The Lefsetz Letter: Doors Top 16

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The Lefsetz Letter
Doors Top 16, by Bob Lefsetz


1. "The End"
My friend Harvey Kubernik is writing a book on movie music.
He had me on the phone for over an hour last week, pondering where we'd been, where we are, where we're going.
Soundtrack albums were DE RIGUEUR in the old days. Of MOVIE MUSIC! To hear a rock tune, a popular tune in a movie, that was RARE!
Oh, there was the occasional title cut, like "Goldfinger", or "To Sir With Love". But that played over the credits. And the rest of the record was filled with score.
But, in 1982, there was a breakthrough. "Flashdance". Suddenly, movie soundtracks could stand on their own, as records, IRRELEVANT of the movie. And this got so bad, that at the end of the last decade there were a number of hit soundtracks to STIFF movies.
Yes, after "Flashdance", after "Footloose", after "Dirty Dancing", the major labels woke up to the PROFIT POTENTIAL of soundtracks. They formed soundtrack divisions. They paid a fortune for license fees. TO THE MOVIE COMPANY! And then they took a couple of their hitmakers, mixed them in with some licensed notables, threw in some of their developing acts, and VOILA, you had a movie soundtrack.
The fact that it had almost nothing to do with the film?
That didn't seem to matter.
Maybe you saw the headline in today's L.A. "Daily News". Movie grosses are WAY OFF!
It's got nothing to do with file-trading. Really, downloading movies is only for college students with light speed connections and a lot of time. No, one could argue that this drop in movie grosses has something to do with DVD. We're at the point where the DVD is almost a better EXPERIENCE! You can OWN it, and watch it WHENEVER you want. And there are extras, and alternative endings. Why go to the THEATRE!!! Drive up, pay to park, get there on the multiplex's schedule? And then be subjected to ads, endless trailers, overpriced food and sticky floors.
But really, we all know why grosses are down. Because the flicks SUCK!
The seventies are seen as the last golden era of film. The era of the auteur. The director who had to get it just right, who had to get his VISION down.
Those days are gone. Nobody's striving for greatness. They're just striving for GROSSES! Hell, the movie studios themselves are no longer independent entities run by colorful characters. Rather, they're a small part of entertainment CONGLOMERATES, and they're run by penny-pinching accountants.
The days of Samuel Goldwyn are GONE, never mind those of Robert Evans.
Robert Evans is one of the self-promoters of all time.
Actually, rent or buy the documentary about him, "The Kid Stays In The Picture". It's more fascinating than the fiction flicks made today.
But Evans believed first and foremost in quality. If a movie just didn't add up, if he thought a director was playing it safe, HE'D insist on rewrites and reshoots. He felt if the flick was just GOOD ENOUGH it would find its own way in the marketplace.
The definitive work he produced was "The Godfather". He kept pushing Francis Ford Coppola for more, more, more. Told him he'd buy him a Mercedes when the film won an Oscar for Best Picture Of The Year. Coppola, the sensitive artist, HE didn't believe. But Evans just knew. The blood, the sweat, the TEARS that went into this movie. You could FEEL THEM!
And Coppola went on to make the even better "Godfather II". And "The Conversation".
And then he was so wealthy, he could make HIS OWN movie. He no longer needed the studio. He was going to pursue excellence on his OWN!
He made "Apocalypse Now".
The stories in the press didn't add up.
The screenplay was by John Milius.
But he had little to do with the film.
There were no stars. And the star they did have, had a heart attack in the middle of shooting.
There was a typhoon. Endless delays. The movie was seen as a folly.
Finally, YEARS LATE, Coppola debuted the film at Cannes, in May of 1979. Sans titles.
Reaction was very positive.
But one doesn't really know what to make of the Cannes spin.
Coppola was still working on the picture.
Then it was announced. At the end of the summer. "Apocalypse Now" was going to open in Los Angeles in one theatre. The Cinerama Dome.
This is the OPPOSITE of today. When a movie opens in more than 3,000 theatres. So the studio can make all its money back before word of mouth can spread, that the flick SUCKS! If a movie only plays in one theatre and it's bad, you're done. Kaput.
Thirty million down in this case. In real dollars, one of THE most expensive movies ever made.
L.A.'s a movie town. THE MOVIE TOWN! Screenings were held from noon to midnight. You bought tickets in advance.
And on a strange late August day, when it looked like rain, and uncharacteristically sprinkled, Fredda and I drove all the way across town for the first screening. On Tuesday.
Movies are a tribal rite. A weekend ritual.
