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
--
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
