In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time

Touch Me: Man, there's a title that, coming in cold, I really don't want to hear Jim Morrison saying a lot - I get skeeved out by "Love Me Two Times." Let's see.

Well, at least this is peppy! More British Invasiony or something. Ugh Morrison, I just - oh wow, the horns all over this! Wandering way over into Johnny Rivers/Tom Jones territory. This arrangement is ready-made for the 'live' TV performance with stark black backdrop, smeary color and bad studio lights.

This is basically fine as this kinda stuff goes but - and maybe this is just my suspicion of the Doors coming through - it does feel like a cover or demo of a song that someone else has the definitive version of. Morrison's big booming approach to the vocals is really distracting - it's amazing how much better the song got the moment he walks away from the mic for this big instrumental breakdown, which gradually takes us from Vegas to Freak-town, I like that move. "Stumble in front?" Oh, I see. That's...cute I guess? (The phrase for me links up more with the Samurai Pizza Cats theme song than the cleanser slogan.)

Second listen, yeah, Morrison's the weakest thing about this, or maybe it's just that his voice is kinda too similar in tone to everything else, thick and doughy and glued-together. This is where my weaknesses as a rock critic really show through though: I know something about the rhythm section isn't working here, but is it that the bassist sucks? The drummer sucks? Or is the drummer just badly-recorded? There's a missing snap, crackle and/or pop here, though I imagine if one is a Doors fan, the boozy and lugubrious haze is part of the point. Not exactly for me, but at least interesting.

Y'know, it's kinda amazing, we owned the Greatest Hits record, and it lived in my room for a while, and I still don't think I've ever heard this before. Pretty sure I cherry-picked it for "Riders on the Storm" and nothing else - I was an unadventurous listener I reckon. I don't think I got into "Break On Through" until I borrowed the Forrest Gump soundtrack from my high school bus-mate, which would explain how I escaped its immediate follow-up on the Greatest Hits LP, "Roadhouse Blues."

OTM these guys are the worst

I think the bass player (not a full-time Door, probably Harvey Brooks) is more comfortable with the shuffle feel of the rhythm than John Densmore, who changes his feel throughout, rushing sometimes and slowing down at others.

First heard Touch Me when it was included on a mixtape from my longtime high school girlfriend as an indication that we were FRICKIN' FINALLY going to get to have sex. Anyway, I never told her this (because I was v. much in love with her and wouldn't want to hurt her feelings), but I thought the song was unbelievably cheesy and for just a minute there it almost gave me second thoughts.

okay, that story makes me feel my time listening to The Doors was not wasted

it's kind of cool they were trying something different on that album, but those horn arrangements highlight all that is cheesiest about the band

The drummer sucks?

Yes.

Or is the drummer just badly-recorded?

Also this.

i always think of the recording scene from the movie whenever I hear this song now

WHY DON'T YOU SUCK A FART OUT OF MY ASSHOLE YOU FASCIST SLAVEDRIVER

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

let's not talk about why i'm thinking of the movie at all (secret answer: i kind of love it)

movie is better than the band!

and that scene is hilar

I was trying to find the scene, maybe it's soon after that, where he sings the 'cmon cmon now fuck me babe, can't you see that I want you to give me head' or something?

maybe I imagined that though? It's been years since I last saw it. hmmm maybe time for a reviewing

Y'all are making me weirdly interested in seeing the movie. That, and realizing Kyle MacLachlan's in it.

The movie is the only thing I ever liked about the Doors, even as a rebellious 70s rock teen I was like "turn them the fuck off"

i loved the Doors in high school, gorged on the movie repeatedly well into college

I still have a nostalgia for The Doors and there are things that I definitely love about them but in my adulthood it's not hard to see how terribly lolsome they are

anyway I recommend the movie. also it's a nice change from Olly Stone beating you over the head with one of his other 10 hobbyhorses at the time so

My best friend back then's litmus test for sleeping with a guy - if he liked the Doors, no way

They're one of those acts I think that could seem like a really good idea at a very specific point in time, and to me seem like they should have no traction outside of that scene. Yet some subset of the youth continue to discover them, I think. Wonder what they would have turned into had they survived the early 70s. I bet they could have made at least an "interesting" disco record.

Kyle's wig in the Doors = A+. Also PAUL WILLIAMS as Andy Warhol's sidekick and Cripsin Glover as Andy Warhol. So many awesome things in that movie... (and yes VG that scene/line is in there, but I think it's something he adlibs during a live show before getting arrested?)

it is weird how much I love that movie given that I have absolutely zero interest in the actual band

xpost if by "a very specific point in time" you mean "never" then well, yeah

My best friend back then's litmus test for sleeping with a guy - if he liked the Doors, no way

― Sandy, Wednesday, July 16, 2014 4:38 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha when I was in college, we had a similar litmus test - if a guy had Jim Morrison's book of poetry and acted like that meant something interesting, no way.

my wife still has Morrison's books (plural!) on our library shelves

they are kinda funny in a ridiculous way tbh

the poet/shaman/Lizard King stuff will never not be funny, but the debut and L.A. Woman both stand up well against other albums from those years

Strange Days is the best imo.

The best Doors albums are the live ones from 1970 that they've been putting out in recent years. Fucking hilarious. (That said, I actually like The Doors, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman quite a bit. But I don't listen to them often.)

I made the blue cars go away.

