Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Since this book appeared in 1998, The Doors--sans John Densmore, who had an iota of self-respect--have played Las Vegas. Thank God Jim Morrison didn't live to see his bandmates mutated into an embarassing lounge act, singing his songs in the performance graveyard that is Vegas. It's clear Ray Manzarek does not like Densmore. It's clear now and it's bitingly clear in this book. Ray Manzarek has a real go at the history of The Doors, rewriting it exactly as he'd like it to sound in his mind. Ray conveniently ignores entire albums, tours, and other events in favor of waxing on about the chi, about how unbelievably incredible The Doors were and still are. He has a lot of love for Jim Morrison, but even this is tinged with a nasty shade of green. Instead of facing the fact that Morrison had a serious drug and alcohol problem, Manzarek creates an alter ego for Morrison known as 'Jimbo'. See, it's all 'Jimbo's' fault. Jimbo is the redneck alcoholic idiot that Morrison would become at random times, not the regular Jim Morrison who was a brilliant poet and all around nice guy. You can imagine why he hates Densmore. Riders on the Storm, Densmore's version of the story, clearly shows that the drummer felt guilt over Morrison's spiral downward. Densmore came off as honest; he didn't beat the reader over the head with endless babble about Dionysus or the Age of Aquarius and the massive amount of acid Ray appears to have taken. Meanwhile Manzarek would rather attach some kind of cosmo-spiritual explanation to Morrison's decline. He claims to have seen the spirit literally leaving Morrison's head the night of the final Doors performance in New Orleans in 1970. It's embarassing, it's manipulative and it speaks volumes about Ray's character. Ray always looked like an erudite. He was well-spoken and he loved Morrison, backing his friend up as a serious poet. However, Ray comes off as vindictive, clouded, and plain silly in this book. He has a serious beef with Oliver Stone, referring to him as a fascist, a term Ray still throws around like it's 1968. Ray was horrified at another version of The Doors' story by another artist since Ray wants it told according to hiw own memory. Unfortunately, what Ray remembers is very selective. This book spends eternity to reach the release of the first Doors album in 1967 and the same year follow, Strange Days. Ray just doesn't want to get too involved in the REST of The Doors' days. He hardly makes mention of the fact that after Morrison died the band kept going, releasing two studio albums and touring. Conveniently, those two albums STILL have never been released to CD. As with their impressive resume of doctoring live albums, The Doors are unmatched in selling the same material over and over while keeping the stuff fans really want tucked away (hence the boxset delay and its underwhelming content). I would recommend this strictly as an offical version of the story from one of the band. However, be very careful in reading Ray's story. He wants everyone to remember The Doors only as he does...