Monday 15 August 2011

The Celebration of the Lizard [The Doors - Absolutely Live, 1970]


Wake Up - The Ceremony Is About To Begin 

Having mentioned in a recent post, and not listened to for a while, I have revisited this wonderful musical and poetic theatre, the 'full' version of The Celebration of the Lizard on this great live album. Jim plays the game 'go insane' with an eye and ear for art and artifice, theatre and theatrics. Hypnotic storytelling sets the scene with Lions in the Street, Wake Up and A Little Game. The music takes off with sombre The Hill Dwellers then dramatically into Not To Touch The Earth, a faithful but more manic and therefore appropriate version to that on the Waiting for the Sun album, then slows down to the sombre again Names of the Kingdom, and finishing to the surreal poetry of The Palace of Exile. It's pure storytelling with the edge of its time, defining its time. Far out.

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