Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 22, 2004 18:47:22 GMT
THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE KNOWN; THINGS THAT ARE UNKNOWN; IN BETWEEN ARE DOORS (William Blake)
Within the microcosm of mid sixties West Coast music, The Doors represented a hard-edged antithesis of the softer sounds which drifted through my mind and body. The whole aura of Doors music sounds, smells of doom with chaos as the coda, but enhanced with a strange mystical beauty - almost (and occasionally entirely) hypnotic - that could do nothing else but separate them from the lesser bands someone somewhere tried to compare them with (Seeds, for example).
Unlike their possible detractors, and much to the chagrin of the teeny mags which printed one shirt-less picture of Morrison after another, the four musicians were very much deserving of individual status...
Robbie Krieger, guitar - writer of "Light My Fire"; rumour hath it that li'l Jimmie was untouched by female appendages until this topped the Billboard charts. Who knows, who cares? John Densmore, drums - one of the very few men behind the skins (?) who really merits the term 'percussionist'; unobtrusive when he had to be and there at exactly the right second when necessary. Ray Manzarek, keyboards - the devil's far-out right hand man who just happened to wear suits and sandals together and had the same birthday as Abraham Lincoln; somewhere in the Egyptology room in the British Museum, some hitherto undeciphered prayer to the gods is based around his swirling bank of ivories. Jim Morrison, poet.
Facts and figures are (almost) redundant since The Doors have been done to death line-by-line, track-by-track by the fickle fanzine mentality. The music speaks for itself, can be interpreted in many ways, but certainly cannot be ignored... not even when you cynically mention that it sounds a little dated. A lot has gone on since Morrison died the year Jimmy, Joanie, Davy and Timmy traded in their tired old Yamahas for brand new Martins; Doors music - that hard uncompromising sound which seemed to live for today and tonight since there just might not be a tomorrow certainly has been replaced by a more casual, optimistic outlook. The girls Morrison used to sing to always were gone by morning. It's not that way any longer. We don't ride the storm any longer - we hold each other tight, say it'll pass and watch the stars blossom out one by one.
Full circle. A new old Doors album has finally found release, consisting of fragments of Jim Morrison reading his poetry he privately recorded at times he felt it was right with new, added instrumental backing by Krieger, Densmore and Manzarek, together with live material. Is the time right for a posthumous Doors album; or is it too late?
I believe it's too late; late by a light-year and then some. The crawling kingsnake nightpeople and demonspawn who watched every Morrison move as he prowled the stage like a panther have dissipated into the ether, leaving behind denim delinquents who, when Jim grew a beard, split to France and did what ever you out there think he did, had no use for Dad's razor or Mom's best advice. Times change. Heroes lose their value and others are only too ready to take their place. So very, very much has happened since "LA Woman". Ask me and I'll tell you all about it... someday.
Meanwhile, those purple legions have arrived and Nite City is here - I like it fine... so far. I intend to examine The Doors' recororded work; not in great detail, just to point out the triumphs and pit falls. Everything has its place - in perspective.
THE MUSIC
"THE DOORS"/"STRANGE DAYS"
Together for a myriad of sins and reasons. The brace of recorded works that sound most alike, in essence the basic Doors' sound and text book of lyrical references. The doom, the darkness; even now I can feel it pervading the mood every time I hear "Crystal Ship", "Take It As It Comes", "Strange Days" (especially), "Back Door Man", "Unhappy Girl"; doom. A fascination with articulated ugliness and disorder, bordering on, if not totally immersed in, the perverse. Only tasteful fills from Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek contain any feelings of joy. The piano solo in "Crystal Ship", epitomises the term 'happy/ sad': A feeling of resignation comes to mind. The band seem to toy with the listeners; a multitude of changes in atmosphere come before side one of "The Doors" arrives at the long version of "Light My Fire". "Alabama Song" is almost comic relief compared to the mood of, say, "Break On Through" (one of the most forceful album opening cuts ever) or the song that hinted very strongly at Morrison's UCLA film-making days - "Twentieth Century Fox". The second album had a hit single, though nowhere as big as "Fire", "Love Me Two Times", which again pointed at the 'tomorrow you'll be gone' attitude. Morrison once said that all his songs were about 'fucking' rather than making love... maybe that was no joke.
Both albums had those famous (now famous, anyhow) long closing tracks. "The End", supposedly recorded when Morrison (if not the others) was totalled on the drug of the devil and the deep blue see. The oedipal sequence needs little intro - rock music as a theatrical experience was beginning to take form. "When The Music's Over" on "Strange Days" was criticised as being too similar to "The End"; correct and incorrect. Of course they are both over ten minutes long and concentrate on Jim's fascination for Weirdness in visual terms, but who cares? You could groove to them, even if you did feel uneasy. It's all in the past and didn't we do things differently then7 I seem to remember some silly piece in an American (naturally) teeny mag the like of 16 or Tiger Beat which contained a real bad hype-scam about poor lonely Jim Morrison sitting up in some hotel room, with nothing but a colour-distorted test-card on the TV, writing out lyrics to songs for the second album (notably "Unhappy Girl~) on hotel stationery. 'He laughed when it was good and cried when it was bad," bleated the un-identified scribe.
