Electric Recording Co. v. VMP: The Doors in Mono

There has been much controversy around the recent Electric Recording Company’s mono reissue of the 1967 debut album by The Doors. What it seems to boil down to is Mike from The In Groove saying the record sounds bad, and MichaelFremer of “The Tracking Angle” saying the tape has issues, so that’s why it doesn’t sound great, so the ERC issue is an accurate recreation.

To me, that means they’re both right; it’s just a question of whether you want a record that sounds good to you, or something authentic?

If you want something that will probably sound good to most people, Vinyl Me, Please reissued this album in 2021. While the ERC edition cost about $500 and is sold out, you can still get the VMP for under $70 (it only recently sold out). And the VMP sounds excellent because they (digitally) addressed some of the tape issues that Fremer elaborates on. It also looks cooler (green vinyl with a white promo-style label), has a very nicely done jacket (on ridiculously heavy stock), recreates the original inner sleeve (which ERC also did), and includes a re-created French EP!

This does raise issues around what a reissue should be. I’ve seen this hashed out since the 1980s: should a reissue 1) reflect the highest possible fidelity, or 2) reflect what the very first pressing sounded like, or 3) what the artist INTENDED things to sound like?

So, is the VMP what the Doors wanted it to sound like (had technology allowed) in 1967? If Bruce Botnick is endorsing it (as Fremer points out), I think that’s good enough. And clearly they — or Elektra -- weren’t happy with the mono back in ‘67.

But ERC’s selling point is originality, and that’s fine for some listeners, too.

If all this seems confusing, consider the very first UK pressings of The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” (“loud cut”) and “Revolver” (with the wrong mix of “Tomorrow Never Knows”). By all accounts, neither is what the group wanted, nor is “Rubber Soul” of the highest possible fidelity. And that’s why they weren’t recreated or used as reference for the 2014 mono box. Yet there are plenty of people who seek them out and would pay handsomely for an ERC-like recreation.

My review of the VMP version: