Twenty-Five to One: THE DOORS RESULTS THREAD

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.

I really think all the instrumentalists, including Densmore, were great and worked really well together.

If Morrison hadn't died I think he would have had a far less angst fuelled 70s than Lennon. JM certainly comes across in '69/'70 interviews as far more personable and relaxed then JL in the 70s.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4793/morrisonstage.jpg

http://youtu.be/tb0MF1UnD3o

15. Strange Days
Strange Days (1967)
307 points, thirteen votes, two no.1s

My number one

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

14. Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)
The Doors (1967)
321 points, thirteen votes, two no.1s

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1835/collared.jpg

http://youtu.be/0bAFITGnjrg

13. Five To One
Waiting for the Sun (1968)
334 points, fourteen votes, one no.1

One thing I like most about The Doors is how relentlessly bad vibes they are. Obviously this one's meant to be unsettling, but to my ears even their more celebratory stuff goes all askew. Only the Stones compete on this front, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwwUZLV-IE

12. The End
The Doors (1967)
336 points, thirteen votes, two no.1s

One of those #1s for The End was mine....

Nearly everything in the upper reaches got a no.1 vote, there's a notable lack of consensus at work.

Anyway we're into the top ten next (via a tie) but I'm getting something to eat first.

I was the #1 vote for "Five To One" -- was ALWAYS my favorite growing up, and almost got self-conscious about 'oh it's a predictable favorite for rap fans after the Jay-Z sample, maybe it should be my #2' but then i had to give it up. a little shocked it missed the top 10, honestly.

I love the story about 'Five To One', where Morrison recorded the vocals and then stumbled out of the booth and said "If I had an axe, I'd kill everyone, except, er, my friends".

haha awesome

"NOONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE, except, er, my friends"

I think there's a heavy unconscious shame factor that is sort of understandable. To even say you like the Doors these days is still pretty uncool. "Five to One" is one of those mockable songs for the haters I think

really? i've never heard of anyone say "Five To One" is anything but straight fire

I think people patronizingly cop to liking the sleazeball Jim of L.A. Woman but anything where he gets heavy (no pun intended) seems like prime mocking material. Maybe I'm just projecting after years of trying to defend the Doors!

http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2010/11/doors-2.jpg

http://youtu.be/X34JarNjoIU

10. Peace Frog
Morrison Hotel (1970)
359 points, seventeen votes

wooow i thought that would be way higher too.

Otm thats way too low

http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2010/11/morrison.jpg

http://youtu.be/58ceB8U9N3w

10. Soul Kitchen
The Doors (1967)
359 points, fifteen votes

Wait a min... iirc peace frog was my numero uno. Did my ballot not get through?

ARGH

Taxi for Mr Klata

lol I imagine Jimbo and especially Ray having a good laugh of that!