Twenty-Five to One: THE DOORS RESULTS THREAD

Balls, Marsh was comparing the Doors unfavorably to Tommy James and the Shondells, saying the latter were the superior singles band.

The line in that review that probably resonated the most for me was about how the Densmore was "too laid back to really kick out the jams." I dig some Doors songs (most of all "Go Insane"), but the drumming was always a huge sticking point for me.

"Love Her Madly" is a fuckin JAM

I always liked the drumming in the instrumental section of Light My Fire.

Is the Byrds' drumming a turnoff too? They always struck me as similar.

on "Love Her Madly" you get the Van Morrison influence face on

yeah i never had a problem w/ densmore's drumming (though i will definitely defer to you there) but thinking about 'love her madly' just now and how great manzarek and krieger are there it did become apparent that johnny drama's the weak point of this band.

woah 'love her madly' IS a van morrison jam

yes

would have loved to heard Thin Lizzy do "Love Her Madly"

didn't vote for it but do love 'ppl are strange' even if it's become the doors anthem for ppl that post facebook macros

I just think of The Lost Boys when I hear it. voted it high of course

It's time for the greatest clip in television history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuZUrjWz-PE

18. The Soft Parade
The Soft Parade (1969)
289 points, twelve votes

knew that's what you meant

if we'd somehow done this poll at the height of my doors fandom it wouldn't have made my ballot, now it's #2

yeah i never had a problem w/ densmore's drumming (though i will definitely defer to you there) but thinking about 'love her madly' just now and how great manzarek and krieger are there it did become apparent that johnny drama's the weak point of this band.

― balls, Sunday, May 26, 2013 5:37 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf, Densmore's laidbackocity serves songs like "Roadhouse Blues" very well.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2010/4/5/1270461640599/The-Doors-001.jpg

http://youtu.be/OCaDjpwuh08

17. Moonlight Drive
Strange Days (1967)
290 points, twelve votes

I wasn't expecting Moonlight Drive to place at all. Not sure why, now I hear it and it sounds great.

http://i1.fastpic.ru/big/2010/0108/85/88d2a2330a18ff97d92b707946c87d85.jpg

http://youtu.be/g425uuTkya4

16. The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
LA Woman (1971)
292 points, fifteen votes, one no.1

That'll do me for the evening, talk amongst yourselves.

i grew up with "The End" and "When The Music's Over" as the big Doors epics, was surprised to hear something like "The Soft Parade" do something so different with that kind of running time

Just why is The Wasp so popular? I even voted for it myself, though I don't think I know why.

dunno, Ismael, but out here on the perimeter there are no stars.
out here we is stoned, immaculate.

that help any?

(my #1)

Sort of. It's not the only time Jim aimed at epic imagery, but it seems to be the one that resonates. Unless you all dig the hokeyness.

it's prophetic bullshit of the first order! also, as a modernist I go for strange new languages....

yeah personally my ballot did not feel complete without some batshit screaming Jimbo on it

densmore owes his entire career to good ol' ray and what'd i say in particular, i love his drumming tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPP8w0wMRgQ

i was watching the Classic Albums ep on the first album the other day, i like how Densmore came across in interviews and how he'd break down certain drum parts

I never understood the Densmore hate.

Thanks to killing myself putting in garden beds I didn't get to send in my ballot, but Love Her Madly would have been my #1 or 2.

Am I the only one that thinks "The Soft Parade" invented disco with the "Peppermint miniskirts" bit? Just try not to dance to that, I dare ya.

Densmore is a great drummer because he incorporates tons of little jazz flourishes like rim knocks and cymbal mute-holds. A really distinctive style that you just don't hear on a whole lot of rock records.

yeah..."rock drumming" as we know it now was still kinda coming into being at that point, it's interesting to hear guys like him who didn't inform the template as much as, like, charlie watts or keith moon

Am I the only one that thinks "The Soft Parade" invented disco with the "Peppermint miniskirts" bit? Just try not to dance to that, I dare ya.