But this was something different. This was like the theatre. This was like Broadway. Well, the Broadway of YORE, when it was not supported by out-of-towners, but TRUE BELIEVERS! Who had to see EVERYTHING!
Maybe you've never been to the Cinerama Dome.
It's been redone, but back then there were two levels. An essentially flat lower ring, and then an upper one that was tiered, akin to a balcony.
And the key to going to the movies is to be INVOLVED! To sit close enough that you feel you're PART OF THE FILM!
So we sat about ten rows back, as close to the center as we could.
And at the appointed hour, the lights started to dim.
And I heard this sound... It was unmistakable. If you live in the city, you know it. It was HELICOPTERS!
Cruise Hollywood after dark and you'll come across them. Floating in the sky. Shooting their spotlights down on perps. Illuminating them in artificial daylight, daring them to run while police cruisers scream to the scene.
FUCK, I'm here to see "Apocalypse Now" and there's a fucking CRIME IN HOLLYWOOD! It's fucking up my EXPERIENCE!
But that was not the case.
An image started to appear on the curtain. Which opened to reveal that immense curved screen, with helicopters, and then Martin Sheen, in a hotel room, tossing and turning.
"Can you picture what will be So limitless and free"
That's what we went to Vietnam for. To insure FREEDOM!
But instead of setting the populace free, WE got ensnared. In a quagmire. It was dreaded by every teenager. You might have to go to VIETNAM!
And you might never come back.
As the years went by it wasn't clear what we were fighting for. All we knew was more people kept going, more people kept getting killed. Yes, the body count was on the 7 o'clock news. It was a regular feature.
"Desperately in need of some stranger's hand In a desperate land"
Martin Sheen needed HELP!
But there was none to be found. Nobody was really in charge. He was lost. In the heart of darkness.
There was a darkness in Cream, the rest of the British bluesmen. Hell, you could get mighty stoned and listen to Ten Years After's "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and feel like you were hovering far above the landscape. And a lot of Jimi's stuff was dark too.
But nothing was as viscerally dark as the Doors.
You see the Doors weren't from across the pond. They weren't about outfits. They were US!
And that's what made them so dangerous.
Our entire entertainment business is built on escape. And on one hand, this IS what people want.
But not really. Really people want a reflection of the human condition. They've got more questions than answers. Isn't anybody going to acknowledge the complexity of life? Help them out? At least expose the issues in solidarity?
That was the Doors.
The music had an ethereal quality. And Jim Morrison was like the bad preacher. The one that had your attention, but instead of soothing you with the word of God threw the Bible out, and made you question everything you knew.
Yes, "The End" is based on Greek mythology. Yes, there is the issue of a son wanting to kill his father and desiring to fuck his mother.
But don't listen to the rock critics. This isn't what flipped us out. This wasn't what made us listen to "The End" over and over again.
No, it was the SOUND! THIS was Alice's Wonderland. Jefferson Airplane danced around it. Did drugs and TALKED about it. Jim Morrison said WHO'S WITH ME? And then led the troops underground.
You felt like you were in a mine. You had to hunker down for fear of hitting your head. There were weird noises off in the distance. You feared you wouldn't make it back. You felt even if the mine didn't collapse, you'd never find your return path.
Francis Ford Coppola was one of us. He listened to these albums. They impacted him. This was not one of today's directors listening to the music supervisor pitch hip tracks. No, Coppola chose this song on instinct.
And it resonated.
Sitting in the Dome one felt like one does when the roller coaster safety bar comes up tight and you leave the station. You're going slowly. The hill is in front of you. You're starting to get anxious.
And what was to come in "Apocalypse Now" was positively mesmerizing.
But it wouldn't have had the same effect if it wasn't set up by the Doors' piece de resistance, "The End".
The band cut fresh radio singles. And dark meandering album tracks. But, with "The End" the gap was bridged. It was deep, dark, meaningful and CATCHY!
Now it wasn't ubiquitous on the radio. At least not on the east coast.
Then again, east coast disk jockeys always seemed to have a bit of contempt for the west coast scions.
No, one discovered this ten plus minute opus at friends' houses. And then YOU spread the word.
They truly don't make them like this anymore. No one's that good.
Oh, Alice In Chains came close with "Rooster", but now everybody's into making money, not a statement.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

2. "The Crystal Ship"
"Before you slip into unconsciousness I'd like to have another kiss Another flashing chance at bliss Another kiss Another kiss"
My idea of bliss is having a beautiful woman pull me from the hoi polloi and tell me I'M THE ONE!
Steph had been watching me.
Only I didn't know.
And when she finally made her move, it was WEEKS later. At Stratton. She picked me off the ski slope. She yelled at me. "You ski at Bromley, DON'T YOU?"
That was the ski area across the valley. The one that had already closed before this second weekend of April 1967.
When I responded yes, she told me she'd wait at the top of the lift for me.
Actually, I had a buddy with me, Keith.
And she had a friend, Sally.
And those two days we spent skiing together at Stratton...they represent one of the highlights of my life. If for no other reason than my sister's senior class boyfriends caught wind of the whole thing and treated me differently thereafter.
Steph and Sally could ski every bit as well as we could.
We tore it up.
The letters flew fast and furious between my home in Fairfield and hers in Old Greenwich.
The relationship lasted years.
But one of the most memorable moments happened the following March. When my father dropped me and Keith off at Stratton both days of the weekend. And laid money on me for lift tickets, even though we had season passes at Bromley.
You see Steph had come up with Sally for the weekend.
And Sally had a house on Stratton.
I grew up in a melting pot middle class environment. We literally lived in a split level home.
Sally's vacation house was better than our REGULAR house.
It had three levels. It was within walking distance to the lifts.
And we had it all to ourselves.
Yes, it was just the four of us, for lunch. Sally's parents stayed away.
We made sandwiches. Ate ice cream. Which ended up having such freezer burn that we threw most of it out the window into the snow.
And then we went into the basement to play bumper pool. A game I'd only experienced once or twice previously, since nobody I knew had a TABLE!
And as we went to set up the balls for the first game, Sally ascended a step and reached for the record player. Where she put on the Doors' first album.
I'd only heard the single. "Light My Fire", ubiquitously. And "Break On Through" a little bit.
I wasn't prepared for this. For this aural adventure.
And the tune that stuck out. The one I had to hear again, was "The Crystal Ship".
If you read the lyrics, you might dismiss "The Crystal Ship" as hokey.
But you haven't heard it.
Jim Morrison starts off almost whispering. As if he's tucking you in, putting you to bed.
And then is going to be there when you start to dream.
"The Crystal Ship" is like "Willy Wonka". Just substitute Jim Morrison for Gene Wilder.
"The crystal ship is being filled A thousand girls, a thousand thrills A million ways to spend your time When we get back I'll drop a line"
I can't think of the first Doors album without thinking of Steph, without thinking of this weekend.
It didn't end on a good note.
The last time I saw her was in Aspen, in 1976.
But I finally found her on the Internet.
I'd like to track her down.
But I've learned not to do this. It ends up being too uncomfortable. One's memories are shattered.
I'd rather listen to "The Crystal Ship" and remember the best moments. Those peaks of youth.
3. "Break On Through"
It's the INTRO!
It's like you're driving down the highway, WAY TOO FAST, fearing the future will OUTRUN YOU!
There's minimal percussion. And that bass riff. It's like cruising for burgers on amphetamines. You're all jumpy, all speedy.
"You know the day destroys the night Night divides the day"
I think those day people are AFRAID of the night.
The day's all hustle and bustle. People earning a living.
Whereas nighttime...is quiet, inherently uneventful. You can't outrun your problems. They're right there, haunting you.
The night people are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the day people.
The day people will talk about their cars, their houses, their jobs. The hassle of everyday living.
The night people will talk about life.
The night people are PHILOSOPHERS!
The day people put down the night people. They're lazy. They can't get with the program.
But living during the day is MISSING OUT!
We night people own the universe for eight to twelve hours a day. It's only us. There's no congestion on the freeway. Nobody elbowing us out of the way. Our only mission is DISCOVERY! Of ourselves, of LIFE!
"Break On Through" is a nighttime drive. It's the kind of music George Lucas should have used when the Millennium Falcon went into HYPERSPACE. If "Star Wars" weren't a cartoon, but real life.
Call me some evening after nine. I'll put the first Doors album in the car stereo. We'll drive down Sunset, crawl on Mulholland. Look at the city lights. And talk about the meaning of life.
4. "Soul Kitchen"
Ray Manzarek might talk too much. He should be shot for this Doors of the 21st Century fiasco touring the country. But, make no mistake, he could PLAY! His keyboard textures were an INTEGRAL PART of the DOORS!
Sure, Morrison's belting of the chorus is a reason "Soul Kitchen" is so great, but really it's Manzarek's priceless intro that makes the track. Slow and in the groove after the album's opening runaway of "Break On Through". "Break On Through" is the anticipation of the date, the ringing of the doorbell. The awkwardness. "Soul Kitchen" is the actual drive. You've pulled away from the curb, with no particular place to go.
"Learn to forget, learn to forget Learn to forget, learn to forget"
They talk about the San Francisco groups imploring the baby boomers to tune in, turn on and drop out. It's forgotten that this Los Angeles band was giving the same message. Alas, they were proffering a much darker journey. Albeit more akin to real life...

