POO!: The Doors

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There is one song by the Doors which doesn't suck. And it varies from person to person. What say you?

Keiko, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Moonlight Drive". I really do love Los Angeles, I do.

Arthur, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Peace Frog" -- brilliant song with a stupid title.

Alex in NYC, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Love Me Two Times".... I don't actually remember what it sounds like, besides the hook. I like the lyric.. to the hoook.. Kind of.

Keiko, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"People Are Strange"

Tim DiGravina, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Keiko, love the addition of the exclamation point after the POO. Genius. Really. :)

Tim DiGravina, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

But Keiko, I could probably name more than one Doors song too. ;-)

I'll go for "Moonlight Drive" now as well. For now.

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

'Waiting for the Sun'

Michael Dieter, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

keiko that's a real important significant subgenregenre of bands to've identified, bands that you sort of hate but there's one song you think is great. & yeah the doors are in a way a perfect example...uh except there's actually a few songs by them i like i guess. but y'know.

unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

another significant-but-i'm-not-sure-how thing - richard meltzer is hands down my fav writer to've ever writ about rock music but his favourite band is THE DOORS! an absolute joke band to me. so

unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh yeah anyway my fav doors song'd be 'the end'

unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

('subgenregenre'?)

unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm still sticking with "People Are Strange," but Michael's choice of Waiting for the Sun had me going to the lyrics. Pretty funny, and I'm not knocking his POO selection in the slightest: "Waiting for the sun, waiting for the sun, waiting for the sun, waiting for the sun. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting." Splendid stuff.

Tim DiGravina, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

oh Tim did you invent POO? sorry if i gave props to the wrong guy. Keiko's statement "There is one song by the Doors which doesn't suck. And it varies from person to person" is k-klassik anyway.

unknown or illegal user, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

unknown or illegal, that's okay... no props are necessary. Keiko made the POO/OPO category a classic with his exclamation point alone.

Tim DiGravina, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Twentieth Century Fox" - I don't know why.

J Blount, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tosches also loves the Doors. What is that all abt?

Saccharine Trust's version of 'Peace Frog' is v. good, tho'.

Andrew L, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

let's say it in low volume but their first album is not so bad

francesco, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Five to One. It's heavy.

Jordan, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Tosches also loves the Doors." - this holds true for all the noise boys (although I don't know if he ever wrote any raves, I don't doubt Bangs seriously dug the Doors, especially considering how big a Coltrane fan he was) and associates (ie. Patti Smith, whose cover of "Gloria" owes as much to Jim Morrison as Van Morrison). Meltzer's Doors love is especially troubling; considering how much bullshit he's been able to see through, his Morrison devotion is mystifying at best.

J Blount, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"The Crystal Ship"

The Oliver Stone film is a joke, Danny Sugarman should have never written the book and Morrison's poetry isn't very good, that being said, I can still never understand why some will praise some complete minor 60s psych rock and then turn around and say The Doors were a horrible group. To each their own.

earlnash, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I hate to be 'when i was 12' but it's TRUE, when I was 12 and liked the doors Peace Frog was far my favourite song. Then when I was 20 and heard Mikey Havoc playing it in a bar like 'this isn't ironic, this song's really good you know' i thought, yeah well, obviously everybody thinks that. what is my point, don't have one.

maryann, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

why shouldnt d sugarman have writ the book ? just curious cause i never read it. the revival of 1991 was exhausting. it put many of 'our' generation off completely, and i think that's why there's still so much anti- doors feeling about (especially over here) among 20-somethings. the movie sux a big un and was tedious, which didn't help. 'is everybody in ? ...' oh shut up you big ninny.

'peace frog'.

piscesboy, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

By virute of being the right song at the right time in a good movie The End.

Mr Noodles, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"The Crystal Ship" for me too.

I like The Doors.

sundar subramanian, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Doors are pretty much the lamest band that people seem to hold up high, and the only song I can stand is "People Are Strange". They are the best band so far to fall under the POO category.

Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

" some will praise some complete minor 60s psych rock and then turn around and say The Doors were a horrible group. To each their own. "

thats where i'm at! autosalvage are so better than the Doors ! & i've never even heard them!

, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Wishful Sinful" is a beautiful song...

