WARNING : to all people who worships and idolatrizes Jim Morrison in a fanatic way : this page is not for you!Don' t read any further or you may be offended by my words.
the purpose of this introduction is to give you a correct ( I hope so ) approach to this band.Nowadys it seems there are mainly two streams of thoughts : one thinks the Doors are a pretentious band, with a frontman spitting out overblown lyrics and poems ripped-off from W. Blake' s ones and from Nietzsche' s "Dituranboi Dionisou", and with very poor musically skilled members ; on the other hand we have people worshipping vocalist Morrison and...........worship Morrison! Yes I know this is the main problem with this band and for a correct approach to the band you need a correct approach to J. Morrison. And so, what about this guy? Quite good voice ( there are some of you saying "You are blasphemous!!!!" but for me Jim' s voice is not very trained and he never managed to use the very high or the very low notes, and his short range is an objective fact ; simply his tone fits very well with the music his pals are playing, that' s all. ), average composer ( I' m not among the people who think Manzarek&Krieger wrote all music : just listen to the post-71 albums ) but not so very good : "Strange Days" is surely a masterpiece, mainly for originality and atmosphere, but the other Doors' s stuff is generic rhythm&blues ( like "Morrison Hotel" and "L.A. Woman", even if the latter is quiet original ) or simple pop ( "Waiting For The Sun" ) ; but I have to admit each Doors record has a particular atmosphere, something I can' t totally explain but for this see the reviews. And his lyrics? Well, I' m a fan of the darkness he created, a fantastic world populated by crawling snakes, drowned horses, worms, unhappiness, melancholy and Nietzsche-ish poems but, to be honest, not all of his lyrics are so remarkable ; first of all because if the words of a song constitute a poem, a REAL poem ( this means not only to go to the beginning of a line when you want, but the use of particular verses and rimes and other figures of speeches ), for me there is a sort of rhythmic dissonance between the music and the words, or better if you respect the rhythm of the poem, you don' t respect the rhythm of the music ( this is only my interpretation, based mainly on some Doors' s songs, I don' t mean this dissonance is a bad thing, sometimes it contributes to create an effect of bewilderment, as in "Horse Latitudes" ) ; then sometimes all those elements of darkness are impressive mainly for their originality and not for their good use : just think the world was preparing for the summer of love and we have those guys singing about Nietzsche and unhappiness ( it' a cold gun....ha ha ha ha! Sorry for this momentary lapse of irrationalism! ).But for me the Doors have to be seen live to comprehend their fantastic and often hypnotic ability : there is a tripolar tension created by instruments, voice and Jim' s dancing, something never heard neither seen in rock history. If nowadays we may say Morrison is a discrete frontman is only because we can' t see him anymore : a film can' t relive the atmosphere of a live where music comes from big ampli, totally surrounding yourself and the Jim' s dances. But the main remarkable feature of Doors, all Jim' s fanatics shut up please, is their fantastic musical sense ; very few group, or better only the Beatles perhaps, can relies on very solid arrangements like the Doors do.Each of their song displays a fantastic talent ; first of all is incredible the great number of sounds created only with a guitar and a keyboard : if their two first records sound similar for the atmosphere, all song are very different from each other ; and the Doors did some of the best arrangements of the epoch : clear, simple, never over arranged or bombastic are only few adjectives I can give them, but about these things I' ll discuss on the reviews.The other members of the band are : Ray Manzarek ( keyboard ) : he contribute for the most part ( especially in the first times ) to the Doors' s sound with his classical piano and dark ( you may say gothic as well ) organ. Robbie Krieger is the guitarist of the band and his principal source of inspiration seems to be the blues ( he did superbous work on "Morrison Hotel" and "The Soft Parade" ), but he manages well also in....errr....Gilmour-ish solos ( like in "End Of The Night" ) or in controlled-noises making, just think to "When The Music Is Over".At drums we have John Densmore, a drummer we can call him jazzing if he wasn' t so good in rock ( like on "Break On Trought" ) too.