Come away with me. Everything will be new.
But I won't promise you'll get BACK!!!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

5. "Light My Fire"
It might be the most PLAYED Doors track, but it's not the best.
It's the pop SINGLE!
Actually, it worked AGAINST the band.
Believe me, we were hip by this point. A Los Angeles band called THE DOORS? Like in THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION??? HOW FUCKING LAME! With a HIT SINGLE TO BOOT!
Our favorite acts didn't have hit singles. You didn't hear "Purple Haze" on AM radio. And it wasn't until EONS after "Disraeli Gears" was in the marketplace that "Sunshine Of Your Love" crossed over.
This was the main reason I didn't buy the album. I expected more LIGHT MY FIRE!
And that's not what the rest of the album was.
But I had to wait for that afternoon in Sally's vacation house to find out.
Still, "Light My Fire" WAS famous for having two versions. Yes, you had to tune in to FM to hear the seven minute take. We felt SPECIAL! For the average joe, the one LISTENING to AM, DIDN'T listen to FM, and had no idea this version existed. It was just for us.
And it's this lengthy instrumental break, excised from the AM version, that makes the track.
6. "Roadhouse Blues"
"Morrison Hotel" was the first Doors album I didn't buy.
You see, after the first album sunk into the nation's consciousness, which took about a year, the Doors were COOL!
So, the follow-up, "Strange Days", was AUTOMATICALLY COOL!
Then the tide started to turn. People weren't so into "Waiting For The Sun". Critics SLAGGED "The Soft Parade". I liked both of them, the latter espec ially. But the fact that the band was seen as a joke, and now it wasn't even seen as a BAND, but Morrison's PLAYTHING...I didn't want the record in my collection. I didn't want to be JUDGED!
Yes, we did this. The first thing you did when you went to a friend's house. A POTENTIAL GIRLFRIEND'S HOUSE! Was to cruise the record collection.
And, "Roadhouse Blues" wasn't ubiquitous on FM radio, but they played it. And KEPT playing it. Year after year. To the point where when you were cruising on Friday or Saturday night in the midseventies and it came on, you were JACKED, JAZZED! "Brown Sugar" shined brightly, but then flamed out. "Roadhouse Blues" lived on.
"Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel Yeah, we're goin' to the roadhouse Gonna have a real Good time"
It seemed so SIMPLE! Just a good time ANTHEM! Not that different from a ZZ Top track. Hell, this was LIGHT YEARS from "The End".
But the more you heard it, the more you became enamored of its simplistic magic. The boogie groove. The soloing. The air in the track. And the way Morrison SHOUTED the lyrics!
You might be alone in your car, but when "Roadhouse Blues" came on you were SURE Morrison was riding shotgun, imploring you to grip the wheel tighter, to watch the highway, for you didn't want to FUCK UP, you were in the initial steps of an ADVENTURE!
If you were ever a drinker. Not a casual cocktail drinker, but a let's start at around two in the afternoon and see where it leads us drinker. THEN you understand this song.
We're not common people. We don't obey the rules of society. We're gonna get high and see what happens. And BELIEVE ME, something WILL HAPPEN! For if it doesn't come find us, we're gonna rage around and CREATE IT!
7. "You're Lost Little Girl"
I remember the day I bought "Strange Days".
I'd taken the VistaCruiser to Korvette's.
It was not on sale. It was not the record of the moment. But I had to have it. I'd worn the first album out. I needed MORE!
