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Of all the albums that formed the soundtrack to 1967’s “Summer of Love,” The Doors is the one least tethered to its time. More importantly, The Doors’ self-titled disc remains one of the greatest debuts in rock history. Spanning a startling range of styles—swampy blues-rock, psychedelic jazz, hard-coated pop-rock, and even German cabaret—the album was ambitious in scope, but also loaded with visceral energy. To this day, few albums sound more inspired.
“We stayed away from trendy clichés, including the use of popular devices of the time like wah pedals,” producer Paul Rothchild said in the Jim Morrison biography, Break On Through.“I asked the band if they wanted to be remembered in 20 years, and they said, ‘Yes.’ I told them that, in that case, we couldn’t use any tricks. It had to stay honest and it had to be pure.”
Two cover-song choices—a carnival-like rendering of the Kurt Weil track “Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar),” and a searing version of the Willie Dixon/Howlin’ Wolf classic, “Back Door Man”—showcased the stylistic extremes The Doors were willing to take on. Instrumentally, Ray Manzarek’s keyboards were often front and center, but it was Robbie Krieger’s tasteful guitar work that formed the backbone for most of the tracks. Krieger’s extended solo on “Light My Fire,” for instance, sported economical jazz runs and Latin-tinged colors that exuded elegance, rather than cheap flair or showiness.
“The guitar music I first played was classical Spanish flamenco music,” Krieger told writer Kevin McCarley, in a 2007 interview. “[Later], around 1963, I got into the American roots-folks music scene. It was all folk music, flamenco, and bluegrass-style acoustic. But then, with The Doors, I also got into blues stuff. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was my favorite band at the time [The Doors] album was made.”
To create the sounds he wanted, and to facilitate his classic style, Krieger relied almost exclusively on SGs during his tenure with The Doors. Krieger owned “four or five” SG standards, but his go-to guitar for The Doors album was an SG Special with P-90s. Through the years, he’s cited many reasons why he prefers SGs, and in a 2009 interview with Gibson, he cut to the heart of the matter.
I really liked the look of it. For some reason it looked very psychedelic to me. Also, the fact that there were so many frets available really appealed to me. Compared to a lot of guitars, it’s just very easy to play up high. It’s also very light, which I like as well. When The Doors got going, of course, I could’ve had any pick of many guitars, and I tried them all. But I stuck with the SG because I really loved the way it sounded. It’s a very good working man’s guitar.
Having honed themselves into a tight-knit unit through countless performances in L.A. clubs, Krieger, Manzarek, and drummer John Densmore formed the perfect vehicle in which Jim Morrison could shine. Contrasting with his charismatic persona, Morrison was less a “belter” in the classic rock mode than an old-school crooner. True, tracks such as “Back Door Man” and “The End” featured moments of vocal histrionics, but more often Morrison sang in a voice that conveyed, in the words of writers James Riordan and Jerry Prochnicky, “insolent lust mixed with mystic wisdom.”
“Part of the magnetism is the feeling of elusiveness Morrison’s voice creates, as if he were singing for himself,” the two men wrote. “Morrison sang rock with a full baritone, which was very unique for his time. He was a crooner and no one had ever heard a crooner with a hard rock edge before.”
Indeed, in the end, The Doors proved innovative on several fronts, and vastly influential. Lyrically, with the exception of the Velvet Underground, no band to that point had tackled themes as daringly poetic as “The End.” Musically, no group had so successfully synthesized the raucous spirit of rock and roll with the improvisational precision of jazz. Without The Doors’ music to light the way, the career paths of artists as diverse as Patti Smith, Bauhaus, and Nick Cave may well have been radically different.
“The Doors was the culmination of everything we had worked for,” Manzarek told Rolling Stone in 1987. “One of Morrison’s lines of poetry is, ‘In that year we had an intense visitation of energy.’ Well, in that two-week period while we were recording, we had an intense visitation of energy. The muse descended upon us.”
While Jim Morrison was vacationing in France, Ray Manzarek, John Desmore, and Robbie Krieger began laying down tracks for The Doors next album. Little did they realize at the time that he was not coming back. He was found dead in his apartment bathtub on July 3, 1971. His gravesite in Pere Lachaise Cemetery is one of the leading tourist attractions in Paris.
The remaining members of the group would forge ahead and release Other Voices during the fall of 1972. It would be critically panned at the time but did become a moderate commercial success reaching number 68 on The American album charts.
The album is not all bad, just half bad. It can be divided into two parts. The first four songs range from competent to good while the last four are increasingly poor. The beauty of the original vinyl release is you could listen to side one without ever turning the record over.
