{"product_id":"doorsmorri_2605","title":"Doors, The - Morrison Hotel - Super Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e On side 1, there is a stitch that plays 10 times lightly at the end of track 1, \"Roadhouse Blues.\" On side 2, there is another stitch that plays 6 times at a light to moderate level at the start of track 1, \"Land Ho!\" There is also a stitch that plays 25 times at a light to moderate level at the start of track 2, \"The Spy.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e Side 2 of this record was not noisy enough to rate our M-- to EX++ grade, but it's not quite up to our standards for Mint Minus Minus either. If you're looking for quiet vinyl, this is probably not the best copy for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA great many pressings are neither rich nor present enough to get Jim Morrison's voice to sound the way it should. He's The Lizard King, not The Frog Prince for crying out loud. When he doesn't sound present, big, powerful, and borderline scary, what's the point?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot to worry. On these sides he sounds just fine. Just listen to him screaming his head off on \"Roadhouse Blues\" and projecting the power of his rich baritone on \"Blue Sunday.\" Nobody did it any better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll the other elements are really working too -- real weight to the piano, amazing punch to the bottom end, lovely texture to the guitars and so on. The sound is clean and clear but not overly so; you still get all the Tubey Magic you need.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe sound of the organ on \"Blue Sunday\" is really something\u003c\/strong\u003e, check it out. Where has that sound gone?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Morrison Hotel Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221970%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1970\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional space of the studio\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTo hear the best sound on side two, drop the needle on \"The Spy\"\u003c\/strong\u003e -- you won't believe how much ambience there is. The clarity is stunning as well, with amazing depth to the soundfield.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCheck out the wonderfully dry drum sound on \"Maggie McGill.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e Be forewarned -- you're gonna want to turn this one up loud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMan, it is almost impossible to find Doors records that sound like this. It's hard to find clean Doors records at all these days, we find a small handful each year -- not nearly enough to do these shootouts as often as we would like.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sides here have the deep, rock-solid bottom end this music absolutely demands. You've got to hand it to Bruce Botnick -- he knows how to get real rock-'em, sock-'em bottom end onto a piece of magnetic tape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Morrison Hotel\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks for the guitars and drums, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, note-like bass with clear fingering\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, as well as the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the players.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The vocals aren't \"back there\" somewhere, way behind the speakers. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- Bruce Botnick in this case -- would have put them.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic that is a key part of the appeal of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpeaking of Heavy Vinyl...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHeavy Vinyl\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust for fun, years ago we played the Elektra 180 gram reissue of Morrison Hotel. I have to admit that initially it was pretty good, but as time went on, the artificiality became more apparent -- and annoying.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust listen to the vocals -- \u003cstrong\u003ethey're all wrong\u003c\/strong\u003e. Morrison has one of the richest and most distinctive voices in the history of rock. When the record I am playing doesn't sound like the guy I've been listening to for close to forty years, something ain't right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd what ain't right -- not to put too fine a point on it -- is the sound of that record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Doors, The","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51789767278888,"sku":"doorsmorri","price":249.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/doorsmorri.jpg?v=1777395830","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/doorsmorri_2605","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}