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Location: Michigan | What did you think of the band The Doors ? :eek:
Yeah SlipKid you have to think about this again.
I really loved their music and I thought that they were great in the recording studio but live Jim Morrison was a very sloppy druggie & drunk who normally ruined the live performances that I ever saw him do from videos that I have watched.
I do not necessarly beleive that he was a great songwriter or a poet but I did like what I heard music style wise. :cool: GWB :cool: |
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Location: Tennessee | Ray and Robbie are what made them special. |
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Location: SE Michigan | I recently saw some movie about the life of Jim Morrison. If the movie was even half correct that was one whacked-out twisted dude. But such disturbed people are sometimes profoundly talented as is the case with Morrison.
I always thought that the Door's music was a tad on the dark side, but I largly liked most of it. Some of the music was a bit ponderous or shall we say. The keyboards drove most of the songs along, I always thought the guitar playing was somewhat wanky. |
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Location: Chicago | I'm a life-time fan. Bought Morrison Hotel and LA Woman when Jim was still alive. The cool thing about their guitarist, Robbie Krieger, is that he is fundamentally trained as a flamenco finger-stylist. Listen to the intro to "Spanish Caravan" on their 3rd album "Waiting for the Sun": fantastic! He does fine work throughout their six records. Highlights: the LP version solo on "Light My Fire", solo on "When the Music's Over", great arrangement on "People are Strange" ("Strange Days" LP), cool arrangement on "Not to Touch the Earth" ("Waiting for the Sun" LP): strong rockin' playing on "Roadhouse Blues"; eerie playing on "The End" (first LP) and "Indian Summer" ("Morrison Hotel"). Above all, Krieger is the composer on ALL the hits: "Touch Me" "LMF" "Love Her Madly" etc. One thing I love about the Doors is that they seem to piss off people whose taste is opposite mine :cool:
Yeah, personally, Jim Morrison was a wreck. Live he was brilliant when sober. Thus, hardly ever brilliant, alas. If you don't know their music I would recommend getting their first LP ("The Doors" 1967) and their last ("LA Woman" 1971): Here you can see Jim's amazing transformation from psychedelic shaman to (in his own words) an "old blues man". If you don't know what I'm talking about listen to "The End" followed by "Changeling".
Best read on the band: "Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend" by Stephen Davis. Oliver Stone's movie "The Doors" is just a lame fantasy of a type-A jock who had little in common with the Doors' spirit. |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I think the Doors did some nice stuff. Unfortunately (just my opinion) as with many other performers their legend in death far exceeds their actual talent in life.
Joplin, Hendrix, Moon, Cobain, Croce, Denver, ... don't get me wrong, all very talented people but they'd probably be a hell of a lot less famous if they were still alive.
Dave |
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Location: East Tennessee | Originally posted by Tupperware:
Joplin, Hendrix, Moon, Cobain, Croce, Denver, ... don't get me wrong, all very talented people but they'd probably be a hell of a lot less famous if they were still alive.
Dave Dave I think you are right. I just wish Croce & Denver had more time. |
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Location: Nashville TN. | Good Band but overrated on the Doors. |
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Location: Chicago | I read a study on music that concluded that we all bond with music in a heavy and DEEP way between the ages of 12 and 22. After that it's "finito good buddy." So you're right PEZ: whatever was in the air in your teens and early 20's is absolutely COZMIC!! (for me: Beatles, Doors, Tull, Coltrane, Miles, Mahavishnu). When the soul shuts down ya can't bond no more. At that point, EVERYTHING is overrated.
Example: I simply can't "hear" or bond with 80s rock at all. Is it bad? Overrated? NO! I just shut down. Common response: "I've heard it all before..." |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I liked them a whole lot more then than now. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | dobro and dave`s post are a strong display of thoughtfulness , allthough I had not heard of the study mentioned , it makes sense to me , unconsciensely I have tried to fight " shutting down " , but may not have succeeded , I do not care about certain ( new ) music , yet , can appreciate some of the new lyrics , perhaps those remind me of " old times "....dunno really..
Vic |
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Location: Chicago | Indeed. Some things sound horribly dated. Remember when everyone bought the RockMan or the same 4-track home recorder? There were a million bedroom guitarists making music that sounded like the Miami Vice sound track: pounding drums, wailing fake-van halen leads. I think that sh**t will be piped in like Muzak in hell!!!! |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | I went to a Catholic, college prep, all boys high school. Fridays in religion class, one student could play a song of his choosing and we would go around the class and voice our opinions of the piece.
