Exploding the myth 

With the excuse of releasing what seems to be the last remaining original Doors song to be released, Paris Blues, it has been decided to release a new album by the band focusing on their bluesy side, but the effort clearly seems to be another attempt to make the most loyal fans pay for it without having much more to offer.   

The big draw of the album is the title track itself, Paris Blues, a song recorded in the same sessions that produced classics like L.A. Woman, Crawling King Snake and Cars Hiss By My Window, but one can understand why they didn't release it at the time because it's below them. It's not that it's a bad song, Jim Morrison sang fabulously and in his later days his voice was perfect for the blues, as well as having some good slide guitar licks by Robbie Krieger, but it's certainly far from essential.  

  

The rest of the album contains a couple of half-interesting rarities, such as Morrison and Krieger, solo on vocals and guitar, performing live I Will Never Be Untrue (a Morrison Hotel outtake) and a cover of Robert Johnson's Me And The Devil Blues, plus a couple of Ray Manzarek-sung outtakes from The Soft Parade, (You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further and I'm Your Doctor, which are pretty forgettable.   

Of rather more interest are the three live tracks performed with the great Albert King, but these had already been released as part of Live In Vancouver 1970, so they don't really add much either. But it's always interesting to hear Morrison backed by one of the best blues guitarists in history, in this case in three covers, Rock Me Baby, Who Do You Love? and Little Red Rooster.   

Paris Blues continues to exploit the myth of Jim Morrison and the Doors and does so by squeezing the last crumbs that were left to be released, if you are a completist of the band you can give it a pass, if not it's always better to listen to their debut, Strange Days or L.A. Woman...