JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #633.275!

Jim Morrison music by The Doors – An American Prayer (Elektra) :: Morrison Hotel may be the apex of his Doors career but, if you ignore the superfluous bonus tracks and stick with the original vinyl incarnation, this is Jimbo’s finest solo moment, however posthumous. His surviving band mates did him good by crafting an album that’s so restrained it sneaks up on you every time you think you’ve got it memorized. It’s just too bad that the singer himself never got to hear it becaus—oh, that’s right, I almost forget: Jim is alive, man!

Bad Company – Live At Wembley (Eagle) :: I saw them in the ’70s on their first North American tour as the opening act for someone—maybe it was Screaming Lord Sutch—and they were so good that I walked out before the headliners even hit the stage—possibly it was the Masked Marauders—and went straight to my friendly neighborhood record store; shelled out $2.99 to buy a copy of their debut album; headed home; slapped it on the old Victrola; and was shocked by how dead ass dull it was compared to their dynamic live show. Well, this new offering is the butane barn-burner I expected to hear that night, from Paul Rogers’ hyper-studly “Can’t Get Enough” to Mick Ralph’s Hoople-standard “Ready For Love” and beyond. Wait, I remember, it was Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys!

The Prodigy – Live: The World’s On Fire (The End) :: The only band that matters never sounded as bludgeoningly brutal as they do on this audio-video twofer. When the singer sagely says: “I hear thunder but there’s no rain! This kind of thunder breaks walls and window panes!” he ain’t talkin’ about unbridled nature, he’s talkin’ about an unnatural aural assault propelled by a bowel-buffeting bass that’s so severe it makes the bottom end on “Instant Karma” sound like a crumpled ball of tin foil by comparison. Despite ostensibly being a tour souvenir album inevitably infused with a surfeit of songs from Invaders Must Die, all the global game changers are accounted for, including the iconic “Firestarter” and the heroic “Smack My Bitch Up.” The real Prodigy experience, however, is on the second disc’s full-length video, which readily redefines what a live performance oughtta be.

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt – All Wood And Doors (MVD Audio) :: Already they’re calling this one a CSN version of the Doors, but that’s just lazy shorthand by so-called “music journalists” who never heard of the Kingston Trio. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon now; trust me, Babe: can’t you see that I am not afraid to say that this tastefully acoustic guitar session is nothing less than a bluesy stripped-down symposium that showcases how truly timeless their greatest hits really are? Bonus points for being accompanied by erstwhile Doors members Robbie Krieger and John Densmore; plus previous Monkee Peter Tork. Hey hey, they’re the Doorkees!

Stronger than dirt!