Joe, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" has some of the weirdest instrumental backing in a '60s pop song. It sounds like mutant lounge music with steel guitar and xylophones and whathaveyou. (This is a very high recommendation, actually.)

Nate Patrin, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

One more vote for "Crystal Ship."

Christine "Green Leafy" Indigo, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

the crystal ship. the unknown soldier. the end.

cecilia, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"My Eyes Have Seen You"

dave q, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Doors are probably the most inexplicably loved band ever. With most overrated acts, I can at least sort of see why they're so adored, but the Doors, for God's sake...they sound like a drawn-out, dull Question Mark and the Mysterians with a second-rate Vegas lounge singer droning idiotic gibberish that only the most severely stoned of the pretentious, goth literature-reading teenage crowd would think was anything resembling 'poetry.'

I have NEVER remotely understood why anyone likes the Doors, and the fact that writers as talented as Meltzer and Tosches have failed to convince me (I think Bangs comes closest to my own view of them; see his article in that big Rolling Stone book from the late seventies) of their genius indicates that I'm probably never going to figure it out.

...but "The End" is still pretty good. Sigh.

Justyn Dillingham, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Mike Nelson of MST3K is a noted Doors hater and delivered a devestating rip on Jim Morrison in his first book. Fave bit -- where he asks you to imagine your dad, beefy and off-key, warbling a Doors song in the shower, and then noting how little difference there is between that and the real thing. ;-)

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

The line "I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer/The future's uncertain and the end is always near" perfectly sums up depressive alcoholic psychology. In the morning, anyway. Morrison would have been a better country singer than a rock one. "Touch Me" and "Light My Fire"--both written without Morrison's help (except for the dumb "funeral pyre" verse)--are good, enduring pop songs. When I reviewed Manzarek's autobiography I learned that the band's secret plan was for Morrison to run for the White House when he turned 35, and when he was elected to declare that the "revolution" was now officially on.

Todd Brandenburg, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

touch me - yes.

grimble, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Woefully overrated, but a number of fine moments; "People Are Strange" in probably my favorite. I also can't hear "Twentieth Century Fox" without laughing.

Vinnie, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

meet me on the back on the bangbus!!

mark s, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Acen - "Close Your Eyes"

Paul, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I really don't understand the Doors-hate on this board. Yes, Morrison could be incredibly turgid and pompous, and there is more filler than there should be on those middle-period albums, but the accomplishment of their best songs can't be denied. Their combination of blues, rock, pop, Eastern modes, and Morrison's considerable charisma congealed into something unique and elemental. If you don't like a song like "Love Me Two Times", I don't think you like rock and roll.

o. nate, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

No, if you don't like a song like "Long Tall Sally" you don't like rock n roll. There's a big difference.

J Blount, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i like all the doors except morrison

mark s, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Why does it have to be one or the other?

o. nate, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

(I was referring to the "Long Tall Sally" comparison, not Mark's post.)

o. nate, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't love rock'n'roll. That said "LA Woman" makes a virtue of its pomp - Queen could have done it. (And speaking of Queen....)

Tom, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

i like all the doors except morrison

I would agree with this, except that I find Morrison at his best to be a very charismatic vocalist and though he was responsible for lots of overblown lyrical conceits and probably the worst excesses of the band, he also provided an imagery and sensibility which was central to the band's overall effect.

o. nate, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Have a guess.

Jeff W, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

stumped me, i can't think of a doors song that doesn't suck.

gygax! (i forgot my blog password), Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Many people I've known (myself included) went through a "Doors phase" at some point during adolescence; needless to say, my phase didn't last long.

That said, "LA Woman" makes my top ten list of great driving songs- and when the tune follows the Mojo jam by kicking right back into the initial melody, it is an exhilarating moment.

Ryan, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

eleven months pass...
"riders on the storm."

the doors became good when they stopped all the musical shaman-psychedelica horseshit and morphed into doing greasy bar-blooz.

Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 12 June 2003 07:31 (twenty years ago) link

frankie valli is still alive!