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"You know the day destroys the night, night divides the day..." with these words the Doors announced their selves to the world ; their debut-album is one of the most groundbreaking debut I ever heard ( except only for "Are You Experienced" or "In The Court Of The Crimson King" ) ; its first feature is clearly the particular mood : dark and depressing. A thing that deserves to be pointed out is : is it only blues-rock played in a particular way or is it something new? Well, it' s hard to correctly answer ; most of the tracks, unlike in "Strange Days", are heavily influenced by rock and rhythm&blues, including the famous "Break On Through" and "Light My Fire" ( they are rock song driven by the threatening organ of Manzarek and made richer with Jim' s dark voice ) and there are some pure blues songs like "Backdoor Man" ; only two songs, according to me, deviate from this way and sound more original ( not that they aren' t influenced by blues' s legacy ) and they are "Crystal Ship" and "End Of The Night".But let' s proceed with order. The opening track, the rock' n' roll "Break On Through" is a ferocious rocking song, driven by Ray' s organ and threatening pure rock chords ; this is one of the most solid rock' n' roll song I ever heard ( apart for Beatles' s "Lady Madonna" ) and it has an exciting rhythm section. add the screams of Morrison ( I particularly like the part "she gets, she gets....bleeaah!") ; this is not the Door' s manifesto, but the lyrics and the dark mood make the distinctive sign to be present."Soul Kitchen" is a plane song, remarkable most for Jim' s singing ; just skip it and go on to the first masterpiece here : "The Crystal Ship".Well, first the lyrics ; Jim sings in a so melodramatic way that if you don' t cry with this song you have a stone heart.The song is about time-passing and bewilderment ( just think to the will to have "another kiss, another flashing chance at bliss" before is too late, and the complain about the time is also expressed by the verse "the time you ran was too insane", and this hurry to live, to love, to feel is not the usual vulgar rock stereothip but the hungry for sensations typical of the Nietzsche' s "super-man" ); but this song has another secret theme : in this motionless world ( "the streets are field that never die" ) is it possible to satisfy our feelings?It seems not.A crystal ship filled with "thousand boys and girls" will escape from this world and will return....and Morrison in that moment will drop a line!But this isn' t a protest song : the tone is relaxed, even painful ( especially when Jim' s voice has a sort of trill when he sings "filled with pain" ) and maybe also resigned ( Morrison is here particularly dark ).The music is very, very cool ; it' s a blues made richer thanks to the smooth classic piano of Manzarek.Without doubt one of the best song on here.The following track, "20th Century Fox", has a good riff and funny lyrics but nothing remarkable.The album goes on with "Whiskey Bar" ; nothing remarkable here, too.The music is taken from a B. Brecht opera and rearranged by Doors ; for me it sound like a village-band has to sound but Morrison is enough convincing when he sings "I tell you we must die" ( another song in which death is mentioned! ) and the song results quite catchy.Then we have, even if it' s not the best song by the Doors according to me, one of the most memorably tune of last century' s rock music : "Light My Fire" and this time we can use this song as Doors' s manifesto : dark lyrics, filled with doubts and hesitation, terrifying organ and guitar solos ; the song is 6 minute long but none moment is boring ; very good song, Manzarek shows at his best his abilities to accompany the melody with his medieval-gothic keyboards, Jim has a chance to light thanks to his warm and dark voice, Krieger provides top one of his best solo ( and creating a great counterpoint to Manzarek' s organ ) ; a solid drums work by Densmore.Then the album has is "low-moment" ; "Backdoor Man" is a good blues cover, but there is not of Doors here and the song results quiet generic.On the other hand "I Looked At You" sound like Doors usual, the piano solo is quiet good ( but nothing in comparison of Manzarek' s work on "Light My Fire" ) but the lyrics are trite, stupid and generic : "I looked at you, you looked at me....I smiled at you, you smile at me".Truly offensive.But all those mediocre songs just before "End Of The Night" make the contrast with this fantastic song much more evident.Maybe this is the darkest song the Door ever released and it has extremely inventive music and lyrics.As I said the music is fantastic : the song begins with a soft and gloomy organ/guitar figure ; during the entire song Manzarek goes on with organ and piano soft chords, while Krieger, perhaps with wha-wha, makes delicious notes here and there and also provides to a "Gilmourish" solo : single notes played very slow, with a wise use of the pauses ; Densmore with brushes makes the atmosphere even more hazy and Morrison sings repetitive lyrics, with and hypnotic effect, using all the lowest notes he has in order to frighten you most he can.And the lyrics are extremely good : not very meaningful, but very linked to the atmosphere and to the music ; hearing he singing "some are born for the endless night" is hear the darkest thing in rock history, and all the heavy-metal bands, with their satanism and Tolkien lyrics, have to knee themselves in front of Doors' darkness."Take As It Comes" is another song in line with "I Looked At You", and horrible the same ; I save it just for the Manzarek' s solo.The hypnotical ode "The End" are a very good epic-song, without the complexity of "When The Music' S Over", maybe sometimes a bit boring ; this is the place for all the lovers of Morrison' s lyrics : all you fan of snakes, worms, death and Nietzsche-ish commmon places will get a lot of satisfaction from this song.I don' t like particularly the lyrics : is this an example of "Ehy man, look at how I am innovative, here you are a ton of dark elements put all together!".