Seriously, I couldn't believe that bit was recorded in 1969 the first time I heard it.

yeah..."rock drumming" as we know it now was still kinda coming into being at that point, it's interesting to hear guys like him who didn't inform the template as much as, like, charlie watts or keith moon

for that matter I think Ray made it cool to be a keyboardist as far as rock'n'roll was concerned. neither the Stones nor the Beatles were using organ, for the most part, as a main instrument, way back when the doors first came out. but after the debut you got the appearance of vox organs and farfisas and the like
xpost

yeah...Manzarek is still pretty unique, i feel like to find someone with anything like his range of sounds (as opposed to contemporary acts who had the same organ sound on every song) you'd have to go forward a number of years to, like, Steve Nieve from Elvis Costello's band, who i'm sure had much more advanced equipment available to him

Garth Hudson?

I meant not going forward quite as far but with a whole lotta sonic range

yeah good call

rock organ predates doors ('96 tears' and a million other garage bands), it was an easily acquired instrument and portable also. manzarek did a couple of garage sides pre-doors (i learned this from all my freakbeat friends last week) and also played some gigs as a jazz musician, doors seems like the synthesis of both. interesting that summer of 67 you have 'white rabbit' which owes some debt to sketches of spain and 'light my fire' which owes some debt to coltrane's 'my favorite things'.

plus very different from both '96 tears' and the doors but in the context of the mid-sixties and rock organ would be remiss not to mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAowiF3y_8

That "Hyacinth House" No. 1 is mine--side 2 of L.A. Wman is perfect, especially through headphones.

i'm sure this will raise objections but are there any other bands w/ more than say four albums where the first and the last album are so generally held to be the best albums?

I wish the Doors had covered "96 Tears" with a poetry break in the middle of the song.

Don't forget "California Sun".

Though as a kid I was really sad to discover both it and "96 Tears" were not on the Doors Greatest Hits.

Most of my high votes have already appeared. Yes The River Knows and Hyacinth House are their two most beautiful songs. Love Her Madly is one of my favourite Doors big pop moments (one their other big ones was my number one) So happy Love Street made it, as I said in the nominations thread I love how camp it is.

You're a Lost a Little Girl is another great one, I listened through their albums over the weekend and Strange Days was easily my favourite. My list included almost every song from that album.

I would have liked to vote in this. It came up at a bad time but

Morrison is ridiculous but it's interesting how nowadays people call him out for that, whereas say Robert Plant doesn't get the same flak for being more or less just as ridiculous in Zep days

I think Morrison was FAR more limited as a vocalist. Also, Plant never did spoken word or asked for you to take him seriously as a poet. I pretty much hear Zeppelin lyrics just as things that were there for him to hang his voice on. (Plenty of people hate his voice btw.)

well they're out there a'having fun in that warm california sun WELL ALRIGHT NOW

Damn I meant to vote in this. Ever since I saw that ridiculous Oliver Stone movie I've always regarded Morrison's pretensions as just another pop shtik; as Christgau says, "Shaman, poet, lizard king - believe that guff, and you'll miss a great pop band." I feel less guilty about liking them than I do about liking the Eagles. And the Doors were certainly the more interesting group. Morrison and Manzarek sure were some El Lay Men, though. I used to think Densmore was kinda weak too, but as a marching band drummer with a modicum of jazz chops he wasn't "laid back." He just didn't hit hard. I'm listening to "Waiting for the Sun" on Spotify right now and there's some good stuff I missed - it's a pretty neat little psych record, isn't it? Thanks for the poll.

waiting for the sun, it's the departure point

LOL

I think the fact that I haven't met anybody who took Morrison seriously since high school really helped to suppress the gag reflex with Morrison's bleargh "poetry". RIP to Manzarek, but he was as guilty as anyone else of building a cottage industry around Jimbo's ridiculous mystique.

yeah i've done doors karaoke where i didn't sing a single word except the occasional 'well ALRIGHT NOW' as punctuation, ppl "loved" it

Ugh. “Crystal Ship”? Really? “BEEE FORE YOU… listen to the first-class pop tune 20th Century Fox I’d like to bore you for two minutes and thirty seconds.” Lovely piano solo though.