|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 9:45:07 GMT
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 3, 2006 10:03:46 GMT
The Doors unhinged.....The Soft Parade cause and effect …..the consequences of Buick for Miami and beyond......[/ newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=2197
The Soft Parade 'Nude'. newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=concert&action=display&thread=582
STAGE DOORS by Harvey Perr 1969 newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Interviews&action=display&thread=459
BLUES FOR A SHAMAN – DOORS PRODUCER PAUL ROTHCHILD newdoorstalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Interviews&action=display&thread=488
The Doors: The Soft Parade A front page ad in Billboard says it: "Initial orders promise it will attain the instant solid gold status of their first three albums." It looks like it will, but not because anyone listened to the record.
Alternate suggested titles for The Soft Parade would be The Worst of the Doors, Kick Out the Doors, or best, The Soft Touch.
The Soft Parade is worse than infuriating, it's sad. It's sad because one of the most potentially moving forces in rock has allowed itself to degenerate. A trite word, but true.
The Soft Parade represents a clear and present decline in musicianship. This is quite apart from stage showmanship, or even "drama." The Doors are obviously more potent than ever. But the Doors are a rock group, and at heart a rock group must produce vital, listenable, interesting music, or the rest is just so many limp wicks waving in the Miami breeze.
And this gorgeous-looking album is not vital, not very listenable and is certainly not interesting. It sounds for all the world like the stuff they had the good sense to leave off their first albums. The weaknesses cannot be palmed off as experimentation, because, despite the addition of strings and horns, it's just the same. The same but worse.
Ok, there are two un-Doors-like songs, both written by Robbie Krieger. "Touch Me" and "Follow Me Down" are horn-string showpieces for the resonant baritone of Jim Morrison that aren't the worst of the Doors. They're the worst of Jerry Vale or the worst of Andy Williams. While the Doors' reductio-ad-absurdum poetry could usually be disguised by invigorating (if not very convincing) emotion, these damn songs stick that idiocy right up front and surround it with the most cliche-ridden sounds this side of the 101 Strings.
The remainder of the songs sound like the Doors alright, but they're pale shadows of their earlier works. The Doors' power is also their weakness. They have had from the beginning, and still have, one of the cleanest, most solid and, above all, most recognizable sounds in rock. Part of this is the Morrison power, but the other Doors are equally responsible. There is rarely any doubt that you're listening to the Doors. It's a great sound, a successful sound, but it forces a highly directional form of musical invention on the Doors and it is this that they have not been able to maintain. Instead they've just gone from excess to excess.
"Running Blue" is a superb example. It's hard to imagine Doors' poetry getting more excessive than it's been, but listen to this:
Poor Otis dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
Poor Otis dead and gone.
Can you dig it? Or, better yet, "Do It."
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
You are the ones who will rule the world.
And if, as Morrison himself says, the words don't count and the mood created is the important facet of the Doors' rock, then they've really bummed out on this one. The mood they've created is loud, dull boredom. There are some good images, some good musical licks, but it just isn't worth shuffling through the rest of this scree to find the few semi-precious stones.
What little good there is on the album is mostly in the title cut, "The Soft Parade." But the thing is so mangled, so jammed together and frequently so silly that it's kind of hard to listen all through its 8:40 for the good.
With individual credit now being given for the songs, it's plain that Morrison's songs are better than Krieger's. But it's just the lesser of two evils.
In any case, with this album, the Doors appear to be in the final stages of musical constipation. Morrison admits that they haven't done any new material in three years, and unless something drastic happens, the next album ought to be an epitaph.
I highly recommend The Soft Parade for these people like Dunbar in Catch-22 who like to be bored to tears in order to make the time pass more slowly. Otherwise, don't bother. (RS 40) ALEC DUBRO from Rolling Stone 1969
The Doors - The Soft Parade The problem with Oliver Stone’s biopic of The Doors is that the director is so preoccupied with Jim Morrison, in particular Morrison’s morbid obsession with death and excess, that it lead to an unbalanced representation which served to perpetrate the hellraiser myth as opposed to glorying the musicianship. If you watched the film The Doors before you listened to fourth album The Soft Parade, you’d struggle to agree that both featured the same band.
