I think both of them are dogs breakfasts but of course love them both.
WFTS did manage to salvage something from the COTL debacle but it still did not entirely convince.
It did well here in the UK because it had a poppy feel to it.
The Doors had an underground following as did many West Coast acts around that time but mainstream were nothing here.
WFTS was lucky that it had HILY which was quirky enough and sounded very English so it struck a chord with the record buying public and gave the band the only hit they had during Morrison's lifetime here in Britain.
I was fortunate that I did not carry the acid rock baggage of the US audience and took each Doors album for what it was rather than what it should have been.
I liked WFTS straight away and also had a similar feeling about TSP.
Wishful Sinful was my fave track and still remains so 40 years later. I never had any great idea about Morrison so it did not matter to me who wrote what. That all came later.
TSP never managed to sell here and all the singles released here from it flopped disastrously.
I have never minded the horns and strings as I listened to classical and folk so it did not bother me.
If I had heard the first two albums in 1967 that might have been different.
For me The Doors have always had an English feel to them and never would be described as West Coast by me.
bands like Country Joe, It's A Beautiful Day, Spirit, Airplane and The Dead yes but The Doors no.
If the band had toured England in 1967, as was planned, in support of the debut album things might have been different.
It would have given The Stones and Floyd a run for their money.
As it turned out we here never took to The Doors until Apocalypse Now came out then people started to take notice.
Even today we never really took Jim Morrison to our hearts here unlike Jimi Hendrix who we adopted when he came over.
Jim was right The Doors always did seem to rub folks up the wrong way.