Almost 40 years down the road (!), it’s tough to parse the
\nlegend from the reality when it comes to those icons of the
\navant-garde, The Doors.<\/p>\n
There are those who maintain the band is vastly overrated, and
\nthose who devour every morsel produced by its still-churning
\npublicity machine, fed most notably over the years by the
\n“I-was-there” writing of former manager Danny Sugerman and the
\nfictionalized film fantasia of Oliver Stone. All of which tends to
\nargue for the simple act performed here: listening to, and reacting
\nto, the music.<\/p>\n
From the first whispery tingles drummer John Densmore coaxes out
\nof his cymbals, to keyboardist Ray Manzarek’s throbbing,
\notherworldly organ work, to guitarist Robby Krieger’s wild,
\nstabbing figures, to lead singer Jim Morrison’s recklessly urgent
\nvocals, leadoff track “Break On Through” simply shouts menace at
\nthe listener. It might come off as rather tame, put up against
\nMarilyn Manson, but just remember (a) this was 1967, and (b)
\nMarilyn Manson and a thousand other envelope-pushing acts owe their
\nvery existence to the Doors. Juxtaposed against the sunny melodies
\nof the Beach Boys and the earnest creativity of the Beatles, this
\nstuff was pure nitroglycerin.<\/p>\n
One of the secrets to the Doors’ raw, eerie sound is the absence
\nof a bass player. On their songs you’ll often find the organ or
\nguitar matching rhythm with Densmore’s stuttering, jazzy drums,
\namplifying the sense of chaos. Not just Morrison but the entire
\nband sounds vaguely unhinged much of the time.<\/p>\n
They further that impression with their multiple-personality
\napproach to song choices. From gritty r&b (“Soul Kitchen”) to
\ndarkly atmospheric ballads (“The Crystal Ship”), from psychedelic
\nblues (“Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”) to pounding, exuberant pop
\n(“Twentieth Century Fox”), the Doors recognize no boundaries. Even
\nwhen they do compose the perfect single — the timeless, rippling,
\nurgent “Light My Fire” — they insist on including a lengthy
\ninstrumental bridge that’s by turns brilliant and bizarre.<\/p>\n
But then, this debut was designed to shock. How else do you
\nexplain the intense imagery of Morrison’s imaginative lyrics, the
\ndiscordant music of cuts like “End Of The Night,” the melodramatic
\nflourishes of the Oedipal epic “The End”? It’s the original
\nshock-rock, no makeup, costumes or props needed.<\/p>\n
Yes, a big part of the appeal is atmosphere — after all,
\nMorrison was never much of a singer, and his “poetry” is wildly
\ninconsistent in quality — but the atmosphere these four created
\nwas absolutely compelling in the context of the times. The Doors
\ngrabbed the Sixties by the lapels and shook the entire decade until
\nit was dizzy. Rock music — real rock music, not the watered-down
\nmainstream swill — would be a lot of things after
\nThe Doors<\/i>, but it would never again be safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5647],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38646","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-doors","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38646"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38646"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}