Whilst most would agree that The Soft Parade isn’t the best Doors album, it’s hard to disagree with the notion that it is the most undervalued. Upon its nineteen-sixty-nine release, the band were slated for their over-indulgent flirtations with orchestral rock and the implementation of brass and string sections on their songs. However, with a haze of hindsight surrounding the appreciation of The Soft Parade, it seems that releasing the record was a bolder move than the band were ever given credit for.
As Morrison was writing the ‘how-to-be-a-rock-and-roll-star’ book as he went along during his short life, it was fairly evident that a pre-conceived mould had formed around his iconic presence both on stage and on record, and that Morrison was faced with a no-win situation. He would have been slaughtered for staying the same, and changing would have brought accusations of selling-out from fans. The Doors were in trouble musically and amongst the ranks, and their decision to release The Soft Parade only served to corroborate the idea that they did, in fact, care about the music.
As an album, The Soft Parade is a delicious fusion of rock, jazz, blues, soul and even country, and this is not an exaggeration. It’s best viewed as an experimental collection, with no repetitive themes other than The Doors’ clear desire to try out new musical genres. Album opener Tell All The People actually sounds like Elvis singing with full band on a live-from-Vegas special, and takes a while for you to keep reminding yourself you are listening to the man who once screamed of oedipal impulses on The End. Yet, this is the true spirit of The Doors, a band who managed to break free of their own conventions on countless occasions, only to finally give in to death himself.
Hit single Touch Me garnered ferocious critical abuse from fans, and was so accessible as chart fodder that even treacle-indulgent arranger Hugo Montenegro covered it on his Moog Power album. Sure, the strings-orchestra rhythm and the pure poppy lyrics of “I’m gonna love you, till the stars fall from the sky for you and I” may have sent some stringent Doors fans insane with rage, but there’s no denying the song works as an inspired mix of pop, funk and jazz, with fiery keyboards from Manzarek and welcome saxophone solos from guest Curtis Amy.
Surprisingly, the third track, Shaman’s Blues is the first on the album composed by Morrison, as the two previous songs were Krieger-penned. It’s a Morrison-by-numbers track, full of repetitive bass-lines and rambling lyrics, whereas Do It is lyrically inept but has an infectious chorus. Easy Ride is a firm, upbeat number full of jingly-jangly bluegrass hints, and a strong country-rock emphasis, suggesting The Doors were aware of the revolutionary advances in country music pioneered by the likes of Gram Parsons and the later line-ups of The Byrds.
Wild Child is a sauntering blues number supposedly based around Morrison’s long-term infatuation for Linda Ashcroft. Runnin’ Blue is one of the better songs in the album, and one of the few to see Morrison and Krieger sharing lead vocal. The song, a homage to late soul singer Otis Redding, is a catchy mix of Morrison blues-rock and Krieger country-bluegrass, Wishful, Sinful doesn’t outstay its welcome, and the final, title track is a nine-minute anthology that sounds like a medley of smaller songs. Morrison’s random lyrics and initial mock-preacher character-embodiment fly headfirst through a barrage of musical soundscapes ranging from what can be described as a pre-cursor to disco or whimsical chart pop. It’s an interesting close to an interesting album, but certainly no The End or When The Music’s Over. Whereas The Soft Parade isn’t as accessible as other Doors albums nor a good introduction for a casual newcomer, it certainly contains more benefits than drawbacks in the band’s discography. The experimental nature of the songs has served to heighten the unpredictable and wild side of the band’s persona, and with that in mind, it’s just as important as the debut album or L.A. Woman. Raphael Pour-Hashemi
The Soft Parade ( 1969 )6½ Tell All The People / Touch Me / Shaman's Blues / Do It / Easy Ride / Wild Child / Runnin Blue / Wishful Sinful / The Soft Parade Producer Paul A Rothchild encouraged The Doors to employ lavish production and really try to make use of the studio. I'm not sure if all The Doors were keen on this idea but Ray Manzarek politely said 'we had a lot of fun in the studio' concerning the sessions! It sounds that way in places, actually. And, a couple of tracks are just dandy! Lets take opener 'Tell All The People'. Brass instruments and a full sounding production are mixed in with an admittedly decent melody. It sounds even less like The Doors than parts of 'Waiting For The Sun'. Still, it is a good song. Its a pop song really. And! 'Touch Me' is just stupendous! One of my favourite Doors songs. Its a simple song again, a pop song but here we do have Doors sounds and styles amongst the string section and poppy melodies. The rhythm of the keyboards inbetween the verses is a thing to behold! 'Shamans Blues' is slightly more Doors of old, though judged by those past standards - hardly classic Doors. I'd actually rather the first two 'un-doors' sounding tracks than a weak song in their old style. 'Do It' and 'Easy Ride' wrap up the first half - neither are essential if judged by previous Doors standards.
