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Audio CD (May 11, 2004) Number of Discs: 1 Label: Bright Midnight

As interview subjects, the Doors had the potential of being as interesting and mysterious as their music. Conversely, when left bored or unchallenged, the band could mimic the ridiculous nature of their inquisition. The Lost Interview Tapes Featuring Jim Morrison, Vol. 1 is the first spoken word release by Bright Midnight Records—the Doors-only subsidiary label in the Rhino Entertainment family. The single-disc volume is comprised of two interviews that reveal the divergence in the band's audience, and, in particular, allow Morrison to rise to the challenge of interpreting the chaos and inequities around him. From a 1970 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation interview comes nearly half an hour of one-on-one with Morrison and CBC journalist Tony Thompson. The dialogue includes less about the Doors—with not a single reference to the Miami incident—and more thoughts regarding Morrison's book of poetry and general point-of-view statements regarding the everyday social culture around him. Morrison was concurrently being written off in the omniscient pop media as a perpetually intoxicated pervert, likewise, making he and his fellow Doors unemployable as performers. During this conversation in May of 1970, Jim Morrison is rational, thought provoking, conversationally stimulating, and infinitely more psychedelic and sage-like than any dramatic portrayal or documentary has ever revealed. From the sublime to the ridiculous, as the 1967 University of New York at Oswego Interview sounds as if it is being conducted by starry-eyed junior college students writing for Tiger Beat. While the queries are not quite as inept as "what is your favorite color?," they are close. After what seems like an eternity of poorly conceived questions and the mispronunciation of Ray Manzarek's last name, during the final minutes of the interview the band members get their revenge as they purposefully mispronounce and berate the student DJs as they are asked to do station ID's and promotional announcements.

—Lindsay Planer, Rovi

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Audio CD (May 11, 2004) Number of Discs: 1 Label: Bright Midnight

The interview featured on Lost Interview Tapes Featuring Jim Morrison, Vol. 2: The Circus Magazine Interview was conducted on October 13, 1970, by Circus magazine reporter Salli Stevenson at the Doors Workshop studios in West Hollywood, CA. Although Jim Morrison was actively avoiding reporters—primarily at the advice of Max Fink, his attorney during the Miami obscenity trial—Stevenson was among the very few with whom an audience was granted. Although during the course of the interview she readily admits to having a majority of her questions "coming from [her editor Gerald Rothberg in] New York," she challenges Morrison with several probing and thoughtful observations that touch on a wide spectrum of topics. Among the most interesting include his days at UCLA's film school and the repercussions of his indecent exposure charge in Miami, as well as his subsequent impressions of the American justice system. Morrison's comments are immensely thoughtful as he laboriously contemplates answers and reactions in what becomes a dialogue. Both Stevenson and the assignment photographer Kurt Ingham quiz Morrison about his labelmates the Stooges and other burgeoning boundary-pushing bands. In a macabre turn in the conversation, Morrison speaks about the concurrent passings of Canned Heat's Al Wilson, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. While he doesn't go so far as casting stones at his late contemporaries, he does present somewhat philosophical explanations that lead him to discuss his own mortality. Morrison muses that he "hopes [his passing occurs] at about age 120 with a sense of humor and a nice comfortable bed," adding, "I wouldn't want anyone around, I would just want to quietly drift off." In less than nine months, he would do just that. This single-disc volume is available exclusively through the Doors' own website at www.thedoors.com.

—Lindsay Planer, Rovi