THE DOORS – STRANGE DAYS – 2LP

“… This double 45 offers incredible dynamics, beautiful detail and just comes alive in my room. The drums are so dynamic and alive it is startling on some cuts. Morrison’s voice is right there with all its power and gravel. It never breaks up, but simply sounds so right. … To be honest, these are better than I ever dreamed rock music from the sixties could sound. I want to thank everyone at Analogue Productions for bringing me such sweet sounds from some of my favorite music ever. My highest recommendation!” — Jack Roberts, dagogo.com, September 2012

Sinister, beguiling … these were words reviewers used to describe The Door’s melodic psychedelic-era genre-blending sound. A mix of blues, Eastern music, classical and pop fueled hits such as the bluesy “Love Me Two Times” and “People Are Strange” from The Door’s debut follow-up, Strange Days.

Strange Days featured a smattering of edgy recitations (“Horse Latitudes”) and smoky rockers (“My Eyes Have Seen You”). Morrison’s rallying cry “We want the world, and we want it now!” from the ambitious extended track, “When the Music’s Over,” marked a touchstone for that era’s counterculture movement. Rolling Stone described Strange Days as having “all the power and energy of the first LP, but (it’s) more subtle, more intricate and much more effective.”

Analogue Productions and Quality Record Pressings are proud to announce that these six studio LP titles — The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For The Sun, Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman — are featured on 200-gram vinyl, pressed at 45 rpm. All six titles are also available on Multichannel SACD! All were cut from the original analog masters by Doug Sax, with the exception of The Doors, which was made from the best analog tape copy.

A truly authentic reissue project, the masters were recorded on tube equipment, and the tape machine used for the transfer of these releases is a tube machine, as is the cutting system. Tubes baby!

This is no time to wallow in the mire. The Doors are on Analogue Productions!

Originally released in 1967

Ray Manzarek, keyboards

Jim Morrison, vocals

John Densmore, drums

Robby Krieger, guitar

Technical notes about the recording process by Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick:

“Throughout the record history of the Doors, the goal between Paul Rothchild and myself was to be invisible, as the Doors were the songwriters and performers. Our duty was to capture them in the recorded medium without bringing attention to ourselves. Of course, the Doors were very successful, and Paul and I did receive some acclaim, which we did appreciate.

“If you listen to all the Doors albums, no attempt was made to create sounds that weren’t generated by the Doors, except for the Moog Synthesizer on Strange Days, although that was played live in the mix by Jim, but that’s another story. The equipment used was very basic, mostly tube consoles and microphones. Telefunken U47, Sony C37A, Shure 56. The echo used was from real acoustic echo chambers and EMT plate reverb units. In those days, we didn’t have plug-ins or anything beyond an analogue eight-track machine. All the studios that we used, except for Elektra West, had three Altec Lansing 604E loudspeakers, as that was the standard in the industry, three-track. On EKS-74007, The Doors, we used four-track Ampex recorders and on the subsequent albums, 3M 56 eight-tracks. Dolby noise reduction units were used on two albums, Waiting For The Sun and The Soft Parade. Everything was analogue, digital was just a word. We didn’t use fuzz tone or other units like that but created the sounds organically, i.e. the massive dual guitar solo on “When The Music’s Over,” which was created by feeding the output of one microphone preamp into another and adjusting the level to create the distortion. The tubes were glowing and lit up the control room.

“When mastering for the 45-RPM vinyl release, we were successfully able to bake the original master tapes and play them to cut the lacquer masters.”

– Bruce Botnick, July 2012

“… Kassem has once again (as with the Impulse 45 RPM series) met the highest of expectations with these (album) covers. The 200 gram platters, housed in QRP rice paper sleeves, are equally impressive, arriving clean, flat and playing silently with nary a pop or tic throughout … this dead quiet, ultra-dynamic pressing showcases the epic (“The End”) bringing out low level detail that simply can’t be heard on the already fantastic-sounding Monarch pressing original. … Immediately upon dropping the needle on the Analogue Productions 45 RPM reissue of Strange Days, you know that you’re about to experience something special. … This 45 RPM pressing gives up none of the emotion or midrange complexity of the original and forces none of the overly tight bass sometimes heard on audiophile reissues in the process. … This is as good as an audiophile reissue can get and I give it my highest recommendation.” – My Vinyl Review

“The double 45 (Strange Days) offers far greater dynamics, detail and uniformity among the tracks since the cut never extends near the high frequency curtailing inner groove area. … It’s the best sounding edition you will ever hear and well worth the price, especially if you had any idea what AP’s Chad Kassem had to go through to convince the powers that be to let him use the original analog master tapes, and what he had to pay for the privilege.” – Music = 10/11; Sound = 10/11 – Michael Fremer, Analog Planet, July 2012

Click here to read a 1997 interview in The Tracking Angle with Doors producer/engineer Bruce Botnick.

“I received test pressings today for both Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman. I have to tell you that these are the very best pressings I’ve heard in many, many moons. Great plating and your compound is so quiet that I clearly heard every fade out to its conclusion with no problem. Doug (Sax) and company did a lovely job, the tapes sound pretty damn good for being almost 50 years old and his system is clearly the best…You should be very proud of what you and your troops are doing.” – Bruce Botnick, The Doors producer/engineer