Hark! A Ranking of Doors Albums!

Is everybody in? Is everybody IN??? The ceremony is about to begin...
-- "Awake," the Doors (Jim Morrison)

Growing up the Tampa Bay area as a suburban white boy meant listening to hard rock n roll. Not "classic rock" which at the time meant the 50s, but "album-oriented rock" that dominated the 60s and 70s.

As such, I was raised on the likes of Led Zeppelin and the Who and Van Halen and Black Sabbath and Cream and Montrose and Creedence and Lynyrd and Hendrix (but also softer sounds like the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac and Moody Blues). Into all of that I also got into a band that had a short history but incredible impact on that era: The Doors.

Forming on the Los Angeles music scene in 1965, the Doors revolved around keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, someone Ray knew from film school at UCLA. Morrison had confided to Manzarek that - as a wannabe poet - he'd been writing lyrical poems, and sang to him the earliest verses of "Moonlight Drive". Manzarek was convinced right then Morrison could be a singer, and brought along one of his brothers, bassist Patty Sullivan, and drummer John Densmore (whom Ray knew from a meditation group) to form this group named after Adolus Huxley's work The Doors Of Perception.

After a few shifts in the lineup - adding guitarist Robby Krieger to form the lineup we know today - the band recorded demos and worked their way through the clubs, earning a coveted spot as house band at the Whisky A Go Go.

Signed to Elektra Studios by 1966, controversy over their firing from the Whisky in August 1966 - when Morrison went explicit with that particular lyric in "The End" - added to the band's allure for their debut album by 1967.

The band's sound was an eclectic mix of electric blues, jazz, and the emerging psychedelic sound dominating the California scene. Guitarist Krieger was noticeably versatile compared to other guitarists of the era. Drummer Densmore employed effective range and included a lot of Latino (bossa nova) influence that gave the band a distinctive sound that felt like Los Angeles itself. Manzarek proved an adept keyboardist with an organ-type playing that sounded like a harpsichord, and allowed him to mimic bass-playing to where their live shows never needed one (the band did employ a slew of session artists to play bass in the studio).

Topping it all, however, was Morrison. Initially shy as a singer, something about being on the stage unleashed a performer few had ever seen in rock music. While there were other lead singers of bands who would strut or pose - Mick Jagger comes to mind - none of them reached the recklessness Morrison achieved (Jagger later went to him for advice on how to do it). He would cover every inch of the stage, act out scenes from the lyrics with his body, improvise poetry to any instrumental music during a jam. He became a shaman of sorts, seducing audiences with a wink and a snarl.

The band quickly hit it big on the charts - they were the first American band to "go gold" with their first seven albums - and even scored top single hits guaranteeing radio play. As a live act, they became must-see tickets. Morrison's reputation as a "bad boy" of rock n roll brought fame... and interest by law enforcement who were put off by the anti-war and counter-culture lyrics that filled the followup albums.

Morrison himself suffered to his demons. He had a history of disturbing behavior when he got drunk, and as the stresses of celebrity got to him the alcoholism - and other drug use - got worse. It affected recording and made him late for live shows during tours. By 1969, it had gotten so bad he pretty much had a breakdown on stage in Miami, threatening to show his cock (eyewitness testimony and insistence from the surviving band was certain he didn't) and then leading a riot of sorts with the crowd. The subsequent trial for incident exposure and other acts led to a guilty verdict in 1970.

While out on appeal, Morrison rejoined the band in L.A. to record one more album (L.A. Woman) before traveling to Paris in 1971 to get himself straightened out. The band noticed he was working to stay sober during the sessions and seemed in good spirits.

And then Morrison died - with a sizable amount of mystery over what actually happened - and was quickly buried in a Paris cemetery famed for its artists and poets.

The surviving trio - Manzarek, Densmore, and Krieger - recorded two more albums without replacing Morrison at singer, but the efforts were noticeably lackluster with fans and the Doors broke up. After rejoining in 1979 to record new music to back audio readings from Morrison's poetry, that was pretty much it.

