Help me appreciate The Doors

[magiccarpetride]

I've never been into The Doors, despite the fact that I always thought how "Light My Fire" and "Riders On The Storm" are good songs. But somehow no other song I've listened to by them could hold my attention.

Finally decided that it is time to re-evaluate my position regarding The Doors. After all, they are one of the most respected big acts in the history of rock. Such level of adoration must indicate that some real quality must be hidden in there.

So I did some reading on this band's opus, and decided to give it another try with their allegedly 'best' album -- "Strange Days". I got me an original pressing of that LP, and was very excited to hear what the fuss is all about.

Well, I'm sorry to say, but that LP left me totally unimpressed. I still feel that their shtick is mostly a pretentious, oh-so-dark-and-messed-up faux bohemian drivel.

Can anyone help me clarify this confusion? On one hand so many people are raving about this band as being one of the greatest ever, but on the other hand all I'm hearing is vacuous posturing and rather amateurish musicianship. Plus, Morrison's vocals are quite lame, boiling down to nothing more than high-school level theatrical histrionics.

So where's the epiphany, what am I missing here?

[Macca]

Who says Strange Days was their best? Give them a slap from me.

The two best are the first album, imaginatively entitled 'The Doors' on which every tune is a classic, and 'LA Woman', their last album.

Then maybe 'Strange Days', and 'Morrison Hotel', with 'The Soft Parade' bringing up the rear.

Partly though, and the same is true for any band I feel, the adoration is based on getting into them when young and impressionable, instead of trying to do it when older and jaded.

Textbook-wise, the combination of superb classically trained musicians set against Morrison's old style crooning and interesting lyrics isn't something you get anymore. Nowdays anyone who knows a few chords and can think up half a hook sells millions. We have punk to blame for that. The 'Anyone can have a go' philosophy. True, but to do something special you have to be properly good. The Doors were.

[magiccarpetride]

Who says Strange Days was their best? Give them a slap from me.

The two best are the first album, imaginatively entitled 'The Doors' on which every tune is a classic, and 'LA Woman', their last album.

Then maybe 'Strange Days', and 'Morrison Hotel', with 'The Soft Parade' bringing up the rear.

Partly though, and the same is true for any band I feel, the adoration is based on getting into them when young and impressionable, instead of trying to do it when older and jaded.

Textbook-wise, the combination of superb classically trained musicians set against Morrison's old style crooning and interesting lyrics isn't something you get anymore. Nowdays anyone who knows a few chords and can think up half a hook sells millions. We have punk to blame for that. The 'Anyone can have a go' philosophy. True, but to do something special you have to be properly good. The Doors were.

Thanks for the clarification. So I'm not the only one who feels "Strange Days" sounds whacked and pretentious? Plus, I'm not hearing any stellar musicianship on there. The guitar is pretty amateurish, and the bass playing is your vanilla stock studio playing. The drums are unremarkable, it is only the keyboard that holds some interest, musically speaking.

[Macca]

Not sure about amateurish playing , but they did have to tone it down as these were pop records they were making; that did cause some unrest in the band IIRC.

[Joe]

So where's the epiphany, what am I missing here?

I think the Doors, like many other groups, are best appreciated via an intelligent compilation rather than a whole album, as the individual albums contain a lot of 'filler'. So for the Doors, 'Weird Scenes Inside Goldmine' is all you really need. I bought that first back in the '70s, then picked up the individual albums one by one as bargain CDs during the '90s, but really if I'd stuck with just 'Weird Scenes ....' I wouldn't have missed out on much. Having said that, I was always more of a Stooges/VU fan than a Doors fan.

[narabdela]

Help me appreciate The Doors

Tough call! :hmm:

[Werner Berghofer]

Alex,

the bass playing is your vanilla stock studio playingI guess you are aware that Ray Manzarek, the keyboarder, played ”bass“ on most of their records? I fully agree with your opinion about The Doors. Even 40 years ago as a young man I thought most of their stuff was embarrassing and ridiculous. However, their last album ”LA woman“ has some fine moments.

