath Manzarek’s piano and organ, Krieger’s guitar and Densmore’s drums. These guests reflect an expanded studio ensemble, not a change in the band’s membership. And while Rothchild and Botnick shaped the production and the sound, the personnel list below keeps the players themselves in view.

Eleven songs, many perspectives

After “Roadhouse Blues”, “Waiting for the Sun” leads somewhere else entirely. Its title had already named the Doors’ third album, but the song itself found its place here – a reminder that material can be set aside, reconsidered and finally find its role in a new setting. “You Make Me Real” changes direction again, and the pairing of “Peace Frog” and “Blue Sunday” invites you to savour the move from restless words to a more restrained gesture.

“Ship of Fools” widens the picture before “Land Ho!” opens the second half. “The Spy” and “Queen of the Highway” belong to this album as fully as its famous opener, “Indian Summer” reaches back to the band’s early studio days, and the closing blues of “Maggie M’Gill” ties the ending back to the beginning. Give the sequence time: its magic lies in how the pieces answer each other.

The hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPP 75007 SA is a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ Doors reissue series. According to the publisher, Doug Sax mastered it, 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: Morrison Hotel

More SACDs by The Doors: L.A. Woman · Strange Days · The Soft Parade · Waiting For The Sun

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; individual track assignments not specified
• Robby KriegerguitarParticipation: Album personnel; individual track assignments not specified
• Ray Manzarekpiano, organParticipation: Album personnel; individual track assignments not specified
• John DensmoredrumsParticipation: Album personnel; individual track assignments not specified
• Ray NeapolitanbassParticipation: Album personnel; individual track assignments not specified
• Lonnie MackbassParticipation: tracks 1, 11
• John SebastianharmonicaParticipation: track 1

Album credits do not imply every instrument on every track.