Phil was a rabid Doors fan. He played something...I don't remember what, and when it came around to my opinion I said something like "Everyone is so impressed with Morrison because no one can understand his lyrics, so they think he's really deep. I think the reason we don't understand him is he's just so trashed all the time and writes nonsense bullshit garbage."
Phil jumped out of his chair and went for my throat. It took 3 guys to hold him off till he calmed down. He never spoke to me again.
That's still the way I feel about his music.
John <>{ |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | One thing about the Doors, is their originality in music. They really never did cover tunes, and Morrison made up a bunch of wild lyrics. That being said, Ray's keyboard stuff was light years ahead of the rock band's of its day. The same could be said for Robbie Kreiger's playing on that sweet sounding SG of his. I agree with Dave about the dying thing on many artists, but, I think we all knew that Jim's days were numbered after he left the Doors and moved to France. Strange Days is still one of my favorite all time albums. The album cover itself is so Doors. The slide guitar ride on "When the Music's Over", the list goes on. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Dave's theory doesn't hold true with John Denver. The height of his popularity was long before he died. Croce was just coming on.
I never was too interested in music by anyone who died of a drug overdose, so that might be why I never listened much to Joplin, Hendrix or Morrison. Then when the 80s hair bands rolled in, I rolled out. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | ..ah , but Maître , Janis Joplin had that " it " , that undefiniably " it " , but , perhaps she should have said "porsche" , instead of " mercedes -benz"... :)
Vic
..did not mean to hi -jack y`er thread guitwannabe.. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | In the late 60's, I was young... I didn't really like The Doors.
Then again, I hadn't done drugs yet.
Nowadays, I may listen to The Doors if they are on the radio...
But I still would not BUY one of there albums.
(I do have some of their music on my computer, but I don't listen to it that often...)
There is just alot of better music out there...
[Yeah John, your Catholic School buddy would be diving for my throat too! :D ] |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | My recollection is that they did sound really good on an 8-track in your car, sans the big bass speakers and thousand watt amps nowadays. DJs loved to lay down the long version when they had to go down the hall. |
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Location: NJ | the doors did popular dark music well
but you really want dark?
discover
the velvet underground
lou reed
john cale
nico
music to bring you to the edge and have you jump over screaming |
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July 2005
Posts: 354
Location: Flushing, MI | A song here, a song there, but overall....
... nahhhh - overrated.
From what I've heard, the Doors movie made Morrison out to be much more of a gentleman that he REALLY was in real life.
The band stayed together because they were petrified of him.
People packed their gigs just to see what shape ol' Jim would be in, and what he might do - if he was even there at all (remember the European 68 gig where Ray sang all the lead vocals?).
It's hard to have much respect for that.
That's like some of the guys that I've fired! |
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Location: Omaha, Nebraska | There are some great comments in this thread. For those of us that were actually around and saw some of these performers live, the perspective may be a bit different, but it looks like most of the interpretations are pretty similar. I will make two observations: (1) It was and is amazing to go back and listen to some of the work with the thought at how much less multitrack recording was done. These were all very talented live performers and that isn't always the case these days. (2) I do believe that Hendrix would have remained a powerful force had he been able to overcome his weakness for the drugs. He borrowed from a handful of the 'old' blues & rock players and created some very unique things that have rarely been effectively emulated. I suspect that he may have moved more to a Jazz world than Rock, but who knows.......!! |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I failed to add . . . the long version of Light My Fire. |
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Location: North Carolina | Originally posted by stonebobbo:
Ray and Robbie are what made them special. I'll second that big time, particularly with respect to Manzarek. I think they could have gotten some other idiot to be the front man when Morrison checked out and kept going. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Keyboards and bass made that band. Otherwise they were OK |
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| "When your strange, no one remembers your name"
Not in Jim's case apparently?
Never got into them, I was off in Yes, King Crimson, Gensis, Led Zeppelin land back then.
I say some of those musicians who died before their time had the gift and I believe it is a tragedy that we never got to find out just how far they would have gone. Henrix was brilliant I am sure he would have continued to create some great stuff, Keith Moon was a great drummer but was not a song writter so the comparison is not even possible. I'd say Denver reached his high ten years before he died. Croce still had more to do for sure. Richey Vallens (if I spelled that right) and Buddy Holly would have done some more very interesting work. Would have been fun to see any of these guys continue on.
The Doors............well they are like The Grateful Dead to me, you have to get caught up in the whole Cult thing if you don't you never "Get it" I never found The Doors as a Rock Band, Jim was a cool dude though.
I think they did not continue on, at least back when this all happened, because of Jim's front man act and the bands identity they got from him and his whole persona.
