Alive, She Cried

Alive, She Cried
Live album by The Doors
Released October 1983
Recorded 1968–1969, 1970
Venue Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Boston, Copenhagen
Genre Psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues rock
Length 36:59
Producer Paul A. Rothchild
The Doors chronology
Absolutely Live
(1970)		 Alive, She Cried
(1983)		 Live at the Hollywood Bowl
(1987)

Alive, She Cried is a live album by the American rock band The Doors. The title of the album is taken from a line in the song "When the Music's Over". Following the resurgence in popularity for the band due to the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now, and the release of the first Doors compilation album in seven years, Greatest Hits, released in 1980, the push was on to release more Doors music.

The recordings are from various concerts during the period 1968–1970; they include "Gloria", originally a hit for Them, and an extended version of The Doors' best known song "Light My Fire". John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful joined the band on stage to play harmonica on Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster". The album was discontinued as 1991 saw the release of In Concert, a double-album which included all of the songs from Alive, She Cried and Absolutely Live, as well as a few other live tracks. The version of "Light My Fire" from this album is actually from a variety of sources. "The Graveyard Poem" is a recited poetry piece from Boston in April 1970. It was inserted into the break of "Light My Fire" for this album. "Gloria" was also edited to exclude some risque verses. Later releases of "Gloria" on the Bright Midnight label restored the edited verses.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB−[2]
Rolling Stone[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[4]

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau wrote that the tapes are "of some quality" and Morrison is effective when he focuses on singing, but the album is marred by moments "when he emits his poetry" and "narcissistic" come-ons.[2] Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh rated it four out of five stars, explaining that it "brings [...] the Doors' impossibly strange and wonderful music, Morrison's drunken loutishness and his stabbingly sober poetics, and the brilliant, vivid sparking of a machine too mercurial to last." He concluded by stating that ""Light My Fire" [...] flares upward into an intensifying bolt of passion that crescendos with [...] a scream signifying the communal orgasm of a generation and a decade and a band that would flame out and fall silent all too quickly."[3] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Bruce Eder said that Alive, She Cried "helped solve [Absolutely Live's] problem" of "[leaving] more casual fans rather cold, owing to the absence of any of their biggest hits". However, he pointed out that "it also revealed the reason why 'Light My Fire' had not made it onto the prior live album".[1]

Track listing

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Gloria" (Van Morrison) 6:17
2. "Light My Fire" (Robby Krieger) 9:51
3. "You Make Me Real" (Jim Morrison) 3:06
Side two
No. Title Length
4. "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" (Morrison) 1:52
5. "Love Me Two Times" (Krieger) 3:17
6. "Little Red Rooster" (Willie Dixon) 7:05
7. "Moonlight Drive" (including "Horse Latitudes") (Morrison) 5:34

Personnel

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[5] Gold 50,000^
United States (RIAA)[6] Gold 500,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. 1 2 Eder, Bruce. "The Doors Alive, She Cried". AllMusic. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (June 12, 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide: Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Puterbaugh, Parke (December 8, 1983). "Alive, She Cried by The Doors". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  4. ↑ "The Doors: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on January 6, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – The Doors – Alive, She Cried". Music Canada.
  6. ↑ "American album certifications – The Doors – Alive, She Cried". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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