The Doors

The Doors are my favorite band of all time, I love all of the original studio albums and even like the two albums they released as a trio after Jim Morrison's death.
Thier music combined theatre, poetry, rock, jazz, blues, and psychdelic to create a sound that has never been duplicated. From Ray Manzarek's circus like hammond organ sound, to Robbie Krieger's snakey leads, John Densmore jazz like drumming all to accompany American Poet Jim Morrison who led his audience to landscapes littered with blue buses, strange days, roadhouses, a poet who evoked that some of us our born to sweet delight and some of us are born to the endless night.
Jim Morrison's death prematurally ended their career and cemented their legend, thankfully the music is eternal.

I have recently picked their discography pretty cheap on your recommendation, manny. Now I need to delve into it.

spectrefate wrote:

I have recently picked their discography pretty cheap on your recommendation, manny. Now I need to delve into it.

You won't be disappointed. After you have had time to digest them let me know what you think, my favorites are the self titled debut, Strange Days and LA Woman.

Yea, they're ok!

I like the S/T and Waiting for the Sun the most. I only need Strange Days to complete my discography (not counting the ones after JM's death). Peace.

Great band. Morrison Hotel and their s/t album are amazing. LA Woman isn't too bad either.

I like "the hits" but generally find that the Doors are too weird for me. Also, I think a lot of their music hasn't aged well and sounds dated. That said, I definitely like some Doors; just not something I reach for a lot.

Pretty good band. Only have the s/t and it's an excellent album.

I only find a few of their songs dated like " Hello, I love You" for
instance. Over the 37 years since Jim Morrison's death their back
catalog continues to sell to a new generation of fans, after so many
years a new audience still want to hear something real and not
manufactured packaged rebellion.

manny wrote:

I only find a few of their songs dated like " Hello, I love You" for
instance. Over the 37 years since Jim Morrison's death their back
catalog continues to sell to a new generation of fans, after so many
years a new audience still want to hear something real and not
manufactured packaged rebellion.

I agree with this.

When I said some of their stuff sounds dated, I meant the instrumentation and production values. For instance, very few bands push the keyboard so far front in the mix as The Doors did back in the day.

I dig the Doors, I got a 4 disk box set and I think their S/t cd

Riders of the Storm is a killer tune

tohostudios wrote:

I like "the hits" but generally find that the Doors are too weird for me. Also, I think a lot of their music hasn't aged well and sounds dated. That said, I definitely like some Doors; just not something I reach for a lot.

I agree for the most part Toho, but theres a few full albums where I like most of the songs.

Jim Morrison's father passed away on Nov 17 at the age of 89, it is only recently that he broke his silence on his famous son, in the book The Doors by the Doors, and an upcoming documantry, anyway here is an article written about Jim's father:

ON-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 28, 2008

Throughout Rear Adm. George “Steve” Morrison's naval career, officers and their wives used to gather in his family's living room for songfests that lasted well into the night. Sometimes the three Morrison children watched from the top of the stairs.
“He would sit down at the piano and play” near his wife, the vivacious Clara, said their daughter, Anne Chewning of Thousand Oaks. “They had a lot of fun, and they met a lot of interesting people.”
A collage of photos in Rear Adm. Morrison's Coronado home shows the admiral – who died Nov. 17 of natural causes at age 89 – posing with Queen Elizabeth, with comedian Bob Hope, with singer-actress Ann-Margret.
There's also a photo of his eldest son, Jim, who became a musical icon in the 1960s with his acid-rock group The Doors – partly by rebelling against his conservative father.
“Mom and Dad were proud of Jim,” Chewning said, but they also were confused and pained by his career path, drug use and death in Paris at age 27. “I don't think Daddy ever understood the impact Jim had on music.”
Rear Adm. Morrison was born Jan. 7, 1919, in rural Georgia as the son of a railroad worker. He grew up in Leesburg, Fla., and worked hard to enter the U.S. Naval Academy, perhaps with help from a relative who was an admiral.
“It was the only way he could afford to go,” said his son Andy Morrison of Pahoa, Hawaii.
Rear Adm. Morrison went to Pearl Harbor to serve aboard the mine-layer Pruitt shortly after his graduation in February 1941. There he met his future wife, Clara Clarke, who had followed her sister from their native Wisconsin.
Aboard his ship, Rear Adm. Morrison witnessed the Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941, from across the harbor. He married Clara soon after and was sent to Florida for flight training in spring 1943.
Rear Adm. Morrison flew combat missions during the last year of World War II and again during the Korean War.
During his lengthy career, he worked on secret nuclear projects at Los Alamos, N.M., served as operations officer aboard the aircraft carrier Midway and commanded the fleet of ships in the Tonkin Gulf incident that led to the escalation of the war in Vietnam.
He took command of the carrier Bon Homme Richard on Nov. 22, 1963. His first act as skipper was to announce the assassination of President Kennedy.
After earning flag rank at age 47, Rear Adm. Morrison weathered his son's very public rebellion, stardom and death while serving in high-profile Navy posts in the Pentagon and the Pacific. He never mentioned Jim publicly, but he found it strange to visit friends' homes and see posters of his son on the bedroom walls of their teenage children.
“He never told people (in the Navy),” Andy Morrison said. “But the young guys all knew.”
Rear Adm. Morrison told family that his most rewarding tour was his last – commanding U.S. forces in the South Pacific from his headquarters in Guam. He was beloved by the people of Guam, said Bruce Nichols of Poway, a longtime friend who served as his staff aide from 1974 to 1975.
Rear Adm. Morrison dealt with a flood of at least 140,000 South Vietnamese refugees who swamped the island after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. He created a tent city on an abandoned airfield to accommodate them while they waited to find new homes in the United States.
Later that year, Rear Adm. and Mrs. Morrison retired to Chula Vista. He avoided the usual Navy reunion groups, but played golf up to five times a week. He also took classes in Italian and ancient Greek, the latter so he could read the Bible as it was originally written.
The Morrisons traveled often, including a 1990 trip to Jim's grave in Paris. Rear Adm. Morrison installed a plaque he had crafted with an ambiguously worded Greek phrase that Chewning said meant “true to his own genius.”
The Morrisons moved to Coronado about six years ago.
Close friend Earle Callahan said Rear Adm. Morrison declined in health after his wife died in 2005, though he still rode his bike around the island and hosted what he called “Steve's Happy Hour” at his home on H Street.
“We'd sit around and carry on about the old times,” Callahan said.
Nichols said his son Brandon revered Rear Adm. Morrison and was inspired to attend the Naval Academy because of him. He said Brandon had looked forward to coming home and telling his mentor that he been selected to become a naval aviator after his graduation next spring.
Instead, Brandon flew home to attend Rear Adm. Morrison's private memorial service, which was held Wednesday at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

