The Lizard King (vol 2)

This is the Australian CD pressing of The Lizard King (Vol. 2), released in 1993 on Apple House Music / Banana, catalog number BAN-011-B. It belongs to the Unauthorized Recordings series, a run of budget bootleg CDs issued under the Banana imprint and manufactured in Australia. The subtitle on the disc reads Live '67 - '68 (Part Two), situating it within a broader multi-volume project that fans of this series will recognize immediately alongside The Lizard King (Vol. 1), Vol. 3, and Vol. 4.

The front cover of this specific pressing is one of two known variants for this disc. This version features bold text and graphic elements printed directly over a close-up, slightly soft-focus photograph of Jim Morrison, his hair loose and somewhat windswept. The image is cropped tight to his face and shoulders, giving it an intimate, unguarded feel that contrasts with the heavy-handed design work layered on top. Across the upper portion of the cover, a dark banner reads THE UNAUTHORISED RECORDINGS... in capital letters, followed by a disclaimer stating the recording has not been authorised by The Doors or their record company. The band name and album title appear in bold blue type across the middle of the cover, with a large red diagonal stamp reading UNAUTHORISED dominating the lower half. A second line at the bottom identifies the content as Live '67 - '68 (Part Two). A final disclaimer at the very bottom states the sound recording may not be of the same quality as an authorised release. The alternate version of this cover omits all text overlaid on Morrison's photo, making this variant the more visually cluttered and arguably more legally cautious of the two.

The rear panel continues in a similar vein. The same dark banner and unauthorized disclaimer runs across the top, and the catalog number BAN-011-B appears in the upper right. The back is dominated by a blue-grey background, with the full 16-track listing printed in two columns in small blue type. The Apple House Music and Banana logos appear near the bottom, along with a barcode and a Made in Australia notation. All titles are credited to AMCOS. The overall print quality is serviceable but unremarkable, typical of the budget unauthorized CD market of the early 1990s. There are no inserts, booklet, or lyric pages. The disc itself is a standard silver pressing with no additional design detail visible from the submitted images.

The 16 tracks draw from a mix of performance sources spanning 1967 to 1968, including the Matrix Club in San Francisco, recordings from Stockholm and Vancouver, and television appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Jonathan Winters Show. The sequencing opens with Moonlight Drive and moves through a fairly representative cross-section of the band's catalog from that era, including The Crystal Ship, The Unknown Soldier, Wild Child, The End, and Light My Fire. Moonlight Drive appears twice, at track one and again at track fifteen, which likely reflects different source recordings. Audio quality across the disc is inconsistent, as expected from multi-source live tapes of this vintage, and the disclaimer on the packaging itself acknowledges the sound may not match an authorised release. Collectors should not expect clean, properly transferred audio here.

This specific pressing shares its full track listing with The Doors - Touch Me, a separately titled release from the same series carrying a different label credit and catalog number. That overlap is worth knowing before purchasing either, since you would be acquiring the same program twice. On Discogs, this BAN-011-B pressing shows 21 collectors owning it and 6 wanting it, numbers that confirm it circulates without much difficulty. It is not scarce.

For completeness within the Unauthorized Recordings series, this disc does its job, and collectors building out the full run alongside the various Vol. 4 pressings will want to account for it. But as a standalone acquisition, BAN-011-B offers common material at average fidelity with no extras, and the same content is available through the Touch Me title. Buy it if you need the BAN-011-B catalog number specifically or this cover variant; otherwise, it is not a priority.