Light My Fire

This is the Italian budget release of Light My Fire, issued in 1995 on the Alegra label (catalog number CD 9003), distributed by Sarabandas SRL. The Discogs country listing reads Europe, but the rear tray card clearly states manufactured in EEC with Sarabandas SRL identified as the Italian rights holder. This is a live compilation, not a studio record, and it should not be confused with the similarly titled Light My Fire release cataloged separately here on DoorsInfo.

The front cover photograph is the immediate talking point for any collector who picks this one up: it features a still of actor Val Kilmer from Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic rather than Jim Morrison himself. The image shows Kilmer mid-performance, hair loose and backlit, dressed in what appears to be a light-colored shirt open at the chest, captured in a warm amber and orange palette that reads as stage lighting. The word "THE DOORS" runs across the top in bold red lettering on a cream or off-white background, and "LIGHT MY FIRE" appears at the lower right in matching red. The small Alegra logo, a stylized black figure, sits in the lower left corner. The overall layout is unambiguously budget-label in its simplicity: no texture, no design ambition, just the photo, the text, and a plain background. Anyone familiar with the Kilmer film will recognize the source immediately, and the substitution of a movie still for an actual Doors photograph tells you everything you need to know about the provenance and licensing approach of this release.

The disc itself carries the blue-tinted Alegra label design. The center area shows the Alegra logo again alongside "THE DOORS" and "Light My Fire" in white text. The track listing is printed in a small font around the inner hub area of the disc, and the words "Live Recording" appear at the bottom, which is at least accurate. The rear tray card is more information-dense. It lists all ten tracks with timings and songwriter credits, shows the catalog number CD 9003 prominently in the upper right, and carries the Alegra and Dischi logo in the lower corners alongside the copyright notice crediting Sarabandas SRL and the manufactured-in-EEC statement. The rear also repeats the Val Kilmer image in a smaller vertical strip along the right spine area. Total running time is listed and the track credits are legible, though the font is small and the card stock is thin. There is no booklet and no insert beyond the tray card itself. The jewel case is standard thickness.

The ten tracks draw from multiple live sources. According to the track listing data and the original release notes, the first six tracks, running from "Light My Fire" through "Five To One," are sourced from the In Concert release. Track two is listed on the disc and tray card as a medley that runs through "Dead Cats, Dead Rats" into "Break On Through 2," which is the extended sequence familiar from the In Concert set. The remaining four tracks, "Roadhouse Blues," "When The Music's Over," "Love Me Two Times," and "Unknown Soldier," are drawn from other live recordings including the Felt Forum, the Hollywood Bowl, and Stockholm performances. Collectors who have spent time with Live At The Hollywood Bowl will recognize some of this material immediately, though the specific versions here should be compared carefully before assuming identical edits or sources. "Love Me Two Times" in a live context is always worth cross-referencing; see also the Love Me Two Times entry on this site for related pressings.

On Discogs, this release shows only 11 collectors with a copy and 2 wanting it, which reflects its genuine scarcity in the collector market rather than any particular desirability. This is a budget-market European product assembled from licensed live material, and the Kilmer cover art is its most distinctive and conversation-generating attribute. It was not an official Elektra or Rhino release, and it carries none of the archival or remastering credentials that serious collectors look for in a live Doors document. The track selection overlaps substantially with material available on properly licensed releases, including The Best Of The Doors and related compilations.

For collectors, this one is a genuine curiosity rather than a must-have. The Val Kilmer cover makes it instantly recognizable and mildly amusing as an artifact of early-1990s Doors-adjacent merchandising, and its scarcity on the secondary market means you will not stumble across it often. That said, the audio content is not unique, the packaging is thin, and the production values are minimal. Pick it up if you are building a comprehensive catalog of Italian and European budget pressings, or if the Kilmer cover makes you smile. Otherwise, the live material here is better served by the official sources it was drawn from.