The Doors - Live In Europe 1968

Ah, where would we be without shovelware? Shovelware, for those who don't know, is the term used in the computer industry for software that is ported across to a new platform without taking advantage of extra power or capabilities, and this seems appropriate to describe bad VHS releases hastily encoded for DVD.

Where should I start with this disc? The low-rent introduction graphics? The poor audio and video quality? Perhaps the fact that two of the 'live' songs are actually the studio versions with a montage of random video snippets marking time on the screen?

The disc is introduced by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, who used to play with the Jefferson Airplane and accompanied the Doors on the European tour 'documented' here. Pity they don't actually tell us anything of note.

In a word, nasty. At best, it's softly focused with harsh contrasts, at worst, the footage is very grainy with tape dropouts. Being an underground tape, much of the video is badly-shot. On the upside though, as it's in black and white, we don't have to suffer through horrible colour!

What confirms this as a second-rate release is that even the recently-shot video with Kantner and Slick looks soft.

Generally quite poor. The sound quality is occasionally decent but on some tracks becomes extremely harsh and unmusical. Even the recent interview sounds poor. On Kantner's introduction there's a distorting 'edge' on his voice which is hard to listen to.

Ah, but if it had extra features, it wouldn't be shovelware, now would it?

If you're a big Doors fan, maybe you should investigate Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors by Ray Manzarek, the real power behind the band, rather than this.