Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Feast of Friends by The Doors

2016; Music Library Association; Volume: 72; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/not.2016.0018

1534-150X

Randall Zwally,

Music History and Culture

Reviewed by: Feast of Friends by The Doors Randall Zwally Feast of Friends. DVD (Blu-ray). Produced by The Doors. [London]: Eagle Rock Entertainment, 2014. EVB335009. $19.98. This DVD contains four separate programs all featuring the 1960s rock group, The Doors. Filmed during the late 1960s, the four programs are Feast of Friends, Feast of Friends Encore, The Doors Are Open, and The End. [End Page 602] Feast of Friends and its encore, each approximately 40 minutes long, display an assortment of (mostly color) film clips of The Doors which have been spliced together to create these first two offerings. Sadly there is no narration or information given to the viewer concerning what is being shown. Some of the scenes are portions of performances and others show the band members traveling and socializing in various settings. The encore version includes a segment from a Doors recording session (which includes much profanity). Boot-legged portions of these films have been shown in the past but devoted Doors fans have long awaited this final finished version. Unfortunately for those unfamiliar with the band and its history, these first two programs will probably be difficult to appreciate because there is no information given about The Doors or the scenes that are presented. Thankfully The Doors Are Open is better structured. This is a fifty-five-minute black-and-white British television production that has rarely been seen since it aired in 1968. There is a brief narration at the start of the program which gives some background information about the group. Most of the rest of The Doors Are Open features nice close-up shots of the band members performing a concert in London. This could be of particular appeal to those interested in studying The Doors’ performing techniques. There are also a few segments of the band members being interviewed by journalists which give us some insight into the personalities of the musicians. The final program, The End, presents The Doors performing one song on a Toronto television program. Sixteen minutes in length, this segment shows brief, fairly recent commentary (in color) by three of the band members about their memories of this performance. It is fascinating to hear them reflect, as older adults, on what they experienced almost 50 years ago. There is a color pamphlet which comes along with the DVD containing brief information about the four programs on the disc and numerous pictures of the band. A nice feature of this DVD is the availability of subtitles in English, German, French, or Spanish. This is clearly not a documentary film. The viewer is left with many questions about who these musicians are and why they were significant in their time. Certainly one of the greatest omissions is the lack of any information about the lead singer, Jim Morrison, and his tragic descent into drug use and untimely death in 1971. However, for Doors fans, this will offer one last look at a significant band that helped shape the rock music scene of the late 1960s. Randall Zwally Messiah College Copyright © 2015 Music Library Association, Inc.