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DO YOU THINK THAT HE'S TOTALLY WRONG?
This time they acheived their peak and arguabily "Strange Days" represents one of the best album of 1967, at least for its originality : who did choose to be so dark in the summer of love?But, unlike their debut, here you can' t find only darkness, the songwriting highly grew, the melodies are self-assured, original, catchy but never trite or commercial.Let' s analize the mood : it' s even more dark and depressed than in the previous album, simply because childish songs like "I Looked At You" had been trown away, there isn' t pure blues numbers ( like the previous "Backdoor Man" ) : it' s darkness at its best, maybe only "End Of The Night" in the previous album can rate with the dartness of this album.Maybe it' s quiet uniform, but it works, and the out-of-tune-notes includes only the catchy "Moonlight Drive" in which the lyrics are a sourt of omage to the epoch ( but the song is surely strong ) ; the oppressive mood full of despair is increased in the effect by the tasteful lyrics : most of them are about social or mental alienation ( "Strange Days", "People Are Strange" ), deliciously melancholic and sad picture of sadness ( like in "Unhappy Girl" for instance ), anthems to the power of music ( "When The Misic' S Over", their best "long" composition according to me ).There is also a poem by Morrison called "Horse Latitude" and it' s about some horses drowned by Spanish conquistadores ; the music is based mainly on dissonances ( if you want you may say this is the "freak out" of the album, thank to the tapes overdubs and strange noises) and Jim sings the lyrics that simulate the way and the feelings of when the horses were trown into the water ; it' s very scaring, expecially for the beginning : the wind noises is suddenly interrupted by Morrison' s hazy and gloomy voice.What' s about the music?As I already said dark pop, but this definition is affected by simplism, there much more than this in "Strange Days".As I said in the introduction the arrangements are clear and fluent, even if in this album they got more complex ( only an example, listen to the continual keyboards work on "Strange Days" ), based on different musical themes ( like in the ending ode ), and relying on more instruments ( it isn' t a case that the live material in this period comes out for the most from the first album and from some old blues covers ) ; as result the sound is more complex, but fluent and catchy the same and even more!When I was talking about Doors' s blues legacy I said that they experimented some kind of songs like "End Of The Night" that are something different and original.Here they reprised this way and most of the song are in this style, like the title track and "You' Re Lost Little Girl" and "Unhappy Girl".Another good feature of this album is the growth of Krieger ; he surely did great work on the previous album but there was Manzarek the musical leader.Differently here is more predominant ( but he didn' t overshadow the others ) and his style has been improved, just think to the groovy rhythm work on "Love Me Two Times", to his fancy for licks in "My Eyes Have Seen You", to the use of the guitar as sonic tool in "When The Music' S Over" : solid and inventive at the same time.I have already partially speak of the song, so now a brief analysis of the most remarkables.The title track has a fantastic organ background that, linked with threatening lyrics, represents the best way to introduce the listener to Jim' s gloomy world ; and there are also some nuances of violence in that break and the hard riffing part with Jim screaming all over the music."Love Me Two Times" is the only rock number here ; the lyrics are stupid and generic but as usual the way in which Morrison sings them is enough convincing and scaring.But the song has a fantastic rhythmic section and has a fantastic and loud bluesy riff that really improves the song."Unhappy Girl" is an introspective song with melancholic and sad lyrics ; the music is one of the best examples of Doors' darkness : the intro with the majestic organ with a glockenspiel that glimmers here and there, the delicate drums rolls and Krieger on guitar making something similar to....err....tuhuu, tuhuu...sorry I can' t explain better ; plus the guitar solo is so languid and full of despair ; add Jim' s voice and you' ll have one of the best song by the Doors ( but maybe it' s too Doors-ish )."Moonlight Drive" is the most funny song here, with the usual "stoned" lyrics of the epoch, but it' s not stupid as "I Looked At You", mainly thanks to superbous guitar work."People Are Strange" is a confessional song, without a majestic organ or furious guitar work, about the social alienation : but the dark lyrics and the smooth but breathtaking guitar make the song very relaxed but also sadly resigned.Very cool and gloomy.The jolly on this album is surely "My Eyes Have Seen You" ; based