Despite the good reviews, "Strange Days" never hit.
Maybe because as dark as the first record was, "Strange Days" was even DARKER!
"Strange Days" was "The End" all the way through.
And, actually, there was a "The End" rip-off, "When The Music's Over", but a lot of the other tracks made up for the failure of this extended cut. Yes, that's a mistake. To fall for a FORMULA! Which the Doors did. Album after album had a long poem/epic! In the mold of "The End". But none of them came close to the original. It was disillusioning. Another reason I stopped buying the records. It was as if "Winchester Cathedral" was eleven minutes long, and the New Vaudeville Band did equally lengthy follow-ups about cathedrals all over the U.K.
The only song I'd heard from this album was "People Are Strange". Which I may never need to hear again, since it's been overused since. Married to endless clips as further evidence that what you're seeing truly IS strange. I mean COME ON!! Can't you think a bit DEEPER?? So, when I played the album I was shocked at its unrelenting blackness. And truly BIZARRED by "Horse Latitudes".
But after one and a half times through I had to go to Fairfield University. On one of my mother's movie field trips. We were going to hear Frank and Eleanor Perry talk about their film "Last Summer".
"Last Summer" is NOT one of the films of the sixties that has survived. DVD HAS NOT rescued "Last Summer". No, the unwashed masses think a good movie is "Scarface". Whereas suburbanites could learn a lot more from "Last Summer".
"Last Summer" is "Mean Girls" set during summer vacation. Without the humor.
Barbara Hershey and the two men she mesmerizes ensnare, then psychologically torture a vacation town newbie. And then the men rape her.
You should see Barbara Hershey standing in the bushes. Overlooking the action. With her top off.
MAKE NO MISTAKE! This is not the Barbara Hershey of TODAY!
The Barbara Hershey of today is SO skinny and has had SO MUCH plastic surgery that she's UGLY! I know, because I've run into her a couple of times.
But the Barbara Hershey of yore... Now THAT was a woman.
She had hips. Real breasts. And ATTITUDE!
She was my dream girl. I could never forget her.
Which has something to do with why I married my ex-wife. She was almost a dead ringer. Except she was a bit BETTER-LOOKING!
Believe me, it's a trip fucking your fantasy. Because there's no fantasizing INVOLVED!
When the Perrys finished talking about their landmark picture, we drove home where I proceeded to listen to "Strange Days" on headphones.
One could say that the new girl in the movie was the little girl who was lost. But really, all FOUR of the kids were lost.
8. "Back Door Man"
This has got the sexiness of "Stray Cat Blues" a year BEFORE!
Back in the day, we thought Morrison was the poser and Jagger was the real thing. Now that Mick is a bread head and Jim is dead, the roles are reversed.
Sure, it's easy to die. Then again, wasn't Jim Morrison SUPPOSED TO DIE??
Jagger was all fake revolutionary. Talking about the "Street Fighting Man", so dumb as to allow Hell's Angels to provide security at Altamont, not realizing they weren't just PLAYING bad, but WERE bad. Whereas Morrison might have whipped his dick out on stage and in hindsight was truly chronicling the underside of L.A. life. The world of Venice before the bohos took it over.
Straight blues, but everybody's firing on all cylinders. And, unlike Aerosmith's and Eric Clapton's recent blues work, IT'S NOT OVER THE TOP!!!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