The second half continues the mix of the first but adds another element as well. The melodies take on a quirky mode. 'Wild Child' is delightful in its rising and playful keyboard lines, 'Runnin Blue' sounds like a country hoe-down. It sounds something of a mess but even considering it sounds NOTHING like The Doors famous sound, does possess a certain dumb charm I suppose. 'Wishful Sinful' overdoes the string section just a little for me. A perfectly fine string section that soars in places - but not integrated into the actual song too well. It obliterates it. Jim can hardly be heard. One fine moment on the album does remain however. And, it will make you smile. And, thats a promise! It's eight and a half minutes long and borrows a samba rhythm from Jazz master Stan Getz. The opening Jim in preacher mode 'PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!' makes you smile for a start. When the jazz samba kicks in, well. The whole thing becomes an impossible triumph and its only a quarter of the way through! The song proceeds through a bluesy section and gets rockier as it goes along. Jim is going all out by the end. Its a great song. 'Touch Me' is actually the only other moment of a similar quality. Adrian's Album Reviews
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 5, 2006 22:21:33 GMT
The Doors: The Soft Parade A front page ad in Billboard says it: "Initial orders promise it will attain the instant solid gold status of their first three albums." It looks like it will, but not because anyone listened to the record.
Alternate suggested titles for The Soft Parade would be The Worst of the Doors, Kick Out the Doors, or best, The Soft Touch.
The Soft Parade is worse than infuriating, it's sad. It's sad because one of the most potentially moving forces in rock has allowed itself to degenerate. A trite word, but true.
The Soft Parade represents a clear and present decline in musicianship. This is quite apart from stage showmanship, or even "drama." The Doors are obviously more potent than ever. But the Doors are a rock group, and at heart a rock group must produce vital, listenable, interesting music, or the rest is just so many limp wicks waving in the Miami breeze.
And this gorgeous-looking album is not vital, not very listenable and is certainly not interesting. It sounds for all the world like the stuff they had the good sense to leave off their first albums. The weaknesses cannot be palmed off as experimentation, because, despite the addition of strings and horns, it's just the same. The same but worse.
Ok, there are two un-Doors-like songs, both written by Robbie Krieger. "Touch Me" and "Follow Me Down" are horn-string showpieces for the resonant baritone of Jim Morrison that aren't the worst of the Doors. They're the worst of Jerry Vale or the worst of Andy Williams. While the Doors' reductio-ad-absurdum poetry could usually be disguised by invigorating (if not very convincing) emotion, these damn songs stick that idiocy right up front and surround it with the most cliche-ridden sounds this side of the 101 Strings.
The remainder of the songs sound like the Doors alright, but they're pale shadows of their earlier works. The Doors' power is also their weakness. They have had from the beginning, and still have, one of the cleanest, most solid and, above all, most recognizable sounds in rock. Part of this is the Morrison power, but the other Doors are equally responsible. There is rarely any doubt that you're listening to the Doors. It's a great sound, a successful sound, but it forces a highly directional form of musical invention on the Doors and it is this that they have not been able to maintain. Instead they've just gone from excess to excess.
"Running Blue" is a superb example. It's hard to imagine Doors' poetry getting more excessive than it's been, but listen to this:
Poor Otis dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
Poor Otis dead and gone.
Can you dig it? Or, better yet, "Do It."
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
Please please listen to me children
You are the ones who will rule the world.
