Morrison Hotel

This is the South Korean pressing of Morrison Hotel on the Oscar label, catalog number EU 362, released on LP. It is the variant known among collectors as the "red cover" edition, distinguished from its sibling blue cover Korean pressing by the pronounced red wash applied uniformly across the jacket photography. With only 3 copies logged as owned on Discogs against 95 want-listed, this ranks among the more sought-after regional pressings of this title in the collector community.

The front cover photograph is the familiar Henry Diltz image of The Doors standing inside the ground-floor window of the Morrison Hotel on Hope Street in Los Angeles, but here it has been reproduced with such a heavy red color cast that the original tonal range is almost entirely obliterated. The band members are barely discernible as dark silhouettes against the flooded red background. The "Morrison Hotel" signage above them and the "Rooms $2" placard in the lower window are still readable, but only just. The text "THE DOORS" appears in small type at the top of the jacket, and the catalog reference "362" sits at the upper right. The overall effect is less a design choice than a byproduct of low-budget Korean reproduction printing of the era, giving this copy an appearance that is genuinely unlike any Western pressing of the same album. The rear cover fares similarly: the Hard Rock Cafe exterior shot, originally a rich black-and-white image, is here rendered in the same washed red tone, with the "Hard Rock Cafe" and "Cocktails" signage still legible through the haze. Track listings and label information are printed on the back in both English and what appears to be Korean text, with an Oscar label logo visible near the center of the reverse. The label itself is a yellow Oscar imprint with a small musical note logo at the top. The pressing shown is clearly well-worn, with significant scuffing visible across the playing surface, but the label text is fully legible. The label reads "THE DOORS / MORBISON HOTEL" and lists Side 1 as containing "Land Ho!, The Spy, Qreen of the highway, Indian summer, Maggie m'gill," which immediately signals the label swap error documented in the Discogs notes. A second label image confirms the Oscar yellow label design on the other side, in similarly played condition.

The production errors on this pressing are a significant part of its identity and collectibility. The two side labels have been switched, meaning Side 1 label carries the Side 2 tracks and vice versa. Beyond that, the label contains multiple misprints: "MORBISON HOTEL" instead of "MORRISON HOTEL," "Boad house blues" instead of "Roadhouse Blues," "Blue suday" instead of "Blue Sunday," and "Maggie m'gill" rather than "Maggie M'Gill." These are not subtle errors, and they confirm this was pressed with minimal quality control, which was common for Korean market pressings of Western rock material during this period. The full standard track sequence is present across both sides: Side One covers "Roadhouse Blues," "Waiting For The Sun," "You Make Me Real," "Peace Frog," "Blue Sunday," and "Ship Of Fools," while Side Two carries "Land Ho!," "The Spy," "Queen Of The Highway," "Indian Summer," and "Maggie M'Gill." No bonus material, no insert, no inner sleeve of note. This is a bare-bones regional repress intended for a domestic Korean market with no access to legitimate Western pressings. The Oscar label released other rock titles under similar low-cost conditions, and the EU catalog prefix appears across multiple releases from this imprint. The Discogs community ownership figure of just 3 copies speaks to genuine scarcity in the current market. Collectors hunting regional oddities in the Morrison Hotel discography will already know about the blue cover Korean variant; this red cover edition sits alongside it as the harder find of the two. For context on how far-flung pressings of Doors material circulated during this era, the catalog here at DoorsInfo also documents other regional live documents like Live In Detroit and Miami 1969, which followed similarly circuitous paths to collectors.

If you are building a comprehensive regional pressing collection of Morrison Hotel, the Oscar EU 362 red cover is a genuine target. The label errors and switched sides make it an anomaly, the color-washed jacket makes it visually striking, and the Discogs numbers confirm it does not surface often. The vinyl condition on surviving copies tends to reflect heavy use, so grading carefully before purchase is worth your time. This is not a pressing you acquire for listening; it is a pressing you acquire because it exists, and because very few collections have it.