9. "Twentieth Century Fox"
Yes, yes, YES, I KNOW I'm focusing on the first album. But really, can you name a better DEBUT?? Do you think you'll be listening to "Jagged Little Pill" in thirty five years? The first Boston album?
And so many early works of the Doors' contemporaries are amateurish, or outright SUCK! Sure, "Are You Experienced" is great. (Then again, is it really Jimi's first?) But that first Dead album? Either the subsequently released early first, or the WB first...BOTH are FAR from "Workingman's Dead". Even the early Stones.
The first record built the band's reputation. It SUSTAINED the band's reputation. You might hear "Roadhouse Blues" and "Riders On The Storm" on the radio, but people PLAY the first album.
This is another killer track.
10. "Summer's Almost Gone"
I lied about my age and got a job as a camp counselor in the Catskills.
The owner's son took me under his wing. For we shared the same interests. Music, and dope.
This dude had killer hash.
We'd get fucked up at night and wander the grounds with the assembled multitude. Sexual escapades would ensue.
Finally, deep in my tenure there, before I finally quit, we took a road trip. We went to Ithaca, to his fraternity house at Cornell.
Actually, we went other places in town. There was a sub involved at one point. And I think he pointed out the falls. But I was so stoned at that point, I don't really remember.
There was only one student in the giant frat house this hot August day.
They showed me a fellow student's huge porn collection.
And then they set me free.
I ended up in the room of some guy who'd built this light bulb array that pulsed to the music.
However, he'd put more money into the light array than his records. He had just a few. None of which were my favorites.
That afternoon I learned to love "Whisky Train" off Procol Harum's "Home". But I never warmed up to Smith's version of "Baby It's You".
But I couldn't move. I was that fucked up.
But when the dope finally started to wear off, I wandered down to the first guy's room, the dude who was still living in the house. And played one of my favorites from two summers before, "Waiting For The Sun".
"Waiting For The Sun" was one of the first albums that did not contain the title track.
Little Feat ended up perfecting this syndrome. Even printing lyrics for songs that didn't appear on the record.
And "Waiting For The Sun" represented a return to the hit parade for the band, with "Hello, I Love You" and "The Unknown Soldier", but they were so OBVIOUS, unlike the earlier material.
Still, there were some darker tunes.
Like this one.
You know the time of year. When suddenly the light's not quite as bright. When fall is coming. When you wonder where the time went. THAT'S this song.
11. "Love Street"
Okay, it's HOKEY!
Still, this has got the vibe of "Six Feet Under". This is Nate exploring the world of Brenda. Well, she's not really THAT fucked up, right? She's so nice. And calm. And she likes to fuck.
Well, eventually he finds out not only him.
But it's so CALIFORNIA! Knowing someone with little means of support, endeared to eastern philosophy, with a house that's airy, that's a bit beyond their means. Usually in a topsy-turvy neighborhood. You're worried about your car being broken into there, but that doesn't hold you back. You need to go to her apartment on Love Street, what you get there you can't get anywhere else. Deep inside you know it's not going anywhere, that it's going to end badly, but for the time being you can only think of the POSSIBILITIES!
12. "Moonlight Drive"
Maybe you haven't been to L.A. Maybe you're not aware of its topography.
Yes, L.A. is flat. Except for mountains almost as tall as the Rockies.
And a band of hills running right through the city that are junior in scope, but still quite large.
That's an ACTIVITY in L.A. Going for a drive. Not to grandma's house, but to a barbecue joint, a newsstand off Hollywood Boulevard.
You feel so ALIVE!
Then again, here Jim is singing about being parked down by the ocean on this moonlight drive.
You come off the 10, or Wilshire Boulevard. You're deposited on PCH and in front of you is the whole BAY! On a clear night, which is not uncommon, you can see from Redondo to Malibu. Ten odd miles in either direction. And when the moon is full, it reflects off the water. It's positively magical.
When I'm feeling it. When I know it's not friendship, but romance. I steer the car onto PCH. It sets the mood.
13. "The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)"
Yeah, I know it's stupid. Not far different from that ZZ Top-type stuff on "Morrison Hotel".
Then again, after talking about Texas radio, there's some quite bizarre imagery.
And the organ is like a sixties civil rights demonstration. You get the feeling the police are gonna break up this act at any moment. It's on record, but it seems so LIVE!!!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