And if, as Morrison himself says, the words don't count and the mood created is the important facet of the Doors' rock, then they've really bummed out on this one. The mood they've created is loud, dull boredom. There are some good images, some good musical licks, but it just isn't worth shuffling through the rest of this scree to find the few semi-precious stones.
What little good there is on the album is mostly in the title cut, "The Soft Parade." But the thing is so mangled, so jammed together and frequently so silly that it's kind of hard to listen all through its 8:40 for the good.
With individual credit now being given for the songs, it's plain that Morrison's songs are better than Krieger's. But it's just the lesser of two evils.
In any case, with this album, the Doors appear to be in the final stages of musical constipation. Morrison admits that they haven't done any new material in three years, and unless something drastic happens, the next album ought to be an epitaph.
I highly recommend The Soft Parade for these people like Dunbar in Catch-22 who like to be bored to tears in order to make the time pass more slowly. Otherwise, don't bother. (RS 40)
ALEC DUBRO Rolling Stone August 23rd 1969
The Doors: The Soft Parade Year Of Release: 1969 Record rating = 7 Overall rating = 11
More pop, horns, orchestra, and Krieger. But Jim wrote some good songs, too. Best song: THE SOFT PARADE
Track listing: 1) Tell All The People; 2) Touch Me; 3) Shaman's Blues; 4) Do It; 5) Easy Ride; 6) Wild Child; 7) Runnin' Blue; 8) Wishful Sinful; 9) The Soft Parade.
This album was probably released in a flurry, as 1969 didn't seem to be a good year for The Doors, what with Jim's drug additions and obscene behaviour, culminating in the infamous self-exposion bust and subsequent trial. This explains the fact that a good deal of the music here is written by Robbie. And it's no good news, either, because this leads to very mixed results. On one hand, the extremely simple (at least, compared to Jim's own compositions) love song 'Touch Me' sounds fairly attractive to me, with its fast tempo and nice orchestration (it was the hit single, too), and the corny orchestration of the chorus is fully compensated for by the fascinating tension-mounting towards the end of the song, with the wild saxophone solo and the powerful four chords that bring the number to a close. On the other hand, the countryish 'Runnin' Blue', dedicated to the memory of 'poor Otis /Redding/', is simply horrible, with incredibly banal barroom fiddle and absolutely dumb lyrics. The opening track, 'Tell All The People', is too simple for Jim's style, just as well. 'Tell all the people what you see - it's just me!' Me? It's Robby Krieger, not Jim Morrison; sometimes I wonder how in the world could Jim be as horrendously stoned so as to actually sing Krieger's lyrics. Of course, he might just have been a good pal, always ready to oblige, but judging from his biography, that issue's more than dubious. The funny thing is that I used to think that Jim's own composing was going down the drain, too; but turns out that the two other weak cuts on this record were also written by Krieger (well, 'Do It' is credited to Morrison-Krieger, but I'll gladly close my eyes on the first half of the credit), so Jim's reputation is saved in my eyes. The catchy, mournful ditty 'Wishful Sinful' is in the traditional 'Crystal Ship' ballad style, but it's slightly weaker and features too much unnecessary orchestration; while I can't find any particular flaws with the melody, it always manages to bore me to death, and the false ending midway through irritates my guts - there's nothing worse for one's digestion system than a false ending in the middle of a boring song. Another low quality number, 'Do It', is a catchy, but nevertheless silly piece of rock and roll with the line 'please please listen to the children, they are the ones who will rule the world' repeated over and over again until you're ready to go throttle all the children on this planet. The only thing that redeems it are some fascinating drum fills from Densmore - listen to him basically going over his head on the final verses and gaze in awe at the man's talents. OK now, some good news, too: when it comes to Jim's songwriting, this album is generally an improvement over the last one. Because when a song is good here, it is real good. Forsaking the schlocky aspects of Waiting For The Sun (relegating them to Krieger's numbers), Jim has taken on his 'dark aura' again, and pieces like 'Shaman's Blues' and especially 'Wild Child' are absolutely shattering, with great heavy riffs and lyrics demonstrating Jim's profound interests in