The Doors: Classic or Dud?

Every time this thread gets bumped I fear that Jim has died

― calstars, Monday, April 23, 2018 10:37 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://meetsobsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Do-you-believe-in-the-end-mash-up.jpg

We found a finally spot to kick it
Where we can drink liquor and no one bickers over trick shit
A spot where we can smoke in peace, and even though we G's
We still visualize places that we can roll in peace
And in my mind's eye, I see this place the players go and pass it
I got a spot for us all, so we can ball, at thug's mansion

#westside
#outlawz

The Doors have a surprisingly large amount of Vegas/crooner songs. Touch Me is probably the most famous. On some others, notably Wishful Sinful on The Soft Parade, you can hear the disgust in his voice.

haha alfred i loved your piece

i love the doors but i hate "touch me"

but then i just read ums post about foreshadowing elvis in vegas <3

now im not sure

Xp lol

man late period doors live albums are INSANE

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 23, 2012 12:13 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes!

"Yes the River Knows" always felt pretty Vegas crooner-y.

"Touch Me" is pretty rad. "i'm gonna love you til the heavens stop the rain" is such a sweet middle 8. and that live video, where Jim's hair is the prettiest in the world. dude could have gone on to be in soap operas.

i have lot of love for the "Soft Parade" album as a whole. i prefer the psychedelic vegas lounge to the more straight faced blues cocktail lounge of the last records.

"Soft Parade" is a crazy record, I generally love it even though I wouldn't begrudge anyone who hates it. "Runnin' Blue" would be my favorite Doors song if it didn't have the embarrassing faux-hillbilly Robbie break downs. "Tell All the People" is great, the title track is insane.

Also funny to think immediately after SP they were considered basically washed up, they'd been a band for barely 4 yrs, it was only 2 yrs since the debut. The cliched "return to their roots" comeback record is out less than 8 months later.

I like the Doors. I accept them as schlockmeisters, pseudo-Latinized, pseudo-blues, just like Don Van Vliet or Dr. John. But pop in a way neither of those artists could exactly muster. I dig their minimalist style and I get off on the thinness of their sound. "Riders on the Storm" is really the one I relate to the most. They were better when they laid back. Alfred Soto did a takedown of "Touch Me" that makes interesting points about how "Touch Me" and the ricky-ticky schlock-blues-pop of the Kinks' Something Else and the Stones' Between the Buttons, how "Touch Me" (I think) is a more Vegas-ized version of that. Not sure I totally get his point, but it's worth considering...

"Tell All the People" is great

yes! and very cultish too. "Come on, take me by the hand, gonna bury all our troubles in the sand"

funny to think immediately after SP they were considered basically washed up

By how many, I wonder. Certainly, some critics, but...Every album they made went top ten and "Touch Me" was one of their three top ten singles.

"not to touch the earth" is still ahead of its time. nothing left to do but run run run. let's run

haha, I was just about to post my love for 'not to touch the earth'.
love 'waiting for the sun'

waiting for the sun is def the most underrated album

"hello, i love you" is an all-time first jam

Very little Doors music strikes me as "psuedo-Latinized" or "psuedo-blues."

Came across this recent video a few weeks ago with Robbie Kreiger which gets into the origins of some of the tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p24lgQv1r8w

"They were better when they laid back."

'The Crystal Ship' is my favorite Doors song. I need to try and put together a chill out Doors CDR. That section of 'Cars Hiss by my Window' and are a couple of deep tracks that fit that feel too. Love how 'Cars Hiss by my Window' segues into 'LA Woman'.

I mean, why not judge them as a rock band? A genre in which they were quite advanced.

"one to five" sounds like ACTUAL BLOOD is being shed

haha alfred i loved your piece

― marcos, Monday, April 23, 2018

thanks!

By how many, I wonder. Certainly, some critics, but...Every album they made went top ten and "Touch Me" was one of their three top ten singles.

A lot of it was down to Miami... during the fallout of which it was widely believed that they'd never tour, appear on TV, or get radio airplay again. This is slightly borne out by the other three (!) singles from TSP flopping.

i know phantom's divine comedy but that's so on the nose i'm not that into it! nah i'm more into one st. stephen and shit.

"waiting for the sun" is one of those "what if" things. on the one hand the "big epic" was becoming a formula for them, but on the other hand they didn't really offer any viable alternatives. i don't know why they couldn't nail "celebration of the lizard" in the studio, or why they couldn't finish "waiting for the sun". it's a short record but also a really padded one, but there's some A material there. instead they kind of fell apart.

Thanks Earl for the Robbie link

Did Neil Diamond ever cover any Doors songs? I feel like I could listen to an album of him covering them.

