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The Best of the Doors

by The Doors

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The Best of The Doors delivers exactly what it promises. Rather than relying solely on the hits, this collection also mines the darker, and often richer, recesses of The Doors material resulting in a fairly representative statement. The hits are here: "Light My Fire" with Ray Manzarek's keyboards on a dizzy, psychedelic spree; "People Are Strange," with Morrison's tortured psyche barely being held in check; "L.A. Woman," with its bluesy sexuality. More important, favorites of fans are here, like the controversially (at the time) explicit "The End," which was one of the first of Morrison's forays into narrative poetry. In hits like "Break on Through," "Hello I Love You," "Roadhouse Blues," and others, The Doors melded psychedelia, blues, hard-edged rock, and poetry from the edge like no other band before. The Best of The Doors is a trip in every sense of the word. --Steve Gdula