ethnography. Everything is back: the monstruosity, the thrill, the pauses and climaxes, and the riff of 'Wild Child' is one of the best riffs the band ever managed to come up with - particularly brilliant is the change of key by both Jim and Robbie for the last verse, which suddenly changes the atmosphere of the song from ominous and prophetic to desperate and pleading. And the playful, yet menacing atmosphere is back for the pop rocker 'Easy Ride' that gallops around at a great speed and is tremendous fun, especially with Robbie's otherworldly guitar fills and Ray's audacious organ bleeps and bursts. The real highlight, though, is the title track: yet another overlong, anthemic album-closing composition, this time more complex than ever, moving through several absolutely different parts like a Thick As A Brick-type mini-suite and ending with a brilliant row of overdubs, with four or five Jims singing at once. Yeah, that's the one which begins with the famous 'epigraph': 'When I was back in seminary school, there was a person there who put forth the proposition that you can petition the lord with prayer... petition the lord with prayer... petition the lord with prayer... YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!' Well, I suppose Jim never really petitioned the lord with prayer. Anyway, the effect of the number which slowly and meticulously picks up steam, with more and more Jims joining in the chaotic chorus, is really awesome, and then, when the song builds up to an absolute climax, the Jims suddenly disappear and one extremely loud-voiced, echoey Jim announces: "WHEN ALL ELSE IS FAILED WE CAN RIP THE HORSES' EYES AND MAKE THEM SLEEP". Isn't that classy? And the track also shares the advantage of being fully and completely rhythmic, with a steady, well-played beat, so if 'The End' and 'When The Music's Over' ever used to bother you with their being slow and rambling, 'The Soft Parade' can even be danceable - although I don't know how one could really dance along to Jim's dreary hallucinations. All said, there are some real nasty stinkers on this album, but in general I far prefer it to Waiting For The Sun, since it doesn't have that crowd-pleasing sweety pop taste to it. After all, Jim Morrison is no Paul McCartney: he's at his best when he sings 'The Soft Parade', not 'Wintertime Love'. Isn't he?
George Starostin from Only Solitaire.com
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 7, 2006 10:47:20 GMT
The Soft Parade It is fair to say the spirit of Strange Days has been soundly exorcised for this album. In its place we find the spirit of Big Band arrangements, a quasi-ethnic feel and a slight envy of the Beatles. Yessireebob, this is a mixed bag. Strangely this is the only album to feature individual writing credits showing us, effectively, that Morrison and Krieger pretty much equally shared the song-writing duties. This often leads to people giving Krieger a bit of stick for this album but I hardly think he is any more culpable than Morrison. I know for a fact he wrote "Light My Fire" and no-one complains about that, so leave off will you? To be fair, though, Morrison does get him out of jail somewhat with the closing title track which is reason alone why this album is not as bad as many critics make out. Ah yes, that title track. Returning to the spirit of the first two albums it is by far the longest track on here (although less than nine minutes) but it takes on a less continuous feel, seemingly made up of three separate songs. That's not to say it sounds disjointed, although you might argue it doesn't flow as seamlessly as "When the Music's Over". I actually think the first two parts of it sound a bit like Gabriel-era Genesis. It starts, though, with Morrison imitating an evangelist preacher sermoning about "petitioning the Lord with prayer" before beginning for real as a wonderfully eerie, harpsichord driven number. You may like to compare it to the opening of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" if you are still scoffing at my Genesis-related claim. It unexpectedly switches to a bizarre, jaunty, almost child-like, tune which, all told, is probably the weakest moment of the song. It ends with the line "the... monk... bought... lunch..." before Morrison cackles "he bought it alright" and the song drops seamlessly into a fantastic, grooving bass-line to which Morrison tells us "this is the best part of the trip" and then overdubs several vocals giving the effect of numerous Jim Morrisons having a confused conversation with each other. That final section builds into a memorable chant before Morrison finally rants about "when all else fails we can rip the horses eyes..." and the song finally disappears into the drug-induced void from whence it came. Apart from perhaps that goofy second section, that song is everything that makes Jim Morrison so great. Unfortunately, friends, we have to sit through the preceding twenty-five minutes of a rather patchy motley crue of songs, before the aforementioned mesmerising epic is upon us. Three songs are given the full big-band orchestral treatment: "Tell All the People", "Touch Me" and "Wishful Sinful". The opening "Tell All the People", to me, sounds a little like a Sgt. Pepper rip-off and certainly it doesn't sound like the sort of song the Doors should be doing. It ain't particularly bad but it is not the type of song that made the Doors great. For "Touch Me", apart from the whoop at the beginning, Morrison delights in affecting his most Sinatra-esque croon. Not that you would expect Frank to ever sing something so blatantly erotic. The climatic sax solo at the end is a rather odd conclusion to what is basically a Big Band pop song. That said, if you are a fan of the Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" then you have to give this song its due. Well, the end of it, at least. I know most Doors fan hate "Touch Me" but I really like it, if only because it pisses off other Doors fans. "Wishful Sinful" is also a big-band style song with an unsubtle string arrangement. Again, I like it, although it is hardly going to make their top 10 songs or anything. It does, however, make the top 3 in terms of this album. I also mentioned a bit of ethnicity at the start, did I not? Well, both "Shaman's Blues" and "Wild Child", lyrically at least, hint of Africa. The most ethnic number, though, is probably the American rockabilly of "Runnin' Blue". It begins with Morrison singing a funny blues song and the chorus features Krieger's only ever lead vocal with him singing some hicky number. It ain't great. And neither is this album. But it is still better than most critics give credit for. There isn't much greatest hits material on here but at least the title track is among the coolest songs the Doors ever did. To conclude: YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER! You heard the man. 7/10 Jack Feeny Review Pages.
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 17, 2006 10:55:35 GMT
|
|
|
Post by stuart on May 17, 2006 11:11:59 GMT
One Song on TSP i just love is"Runnin Blue"i think jim sounds GREAT on it and the track to me has that "Good time" energy, great track, anyone else like it?.
|
|
|
Post by ensenada on May 17, 2006 16:39:59 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]there are two un-Doors-like songs, both written by Robbie Krieger. "Touch Me" and "Follow Me Down" [/glow]
i wouldnt mind..but now with retrospect (is that the right word?) these two songs, to me...are doors sounding songs, infact touch me always did sound doors like to me...and when i heard follow me down i thought the same...well not as much. but what they said then, doesnt make much sense to me for future doors fans.
|
|
|
Post by jym on May 17, 2006 17:07:12 GMT
I always skip Tell All The People, it just doesn't sound like the rest of the album, maybe they should have included Who Scared You? It also would not have sounded like most of the rest of the album, but much less so than TATP. I think there are some stand out songs on TSP, Shaman's Blues, Wild Child, Do It, Wishful Sinful, and of course The Soft Parade, I never thought much of the song The Soft Parade until I saw it from PBS Critique performance, outstanding!
|
|
|
Post by ensenada on May 17, 2006 17:45:02 GMT
yeh the pbs performance is awesome....its more powerful watching jim perform it.
|
|
|
Post by jym on May 17, 2006 19:09:33 GMT
I forgot to mention that The Soft Parade was one of my favorite albums to clean pot on. Hmmm, wonder if there's any 20 year old flakes left in the crease, gotta go check...
|
|
|
Post by ensenada on May 17, 2006 22:11:19 GMT
I forgot to mention that The Soft Parade was one of my favorite albums to clean pot on. Hmmm, wonder if there's any 20 year old flakes left in the crease, gotta go check... your just not right.....lol
|
|
|
Post by jym on May 18, 2006 1:04:30 GMT
I forgot to mention that The Soft Parade was one of my favorite albums to clean pot on. Hmmm, wonder if there's any 20 year old flakes left in the crease, gotta go check... your just not right.....lol Amen to that brother, Amen.
|
|
|
Post by reflect on May 18, 2006 3:54:17 GMT
I like the last review where it talks about the song "The Soft Parade" in details. Since I'm a new fan, I still haven't got the album yet, but I've listened to the song from the PBS show. And I like it a lot.
