The Doors Soundstage Performances comes nowhere near the quality and inclusiveness of the absolute best Doors compilation on DVD, Universal's The Doors - 30th Anniversary Edition.
But for fans of the group or of its Byronesque lead singer Jim Morrison, this compilation has some historically interesting material, tracing three years in the group's short and troubled life.
It starts off with a 1967 Toronto performance of one of their classic epic songs, The End, continues with five numbers filmed in a Danish television station in 1968, and concludes with a final appearance on a 1969 PBS television special in the States, complete with interview.
The 1967 and 1969 material is in colour. The 1969 video material is in very poor condition; probably as good as could be found today, but with sub-standard image and sound.
The highlight is the set from Danish television. This is filmed in stark black-and-white, without audience, and with the Doors having to hype themselves up at a recording time of around 6 am, after a concert the night before.
They do so brilliantly. Jim Morrison is mad, poetic and obsessed to perfection; Ray Manzarek is focused with jewel-like precision on his music. This is great, though short, footage.
That footage comprises about a quarter of the disc's running time of two hours. The other performances are only useful in tracing the group's fast collapse as Jim Morrison falls victim to his alcoholism. The 1969 footage shows him at the pivotal point - starting to look raddled, but not yet bloated; still in strong voice but somehow uncertain, and losing the supreme confidence of the arrogant poet.
The disc is padded out by lengthy reminiscences by the surviving Doors members - five minutes would have been enough, not almost an hour. Doors fans will want this disc for the Danish footage; the rest is strictly filler material.
The material from Denmark in 1968 is, for black-and-white television footage, in excellent quality.
The video from the previous year is fair. But the 1969 video footage from a PBS Television performance is execrable - and the sound is harsh and distorted whenever Morrison lets rip. In fact, the sound quality is indifferent at best throughout the DVD.
There is an average-quality picture gallery, but no other features. Much of the disc is made up of modern interviews with existing members of The Doors - these interviews are presented as part of the main feature, but would have been more suitable as an optional feature.
