Many shows were recorded during the band's 1970
Roadhouse Blues Tour to create the
Absolutely Live album. The Doors' producer and longtime collaborator
Paul A. Rothchild claimed to have painstakingly edited the album from many different shows to create one cohesive concert. According to Rothchild, the best part of a song from one performance may have been spliced together with another part of the same song from another performance, in an attempt to create "the ultimate concert". Rothchild said, "I couldn't get complete takes of a lot of songs, so sometimes I'd cut from Detroit to Philadelphia in mid-song. There must be 2,000 edits on that album." However, most of the tracks were taken from the Doors' performances at the
Felt Forum in New York City on January 17 and 18, 1970.
Absolutely Live marks the first release of the Doors' performance piece "Celebration of the Lizard" in its entirety, which had originally been attempted in the studio during the
Waiting for the Sun sessions but was eventually abandoned. The album also included several new songs: "Love Hides", "Build Me a Woman", "Universal Mind", "Dead Rats, Dead Cats" (performed as a preamble to "Break on Through") and cover versions of
Bo Diddley's "
Who Do You Love?" and
Willie Dixon's "Close to You" (the latter featuring lead vocals by keyboardist
Ray Manzarek). Reflecting on the live album in an interview,
Jim Morrison remarked, "I think [
Absolutely Live is] a fairly true document of what the band sounds like on fairly good night. It's not the best we can do and it's certainly not the worst. It's a true document of an above average evening." In his autobiography, Manzarek explained the group's intentions with the album: "We wanted to get the Doors experience on tape. Live. One time. For the ages. And in doing so, perhaps we could capture the moment of escape. Live." ==Album cover==