on generic and repetitive lyrics the song is remarkable mostly for its crescendo, suddenly interrupted by the next strophe until the music explode with the best solo by Krieger, then the music calm down again, then grows in intensity then stops.The lyrics are stupid and also the music isn' t among Door' s best, but it' s extremely well arranged and it' s short, so you haven' t to stand for long it."I Can' t See Your Face In My Mind" is another gloomy and dark song, with fragmentary use of piano and percusion expecially in the beginning that makes the music at least a bit diverse.The intro is surely cool, then the song becomes something already heard ( this doesn' t mean bad, but maybe at this point you may receive boredom ), but the relaxed proceding prepare the ground for my favourite Doors' song : "When The Music' S Over".The last track is an ode, in "The End" style, but with different musical themes, some of them borrowed from "20th Century Fox" and from the middle-intrumental part of "Light My Fire", mixed in a tasteful way, with a wise use of pauses that increases the sensation of menace of the entire song.The beginning is a threatening scream by Morrison who begins to sing in an hypnotic way the main theme ; then there is a little pause, when the music calms down then the noise-solo by Krieger explodes with all its strenght : it' s brainstorming but also controlled and of the right lenght, not long nor too short.Then there was the most introspective moments, with a sourt of confesional mood, in which there is also a good drums improvisation.Jim sings "...before I sink into the big sleep I want to hear the scream of butterfly.." and then the famous "We want the world and we want it NOW!".At this point the music explodes another time then it ends in a circular way.A true masterpiece.
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1. Tell All The People-I honestly can't write with an unbiased
perspective on this song, but I can tell you this; this is easily one of the
best pop songs ever and equal to anything off of "Abbey Road" this same year.
It actually makes the naive lyrics sound great. One wouldn't want to be around
this humble author however when he's listening to this, as I get visions of
leading a guerilla army while listening to this. It's the pictures it puts in
your head man, those songs are the best. I know Morrison hated this song, but
I honestly don't give a shit. Krieger was simply on fire on this album and this
song is his crowning moment.
2. Touch Me-Lots of fans point to this song as a sellout, but their most likely
knaves who only pay attention to the shmaltzy lyrics, which admittedly rule
in this setting. If they'd actually listen to the rest of the song, they'd find
out that it rocks harder than most Iron Maiden/Judas Priest songs. A song like
this is what seperates the Doors from well-meaning imitators. Along with "21st
Century Schizoid Man" the same year, this proves that "metal-jazz," as I like
to call these two songs can be one of the most cathartic sounds ever.
3. Shaman's Blues-Finally, Morrison contributes a song. This album was made
in a tumultous period and he only contributed half the songs on here, but it's
quality over quantity, duuuuuude. It's unreal how this blues can have so many
awesome hooks. Great example of winding, slithering rhythms and nice guitar
tone there, Krieger.
4. Do It-Can you say filler?
5. Easy Ride-Blues-pop, I guess. Sounds like a throwaway until you realize how
many hooks this sucker packs. Morrison was rightfully pissed that they didn't
release it as a single. Vocal melody sounds similar to ones System Of A Down
would pen 30 years later, and that's a compliment. And so concludes the first
side.
6. Wild Child-Best riff on the album and an unexpected ending. Written reportedly
about Danny Sugerman, who's a leech btw. It reinforces the idea that the Doors
had few peers when it came to doing blues-rock.
7. Running Blue-Flopped as a single, but that was more due to blacklisting than
the actual song itself. I don't know what the hell this song is. You just have
to listen for yourself. Otis Redding would have been proud.
8. Wishful Sinful-Another single flop, but shouldn't of been. This minor classic
is Krieger's version of "The Crystal Ship." It isn't as good, but few things
are. Has an oboe in it though, if that's any indication.
9. The Soft Parade-I'm not running with the pack and naming this the best song
on the album, even though it's an obvious masterpiece and a helluva singalong
number. It has more hooks than Bob Dylan's career, but it sounds to mechanical
and robotic for it to have any emotional resonance, just like "Close To The
Edge." It's entertaining, but I usually feel jack-shit while listening to it,
unless I'm singing along with it in the car.
My Final Thought-This album seems to be one of those cases where critics throw
darts at a board to see which album will be the "black sheep." Horns and orchestration????
