Alive, She Cried

Alive, She Cried is the second official live album by the American rock band the Doors, released in October 1983 by Elektra. It was the second live album release following 1970's Absolutely Live and produced by Paul A. Rothchild. The album's title was taken from a line in the song "When the Music's Over". Following a resurgence in the band's popularity due to the 1979 film, Apocalypse Now featuring "The End", and the 1980 release of the first Doors compilation album in seven years, Greatest Hits, the push was on to release more Doors' music.

Alive, She Cried
Live album by the Doors
Released	October 1983
Recorded	1968–1969, 1970
Venue	Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Boston, Copenhagen
Genre	Psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues rock
Length	36:59
Label	Elektra
Producer	Paul A. Rothchild
The Doors chronology
Absolutely Live (1970) Alive, She Cried (1983) Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1987)

The recordings are from various concerts during the period 1968 to 1970 including shows in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Boston and Copenhagen. Tracks include "Gloria", originally a hit for Them, and an extended version of The Doors' best known song "Light My Fire". John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful joined the band on stage to play harmonica on Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster". The album was discontinued following the 1991 release of In Concert, a double-album which included all of the songs from Alive, She Cried and Absolutely Live, as well as a few other live tracks. The version of "Light My Fire" from this album is actually from a variety of sources. "The Graveyard Poem" is a recited poetry piece from Boston in April 1970. It was inserted into the break of "Light My Fire" for this album. "Gloria" was also edited to exclude some risque verses. Later releases of "Gloria" on the Bright Midnight label restored the edited verses.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B−[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau wrote that the tapes are "of some quality" and Morrison is effective when he focuses on singing, but the album is marred by moments "when he emits his poetry" and "narcissistic" come-ons.[2] Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh rated it four out of five stars, explaining that it "brings [...] the Doors' impossibly strange and wonderful music, Morrison's drunken loutishness and his stabbingly sober poetics, and the brilliant, vivid sparking of a machine too mercurial to last." He concluded by stating that ""Light My Fire" [...] flares upward into an intensifying bolt of passion that crescendos with [...] a scream signifying the communal orgasm of a generation and a decade and a band that would flame out and fall silent all too quickly."[3] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Bruce Eder said that Alive, She Cried "helped solve [Absolutely Live's] problem" of "[leaving] more casual fans rather cold, owing to the absence of any of their biggest hits". However, he pointed out that "it also revealed the reason why 'Light My Fire' had not made it onto the prior live album".[1]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Gloria"	Van Morrison	6:17
2.	"Light My Fire"	Robby Krieger	9:51
3.	"You Make Me Real"	Jim Morrison	3:06

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
4.	"The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)"	Morrison	1:52
5.	"Love Me Two Times"	Krieger	3:17
6.	"Little Red Rooster"	Willie Dixon	7:05
7.	"Moonlight Drive" (including "Horse Latitudes")	Morrison	5:34

Personnel

• Jim Morrison – vocals
• Robby Krieger – guitar
• Ray Manzarek – organ, keyboard bass
• John Densmore – drums
• John Sebastian – harmonica (track 6)
• Engineer – Bill Gazecki
• Photo – Jim Marshall
• Design – Jeff Lancaster

Charts

Date	Chart	Position
December 1983	Billboard 200[5]	23

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[6]	Gold	50,000^^
United States (RIAA)[7]	Gold	500,000^^
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

1. Eder, Bruce. "The Doors Alive, She Cried". AllMusic. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
2. Christgau, Robert (June 12, 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide: Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
3. Puterbaugh, Parke (December 8, 1983). "Alive, She Cried by The Doors". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
4. "The Doors: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on January 6, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
5. "The Doors Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard.com. 2019. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019.
6. "Canadian album certifications – The Doors – Alive, She Cried". Music Canada.
7. "American album certifications – The Doors – Alive, She Cried". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH.