Is there anything left to say about this band? Apparently not because I sat down to write this review I had all these original ideas when I realized I’d read them elsewhere, double checked where I usually steal my best ideas, Robert Christgau, and noted I’d stolen them for him.
Perhaps not stolen.
For one thing I don’t entirely agree with his opinion and for another thing I have usurped them so far into my core take on the band I can’t tell where his begins and my end.
But, with the death of Ray Manzarek, and apologies to Xgau if I plagiarize him, Dead, he said, the Doors…
1. Of the great rock bands of the 1960s, the Doors are the worse because Morrison as a poet was way too overblown.
2. But as a rock and roll band and as a pop theyw ere all that and more.
3. It’s not that they got better as they got older, they remained inconsistent on stage and on record, but less inconsistent.
4. The Doors were a better pop band then an art band and if you want proof compare “Light My Fire” to “Crystal Ships”.
5. They got their band sound from the keyboards, it is still their most distinctive element and it is the break on “Fire” that made Morrison a superstar sex symbol. Also, with those sideburns and shades, Ray was an important visual element.
6. Much more than the Stones or the Beatles, or Loving Spoonful, CSN&Y… you name em, the Doors were a leader and back up players.
7. Except Krieger wrote a lot of the songs (as did the band as a band) and except for The Soft Parade, Krieger was pretty damn great.
8. And any way, when the Doors played Roseland a couple of years ago (2004?) I passed. It seemed a waste of time to watch Ian Astbury channel Jim. He couldn’t do it. Plus, cmon, Roseland? And the tickets were extortionately expensive.
9. So, the Doors were the worst greatest rock and roll band of all time with a pretensious drug addicted lead singer who died at the age of 27.
10. And how good is the worst best band?
The Doors (1967) – A
Strange Days (1967) – A+
Waiting For The Sun (1968) – B+
The Soft Parade (1969) – B
Morrison Hotel (1970) – A+
L.A. Woman – (1970) – A