[Haselsh1]

LOL, I am so with you on this one

;)

[struth]

Had a few decent songs but thats about all for me. Girls fancied Jim rotton though so that helped, as did the drugs in appreciation.

[Macca]

Philistines.

[Barry]

Well I think that Strange Days is an excellent album, only matched by Morrison Hotel. In fact I love them all, save for Soft Parade, which IMO is by far their weakest album.

Agree with Martin, you really have to have got "into" the Doors at the time, as I did. When people would ask me what was my favourite group, I would answer "The Doors", knowing full well they expected me to say the Beatles, or the Kinks, or any other British group.

[alphaGT]

I've never been big on the Doors. In her late 20's, my daughter gave up rap and pop music in favor of Classic Rock. She is a huge Beatle fan. But she loves the Doors! Why? I couldn't say. I've got many friends who like them, they request I play their first album, (the only one I own) when they visit.

But I got into a discussion ( read argument) about the bass player years ago, so I checked it out on Wikipedia. Apparently they did not have a bass guitar player in the band. They never, ever appeared live with a bass player on stage, the bass synth of the keyboards was all that was ever on stage. However, they felt that vinyl recordings were not doing the bass synth justice, so, they always used a session bass player on their studio albums. A different one on each of them, except one guy appeared twice. It seems they appeared in California about the same time as LSD, so maybe that's why youngsters thought they were good? Morrison was a poet and some of his friends had a band in need of lyrics. So, he would write a poem, they would take it and set it to music in his absence, and then he would sing it as he saw fit. I've heard parallels of Red Hot Chili Peppers, doing the same thing. Except they might have some talent? I remember a girl at the pub that had a tattoo of a salamander with a crown on its head. No one could guess what it meant, until I said it was for Jim Morrison, the Lizard King. Go figure.


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[JimC]

....I guess you are aware that Ray Manzarek, the keyboarder, played ”bass“ on most of their records?

Just to clarify...........'' played ”bass“ ......'' on his keyboard.

I also agree with Macca, the two albums he mentions first in his initial post are the only ones I actually own and I love 'em.
And whenever I get to hear anything else of theirs I do enjoy them.

I have to disagree about their musicianship. I think their playing is superb.

Ah well, we can't all like the same things, it'd be a bit of a dull world !!

Jim.

[willbewill]

Well I think that Strange Days is an excellent album, only matched by Morrison Hotel. In fact I love them all, save for Soft Parade, which IMO is by far their weakest album.

Agree with Martin, you really have to have got "into" the Doors at the time, as I did. When people would ask me what was my favourite group, I would answer "The Doors", knowing full well they expected me to say the Beatles, or the Kinks, or any other British group.

+1

[Werner Berghofer]

Jim,

Just to clarify...........'' played ”bass“ ......'' on his keyboard.I know. This was the reason I wrote the word in quotation marks.

[Spectral Morn]

Like the Beatles, The Stones and others I didn't get the Doors either and then one night I watched a documentary about them and I began to see it and then got it. I would agree regarding first and last album being the best, but I know some fans don't rate LA Woman but its a stunning album and Riders on the Storm is incredible.

[The Black Adder]

The Doors are great. They had some duffers but generally the albums gel quite well.

I think you need to understand a couple of things to really appreciate them. Mostly, Jim Morrison himself and the amount of crazed drugs he did together with the turmoil in society back then in the States.

Pretentious maybe, but Jim was quite heavy on politics and very passionate about how the world was. He was a creative and with that it brings me to the other thing to embrace which is that the whole band wanted to create something new.

Something that wasn't Beatlesque or anything completely mainstream.

Like Jefferson airplane, to some their albums were hit n miss too but they were in the same boat as the doors.

Crown of creation is to some not good, yet I like it and just as good as surrealistic pillow.

It was all before my time yet I can see what they were trying/wanting to do.

Not much help I suppose and all this is my own opinion but I think the more commercial tracks like light my fire etc. Like many other bands of the same ear, they can tend to distract from the real meaning behind the band.

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[Clive]

Waiting for the Sun.