I like the Doors

tohostudios wrote:

manny wrote:

I only find a few of their songs dated like " Hello, I love You" for
instance. Over the 37 years since Jim Morrison's death their back
catalog continues to sell to a new generation of fans, after so many
years a new audience still want to hear something real and not
manufactured packaged rebellion.

I agree with this.

When I said some of their stuff sounds dated, I meant the instrumentation and production values. For instance, very few bands push the keyboard so far front in the mix as The Doors did back in the day.

Wich means they didn't follow trends, ergo it is not dated. They used the keyboard as a lead intrament and not just to fill in.

You could compare The Doors to Priest or Maiden, in so much that had two leads instead of employing a rythym player like AC/DC or the Scorps. You can find Robby and Ray trading off leads on many songs, most notibly Light My Fire.

I don't think keyboards date the Doors, it's like saying the electric jug dates the 13th Floor Elevators.....but both bands are so far ahead of their time that it's crazy.

We're still trying to catch up to the Doors. You can't date them to the 60's or 70's, they exist in their own space and time.

No offense RP but I think you enjoy the "retro" sound a lot more than others and therefore fail to recognize when something sounds "dated".

When I hear The Doors, I instantly peg them for the late 60s/early 70s based on the lyrics and instrumentation alone.

" Light My Fire" is a great example of a band playing to all of their strengths. It has that somewhat bossa nova drum pattern from John Densmore, a flamingo type guitar playing from Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek's John Coltrane inspired middle section and of course Jim Morrison's vocals riding over the top. Great songwriting.

tohostudios wrote:

No offense RP but I think you enjoy the "retro" sound a lot more than others and therefore fail to recognize when something sounds "dated".

When I hear The Doors, I instantly peg them for the late 60s/early 70s based on the lyrics and instrumentation alone.

You would be in the minority of most folks in the world, their music has stood the test of time and is still popular among the youth.

The differnce I see in timeless music is not that it may sound like it is from a certain era, but rather it is not stuck there.

I think some of the Doors music can't help to sound like a by product of its time, for example " Hello I Love You" but to my ears it does not sound dated at all. I also think it helps the Doors sound like no other band than and now.

Very unique band, you have a flamingo guitartist, a jazz drummer, classical trained organist, led by an American poet.

candlemass wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

No offense RP but I think you enjoy the "retro" sound a lot more than others and therefore fail to recognize when something sounds "dated".

When I hear The Doors, I instantly peg them for the late 60s/early 70s based on the lyrics and instrumentation alone.

You would be in the minority of most folks in the world, their music has stood the test of time and is still popular among the youth.

I'm not saying their music isn't popular.

I just think it's readily apparent what decade it came from. Therefore, in my book, that means it's dated. I can appreciate it for what it is but any band that produces something similar today is simply doing a "retro act" imo.

One of my favorite bands is The Guess Who but I'd say the same thing about their music. The lyrics and musical mix are just from another time.

tohostudios wrote:

No offense RP but I think you enjoy the "retro" sound a lot more than others and therefore fail to recognize when something sounds "dated".

When I hear The Doors, I instantly peg them for the late 60s/early 70s based on the lyrics and instrumentation alone.

I think the Doors are one of the few bands from that period along with a handful of their contemporaries Love, 13th Floor Elevators, Velvet Underground etc. that actually transcend the late 60's and don't sound dated or 'retro'.

They are as fresh and unique now as they were 40 years ago.

manny wrote:

I think some of the Doors music can't help to sound like a by product of its time, for example " Hello I Love You" but to my ears it does not sound dated at all. I also think it helps the Doors sound like no other band than and now.

Very unique band, you have a flamingo guitartist, a jazz drummer, classical trained organist, led by an American poet.

To my ears, that is precisely what makes them sound like a 70s band. No commercially viable band today would try to meld those unique elements.

Look at Diablo Swing Orchestra. You can't find more diverse musical elements mixed in a band's music. And where has that gotten them? CDBaby.