I hadn't heard of One St. Stephen, thanks. Not so into the shouty acid rock bits, but the Doors-y psych is ace. xxp

i like touch me a lot. i like the horns. and i love STRONGER THAN DIRT at the end. echo & the bunnymen were probably my fave faux-doors.

i LOVE all era-appropriate doors covers too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOZ64aaEXlw

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

liked the Krieger interview but is it me or is his playing completely off?

I like variety show horns. the last gasp of the Great American Songbook on the top 40.

this is cool faux-doors from the 60s.

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

"waiting for the sun" is one of those "what if" things. on the one hand the "big epic" was becoming a formula for them, but on the other hand they didn't really offer any viable alternatives. i don't know why they couldn't nail "celebration of the lizard" in the studio, or why they couldn't finish "waiting for the sun". it's a short record but also a really padded one, but there's some A material there. instead they kind of fell apart.

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Monday, April 23, 2018 8:17 PM (yesterday)

I've had this same line of thought before, and figured I'd try doing a revised song/running order. Came up with this:

Side One:
Waiting For The Sun (nobody can seem to decide if this was a 68-era outtake with a moog overdub for Morrison Hotel, or a 70-era recording, but it works too well to not use here)
The Unknown Soldier
Love Street
Indian Summer (the 66 version, not the Morrison version with the vocal overdub)
Yes, The River Knows
Spanish Caravan

Side Two:
Texas Radio And The Big Beat (the live take from 68 on Alive She Cried, with an intro from the rehearsal take of 'Celebration', the "is everybody in? The Ceremony is about to begin")
Wild Child (recorded summer of 68, and it fits Waiting so much better than Soft Parade)
Not To Touch The Earth
The Hill Dwellers ('Celebration' studio rehearsal take)
The Names Of The Kingdom ('Celebration' studio rehearsal take, some minor editing)
Five To One (the only proper closer to me, why was this halfway through Side 1???)

I played around with tracks and running orders before arriving at this and for me it works way better - no filler and a lot tighter. Would've been equal to the first two. I can put it up if anyone wants to try it.

that looks super cool

liked the Krieger interview but is it me or is his playing completely off?

xp I would like to hear the alternate 'WFTS' album.

Guy’s like 75, what do you expect?

feel like the process of aging doesn't enter into the internet crit mindset these days. it's like "oh this guy is boring now" because they just suck, not because they are now decades older and grandparents.

his playing is fine

Yeah, it just sounded like he was improvising a little on those lines to me.

I played around with tracks and running orders before arriving at this and for me it works way better - no filler and a lot tighter. Would've been equal to the first two. I can put it up if anyone wants to try it.

This looks great! I downloaded a “what if” version of Celebration of the Lizard from Albums That Never Were that is pretty good, as well.

^^^ Listening to this now and liking it.

would definitely like to hear your wfts mix whitehallunity

another WFTS reconstruction

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-doors-celebration-of-lizard.html

Guy’s like 75, what do you expect?
I don't expect people to get defensive because I ask what they think of his playing

surely it's not unusual for older musicians to play really well, sometimes I think Neil Young has never played better than he does now

anyway, I think there's something very off about how the amazingly talented composer all-time guitar hero Robby Krieger is playing in that video, and I was asking if anyone might enlighten me on what it is that I'm hearing

It looks like he's being filmed at a soundcheck tbh, who can be arsed playing at those?

/Guy’s like 75, what do you expect?/
I don't expect people to get defensive because I ask what they think of his playing

surely it's not unusual for older musicians to play really well, sometimes I think Neil Young has never played better than he does now

anyway, I think there's something very off about how the amazingly talented composer all-time guitar hero Robby Krieger is playing in that video, and I was asking if anyone might enlighten me on what it is that I'm hearing

he totally shreds on his funky fusion album from the 70s. i love that album. i posted the def break from that album on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsqwqseLgy8

mahavishnu robbie krieger...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FaZdv8If3w

xp I would like to hear the alternate 'WFTS' album.

― campreverb, Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:01 PM (yesterday)

This looks great! I downloaded a “what if” version of Celebration of the Lizard from Albums That Never Were that is pretty good, as well.

― blatherskite, Tuesday, April 24, 2018 7:49 PM (yesterday)

would definitely like to hear your wfts mix whitehallunity

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Tuesday, April 24, 2018 10:15 PM (yesterday)

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

The Albums That Never Were version is one of the reasons I made this one actually, I felt it still wasn't as good as it could be. I hate Wintertime Love with a passion so I'm a little biased though, haha.

super cool, thank you!