doors, the (1967) - the doors: elektra records 1970 reissue, EKS-74007

By the time I entered High School music was in a very weird place because there was so much diversity.  It was a rare time when disco and hard rock and soft rock and stadium rock and bubblegum rock and punk rock and funk rock all lived side by side: Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, Rush, Journey, Jackson Browne, Donna Summer, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Earth Wind & Fire, Blondie, Fleetwood Mack, the Doobie Brothers, Neil Diamond, ELO, the Who, the Stones, P-Funk, Bruce Springsteen, and more were all incredibly popular, and it wasn't at all strange to hear something from each of them during the course of a day.

But even though it was more than five years after Jim Morrison ended up getting the Marat treatment, the Doors continued to be wildly popular at my school.  Moreso than the Beatles and moreso than many of the (then) current bands. In reality it wasn’t all that surprising.  The recent release of Apocalypse Now helped reinject the Doors music into mainstream pop culture, and both KMET and KLOS (the local rock stations) had the Doors on regular rotation – in fact KLOS even offered their iconic rainbow stickers with the band’s name:

And, of course, there was that whole SoCal connection, too.  The Doors were one of those bands that really could only have been forged in the crucible of the cultural upheaval of the late 60’s amidst the fertile swirl that was Los Angeles. In a very real sense, the band had LA in their DNA which kept them locally relevant and important throughout a decade after they had stopped being a band. The Doors were ours just like the Beatles belonged to Liverpool or Buddy Holly belonged to Texas.

Now, while everyone acknowledges the importance of the San Francisco scene on music in the late 60's, it seems as if what was happening 350 miles down the coast gets ignored.  But consider the time and the place and the acts that were born there: Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, Sly and the Family Stone, Buffalo Springfield, and others.  What you begin to see is that the music from LA was developing along a different path than in the Bay Area.  The LA scene was more about bringing experimentation and diversity – using surf sounds along with some jazz and funk, with a lot of blues, psychadelic and folk mixed in.  The result was music that tended to defy easy categorization but was really a strong reflection of a local culture blending hippies, squares, gurus, freaks, and dropouts.

So when Jim Morrison met Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach and explained that he was taking notes at a rock n roll concert going on in his head, it made the sort of perfect sense in exactly the same way it wouldn't if they had met in, say, the Bronx.  And only in that wild, open, and uninhibited land of Los Angeles in the late 60’s could The Doors release what might well be among the most potent debut albums in history.

Side 1: Break On Through Soul Kitchen The Crystal Ship Twentieth Century Fox Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) Light My Fire
Side 2: Back Door Man I Looked At You End Of The Night Take It As It Comes The End

Look at that song list.  It’s almost a greatest hits collection. And from the opening organ riff for Break On Through, you just know you’re in for an incredibly groovy ride.

One of the things that comes immediately clear on listening is that even though the Doors were a blues-influenced band, they also had a serious Booker T & the MGs thing going on, with that whole Memphis Soul vibe created by Stax Records.  And that bluesly-soul sound is clear on Break On Through, Soul Kitchen, and their cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s Back Door Man.

But it would be a huge oversimplification to just call The Doors a blues bad, or The Doors a blues album.  There’s much more than that, from the playfully bizarre Alabama Song to the lusty Light My Fire, to the Gotterdammerung of their epic The End.

One thing that isn’t an oversimplification, though, is recognizing the Doors as a band very well suited as a soundtrack for someone looking to take some time to mellow out. Although true of all the songs on this album, both Light My Fire and The End, with their extended musical interludes, are seemingly composed expressly for burning a jay and letting some time pass.  Fire in particular is perfect for this, and if you time it right you can start your time-warp just as Manzarek’s organ escorts you down a rabbit hole into a lush maze, and just when you think you might get lost Krieger’s smooth classical Spanish-tinged guitar comes along to guide you out.

And through it all are the silky, hypnotic vocals. Morrison’s voice has the same sort of syrupy allure as the finest crooners of the 50’s, but with a touch of malice and familiarity with mind-altering experiences that makes it dangerous.  The closest description would be Tony Bennett singing while on a mushroom trip.

The Doors as both band and album is definitely of a time and place, but also transcends time or place.  It's as heavy an album today as it was released even if it is clearly something that belongs in a past era.

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