Although I like that review, I don't agree to the reviewer’s opinion on the second or third part of the songs. I think the nursery-tune like section is needed to make the song complete. The song, as described by Ray in the Soundstage DVD, is a five-part suite. And the combination of the five movements makes the song complete. The song is a story, with its plot sequences told in reverse order.
First, we are told the moral of the story: "you cannot petition the lord with prayers". Then we are told the present state of mind of the protagonist of the story, that he "can’t stand it anymore”.
In the third part of the suite, we are thrust back to the past when the protagonist was innocent and free of responsibility, getting whatever he wanted out of the world, having a life filled with “peppermint, miniskirts, chocolate candy”. However, the innocence was eroded away quickly, when the protagonist learnt that “everything must be this way”. The people were unaware how their selves were being eaten away by “the hunters” of modernity. The wildness of the animals was replaced by civility and the passion of the tropics was tuned down into “the mild equator”. The protagonist, failing to change the situation, resorted to numb himself with pleasure. He went to “ride and have some fun”, yet knowing that pleasure could not last, he had a dismal vision of the future. This pessimistic perception into the future caused the protagonist to crack and the only cure was to blind himself, to “whip the horse's eyes, and make them sleep, and cry”.
And thus conclude the story.
|
|
|
Post by eressie on May 18, 2006 8:21:44 GMT
This is an album that I have learnt to like more and more. At first I did not respond to it much at all and I am not so fond of the strings and horns, but over time I got to appreciate the album and now one of my favourite songs is Shamans Blues.
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 18, 2006 9:03:16 GMT
I was fortunate because when I got into The Doors the acid phase was coming to a close and I did not have any preconceived ideas about the band as here in the UK they were pretty much irrelevant. A brief Euro tour, a minor 'hit' single, one Top Of The Pops appearance and an album that just made the top 20 were hardly major talking points in the schoolyard and we had plenty of other music to keep us occupied. in 1967 Light My Fire here had bombed (Jose feliciano was the one that made us here in the UK notice how good the song was), The End was not giving my mum nightmares, and the debut album had crawled to #43 for a week then vanished so my knowledge of The Doors back then was not biased towards the acid rock phase that defined the band. Consequently when I heard the Soft Parade tracks I had no beef with the brass and thought it reasonable effective at the time.......I loved Wishful Sinful and Touch Me and thought Shamans Blues a bit out of place although I did love every track on the album....still do! Do It! is a great Doors track in my opinion and one I have never disliked. As Reflect points out so eloquently the title track is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance and I was hooked by the poignancy of the sanctuary section after the intro which is for me one of Jim Morrisons saddest moments as now we all know what it was he was saying. Obviously I know a lot more than I did then but hearing Soft Parade without the baggage that went with being brought up on The Doors as Acid Rock legends as the American kids were in 1967/68 was an advantage. It's a fine album....an attempt to be fresh and different .....true it did not work as well as it might have but as a Doors album it stands up well with the first two albums which are the yardsytick we all use to measure The Doors. It's not my favourite Doors album but I love EVERY moment on it....even Robby's squawks on Runnin' Blue!