14. "Peace Frog"
If you want your music to last, DON'T sing about current events.
Then again, THIS survives.
"Peace Frog" is the music that the MC5 WANTED to play.
Oh, don't fuck with me. That Detroit sound has got a lot of POWER, BLUSTER! But not much MELODY!
Iggy Pop. Songs are not his forte. It's more about the ENERGY!
But since the Doors were a big act with AM hits they were put down!
But even this throwaway track is more satisfying than anything on "Raw Power".
Oh, I've GOT those MC5 records. Even the first, the initial edition with the profanity in the gatefold. And I bought "Raw Power" when it came OUT!
But, they're not as good as this.
I like where those Detroit bands were COMING FROM, but the end result...I like it in small doses.
15. "Love Me Two Times"
The Doors had a string of hits.
But most of these famous tracks are SIMPLISTIC, and OVERPLAYED!
Yes, even "Riders On The Storm". Can't we have an EDICT? Like that sign in the guitar shop in "Wayne's World" that says "NO STAIRWAY"? Can't we OUTLAW the spinning of "Riders On The Storm" when it RAINS? I mean if it even SPRINKLES in L.A. KLOS is playing "Riders On The Storm". We GET IT!!
There's the Doors' BOMBASTIC hits. Like "Tell All The People" and "Touch Me".
And then you've got this. Which isn't schmaltzy, which isn't excessive, rather is perfectly COMPACT! "Love Me Two Times" attempts little, but delivers COMPLETELY!
Everybody's playing their part. Morrison doesn't sit ON TOP of the track, but is IN IT!
And the whole thing RAMPS UP in the break, like a soul number.
Really, play this. You'll be surprised how fresh it sounds.
16. "L.A. Woman"
Do you have the original vinyl copy of this album? The one with the see-through yellow plastic?
When this was released fans thought it was a joke. Morrison was dead. The band was past its prime.
But reviews were ECSTATIC!
It made no sense. Paul Rothchild refused to work with the act. One saw him as an integral ELEMENT! Hell, think of AC/DC and Def Leppard without Mutt Lange. A far cry from their heyday. They put out albums, and you HOPE they're good, but you find one or two tracks you KIND of like instead of being pummeled like you were with "Back In Black" or "Hysteria" or "Pyromania".
Still, the sound on "L.A. Woman" WAS different. It wasn't as dark.
Or maybe it was SEVENTIES dark instead of SIXTIES dark.
In the sixties we were still figuring it out. We were OUTLAWS!
But in the seventies, the baby boomers OWNED the culture.
This album didn't sound like you heard it via a long distance wire, it wasn't happening far away, it was RIGHT THERE, right with you in your city or town.
And maybe this is why it was played so much.
You got the aforementioned "Riders On The Storm", the hit.
And this.
"L.A. Woman" wasn't an AM single. But it was UBIQUITOUS on FM. It fit the formula. For FM had excised the sixties darkness too. "L.A. Woman" was the bridge between the old and the new. Between the credible and corporate rock. There was no excess, only meat. But, being progenitors, "L.A. Woman" sounded obvious, but not HACKNEYED!
A fantastic intro. A more commercial "Living In The U.S.A."
Ray Manzarek's keyboard launched a thousand Harleys. And Robbie Krieger's echoing lead put a smile on the faces of the ladies riding on the back of these bikes, gripping their old men.
And Jim ? ? ?
Jim was OVER THE TOP! Almost a CARICATURE of himself.
By this time, Jim had a reputation for being hit and miss. Here he's walking a fine line. Between parody and pure white line fever belief.