Strange Days is great

Honestly it wasn't the poetry books themselves so much as it was the dude's tendency to think that owning/liking those books made him deep/thoughtful ESPECIALLY if those were the only poetry books he owned or even could name.

kinda like, instead of leather pants

The best Doors albums are the live ones from 1970 that they've been putting out in recent years. Fucking hilarious. (That said, I actually like The Doors, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman quite a bit. But I don't listen to them often.)

― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, July 16, 2014 12:02 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I loved them as a kid but went through a long period of my twenties/early 30s hating them. Now, I back to thinking they are awesome, in no small part due to hearing the live records from 1970, which are so bizarre and sleazy and great.

I really love all the albums.

Wandering way over into Johnny Rivers/Tom Jones territory

basically the reason i like the song.

also, my best friend has a theory that any song with the phrase "come on, come on" in it is automatically great.

lol

something about the rhythm section isn't working here

my favorite thing about the doors is that ray manzarek produced X, who also were somewhat challenged in the rhythm section department, but who i love wholeheartedly. (it has never been entirely clear to me, though, what manzarek actually did in those sessions.)

re: Manzarek & Doors, well he got a pretty decent version of Soul Kitchen out of it!
I like the Tom Jones treatment on Touch Me too.

i used to hate the doors for all the sensible reasons mentioned here but they're really a pretty funny, great band. morrison is hilarious, the rest of the band's excellent.

For the record, one Doors song did make my ballot! Though in hindsight I definitely ranked it too high.

i think there was a moment a few years back when i realized that despite going "ugh i hate them, hell with jim morrison" whenever they came up in conversation i never switch the station when a doors song comes on, which is something i can't say about a lot of classic rock bands.

A point in the Doors' favor: without them, the 1969 Rally For Decency never would have happened.

http://forum.johndensmore.com/index.php?showtopic=2673

MIAMI March 23 - Some 30,000 hand clapping persons, some waving signs saying "Down With Obscenity," rallied in the Orange Bowl today to support a teenage crusade for decency in entertainment.

Teenagers organized the rally after Jim Morrison, 24 years old, the lead singer of The Doors, a rock group, was charged with indecent exposure during a concert in Miami on March 1. Six warrants have been issued for Mr. Morriosn' arrest.

Mike Levesque, 17, the originator of the rally, a senior at Miami Springs High School, said the idea had grown out of a Roman Catholic youth group discussion two days after the concert by The Doors.

"This is not a protest rally," said Julie James, 18 a member of the teenage Rally For Decency. "We're not against something. We're for something."

TALKS ON GOD AND SEX

Teenage speakers gave three minute talks on God, parents, patriotism, sexuality and brotherhood. There were appearances by professional entertainers, who donated their time.

"Five virtues ," selected as the keynote of the rally, were "belief in God and that He loves us; love of our planet and country; love of our family, reverence of one's sexuality, and equality of all men."

"Sex is definately being exploited and it is because society has been losing its reverence for one's sexuality," Miss James said.

The shirt sleeved crowd basking in the warm sun cheered for Jackie Gleason, Anita Bryant and the Lettermen, popular music singers who appeared in order to applaud the teenage rally.

"I believe this kind of movement will snowball across the United States and perhaps around the world," Mr Gleason said.

"I think it's great there should be more things like that," said Tony Butala of the Lettermen.

Young Levesque said he was thrilled by the rapid growth of the decency movement and the support it had gained from adults.

The crowd was about evenly split between teenagers and adults.

Doors vs. Eagles: The two most-hated classic rock bands?

I want Peace Frog or Outfield to be the next songs, pretty please?

All the chatter upthread about Outfield got me pretty curious, I admit. OTOH, a Doors rock block, though dire to contemplate, would be a nice way to clear the list of some of the stuff I'm most dreading....

List update: I know Rush's "Limelight," very well - just always thought it was called "The Gilded Page" or "Those Who Wish To Be" or something. It is probably the closest I get to liking a Rush song. I also know "Freewill," which I thought was the same song. Have heard both of those a hundred times over. This may also resolve intheblanks's observation: "... the Atlanta station seems to have totally avoided Rush." Not so, after all!

Damn, I had something really good stuck in my head this morning but now I can't remember what it was and I'm left with Touch Me.

come on come on come on come on now, rock block!!!

SONG #19: THE DOORS "PEACE FROG"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X34JarNjoIUes

dammit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X34JarNjoIU

For just a few minutes, before I listen to this, let me hang on to my hope that the refrain will actually be "Take another bit of peace with my frog." Not sure why the title seems so gross to me but I think it probably has to do with "Kiss That Frog," and/or psychedelic tattoos of little cute tree frogs, which may or may not have been inspired by listening to The Doors. (Do the Grateful Dead have a frog, or just a bear?)

thanks for the list updates, dr. c.

a Doors rock block, though dire to contemplate, would be a nice way to clear the list of some of the stuff I'm most dreading

otm.

http://dailysignal.com/wp-content/uploads/peace-frogs.jpeg

Doors vs. Eagles: The two most-hated classic rock bands?

― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Eagles irritate more bc you still hear them but Doors far more terrible.

xpost how's life: yeah! that thing! Is that a thing? Is that named for the Doors? Or did they see one and think "Heyyy.... there's a song there!"

Will tune into 103.7 "The Frog" when i return from getting a slice of pizza.

I think that's from the early 90s and was possibly named for the Doors song.