86. The Doors, "The Doors"

 

Man, I've had a journey with the Doors.  In high school, the Doors were still cool.  There was a tattered paperback copy of No One Here Gets Out Alive, one of the best rock biographies ever, that was passed around.  I devoured it, and I thought at that point, when I was 14 or 15, that Jim Morrison was maybe one of the coolest guys ever.  I mean, he drank all the booze and did all the drugs and had sex with all the girls and just generally did whatever he wanted.  How much more appealing could you get to a 15-year-old boy?  He told authority to fuck off and never really faced any consequences because he was rich and in a band.  The dream!  Plus, the Doors were just re-entering public consciousness due to the inclusion of "The End," more on which later, in the movie Apocalypse Now, and the 1980 release of their Greatest Hits album.

Then by the time I was in my 20's the Doors were no longer cool but just one of those classic rock bands I never really thought about much.  By the time I was in my 30's I think they were kind of a joke, with Morrison's heavy-handed philosophical BS and their cheesy sound.  A whole cottage industry of Doors hate has sprung up, eager to take down the band.

So when I put this on I was already starting to compose another Hotel California-style drag in my head.  But then you know what?  I really enjoyed it!  There are a lot of genuinely good songs on this album, and Morrison is a competent singer and not as bad a lyricist as people give him shit for.

This album was recorded a little over a year after Morrison met Ray Manzarek (who died in 2013, to my surprise - I thought he was still alive!) on Venice Beach, and that is, wow.  Imagine coming up with some of the most famous songs in rock history in a little over a year.  The big three on this album are probably "Break on Through," "The End," and "Light My Fire," the last of which has one of the most famous riffs in the history of rock, played on a Vox Continental organ instead of a guitar.  You know the song, go ahead and hum it.  Besides the riff, it's got a great vocal line, and an unforgettable chorus.  There's a great story about how Buick tried to get the rights to use it in an ad ("Come on Buick, light my fire") but Morrison threatened to destroy a Buick with a sledgehammer on live TV if they used it so I guess they decided to pass.  

Honestly, everything on here is pretty good.  I've always loved the opening couplet of "Crystal Ship" ("Before you slip into unconsciousness/I'd like to have another kiss"), and "Take It As It Comes" is probably an underrated rocker, and once again shows off how Manzarek's organ was the main instrument, very unusual in an era when rock guitar was the focus.

And then there's "The End," a sprawling, 11-minute-plus epic that touches on countercultural themes ("The west is the best/Get here and we'll do the rest") and then has the famous Oedipal break:

The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door
And he looked inside
"Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you"
"Mother? I want to..."

Jim kinda mangle-screams "fuck you" at the end of that last line, but it's very clear that's what he's saying in live recordings.  The Oedipal reference wasn't a surprise; for whatever his flaws were, Morrison was one of the most erudite and well-read artists of his time.  He had already graduated from UCLA with a film degree before the Doors even started, and was influenced by Kafka, Moliere, Cocteau, and the French existentialists.  He would die in 1971, at 27 years old (maybe) after several more Doors albums, none of them (to my mind) as good as this one.  (Although L.A. Woman is probably close.)

Is this album in my personal Top 500? Sure, upon re-evaluation, I want it.