Within the microcosm of mid sixties West Coast music, The Doors represented a hard-edged antithesis of the softer sounds which drifted through my mind and body. The whole aura of Doors music sounds, smells of doom with chaos as the coda, but enhanced with a strange mystical beauty - almost (and occasionally entirely) hypnotic - that could do nothing else but separate them from the lesser bands someone somewhere tried to compare them with (Seeds, for example).
Unlike their possible detractors, and much to the chagrin of the teeny mags which printed one shirt-less picture of Morrison after another, the four musicians were very much deserving of individual status...
Robbie Krieger, guitar - writer of "Light My Fire"; rumour hath it that li'l Jimmie was untouched by female appendages until this topped the Billboard charts. Who knows, who cares? John Densmore, drums - one of the very few men behind the skins (?) who really merits the term 'percussionist'; unobtrusive when he had to be and there at exactly the right second when necessary. Ray Manzarek, keyboards - the devil's far-out right hand man who just happened to wear suits and sandals together and had the same birthday as Abraham Lincoln; somewhere in the Egyptology room in the British Museum, some hitherto undeciphered prayer to the gods is based around his swirling bank of ivories. Jim Morrison, poet.
Facts and figures are (almost) redundant since The Doors have been done to death line-by-line, track-by-track by the fickle fanzine mentality. The music speaks for itself, can be interpreted in many ways, but certainly cannot be ignored... not even when you cynically mention that it sounds a little dated. A lot has gone on since Morrison died the year Jimmy, Joanie, Davy and Timmy traded in their tired old Yamahas for brand new Martins; Doors music - that hard uncompromising sound which seemed to live for today and tonight since there just might not be a tomorrow certainly has been replaced by a more casual, optimistic outlook. The girls Morrison used to sing to always were gone by morning. It's not that way any longer. We don't ride the storm any longer - we hold each other tight, say it'll pass and watch the stars blossom out one by one.
Full circle. A new old Doors album has finally found release, consisting of fragments of Jim Morrison reading his poetry he privately recorded at times he felt it was right with new, added instrumental backing by Krieger, Densmore and Manzarek, together with live material. Is the time right for a posthumous Doors album; or is it too late?
I believe it's too late; late by a light-year and then some. The crawling kingsnake nightpeople and demonspawn who watched every Morrison move as he prowled the stage like a panther have dissipated into the ether, leaving behind denim delinquents who, when Jim grew a beard, split to France and did what ever you out there think he did, had no use for Dad's razor or Mom's best advice. Times change. Heroes lose their value and others are only too ready to take their place. So very, very much has happened since "LA Woman". Ask me and I'll tell you all about it... someday.
Meanwhile, those purple legions have arrived and Nite City is here - I like it fine... so far. I intend to examine The Doors' recororded work; not in great detail, just to point out the triumphs and pit falls. Everything has its place - in perspective.
THE MUSIC
"THE DOORS"/"STRANGE DAYS"
Together for a myriad of sins and reasons. The brace of recorded works that sound most alike, in essence the basic Doors' sound and text book of lyrical references. The doom, the darkness; even now I can feel it pervading the mood every time I hear "Crystal Ship", "Take It As It Comes", "Strange Days" (especially), "Back Door Man", "Unhappy Girl"; doom. A fascination with articulated ugliness and disorder, bordering on, if not totally immersed in, the perverse. Only tasteful fills from Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek contain any feelings of joy. The piano solo in "Crystal Ship", epitomises the term 'happy/ sad': A feeling of resignation comes to mind. The band seem to toy with the listeners; a multitude of changes in atmosphere come before side one of "The Doors" arrives at the long version of "Light My Fire". "Alabama Song" is almost comic relief compared to the mood of, say, "Break On Through" (one of the most forceful album opening cuts ever) or the song that hinted very strongly at Morrison's UCLA film-making days - "Twentieth Century Fox". The second album had a hit single, though nowhere as big as "Fire", "Love Me Two Times", which again pointed at the 'tomorrow you'll be gone' attitude. Morrison once said that all his songs were about 'fucking' rather than making love... maybe that was no joke.
Both albums had those famous (now famous, anyhow) long closing tracks. "The End", supposedly recorded when Morrison (if not the others) was totalled on the drug of the devil and the deep blue see. The oedipal sequence needs little intro - rock music as a theatrical experience was beginning to take form. "When The Music's Over" on "Strange Days" was criticised as being too similar to "The End"; correct and incorrect. Of course they are both over ten minutes long and concentrate on Jim's fascination for Weirdness in visual terms, but who cares? You could groove to them, even if you did feel uneasy. It's all in the past and didn't we do things differently then7 I seem to remember some silly piece in an American (naturally) teeny mag the like of 16 or Tiger Beat which contained a real bad hype-scam about poor lonely Jim Morrison sitting up in some hotel room, with nothing but a colour-distorted test-card on the TV, writing out lyrics to songs for the second album (notably "Unhappy Girl~) on hotel stationery. 'He laughed when it was good and cried when it was bad," bleated the un-identified scribe.