The band's influence remains far reaching. Not only codifying the four-man format of a rock band but affecting the electric blues style that remains a staple of bar bands to this day. Musically, the Doors had a hand in popularizing 60s psychedelic rock as well as help merge the Latino rhythm sound - which would co-mingle with the coming funk scene of the 70s - to the L.A. hard rock scene that would remain dominant until the 80s. In some respects, the dark symbolism and anti-authority stances the band took as its persona influenced the burgeoning punk scene.

Morrison's on-stage antics informed the crazy behavior of future frontmen - David Lee Roth comes to mind - and his lyrical style - more freestyle than rhyming, although he could do both - set the standard for poetry in hard rock songs. There are others in rock history with high skill as poets - Bob Dylan is a freaking Nobel laureate, obviously - and others aspire to reach those heights, but Morrison was one who could arguably be Dylan's peer (alongside John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, several others). Morrison himself became the template for the "rock star as tortured artist" imagery we have to this day.

In terms of ranking the Doors albums, I'm going with - in my opinion - weakest works to their most epic, must-have albums. To be fair to the band as a whole, I've included the post-Morrison albums - which I didn't hear as a kid, they were out-of-print until CD re-issues finally happened in the 2010s - so I can share my experience and response.

The program for this evening is not new
You've seen this entertainment through and through
You've seen your birth your life and death
You might recall all of the rest
Did you have a good world when you died?
Enough to base a movie on?
-- "The Movie," Jim Morrison

Ranking Doors Albums - Weak to Epic

Title: Other Voices

Reasons: The first album by the surviving trio, and you can immediately sense the loss with the opening song being an almost chirpy, upbeat kind of thing. The hell?

With Manzarek and Krieger taking over at vocals - neither of them able to reach the low seductive growl that Morrison could - the songs just don't have that dark edge to them. The lyrics themselves read like forced attempts at rhyme, rather than the near improvisational flow Morrison could weave.

Coming out at a moment when funk as a sound became popular, you can see the attempt by the band to stay relevant and avoid the harder elements of the electric blues style. But it's the songs on here that stick to that style that impress, and it'd have helped if they stayed that course.

Epics song(s): none
Great song(s): Tightrope Ride, Hang On To Your Life
Good song(s): Variety is the Spice of Life, Wandering Musician

Title: The Soft Parade

Reasons: Generally considered the weakest effort by the band while Morrison was alive, and the album title tells the tale. "Soft" is the first word I think of when re-listening to this. Going more in the popular sound, bringing in a string orchestra as backing music to much of the performances, makes this a more pop-flavored, sickeningly sweet sound. Gone are the rough edges that made the first three albums more appealing to the fanbase.

Notable as the point where Morrison was falling to the bottle, his erratic behavior allowed the other band mates - Krieger in particular - more room to write their own lyrics and decide on the music getting played. The whole album is anchored by the titular track - yet another long song much in the vein of "The End" and "Turn Off the Lights" - that tries to reach again for those poetic highs but ended up garbled and uninteresting. A shortened, tighter-edited "Soft Parade" would have been so much better.

There are songs on here worth saving - and the hit single off this "Touch Me" did was it was supposed to do, sell records - but it's an effort you can skip once you download/stream those handful of songs.

Epic song(s): None
Great song(s): Touch Me, Do It, Wild Child, Wishful Sinful
Good song(s): Running Blue

Title: Full Circle

Reasons: I was dreading the follow-up to Other Voices as sinking lower in terms of non-Morrison input, but this album was actually likable to where I could re-listen to it again as a refresher and remember what I enjoyed.

There was still a 70s funkadelic vibe to much of the work, but they had mixed it in - in my opinion, rather well - with the Latino backbeats to give some of the songs the edge that the other album lacked. Where the songs struggled were - again - the lyrics, which aimed at simplistic rhymes and none of the imagery Morrison could add. The one song on this album that did become a hit at its release - "The Mosquito" - is a good example: the opening lyrics were painful and forgettable, but the music itself that takes up most of the performance is pushed by an uptempo rhythm that made an incredible instrumental piece.

Just saying, if Morrison had lived songs like "Hardwood Floor" and "It Slipped My Mind" would have been darker and rueful and oh so good on the radio.

Epic song(s): none
Great song(s): Good Rockin'
Good song(s): Verdilac, Hardwood Floor, The Mosquito, It Slipped My Mind

Title: American Prayers

Reasons: Essentially an excuse by the surviving bandmates to provide a soundtrack to unearthed poetry readings and interviews that Morrison gave. The good news is that the band is made up of talented musicians who knew what they were doing and created a solid mix of back beats and melodies to fit (most) of what the poems and observations offered.

There isn't anything here - other than snippets from existing songs like "Peace Frog" and "Texas Radio" - that would be considered single or stand-alone hits. Some are not poems, just Jim acting out scenes from lyrics formed elsewhere. You kind of need to listen to the whole album and get through each poem as is, and appreciate if you can how Morrison mixed the innocent with the obscene. Some of this would be considered pornographic - and racist - even for its day, so do be aware this isn't a family-friendly listen.

Epic poem(s): Angels and Sailors, Stoned Immaculate, The Movie, The Hitchhiker
Great poem(s): Awake, Ghost Song, Dawn's Highway, Newborn Awakening
Good poem(s): To Come of Age, Black Polished Chrome, Latino Chrome

Title: Waiting for the Sun

Reasons: This is a rather schizoid album. On the one hand, this contains some of the most critical anti-war songs the band would ever produce. On the other, this contains most of the love songs the band would ever put to one album.

Bouncing between the giddy eagerness of the opening hit "Hello I Love You" and more somber works like "Love Street" and "Wintertime Love" (styled as a moody waltz), along with the utterly dark "Unknown Soldier" (live performances would have Morrison stand and fall as a soldier getting executed) and "Five to One" (an ode to street fighting with memetic lyrics like "No one here gets out alive" and "they got the guns but we got the numbers"), this is not an album to listen through in one sitting.

Accompanying the album was a long-form poem "Celebration of the Lizard" - which makes up the lyrics to a number of songs here - invoking the chaos and violence of the late 1960s, including direct references to JFK's assassination. The poem itself is a rambling mess, which probably explains how the band decided to break it up into more digestible segments.

This is almost on par with the best albums, and I end up ranking this near Morrison Hotel. It's a question which one is better than the other. so...

Epic song(s): Hello I Love You, Unknown Soldier, Five to One
Great song(s): Not to Touch the Earth, Spanish Caravan
Good song(s): Love Street, Wintertime Love, My Wild Love, We Could Be So Good Together

Title: Morrison Hotel

Reasons: Coming after the critical backlash of Soft Parade, and after the disastrous Miami concert that summarily ended their US tour, the band went back to the studio for a stripped-down, back to basics approach. Gone from this album are any poetic aspirations tying everything together, instead focusing on stand-along songs.

The result was obviously a return to form, but also greater improvement in the quality of songs produced. There's no long, eight-minute or ten-minute song on here: Everything is tight, focused, and hard rocking. The opening song "Roadhouse Blues" sets the tone, and in my opinion is the best song the band ever recorded: I would argue it's the best "play this in a bar even though I normally don't hang around bars" song. That song is the reason why I rank this album higher than the previous one.

This tends to be a popular album among fans, myself included. You might notice the phrase "Blood in the streets" in the song "Peace Frog" shows up whenever I blog about gun violence in any of our communities, yeah this is where I get that from.

Epic song(s): Roadhouse Blues, Peace Frog, Queen of the Highway
Great song(s): Waiting for the Sun, Land Ho!, Maggie M'gill
Good song(s): You Make Me Real, Blue Sunday

Title: Strange Days

Reasons: I once noted that second albums from bands tend to not do well. Either suffering from the expectations of the first big hit album, or dealing with leftovers from the first album's recording sessions, or the band making the mistake of going for a New Sound too early.

Strange Days doesn't suffer the sophomore jinx even though it does show some holdover from the first album. What happened was a change in technology - the studio just added an 8-track recording system allowing for more overdubs - that gave the band a chance to experiment. One of the results was the nightmarish "Horse Latitudes," which you can appreciate for the effort but ye gods is a hard listen.

While not a New Sound, this album ended up with tracks that fell well into the psychedelic sound of the late 60s, as a result not as enjoyable or as straight-forward as works like Morrison Hotel. The Doors did create on this album some decent songs still playable today. However, the overt attempts at poetry - such as the overlong "When The Music's Over" - trying to replicate the success of "The End" comes across as forced.

Epic song(s): Love Me Two Times, Moonlight Drive, People Are Strange
Great song(s): Strange Days, You're Lost Little Girl
Good song(s): Horse Latitudes, My Eyes Have Seen You, When the Music's Over

Title: L.A. Woman

Reasons: As Morrison's legal woes piled up, and as his mental condition deteriorated, the band decided to stick to the stripped-down effort of the previous Morrison Hotel. Going with a new producer, and with Morrison doing his best to stay sober, the sessions for this album went smoothly and everything about its release pointed to good things ahead.

The critics and fans raved about it being their best one since the first, the single release of "Love Her Madly" going up the charts, just as word got back from Paris about Morrison's death. As a result, this album carries with it to this day a lot of historic and symbolic weight.

The most noticeable element is how deep and scarred Morrison's voice had gotten by this album: the toll of alcohol and cigarettes and drugs were adding up. This does give the songs a darker, bluesy edge and a more cynical tone on an otherwise upbeat song like "Love Her Madly".

What puts this album at the top of the list are the epic songs here, especially the title track "L.A. Woman," a song close to 8 minutes but shockingly never feels like it's playing that long. The lyrics comparing the city to a woman - no, that the city IS a woman - is arguably one of the greatest odes to L.A. ever recorded, and the band's performance - Krieger's opening guitar growl mimicking a car engine above all - a soundtrack to blast from the car speakers when you find yourself on an open freeway across the city.

Throw in how "The WASP" - a thread of free verse poetry full of mythological imagery - and "Riders on the Storm" are Morrison's lyrics at his quotable best and you have an album that deserves great acclaim.

Epic song(s): Love Her Madly, L.A. Woman, The WASP (Texas Radio & the Big Beat), Riders on the Storm

Great song(s): The Changling, Been Down So Long, Cars Hiss By My Window
Good song(s): L'America

Title: The Doors

Reasons: I have noticed I rank a lot of bands' first album releases as their best, and there's often a good reason (or three) for that. One, it's made up of songs that the band played, practiced, enhanced over and over until they were good enough to win over live audiences and get a recording deal signed. So these songs are well-vetted. Two, these are also the songs that set the band's lyric and tonal styles, playing to the strengths of one of the bandmates - say, a great guitarist or a great drummer - that ends up getting replicated to later albums that don't sound as fresh or inventive. Three, some of the longer-lasting bands will go through an experimental New Sound phase that becomes an ill-advised mess, or they're trying to keep up with trends that shift over the decades to where their later work just can't match up what made them so go in the first place.

That said, the Doors' self-titled debut was one hell of a breakout for a big year - 1967 - in music, which introduced their signature styles - Manzarek's complex organ keyboards, Krieger's fluid guitar work, Densmore's jazz drums, Morrison's then-soft baritone growl - and set the tone for how electric blues should sound in night bars and garages across America. Opening with the energetic "Break on Through" - a fast-moving song that doesn't give listeners a chance to pause - the rest of the album slows down a bit to let the lyrics and beats seduce. The languid, moody "Crystal Ship" is a personal favorite.

Anchored on Side One with the band's biggest hit "Light My Fire," Side Two ends with their darkest and most epic song "The End," a near-operatic nightmare trip through Morrison's Id that would make Freud and Jung run away in fear. Noticeably long (over 11 minutes!) and chaotic, the mixture of shifting lyrical imagery to varying tempos and intensity just seems to work on this song where it didn't in follow-up attempts.

I also want to note as a product of the time, a number of these songs - hell, a lot of songs across the Doors' playlist - describe rather shocking (misogynistic) behavior towards women when heard today. While I list a couple of those songs here, I do want to say I don't agree with the lyrics to them. It's just... they are good songs.

Epic song(s): Break On Through (To the Other Side), The Crystal Ship, Twentieth Century Fox, The End
Great song(s): Soul Kitchen, Light My Fire, Take It As It Comes
Good song(s): Alabama Song (Whisky Bar), Backdoor Man

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Just to let you know, it was doing a "Hark!" either for the Doors or Led Zeppelin, and because it's the 4th of July I went with the American guys. Led Zep is next, peeps.

I'll tell you this
No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
-- from "The WASP (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)," Jim Morrison