Alive, She Cried

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Alive, She Cried

| type = live

| artist = the Doors

| cover = TheDoorsAliveSheCriedalbumcover.jpg

| alt =

| released = {{Start date|1983|10}}

| recorded = 1968–1969, 1970

| venue = Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Boston, Copenhagen

| genre = Rock

| length = 36:59

| label = Elektra

| producer = Paul A. Rothchild

| prev_title = Greatest Hits

| prev_year = 1980

| next_title = The Doors Classics

| next_year = 1985

}}

Alive, She Cried is the second official live album by the American rock band the Doors, released in October 1983 by Elektra Records. It is the follow-up to the 1970's Absolutely Live, produced by Paul A. Rothchild. The album's title was taken from a line in the song "When the Music's Over".

Background

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.{{Cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p4119|pure_url=yes}} |title=The Doors{{snd}}Biography |last1=Ruhlmann |first1=William |last2=Unterberger |first2=Richie |author-link2=Richie Unterberger |website=AllMusic |access-date=March 18, 2021}}

The recordings are from various concerts during the period of 1968 to 1970 including shows in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Boston and Copenhagen. Songs 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 additional live tracks.{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/in-concert-mw0000263146 |title=In Concert – Credits |website=AllMusic |accessdate=March 18, 2021}}

Reception

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/alive-she-cried-mw0000189717 |last=Eder |first=Bruce |title=The Doors Alive, She Cried |work=AllMusic|access-date=August 31, 2015}}

|rev2=Robert Christgau

|rev2Score={{Rating-Christgau|B-}}{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|date=June 12, 1984|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/ts84-84.php|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Turkey Shoot|newspaper=The Village Voice|location=New York|access-date=August 22, 2013}}

|rev3=Rolling Stone

|rev3Score={{rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/alive-she-cried-19831208 | title=Alive, She Cried by The Doors | publisher=Wenner Media | magazine=Rolling Stone | date=December 8, 1983 | access-date=July 12, 2011 | author=Puterbaugh, Parke}}

| rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev6Score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/the-doors/albumguide |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106033635/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/the-doors/albumguide |title=The Doors: Album Guide |publisher=rollingstone.com |archive-date=January 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=August 31, 2015}}

}}

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.

Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh rated it four out of five stars, explaining that it "brings{{nbsp}}... 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'{{nbsp}}... flares upward into an intensifying bolt of passion that crescendos with{{nbsp}}... 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."

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".

Track listing

All songs written by the Doors, except where noted. Songwriters and track lengths are taken from the 1983 Elektra Records album and may differ from other sources.{{cite AV media notes|title=Alive, She Cried|others=The Doors|type=Liner notes|year=1983|publisher=Elektra Records|id=60269-1|at=LP labels}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| extra_column = Date / venue{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

| title1 = Gloria

| note1 = Van Morrison

| extra1 = 7/22/69 Aquarius Theatre rehearsal, Los Angeles

| length1 = 6:17

| title2 = Light My Fire

| extra2 = 1/18/70 Felt Forum, New York City; 4/10/70 Boston Arena

| length2 = 9:51

| title3 = You Make Me Real

| extra3 = 7/21/69 Aquarius Theatre (2nd. show)

| length3 = 3:06

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| extra_column = Date / venue{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

| title1 = The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)

| extra1 = 9/18/68 television studio, Copenhagen, Denmark

| length1 = 1:52

| title2 = Love Me Two Times

| extra2 = 9/18/68 television studio, Copenhagen

| length2 = 3:17

| title3 = Little Red Rooster

| note3 = Willie Dixon

| extra3 = 1/17/70 Felt Forum (1st show)

| length3 = 7:05

| title4 = Moonlight Drive

| note4 = including "Horse Latitudes"

| extra4 = 1/18/70 Felt Forum (1st show)

| length4 = 5:34

}}

Personnel

Per liner notes:

The Doors

Additional musicians

Technical

  • Bill Gazecki – engineer
  • Jim Marshall – photo
  • Jeff Lancaster – design

Charts

class="wikitable"
align="left"|Date

!align="left"|Chart

!align="left"|Position

align="left"|November 1983

|align="left"|Finnish Albums (Soumen Virallinen){{cite book |last=Nyman |first=Jake |title=Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja |publisher=Tammi |year=2005 |isbn=951-31-2503-3 |edition=1st |location=Helsinki |page=127|language=fi}}

|align="center"|26

align="left"|December 1983

|align="left"|Billboard 200{{Cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-doors/chart-history/tlp/ |title=The Doors Chart History: Billboard 200 |date=2019 |website=Billboard.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920192612/https://www.billboard.com/music/the-doors/chart-history/billboard-200 |archive-date=September 20, 2019 |url-status=live }}

|align="center"|23

Certifications

{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Canada|artist=The Doors|title=Alive, She Cried|type=album|award=Gold|relyear=1983}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|artist=The Doors|title=Alive, She Cried|type=album|award=Gold|relyear=1983}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | nosales=true}}

References