Rock Encyclopedia

Rock Band 3 to Rock the World on Oct. 26, 2010, with More Than 2,000 Songs Available to Fans at Launch

Raising the bar once again for interactive music games with the addition of groundbreaking new features that include keyboards, vocal harmonies and Rock Band Pro Mode, Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., the world’s premier music video game developer, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks  announced that Imagine, the timeless album from John Lennon, will be among the first albums released as Rock Band™ 3 downloadable content.

“The songs on John Lennon’s Imagine run the gamut from beautiful piano-driven ballads like ‘Jealous Guy’ to all-out guitar rockers like ‘Gimme Some Truth’,” said Paul DeGooyer, senior vice president of electronic games, music and programming for MTV Networks. “It’s an incredible musical statement, and a real workout on keyboard, guitar and vocals in Rock Band 3. We’re very excited to confirm it as one of the first downloads for our new game, and to help our fans celebrate John’s 70th birthday with its release.”

As previously announced, The Doors will kick off Rock Band 3 downloadable content Oct. 22, but Harmonix and MTV Games have quite a line-up to follow that debut. Adding to an already impressive catalog of more than 2,000 songs available on the Rock Band platform, music from John Lennon, The Doors, Bon Jovi and Billy Joel will also be among the first available for download through the Rock Band 3 Music Store after the game launches Oct. 26 in the United States and Oct. 29 in the rest of the world. (more…)

Rock Band 3 Owners Can Download “Light My Fire,” “Riders on the Storm” and “Touch Me” for Free Through the In-Game Music Store During Launch Week

Newly-Discovered Live Doors Set Releases Nov. 22 on Rhino Records/Bright Midnight Archives

Harmonix and MTV Games announced that the legendary music of The Doors will be the first available for download in Rock Band 3 when the game launches Oct. 26 in North America and Oct. 29 in the rest of the world for the Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 , Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and MTV Games and Harmonix are giving away three of The Doors’ songs for one week to any fan that purchases Rock Band 3 and plays online to celebrate the release of the game.

“I’m very excited that keyboards are finally a part of Rock Band. It’s about time you guys got hip to the necessity of keys in rock,” said Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors. “This is going to be great for all the gamers, because it’s a lot more difficult. Rock Band 3 will require some brainwork, so . . . ‘Break On Through!’ The free downloads, ‘Light My Fire,’ ‘Riders On the Storm’ and ‘Touch Me,’ are all great keyboard songs. And look out for The Doors’ lost masterpiece, Live in Vancouver , when it comes out Nov. 22!”

“At the outset of the Rock Band 3 project, we identified The Doors, and their powerful songs driven by intricately woven keyboard, guitar and drum parts, as ideal for our game,” said Paul DeGooyer, Senior Vice President of Music, Electronic Games and Programming for MTV Networks. “As they are also one of the greatest rock bands of all time, we are tremendously proud that they will be the first artist featured in the Rock Band 3 download store, and that we’re able to bring this special offer of their music to everyone who buys Rock Band 3 the week it releases.” (more…)

Rhino and Bright Midnight Archives unleash four inspired performances from The Doors’ final tour with Live In New York. The latest addition to the band’s acclaimed series of archival concert releases, this six-disc collection contains all four of The Doors’ performances – in their entirety – recorded in 1970 at the Felt Forum in New York City.

The collection will be available November 10 at all retail outlets, including www.thedoors.com and www.rhino.com, for suggested list price of $89.98 for the physical boxed set. A digital version featuring select highlights from all four Felt Forum shows will also be available at all digital retail outlets for $9.99. An exclusive stream of “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” from the second show on January 17, 1970 will premiere at spinner.com beginning this Thursday, August 27.

Recorded January 17 and 18, 1970 – just a few weeks before the release of Morrison Hotel – these concerts find Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek locked in tight as they deliver smoking takes on soon-to-be-classics from their forthcoming album, including “Roadhouse Blues,” “Peace Frog,” “Ship Of Fools,” and “Maggie M’Gill.” The shows also feature a number of driving blues covers, such as Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Little Red Rooster,” and John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling King Snake.” “Those were the bluesy songs we always used to do,” Krieger says. “We probably hadn’t done them in years, but we resurrected them for these shows.”

The year prior to these shows, The Doors became one of the first rock bands to play New York City’s Madison Square Garden. When they returned in 1970, Densmore says they chose to play the Felt Forum, a smaller venue at the Garden. “It was more intimate, and you could feel the audience more,” he says. “There was more interaction, and the acoustics were much better, because it was designed for music.”