[Macca]

Morrison's background is interesting. His father was an Admiral in the US Navy, so he was something of a rich kid but had been brought up in a very 'buttoned down' environment. So getting out to California at the time that it was all happening had a major effect on him. As usual, right time, right place, right people. He was shy singing at first and Manzerek often had to sing at the early gigs.

[The Black Adder]

Waiting for the Sun.Superb!

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[ianlenco]

Back in 1968 I saw a documentary about the Doors on the BBC and was hooked, buying Strange Days a few days later. Taking the album into school it was suggested I was a bit of a weirdo, something I took as a compliment :eyebrows:
Alex, have you ever seen Apocalypse Now? "The End" so fits and the lyrics so make sense in this context. Then there's "When the Music's Over"

When the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over, turn out the lights
Turn out the lights, turn out the lights, yeah

..........and I like the scream of the butterfly :lol:

[walpurgis]

Back in 1968 I saw a documentary about the Doors on the BBC and was hooked, buying Strange Days a few days later

That's about the same time I discovered The Doors. (and about a year after I discovered Jefferson Airplane......White Rabbit blew my mind! :eek:)

[User211]

I think Absolutely Live is my fave Doors album. Double vinyl and the SQ is better than you'd expect.

Just a great vibe all the way through it. TIDAL has it. Check it out people[emoji41]. And give the singer some.

[magiccarpetride]

The Doors are great. They had some duffers but generally the albums gel quite well.

I think you need to understand a couple of things to really appreciate them. Mostly, Jim Morrison himself and the amount of crazed drugs he did together with the turmoil in society back then in the States.

Pretentious maybe, but Jim was quite heavy on politics and very passionate about how the world was. He was a creative and with that it brings me to the other thing to embrace which is that the whole band wanted to create something new.

Something that wasn't Beatlesque or anything completely mainstream.

Like Jefferson airplane, to some their albums were hit n miss too but they were in the same boat as the doors.

Crown of creation is to some not good, yet I like it and just as good as surrealistic pillow.

It was all before my time yet I can see what they were trying/wanting to do.

Not much help I suppose and all this is my own opinion but I think the more commercial tracks like light my fire etc. Like many other bands of the same ear, they can tend to distract from the real meaning behind the band.

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Interesting, I think I read somewhere that the Doors thought, while recording "Strange Days", that they were going to release something that would be bigger than anything the Beatles have ever done. This allegedly came from the 'leak' whereby someone gave them a copy of Sgt. Pepper's before it was originally released. Jim and the band were in awe of what they were hearing, and decided to top it with "Strange Days".

Heh. Did they succeed?

[Barry]

Interesting, I think I read somewhere that the Doors thought, while recording "Strange Days", that they were going to release something that would be bigger than anything the Beatles have ever done. This allegedly came from the 'leak' whereby someone gave them a copy of Sgt. Pepper's before it was originally released. Jim and the band were in awe of what they were hearing, and decided to top it with "Strange Days".

Heh. Did they succeed?

No - but it was a hard act to follow.

[Minstrel SE]

The Doors are great so I dont really understand anyone that is stuggling to get into them. Light my fire and riders are my least favourite but I cant think of any duffers that they have done.

Anything off the top of my head is superb really...... The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat), Crawling king snake, Hyacinth House, Roadhouse Blues, People Are Strange, LA woman...THE END which is a stunning piece of work........ The live recordings are amazing

I will take The Doors over both the Beatles and the Stones so less of the nonsense on here please :)

Jim Morrisons SEMINAL sixties outfit and I fail to see how they wouldn't move you.

[magiccarpetride]

The Doors are great so I dont really understand anyone that is stuggling to get into them. Light my fire and riders are my least favourite but I cant think of any duffers that they have done.

Anything off the top of my head is superb really...... The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat), Crawling king snake, Hyacinth House, Roadhouse Blues, People Are Strange, LA woman...THE END which is a stunning piece of work........ The live recordings are amazing

I will take The Doors over both the Beatles and the Stones so less of the nonsense on here please :)

Jim Morrisons SEMINAL sixties outfit and I fail to see how they wouldn't move you.

Yeah, the Doors seem more popular with the 'other' crowd.