The Best of the Doors

Jim Morrison must be spinning in his grave. On this, the fourth home video from a band that expired on July 3, 1971 along with its lead singer, Doors fans are regaled with clips from former video releases Dance on Fire ("Break on Through", "Touch Me", "Light My Fire", "Horse Latitudes" and the "uncut" version of "L.A. Woman" [featuring female nudity--what a surprise]); The Soft Parade, and Live at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as new material. The "new" stuff includes the MTV-banned version of "Gloria" which wouldn't raise a corporate eyebrow today, "rare footage" of Morrison learning to play poker (he appears to be stoned and/or drunk and more or less unable to find his butt with both hands and a map), and a "live" performance in Hamburg of "Hello, I Love You" (the footage may be live; the song is most definitely the recorded version). And then there's the new Doors piece "The Ghost Song" set to Morrison's poetry--the music sounds precisely like soft new age jazz. For die-hard Doors fans only; the video is unexceptional and doesn't even come within a dozen furloughs of the audio-visual power of the opening of Apocalypse Now (featuring "The End"--not included here). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)