“In The Eye Of The Sun” is close to a classic Doors song. It contains excellent lyrics, some creative guitar work by Krieger, and some surprisingly good vocals from Manzarek. “Variety Is The Spice Of Life” has a different beat than the usual Doors material. While Robbie Krieger’s vocals are inoffensive, they make you yearn for Morrison. “Ships With Sails” would have been a good fit for L.A. Woman and is one of the few times the band sings harmony. “Tightrope Ride” is the album's best track and is one of the better productions of Krieger’s career.
Now for the bad news because there is a flip side to the release. “Down On The Farm” is basically a poorly constructed song. “I’m Horny, I’m Stoned” was a humorous song that ended up laughable. The vocal by Krieger is listless at best. “Wandering Musician” may be an old Doors style song but the quality is not there. “Hang On To Your Life” concludes the album on a dismal note.
The remaining Doors had the unenviable and impossible task of producing an album without the vocal point of the group. Jim Morrison was the key piece of The Doors puzzle, and without him everything just did not come together. There is some acceptable music here but the album pales when compared to any of their six classic studio releases.
“I woke up this morning and got myself a beer,” and with those lyrics, The Doors were off and running with one of the best albums of their career.
The Doors released their fifth studio album during February of 1970. Morrison Hotel and the album which followed, L. A. Woman, would be the culmination of their career.
Robbie Krieger was the primary creative force behind their last album, The Soft Parade, but now Jim Morrison stepped to the forefront again. His fusion of a blues/hard rock sound with his poetry opened a new chapter in the band's career. The album was a critical and commercial success. Despite not containing any huge hit singles, it still reached number four on the American charts.
This is an album that just makes sense and hangs together well. I was working for my college radio station when it was released and remember many of the songs being in heavy rotation. My personal copy received a lot of play on my turn table at the time, and I still give it a spin every now and then. Forty years has not lessened the enjoyment or impact of this release.
“Roadhouse Blues” is the first track and sets the tone for the album. It is straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll. Lonnie Mack was the bassist but also played the sophisticated lead guitar runs even though he was unaccredited in the album notes. The final track, “Maggie M’Gill,” is a fine blues rocker and is a nice bookend for the album. There was also a lot of good material in between these two rocking tracks.
I don’t know why “Waiting For The Sun” was left off the prior album of the same name, but this slowing building track is excellent. “Peace Frog” with its social commentary and wah-wah guitar intro is one of the classics in the Doors' catalogue. It also segues into “Blue Sunday,” which is a nice change of pace.
There are a number of other very good to excellent tracks. “Queen Of The Highway” was a rocking tribute to girlfriend Pamela Courson. “Indian Summer” has a simplistic beauty. “Ship Of Fools” has a wonderful soulful vocal by Morrison. “You Make Me Real” may be filler but it is superior filler.
Morrison Hotel is raunchy, energetic, and explosive. It is bar band music at its best. It remains a superior testament to one of rock’s enduring bands.
The Soft Parade was released about a year after Waiting For The Sun and it found a far different Doors. Jim Morrison was in an alcoholic daze much of the time and working on solo projects. Robbie Krieger would be the central character in the creation of this album. He added some brass and strings in places and created a more pop/rock album than their previous releases. I don’t know if it’s the weakest of their six main studio albums but it is very different.
The album was the first time individual writing credits were issued rather than the compositions being attributed to The Doors as a group. It seemed Jim Morrison was not happy with some of Krieger’s lyrics and wanted to make sure the public knew he was not involved with their creation.
Four Krieger compositions were released as singles with varying degrees of success. The biggest hit and one of the better songs in their catalogue was “Touch Me.” The sound was fuller than most of their material and Morrison’s vocal is classic. It would reach number three on the American charts. “Tell All The People” was a song Morrison disliked to the extreme. I have always liked the song but then I also like Blood, Sweat & Tears, who could have recorded it and not missed a beat. “Runnin’ Blue” was a brass laden track on which Krieger and Morrison shared the lead vocals. “Wishful Sinful” was closer to the classic Doors sound but it was the flip side of the original single that was the gem. ”Who Scared You” was a rare non-album B side and an excellent song in its own right.
Jim Morrison did write a number of tracks that were very different from Krieger’s which gave the album a disjointed feel. “Wild Child” was urgent, hypnotic, sensual, and dark. “Shaman’s Blues” was threatening and stripped down as it looked ahead to the group’s future. The title track clocked in at over eight minutes. It began with Jim Morrison ranting like a possessed preacher. The line “petition the Lord with prayer” was a look into his mind. The song takes off from there with tempo changes and mood swings.
The Soft Parade was an ambitious affair in some ways. It was also uneven and for many fans of The Doors, an acquired taste. It remains an interesting part of The Doors journey.
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