Full Circle (The Doors album)

Full Circle showed the band was still evolving musically, with the Latin fusion of "The Piano Bird" and the complex funk of "Verdilac", but tensions were mounting between Manzarek, who wanted to explore jazz, and Densmore and Krieger, who wanted to persevere with rock. "Ray just kinda said, 'Look, I'm outta here, I'm getting tired of this, it's not working,'" Krieger recalled to Uncut in 2015. "So we gave up. John and I were trying to make it work. Would we have carried on? Yeah, for sure."

In 1972, the Doors released "Get Up and Dance" as a single; the B-side was the non-album track "Treetrunk", one of only three non-album studio tracks released by the band. According to Robby Krieger, the track was left off the album because "it sounded too commercial". The song was finally given official re-release as part of the Japan edition of The Doors Singles Box in 2013.

Release and reception

Full Circle was released on August 15, 1972, and peaked at No. 68 on the Billboard chart. In a retrospective assessment, AllMusic stated "While there are a handful of undeniably remarkable cuts scattered throughout, Full Circle is increasingly sporadic and less focused than its predecessor" but asserts that the album's centerpiece is "the nearly four-minute jam tacked on at the end. Manzarek's impassioned electric organ, Densmore's tricky timekeeping, and Krieger's transcendent string work are all worth mentioning as the intensity of their interplay hearkens back to former glories."

Later releases

For years the Doors largely disregarded the two post-Morrison albums, with no official American CD releases. Full Circle was released on CD October 23, 2006, by the Timeless Holland label, along with the previous (post-Morrison) Doors album Other Voices. It is relatively easy to find unofficial CD copies of Full Circle and Other Voices on the Internet, but most of these vinyl-to-CD transfers do not contain the single-only "Treetrunk", except for the Howling Wolf Records 2010 release of the two albums on one CD. This release also featured the edited single versions of "The Mosquito" and "The Piano Bird". "Treetrunk" was finally given official re-release as part of the Japan edition of The Doors Singles Box in 2013.

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel taken from Full Circle liner notes.

The Doors

Robby Krieger – guitar, vocals, harmonica on "Hardwood Floor"
Ray Manzarek – keyboards, vocals
John Densmore – drums

Additional personnel

Venetta Fields – vocals
Clydie King – vocals
Melissa MacKay – vocals
Chico Batera – percussion on "The Piano Bird" and "The Peking King and the New York Queen"
Leland Sklar – bass on "Hardwood Floor", "The Mosquito" and "It Slipped My Mind"
Jack Conrad – bass on "4 Billion Souls", "Good Rockin, "The Piano Bird" and "The Peking King and the New York Queen"; rhythm guitar on "The Piano Bird"
Charles Larkey – bass on "Verdilac" and "The Piano Bird"
Chris Ethridge – bass on "Get Up and Dance"
Bobbye Hall – percussion on "Verdilac", "The Piano Bird" and "The Peking King and the New York Queen"
Charles Lloyd – tenor saxophone on "Verdilac", flute on "The Piano Bird"

Technical staff and artwork

The Doors – production
Henry Lewy – engineering
Pacific Eye & Ear – cover concept
Joe Garnett – cover illustration

Chart information

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+Chart performance for Full Circle

!scope="col"|Chart (1972)

!scope="col"|Peak<br>position

!scope="row"|US Billboard Top LPs & Tape

| style="text-align:center;" |68

!scope="row| US Cashbox Top 100 Albums

| align="center"|42

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+Chart performance for singles from Full Circle

!scope="col"|Single

!scope="col"|Year

!scope="col"|Chart

!scope="col"|Position

!scope="row"|"The Mosquito" /<br /> "It Slipped My Mind"

|rowspan="2" | 1972

|US Hot 100

|85

!scope="row"|"Get Up and Dance" / "Treetrunk"

|UK Pop Singles

|84