The Doors: Classic or Dud?

ray manzarek tried to get a band going with iggy, didn't he? exhibit A!

We Got the Neutron Bomb's first chapter is on the Doors

i'm working on a theory that the doors literally invented punk and prog, check back for more later!

― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:02 PM (8 minutes ago)

the bbc rock documentary made this case iirc. the doors introduced ideas of 'darkness' and 'artiness' into pop-rock

it is sorta interesting -- what was the general perception of the Doors in the 70s, before the Cult of Morrison thing took over? i guess greil marcus could probably tell me. greil? are you there, greil?

Are you there Greil? It's me, Tyler

lol
i guess lester bangs wrote a takedown of the doors

would read

Oh no no no, he (rightly) celebrated Jim as the Bozo King! (xp)

This stupid annoying article by stupid annoying Stuart Maconie annoyed me over lunch today.

I like the Chiffons, or Chic, Whigfield's "Saturday Night" AND the Doors, so shove it up yer arse, Maconie

Do you mean critical reception, or how they were perceived by the masses? People didn't pay as much attention to critics back then. If you were a "rock and roller", you listened to the Doors.

People didn't pay as much attention to critics back then

I think they paid more. In the UK anyway.

well, yeah, were they a "cool" band that people listened to in the 70s, or were they sorta seen as a 60s phenomenon? just don't know what their "legacy" was perceived to be before jim became one of the big rock n roll ghosts.

The Doors were history! Be there or be square! Doors were way cool in the early 70s and lots of "normal" folk listened to them! I was a wee one and I liked stuff like "Break on Through"! If you heard the shit was on the rock radio back then, you'd embrace the Doors too. Like bad stoner rock with five minute guitar solos.

Like bad stoner rock with five minute guitar solos

wait is this referring to the Doors or not

huh? krieger's far from a showoff imo

Wow you're so literate. I really said that. Sorry you don't find the seventies interesting.

but basically:

i saw this interview with johnnny ramone and i thought it was interesting when the interviewer asked him about bands he liked, he said the Doors were the only good american band of the 1960s, said he worshiped them..

i know iggy idolized the doors too, so Johnny + Iggy = the founders of punk to me...

the doors had that darkness and artiness and also a real confrontational vibe that seems to prefigure punk in a lot of ways

at the same time, i can't imagine, for instance, the full on organ workout version of light my fire, with its jazz/classical aspirations, couldn't have been a major influence on the first-gen prog dudes like rick wakeman, ELP, yes etc

so the doors basically invented everything

There was a lot of "acid rock" in the sixties and The Doors were more traditional rock and roll. People responded to that. Like Johnny Ramone and his Monkees albums.

As for "stoner rock" I meant that this was the type of music on rock radio in the seventies. The Doors were definitely not this style.

Sorry you don't find the seventies interesting.

was an honest question

the 70s are my favorite decade of music fwiw

Pretty sure Patti Smith dribbled on abt them too and *cough* *cough* the Stranglers

They were "cool" until the Jimbo industry started up, when was that? Early 80s?

There was a lot of "acid rock" in the sixties and The Doors were more traditional rock and roll.

yeah I dunno they seem of a piece with plenty of the SF acid rock scene - the obsession with aping the blues/black "authenticity", inserting extended "jazz solos" and improvisations into super-long tracks, the lyrical pomposity. I mean Jefferson Airplane did that shit too ya know?

xp

Doors never seemed like hippies though

LA vs. SF

true - Jim's image was darker/more sinister in general, and the other dudes were like nerds

xp

Also, Jimbo died and so couldn't go on to embarrass himself (further) in the 70s like a lot of his contemporaries di

yeah the doors didn't seem like a hippie band at all, their vibe was scummy, drunk, destructive IMO, like more altamont 60s than woodstock 60s

yeah, & as film school dudes, seems like the doors were a bit more about creating a spectacle. had more "theater" in them than other 60s bands i think, both on the records and live.

btw in recent months after years of kinda hating the doors i've reverted to my 13/14 year old opinion of them being fucking amazing so maybe take it with a grain of salt

There was a lot of "acid rock" in the sixties and The Doors were more traditional rock and roll.

Cannot agree with this statement btw, in some ways they were weirder than most acid rock bands!

Acid rock? The Doors? "Roadhouse Blues" is a million times more "authentic" than shit like Blue Cheer. Jefferson Airplane were hippies and easily ridiculed.

True, acid rock is kind of unimaginative. I don't think the Doors are any weirder than literature and films that were contemporary then, however.

Growing up I didn't notice the Doors backlash until the mainstreaming of early/mid-90s altrock. The classic rock kids I grew up with loved them, Jane's Addiction were huge fans, Jimbo and co. were goth icons, and the whole Lost Boys thing. But after the Oliver Stone movie hit the joke status seemed dominant and I'm not sure it's left since.

i go back and forth between loving and hating the Airplane...jorma was such a fucking monster electric guitar player though, he keeps me in the game

"volunteers" is stone jam

"Roadhouse Blues" is a million times more "authentic" than shit like Blue Cheer

don't think BC was really going for "authenticity" when they sludgified "Parchman Farm"...

Yeah and "Alabama Song", to name but one, is not exactly "authentic" rock n' roll, is it?

this would have been 1995, and we were in the dorms getting baked and drunk and watching the oliver stone doors movie over and over this one kid was just beyond gone and stood up and declared "I AM THE TURTLE KING, I CAN DO ANYTHING!"

that soundtrack was the first time a gang of ppl i know heard the velvet underground

i go back and forth between loving and hating the Airplane...jorma was such a fucking monster electric guitar player though, he keeps me in the game

And Paul Kantner consistently keeps me out of the game

lol

personally I love the movie, but am largely indifferent to the band itself

yeah as a kid in the 80s i really loved my dad's tape of the doors greatest hits, but once that movie came out and my friends and i laughed all the way through it, morrison seemed more like a joke. i've gotten over it, but it took a while.
my dad claims he saw them rehearse a couple of times before they hit it big. his story almost checks out.

I think pretentious critical blather is what scared some people off the Doors. To suburban parents in the sixties / seventies they were a great rock and roll band, and those people weren't avant garde types!

I mean, the Monkees and Neil Diamond had weird shit on their sixties albums. Everyone made psychedelic records back then!

That Doors movie is entertaining but kind of pretentious and stupid.

That Doors movie is entertaining but kind of pretentious and stupid.

more or less how I would characterize the band itself tbh

Ditto. Stupid a bit harsh, more silly.

Pretentious, stupid....and awesome for dancing!

man i'm listening to Live at the Matrix, 67 Doors show, this is totally propping up my "they invented punk" thesis...this is skronky as hell

also: X

Hey, the ripped off the Seeds, of course they sound punky!

I think pretentious critical blather is what scared some people off the Doors.

----

People didn't pay as much attention to critics back then.

These statements seem in opposition, yet they both came from you. Reconcile?

only 100 people read criticism about the doors in the 60s, but they all were scared off

Rollins loves the Doors: "The Doors made you think. They were a bummer at the love-in.
Morrison forced you to confront the darkness you tried to shut out with your shiny happiness."
i don;t know what this means. other than that morrison + iggy sorta created that archetypal confrontational frontman.

"the bummer at the love-in" = A+