Not sure how well another singer would have done filling in and trying to establish this whole package. but I do agree they should have taken a stab at it. They had a cult following and there was certainly money to be made.
Randy |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | I have the Jose Feleciano version of "Light My Fire" on my laptop.
John <>{ |
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Location: ms | I think at best they were average players with a drugged out, over the top want to be singer. |
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| What about ebay Dammit! I want to talk more about Ebay! |
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Location: Gardnerville, NV | George Winston redid a bunch of their songs on a cd a few years ago. Gives a cool take on how good some of the songs were when heard in a different context. |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by Tupperware:
Joplin, Hendrix, Moon, Cobain, Croce, Denver I'm with you with all except for Keith Moon. He was just amazing.
As to the Doors, I've never had much respect for acts that were as famous for their antics as they were for their music. If you took the same catalog of music, but had it produced by a bunch of guys who didn't drink and were always home by 10:00pm, it wouldn't have been as popular. The music doesn't stand on its own. Its the mystique of Jim Morrison that sells it. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by alpep:
but you really want dark?
discover
the velvet underground
lou reed
john cale
nico
music to bring you to the edge and have you jump over screaming I'm with Al. VU's the shizzle... |
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Posts: 153
Location: Huntington Beach, CA | The Doors used to play at my highschool before they hit the big time. They were average. I think they were fairly together as a band but what made them stand out were Morrison's antics. I think he was more of an anti-establishment icon than an entertainer, always pushing the envelope. I remember the parents of his "fans" being just outraged at all the blatant sexual stuff.
A couple blocks from my house lived Bear's mother from Canned Heat. They used to jam in her garage. The neighborhood used to party with them.
I rode my bike to Newport 69, the SoCal answer to Woodstock. I sat on top of an icecream truck and watched one of Hendrix's worst performances ever, among others. The Hells Angels were taking tickets (or not) at the gate, the place stunk, no good seats (blankets on dirt really), bad lighting, bad sound equpment, lousy dope but the security sucked so I made every show for free and it was in my neighborhood so I could escape when I needed to.
When The Door' first album came out I though "you're kidding". Got to like them as background music for "dating" and recently bought a greatest hits CD. My kids like it. For me, I get a little stoned just from listening to it. Funny what the mind is capable of! |
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Location: CA | Another lifetime fan. Yeah, it was dark. That's why I liked it (and Pink Floyd and Sabbath), especially in my teens and early 20s. Flew in the face of 'the man' and of course my parents hated it. Right on! Ha ha ha.
Oliver Stone's movie 'The Doors' was, well, typical Oliver Stone. Go back and watch JFK if you think anything he does is historically accurate. The surviving Doors all had big problems with that movie, no one more than Ray M. He actually tried to get an 'accurate' movie made (never heard anything more about it) and maintained that Jim was in no way ALWAYS high. Ray says most of the time (in the early days anyway) he was just a regular guy. The part in the movie where he sang with his back to the audience in the early days was apparently accurate, as he had incredible stage fright. The Lizard King? Fright? Wha?
I never felt there was any standout talent in the Doors, although Jim was always the reference point. I saw them live twice and both times they were incredible. Jim had 'the way about him' and could entrance an audience. (The opening act for one show was Jerry Lee Lewis, which somehow didn't translate, but anyway...). I always thought the great sound and lasting power of the Doors was the sum of the parts. IMHO, they are one of the top five great rock bands of all time. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Top 5 Rock bands..
Deep Purple
Uriah Heep
Iron Maiden
Black Sabbath
van halen
..and there`s allways , Led Zeppelin , and..if only Steppenwolf had more hits..
Vic |
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Location: Brisbane Australia | "I think they could have gotten some other idiot to be the front man when Morrison checked out and kept going."
It worked for ACDC
AJ |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Originally posted by Jeff W.:
Originally posted by alpep:
but you really want dark?
discover
the velvet underground
lou reed
john cale
nico
music to bring you to the edge and have you jump over screaming I'm with Al. VU's the shizzle... |
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Posts: 122
Location: Tucson, AZ | ...their "LA WOMAN" is excellent stuff. |
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Location: Texas | "Riders on the Storm" for me. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well this one got me thinkin...
How's this for simplification... I like most of their songs, one of the few groups I'd listen to a whole album at once.
No great deep meaning, no spiritual connection, didn't really "discover them" until I was in my late 20's. I just like the songs. I like covers of their songs too, which to me says something. Billy Idols LA Woman, and BOC's Roadhouse Blues to name a couple. Just good stuff. |
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OPINION ON THE BAND " THE DOORS "