Manzarek hails these shows as a return to the group’s early days, when they used to play a small Los Angeles club called the London Fog. “I mean, talk about going back to basics. We used to do four sets a night at the London Fog, and we only had a small block of songs written up to that time. So we would do other people’s material. And in New York, it was like the same thing. We’ve got four shows to play here, two sets tonight, two sets tomorrow night. Let’s play whatever we want! Let’s just go!”

And go they did. Along with a mix of then-unheard new songs and old covers, the band also tapped into its 1967, self-titled debut, peppering the set lists with signature songs such as “Break On Through (To The Other Side),” “Soul Kitchen,” “The End,” and “Light My Fire,” The Doors’ first #1 hit.

For the final show of the Felt Forum stand, the band was joined onstage by two guests – The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian (who played harmonica on the studio version of “Roadhouse Blues”) and drummer Dallas Taylor, who’d played on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s debut. Sebastian sat in for “Rock Me” and was joined by Taylor for “Going To N.Y. Blues” and “Maggie M’Gill.”

Fans will be blown away by the crisp sound found on LIVE IN NEW YORK. All four shows were mixed and mastered by the band’s longtime engineer, Bruce Botnick, who recorded a number of shows from The Doors’ 1970 tour on multi-track tape for the Absolutely Live album. While most of the music contained on LIVE IN NEW YORK is unreleased, a few songs (and portions of songs) surfaced in 1970 on Absolutely Live and in 1997 on The Doors Box Set.

Sadly, these shows represent The Doors’ final New York City performances with Morrison, who passed away July 3, 1971.

Rhino released 180-gram vinyl versions of all six Doors studio albums on September 15. Previously available only in 2007′s The Doors Vinyl Box, original stereo mixes of The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For The Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, and L.A. Woman will now be available individually at all vinyl retail outlets for a suggested list price of $24.98 each.
Disc 1
January 17, 1970 (First Show)
1. Start Of Show
2. “Roadhouse Blues”
3. “Ship Of Fools”*
4. “Break On Through (To The Other Side)”
5. Tuning
6. “Peace Frog”
7. “Blue Sunday”
8. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”
9. “Back Door Man”*
10. “Love Hides”*
11. “Five To One”*
12. Tuning/Breather
13. “Who Do You Love”
14. “Little Red Rooster”
15. “Money”
16. Tuning
17. “Light My Fire”*
18. More, More, More
19. “Soul Kitchen”*
20. End Of Show

Disc 2
January 17, 1970 (Second Show)
1. Start Show 2
2. Jim “How Ya Doing?”
3. “Roadhouse Blues”
4. “Break On Through (To The Other Side)”*
5. “Ship Of Fools”
6. “Crawling King Snake”
7. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”
8. “Back Door Man”*
9. “Five To One”
10. Pretty Neat, Pretty Good
11. “Build Me A Woman”
12. Tuning/Breather
13. “Who Do You Love”*
14. Tuning/Breather
15. “Wild Child”*
16. Cheering/Tuning
17. “When The Music’s Over”

Disc 3
January 17, 1970 (Second Show) continued
1. Tuning/Breather
2. “Light My Fire”*
3. Hey, Mr. Light Man!
4. “Soul Kitchen”*
5. Jim’s Fish Joke
6. “The End”
7. End Of Show

Disc 4
January 18, 1970 (Third Show)
1. Start Show 3
2. “Roadhouse Blues”*
3. “Ship Of Fools”*
4. “Break On Through (To The Other Side)”*
5. Tuning/Breather
6. “Universal Mind”*
7. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” – False Start*
8. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”*
9. “Back Door Man”*
10. “Five To One”
11. Tuning/Breather
12. “Moonlight Drive”
13. “Who Do You Love”*
14. Calling Out For Songs
15. “Money”*
16. Tuning/Breather
17. “Light My Fire”
18. More, More More
19. “When The Music’s Over”*
20. Good Night – End Show

Disc 5
January 18, 1970 (Fourth Show)
1. Start Show 4
2. “Roadhouse Blues”*
3. “Peace Frog”*
4. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”*
5. “Back Door Man”
6. “Five To One”
7. We Have A Special Treat
8. “Celebration Of The Lizard”
9. Alright Let’s Boogie
10. “Build Me A Woman”
11. “When The Music’s Over”*
12. More, More, More

Disc 6
January 18, 1970 (Fourth Show) continued
1. “Soul Kitchen”*
2. For Fear Of Getting Too Patriotic
3. Petition The Lord With Prayer
4. “Light My Fire”
5. Only When The Moon Comes Out
6. “Close To You”
7. The Encore Begins
8. “Rock Me”*
9. What To Do Next?
10. “Going To N.Y. Blues”*
11. Tuning/Breather
12. “Maggie M’Gill”*
13. Tuning/Breather
14. “Gloria”*/End Of Show

*Previously unreleased