I've read Ta-nehisi Coates. (marcos), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:51 (seven years ago) link

I know, that was the flaw in my thinking.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:52 (seven years ago) link

I also wondered why Dave Stewart of the Eurhythmics was lurking by the pool table.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:54 (seven years ago) link

Then I realized that was silly and it was obviously Roy Harper.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:55 (seven years ago) link

that bar has a lot of differnt types of beer glasses and mugs

In heaven there will be appropriate glassware for various styles of beer - thank God!

Devastatin' Dan the Suggest Ban Man (Dan Peterson), Friday, 2 December 2016 20:55 (seven years ago) link

this is kinda cool, like the israeli serge gainsbourg or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orGAJiCzXTY

blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 2 December 2016 21:00 (seven years ago) link

wino's calf muscle is off the chain

blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 2 December 2016 21:02 (seven years ago) link

for real
kind of like the uncertain look jim and lou (?) are giving each other here
http://s6.favim.com/orig/150908/amy-winehouse-bob-marley-cielo-freddie-mercury-Favim.com-3258186.jpg

tylerw, Friday, 2 December 2016 21:06 (seven years ago) link

anyway, i could do this all day haha. back to the DOORS. the only band.

tylerw, Friday, 2 December 2016 21:06 (seven years ago) link

Also, weird that these paintings are all of dead people include Jim cuz he isn't dead.

chr1sb3singer, Friday, 2 December 2016 21:07 (seven years ago) link

no doubt about it, that's Marley's Ghost

tylerw, Friday, 2 December 2016 21:12 (seven years ago) link

"Touch Me" over "Running Blue," "Peace Frog," and "Hyacinth House."

timellison, Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:23 (seven years ago) link

i agree that james dean and marilyn are cool enough to be considered honorary rock stars

a but (brimstead), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:31 (seven years ago) link

vocals on "hyacinth house" sound like somebody doing a parody of jim morrison as an old man bitching across the table to his wife/bridge partner

xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:31 (seven years ago) link

seven months pass...

"Strange Days"

so apocalyptic. so psychedelic and dark. almost has a Pornography-era Cure vibe to it. and Morrison's anguished "yeah!" sounds pretty cool.

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 00:58 (six years ago) link

"not to touch the earth"

genuine dread as the ray's keybs and robby's guitar speed up and snake around each other

reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:04 (six years ago) link

^^ yeah I gotta go with that one, just barely beating out "Hello, I Love You"

sleeve, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:39 (six years ago) link

still "the crystal ship".

stirmonster, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:52 (six years ago) link

I have liked them a lot during my teenage years but nowadays the only track I enjoy from them is "LA woman". and it's great !

AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 09:22 (six years ago) link

I could prob do a PO5 for these guys, but if there's one I couldn't live without it's "Peace Frog," inexplicable Bridge included

Many men scream death (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 11:56 (six years ago) link

The Crystal Ship

calstars, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 12:29 (six years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN6Ri5aw504

stirmonster, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 12:31 (six years ago) link

la woman

marcos, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 13:30 (six years ago) link

then prob five to one

marcos, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 13:30 (six years ago) link

man i love the doors

marcos, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 13:30 (six years ago) link

"Touch Me"

dorsalstop, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 13:36 (six years ago) link

what I like about "LA woman" is its motoric influence + it's pure fun, no psychedelia/poetic bullshit.
actually, on the same album, the other track I still like is "riders on the storm".

AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 13:38 (six years ago) link

Riders, always and forever

honorable mentions today: strange days, five to one

brimstead, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:07 (six years ago) link

man i love the doors

^^^^

brimstead, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:07 (six years ago) link

'Not To Touch The Earth'

The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:17 (six years ago) link

can categorically say I do not actually love the Doors but I can vibe out to Riders on the Storm and LA Woman

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:20 (six years ago) link

and Five to One. And Peace Frog.

