The Doors - Live In Pittsburgh 1970

This time a perfunctory 1970 live show

The crop of live releases from The Doors’s own archive Bright Midnight label are beginning to lose their shine. It’s not that any of them are bad, but they all come from full concerts largely recorded during the tour which made up Absolutely Live. As such, the “special treat” of Ray Manzarek singing Close To You is the same “special treat” on the aforementioned live album and, on the face of it, Live In Pittsburgh 1970’s only difference to Live In Boston 1970 is that it’s a single, rather than a triple, album and Jim Morrison is not absolutely hammered.

Morrison’s own dissatisfaction with the tour seems to come through on the ridiculous screeching/bird noises he makes during When The Music’s Over’s silent bit – no, not everything out of this man’s mouth was genius. But then he mock-cheers the audience for seriously cheering this, so it seems he knew he was busting the myth (and allowing his relative sobriety on this concert to give his boredom free reign). Doors shows could be astounding, they could be frustrating, but perhaps we’ll never truly be amazed again until the longrumoured 1967 Matrix live shows box set is released, whenever that may be.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

DMC/Bright Midnight/Rhino | 8122-79970-7

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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