Rhino Announces The Doors’ Perception DVD-Audio Box Set

Rhino and Elektra Records have officially announced The Doors Perception box set, released to salute the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Available on November 21st, the 6-CD/6-DVD boxed set presents all of The Doors’ classic studio albums with legendary vocalist Jim Morrison, each supplemented with rare and unreleased audio and video tracks.

Perception was produced in cooperation with surviving band members John Densmore (drums), Robby Krieger (guitar), and Ray Manzarek (keyboards), with The Doors’ longtime engineer Bruce Botnick back behind the boards. Each of the six albums is presented with bonus audio – much of it previously unreleased – on a remastered CD with an additional DVD-Audio/Video disc including a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album and additional tracks as well as a photo gallery, lyrics and discography, and two videos of songs from that album.

One of the most impressive debuts in rock history, The Doors (1967) was as commercially successful as it was musically daring, with the signature single “Light My Fire” reaching #1 on the singles chart (the LP spent more than two years on the album chart, eventually going double platinum). Bonus material includes two takes of “Moonlight Drive,” a previously unreleased version of “Indian Summer,” the promotional video of “Break On Through (To The Other Side),” and a Canadian television broadcast of “The End” from Toronto in 1967.

Strange Days (1967) capped The Doors’ breakthrough year in fine form, with “People Are Strange” narrowly missing the Billboard Top 10. Among the extras are previously unissued takes of that hit (including false starts and dialogue) and “Love Me Two Times.” “Love Me Two Times” and the album’s closer, “When The Music’s Over” are seen on the DVD in live performances taped in Europe in 1968.

The chart-topping Waiting For The Sun (1968) opens with one of the band’s most irresistible pop singles (and their second #1 hit), “Hello I Love You,” before delving into darker terrain. Audio extras include previously unreleased dialogue and two takes of “Not To Touch The Earth” plus the group’s interpretation of Tommaso Albinoni’s classical composition “Adagio In G Minor” and the 17-minute epic work-in-progress, “Celebration Of The Lizard.” The DVD features footage of “Spanish Caravan” from The Doors’ storied 1968 gig at the Hollywood Bowl, and a Danish TV performance from that year of “The Unknown Soldier.”

The Soft Parade (1969) showed the group’s willingness to explore more elaborate arrangements including strings and horns; one of those sonic experiments, “Touch Me,” became a #3 hit. An unreleased take and studio dialogue of that single, plus the previously unheard “Push Push,” two takes of “Whiskey, Mystics And Men” and “Who Scared You” are among the audio tracks added. Rounding things out are video performances of the album’s title track and “Tell All The People” taped for New York’s WNET-TV in 1969.

Morrison Hotel (1970) was issued in the wake of Jim’s notorious Miami bust for indecent exposure, and shows The Doors battling back with such powerful broadsides as “Roadhouse Blues.” Eight previously unissued takes of that song are among the many bonus tracks included here, along with never-before-heard versions of “Peace Frog,” “The Spy,” the intriguingly titled “Money Beats Soul,” and a quick run through of Chuck Berry’s “Carol.” Music videos of “Roadhouse Blues” and “Wild Child” are tenants of the Morrison Hotel DVD.

L.A. Woman (1971) was released just a couple of months before Morrison’s untimely – and still mysterious – death in Paris. The album includes some of his most visionary lyrics, as well as the hits “Love Her Madly” and “Riders On The Storm.” “Orange County Suite” and “(You Need Meat) Don’t Go No Further” appear as additional audio, with a music video of album-opener “The Changeling” and rehearsal space footage of “Crawling King Snake” shot in 1971 for Australian television providing supplemental visuals.

These landmark albums are housed in a package truly worthy of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Famers. Appropriately enough the box cover is designed as a door which opens to access the album digipaks within. The front also sports a peephole with a wheel of images behind it that can be rotated to display photos of the band. Perception will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets and at www.thedoors.com for a suggested list price of $149.98.

In conjunction with the upcoming 40th anniversary of the release of The Doors’ first album is the release of the first authorized and legitimate autobiography by the remaining members of the band that forever changed the face of music, popular culture, and America—THE DOORS by THE DOORS (Hyperion; November 7, 2006; $45.00; Hardcover); includes never-before-seen photos, rare interviews with Jim, and the words of Ray, Robby, John, their families, and the pedigree prose of former Rolling Stone editor and scribe of Morrison’s obituary, Ben Fong-Torres.

Each DVD-Audio disc will have:

  • A 5.1 mix of the album, with new parts, and all alternates and outtakes also mixed in 5.1
  • The “40th Anniversary Stereo Mix”, with new parts
  • The classic stereo mix, as you have always heard them, but in hi-resolution 96kHz 24-bit audio
  • Videos (stereo only)
  • 10-20 photos in a photo gallery