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:20 (six years ago) link

So many greats but I'm with stirmonster

wtev, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link

Or even 'The Celebration of the Lizard' (live, not studio)

(xxxpost)

The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link

La woman a close second

wtev, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 20:22 (six years ago) link

four years pass...

pretty random: decided to watch road house AGAIN and of course roadhouse blues is in there, played by jeff healey and his roadhouse band, so after the movie was over i put on the first doors album (that originally belonged to my mom, and which i “borrowed” years ago), then realised i wanted to hear l.a. woman, so i fired up spotify and there’s this thing, released today

https://open.spotify.com/album/16MdQbBQqegRmEkwshz2Ev?si=IET3bQ-jRy6tilem92Cznw

-a “remaster” of changeling (which i can’t really tell the difference on)
- a demo version of riders on the storm which isn’t as good because it lacks a lot of the drawn out electric piano riffing and a lot of the atmospherics, but which DOES include that absolutely tremendous bassline, even higher in the mix. does it remind anybody else of “billie jean”?
- an alternate take of l.a. woman which i think i might even prefer? it’s tighter, closer, jim’s lower in the mix

Tracer Hand, Friday, 29 October 2021 22:07 (two years ago) link

I can hear Billie Jean yeah and it’s a tremendous genius simple line that outlines the minor root and major IV really sneakily

calstars, Friday, 29 October 2021 22:40 (two years ago) link

I tried going further with the Doors, and not a single one of their albums held up from start-to-finish. I only kept this reference comp I made from audiophile reissues - few tracks are faultless, but I still enjoy listening to the whole thing quite a bit:

1 Break On Through (To The Other Side) 02:29
2 The Crystal Ship 02:35
3 Twentieth Century Fox 02:34
4 Light My Fire 07:08
5 Back Door Man 03:34
6 The End 11:42
7 Love Me Two Times 03:18
8 Moonlight Drive 03:01
9 People Are Strange 02:12
10 Hello, I Love You 02:15
11 Touch Me 03:18
12 Roadhouse Blues 04:02
13 Peace Frog 02:54
14 Land Ho! 04:08
15 Love Her Madly 03:22
16 L.A. Woman 07:52
17 The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) 04:16
18 Riders On The Storm 07:14

Most of it's already on the U.S. (i.e. single-CD) version of the 2001 compilation The Very Best of the Doors which Christgau graded as an A, the only Doors release to get that from him.

birdistheword, Friday, 29 October 2021 22:55 (two years ago) link

Actually maybe there's only one single-CD version? Hard to say, there's way too many Doors compilations (which makes burning my own kind of funny, but I wanted audiophile sources for mine).

birdistheword, Friday, 29 October 2021 22:58 (two years ago) link

anybody remember what that video was that stirmonster posted upthread?

Tracer Hand, Friday, 29 October 2021 23:03 (two years ago) link

nope. it might have been some version of "the crystal ship".

stirmonster, Friday, 29 October 2021 23:18 (two years ago) link

Growing your own comp might well be the best way to go---but then again, I did like several of their albums pretty much all the way through: the debut (personal revelation: "Alabama Song [Whiskey Bar], or vice versa, though I had heard tell of Brecht-Weill and Threepenny Opera, this led me to that and a lot more by those guys, sep and together---also, that marxophone, yow), Waiting For The Sun(Thee Eclectic Album which every aspiring and many a status-maintaining band had to make about then, and I played the HELL out of it man), also most of Morrison Hotel and LA Woman, which xgau did give an Aminus, o thank you Lord, and Absolutely Live, the only live Doors album I've heard, which is sensitive and caveman in just the right places.

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 00:50 (two years ago) link

And OK, sometimes sensitive caveman at the same time, long before early Vedder etc.

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 00:52 (two years ago) link

And a few years before most of us heard Kristofferson.

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 00:54 (two years ago) link

Of course he's more of a singer than either, but can come across as an asshole, unlike them)

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 00:57 (two years ago) link

xgau on Morrison Hotel...Morrison's gliding vocal presence--arty and self-absorbed though it may be--provides focus. He's not the genius he makes himself out to be, so maybe his genius is that he doesn't let his pretensions cancel out his talent. But will he blow it on this verse, or the next? Keeps me on my toes, not too laidback.

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 01:07 (two years ago) link

"Sensitive Cavemen Take The Blue Bus Into The Goldmine..."

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 30 October 2021 01:07 (two years ago) link

"Chowin' Down..." sorry I just watched original Night of the Living Dead on TCM. He'd like to be visionary caveman, but that's more John Garner, singer-drummer ov Sir Lord Baltimore, even before (waaay before) they returned w xtian lyrics.

dow, Saturday, 30 October 2021 04:20 (two years ago) link


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