Big effin' deal. The Beatles were getting praised for the same reasons. Didn't
the critics like the Doors for their idiosyncracies and vibe. This album is
like the peak of that. It really pisses me off that most of the singles flopped
from this album, especially "Tell All The People." "Touch Me" did manage to
come out in time before the Miami incident and make #1, but it was lucky. Before
you get into the Doors, you know you'll definitely have to get their first 2
albums, well here's one more you have to buy/download. There shouldn't even
be debates about this albums merits.
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Handle with care.This is my recomendation for this album, because this time the Doors, after the success of "Morrison Hotel", made the change of direction even more obvious than in the previous album and as result this is a pure blues album.Goes without saying : don't expect to find the darkness as in the first two album and don' t dismiss this album saying it' s generic.Both of this approaches are partially wrong ; first of all I' m not among the people who expects a immobile band, without changes : if the Doors want to turn back to their bluesy roots, I don' t see anything wrong, only a loss of originality.Can you tell me what fault did they make?But on the other side I think this loss of originality isn' t that radical : of course there are some generic blues numbers, with the usual and repetitive bass lines, the conventional licks ( "Cars Hiss By My Window" is the most evident example ), but after al the Doors are good arrangers and they managed to keep high the level of each song, sometimes with tasteful piano parts, sometimes with passional vocals interpretation, sometimes with furious guitar work and simple but efficient solos by Krieger.So most of the song is enjoyable and often you can' t help to keep the beat with your foot.And another thing to count is that in those years the songwriting ability was surely improved, and this is proved by the fact that, even if they didn' t manage to have the same fancy of "Strange Days", they never lost the sense of melody, the ability of coming out with tasteful riffs always put in an adequate environment, created by Manzarek ( for me his style changed a lot : he lose a bit of his majesty and gothic background in favour of "vaudeville-ish" pianos or happy country lines, like on the title track ).Another features of this album is the predominance of Krieger and "L.A. Woman" is surely a great showcase for his bluesy background.Howewer I think here they lost a bit their personality : you know for me originality is very important, and here Doors seem to fall a fashion of the epoch, when the biggest record companies discovered that with blues they can do a lot of money ( an example of this can be seen in "Deja-Vù" by CSN, even if this album is a good one ).Of course the quality of the album forces me to pass on this fact but I can understand if hard-core Doors fans feel the band, and expecially the anti-conventional leader Morrison, as a bunch of traitors : what' s happened to the old Jim?To remind his identity we have only that hideous "Crawling King Snake"!!!A brief look at the songs.The openers is an hard-rock-blues numbers, nothing in comparison with "Roadhouse Blues", but the rough main riff, played sometimes by the guitar and sometimes by the keyboard, is not that bad, plus Kriger in the middle of the song plays a compact but good solo with wha-wha."Love Her Madly" is remarkable mainly for the happy and fast eletric piano that runs all over the song, while "Been Down So Long" has an impressive roaring vocal part ; Jim' s voice changed a bit with the time and it became a bit rougher and deep, making this song ( and also "The Changeling" ) very good from this point of view.After the galloping groove of the title track we have the gloomy beginning of "L' America" ( I don' t know so much about the inspiration for this song, but italian emigrants were used to call the U.S.A. as "Lamerica" ) made so frightening with slow and distorced guitar riffs.Ops, I' ve passed on "Car Hiss By My Window", a standard blues on which Jim imitate a wha-wha with his voice."Hyacinth House" is a smooth ballad, with interesting lyrics ( maybe not so interesting but as usual Jim is very convincing in singing them ), made more precious thanks to a good work on bass, an "atmospheric" organ ( at 1.35 the song is on, Manzarek plays some fragmentary and syncopated chords on his keyboard ) and delicate choruses.Then we have two songs that leave me very cold : "Crawling King Snake" is not only generic but also suffers of a great lack of melody."The WASP" is at least a bit more catchy, with its pumping rhythm, but it' s a jolly and you can' tgo on with a jolly for more than two minutes.The masterpiece here is surely "Riders On The Storm" : the song begins with the noises ofa storm, then Manzarek begins to play a crystalline and limpid piano line, backed by a charming organ.Jim' s vocal are double recorded with an overdub in which Jim sings the same lines but with a lower tone ; of course the song si remarkable mainly for the piano parts, but for also, more in general, also the guitar part are arranged and put in the song with gusto.A suggestion : forget the lyrics!Is this a song about bikers?Boh, I don' t know, but the music is very good.
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