'Can you give me sanctuary I must find a place to hide A place for me to hide
Can you find me soft asylum I can't make it anymore The Man is at the door' He certainly was mate....sadly!!Ironically they finally got an album on CBS Uruguay Promo LP
|
|
|
Post by cobriaclord on Jul 1, 2006 17:50:45 GMT
Alright Since the Soft Parade is my favorite album I am going to write a review that shows it in a semi-positive light: Both fans and critics alike felt betrayed when they heard The Soft Parade. It was just plain pop music and not even good pop music at that. But this album has a few gems that resurrect it from being the worst Doors album to in my opinion. Let's follow it track by track: Tell all the People~ By Kreiger. Lyrics very unorginal and boring. The songs is quite catchy though and I see the horns as a nice addition. Overall I'd give it a 5/10 Touch Me~ As pop songs go, this has to be one of the best. Fantastic Solo by Almy and true emotion is actually portrayed through Morrison's lyrics about halfway through. Still, the lyrics suck and Kreiger as usual is selling out with unoriginal boring lyrics and a somewhat catchy tune. 7/10 Shaman's Blues~ Here is where the album gets good (only for the flow to be interupted) They really jam out in this song, giving a raw bluesy feel mixed with jazz and mysticism. The lyrics are ingenious and full of allusions to shamanism. The bassline also adds to the song. I would say second best Doors song of all TIME! 10/10 Written by Morrison Do It- WOW, this songs blows. A real mess by Kreiger, unoriginal, not catchy and just retarded 1/10 Worst Doors song ever! Easy Ride- Not bad but not good either. Reminds me of some of the songs of their first album. Its fun and the lyrics at the end with the Coda Queen rock. 7.5/10 Wild Child- This song is very simple but its also very full sounding. Great beat, originak lyrics, somewhat an ode to Rimbaud. Ingenious By Morrison 9/10 Running Blues- Yet another piece of crap by Kreiger. Kreiger's vocals want you to smash the LP. He sounds like a bad Bob Dylan imitation. ugh! Morrison's lines are good and add to the song. But it still rots 2.5/10 Wishful, Sinful- Prolly Kreiger's best track, but its still unoriginal. Strings and Horns do sound nice on it though. Morrison sings it well too. 8/10 Soft Parade- Finally! This is in my opinion the best Doors song of all time. Why? Well, it starts out with the booming Petition to the Lord, then goes very slow and enchanting with the "can you give me soft asylum" part. Jim knows he is going to die "The man is at the Door" You can feel the raw emotion before it hops into this upbeat part. The mascarade/facade section with some amazing lyrics. Then after the monk eats lunch, the bassline becomes thumping and amazing. The song swirls around in frenzy. The lyrics are ingenious and discuss Nietzche and hios ideas of existentialism. 100000000/10
For those three songs I rated highly, this album becomes the Doors' best.
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 18, 2006 10:24:52 GMT
Friday July 18th 1969 saw the release of Doors 4th album The Soft Parade ...........the most difficult album The Doors ever made as Producer Paul Rothchild tries to emulate The Beatles and fails. Overproduced and with the addition of brass and orchestra it is a strange album that produces a mixed reaction from fans and media but the album has held up well in the last 30 odd years and contains a good number of excellent Doors tracks from the pen of not just Jim Morrison but Robby Krieger. It produced one of The Doors biggest hits with Touch Me!
|
|
|
Post by cobriaclord on Jul 18, 2006 16:08:46 GMT
It is a lot like the Beatles in that you can really tell who wrote which songs.
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 24, 2008 12:17:10 GMT
The Doors: Album Guide - The Soft Parade (1969)
The most misunderstood, most ambitious, and – given enough time, a candlelit room and a bottle of something suitably potent – defiantly different Doors collection, for those fans that found Waiting For The Sun a challenge, The Soft Parade was like journeying to the other end of the universe. Frustrated by the insular demands of pop stardom, no longer interested in “feeding the machine”, and under heavy manners generally following Morrison’s arrest for indecent exposure onstage in Miami in March 1969 (the infamous drunken willy-waving incident laughed about now but considered so serious back then it threatened a possible prison sentence for the beleaguered singer), the band’s response was to attempt the impossible and come up with a Doors album that didn’t sound like a Doors album – certainly not the one people were hoping for anyway. Added to the four-man line-up were saxophones, trombones, horns, congas, real basses, fiddles, mandolins and, on four tracks, a full orchestra sawing away in the studio. The results were mixed, admittedly, on tracks like ‘Do It’ and ‘Runnin’ Blue’ (the latter a failed experiment in bluegrass; the former a presumably ‘ironic’ take on the traditional pop song). When it worked, however, as on the huge hit ‘Touch Me’ and the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin rocker ‘Wild Child’, or the spacey (no other word for it, Jim) ‘Shaman’s Blues’ and “multi-part suite” that was the gloriously over the top title track, it showed the band at its improvisational, absolute best. There would never be another Doors album quite so strange or so brave.
Tracklist: Tell All The People / Touch Me / Shaman's Blues / Do It / Easy Ride / Wild Child / Runnin' Blue / Wishful Sinful / The Soft Parade
Mick Wall 2008
|
|
|
Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 21, 2011 8:35:45 GMT
Nice backstage pass for TSP tour autographed by all 4 Doors.
|
|