But as the eight minute track powers on, you start to BELIEVE HIM! While Ray pounds the piano in the break. When the whole NUMBER breaks down. You realize. This isn't the over the hill gang, this is PROS, ICONS, showing that what they throw off is STILL better than what all the IMPOSTORS are doing.
As the years passed, "L.A. Woman" dropped off the playlists. Everywhere but in L.A.
You see "L.A. Woman" is the City of Angels' ANTHEM!
This is NOT "Born To Run". New Jersey's anthem about LEAVING the state. No, "L.A. Woman" is a celebration of all the unique, bizarre qualities that draw people to Los Angeles, and KEEP them here!
And that intro... Make no mistake. This is the blueprint for "Welcome To The Jungle".
"Well, I just got into town about an hour ago Took a look around, see which way the wind blow Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows"
Everybody comes looking for something.
Some, like W. Axl Rose, find it.
And then somehow lose it. And find themselves STUCK HERE!
With the cops in cars, the topless bars, the hills afire.
Most New York acts are POSERS!
Lou Reed is just a suburbanite. He didn't grow up in the underbelly. His roots are on LONG ISLAND! That leather jacket? It's about as honest as FONZIE'S!
And Joey Ramone too.
They all wore leather. But they weren't dangerous. And they weren't sex symbols.
Jim Morrison was the REAL David Bowie. The one challenging the audience, the one wowing them, urging them to follow him like the Pied Piper. But Morrison wasn't manipulative. He didn't do it only for the fame.
You see Americans can't get away with that. Access is too easy. It's hard to create artifice.
Jim topped out. Drank too much. Got fat. And died.
There isn't much work left behind. But it all survives. It all gets airplay. Whereas when was the last time you heard ANY George Harrison track??
Sure, you hear the Beatles.
But the Doors get almost as much airplay.
They're American icons. In a way Bruce Springsteen can only DREAM OF!
Bruce has got great stories, a plethora of great backing musicians, but it's all done to EXCESS! Whereas the Doors were to the point. They nailed it. Perfectly. Not every time, but compared with others their batting average was phenomenal.
Still, you give them no respect.
But the people respect them. The people are keeping the Doors alive.
Because there's not one SPRINGSTEEN song that gives you the rush of "L.A. Woman". Oh, there are ones that have more lyrics, that are politically correct. But then you've got Jim Morrison, who with one INFLECTION can say more than Bruce Springsteen does in five verses.
Not that I don't love "Candy's Room". Or "Racing In The Street".
But they won't be listening to Bruce fifty years from now.
But when you go to the hockey game in 2054 those fucking Doors albums will still be spinning. It might be a computer file. It might be beamed to a headset everybody in the arena wears. But it'll still be that sparse meaningful sound. The sound of thinking people trying to lay down the human condition in that land of hopes and dreams, Los Angeles, California.
Bob Lefsetz, Santa Monica-based industry legend, is the author of the e-mail newsletter, "The Lefsetz Letter".

[thebadcowboy]

alex

how the fuck you type so fuckin fast.....!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

thebadcowboy said:

alex

how the fuck you type so fuckin fast.....!

Practice!

[thebadcowboy]

fukkin quickdraw mc graw.......!

hope you aint that fast in every department....


and uuhh
interesting article...

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Anyone else got a 'Top 16' and a reason for it....?