93. The Doors - The Doors (January 1967)

1. Break On Through (To the Other Side)*

2. Soul Kitchen*

3. The Crystal Ship

4. Twentieth Century Fox

5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)

6. Light My Fire

7. Back Door Man

8. I Looked at You

9. End of the Night

10. Take It as It Comes

12. The End*

B

I guess you had to be there...

Now bear in mind, I went into The Doors fully expecting to hate it. I've never had much time for the Doors. I think this is a two-fold problem - on the one hand, I find Jim Morrison insufferably pretentious and representative of most of the things I hate in rock; on the other, I find that the Doors' fanbase is made up mostly of people who want to be Jim Morrison.

And really, Morrison is the weak link on this album. He's a fine singer, and capable of cooking up a decent vocal melody when he wants to. His lyrics are also largely meaningless gibberish. Although I did read a comment he made about "The End", that he was aiming more for rich imagery that could be about anything the listener wanted rather than a coherent thesis. Which would be fine, if not for fans who consider Morrison some kind of poet-prophet-genius (I once had an argument with someone who believed JM was the single greatest poet since William Blake - was this because he quotes Blake in "End of the Night"? Who knows).

I also think the Doors' cover of Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man" is an utterly dreadful version of a mediocre song.

But on to the good. can't deny that this album is ground-breaking sand influential. The mix of jazz, garage, R&B, the blues, baroque (mostly in the keyboards) and Kurt Weill is something pretty much unprecedented. And musically, this album is pretty great. Maybe not "Light My Fire", which destroys the goodwill generated by a great organ riff and a fun melody by featuring some of the dumbest lyrics in the classic rock pantheon, bookending several minutes of "I guess it's OK" instrumental jamming. But it's pretty solid, and innovative in its use of space and reverb. A good example of how this album defies convention is "Break on Through", which opens with a bossa nova beat and switches to hard rock for the choruses. The lyrics are pretty stupid, but still. And then there's "The End", the City of Ur of spacey goth jams, with its haunting guitar riff and spooky atmospherics. Once again, lyrically risible, but pretty great musically. I guess it's meant as a journey into the heart of darkness at the centre of consciousness, and it makes sense that it was used in Apocalypse Now.

Still, if it sounds like I'm dumping too heavily on Morrison I should I suppose qualify things. Morrison is not half as smart as he thinks he is, but his approach is brilliant. The lyrics on this album open up possibilities for new directions in music. I may not care for the Doors, but I have to admit that a lot of the music I love wouldn't exist without them. No Joy Division. No Suicide. Possibly (since this album was released at the start of 1967 and for some reason comes halfway through the year in the Book) no Piper at the Gates of Dawn. His willingness to attempt the poetic, despite not being qualified to manage it, is admirable. And "Soul Kitchen" is actually pretty great. I prefer the cover by X (putting me in the odd position of viewing the original as a fascinating alternative version of one of my favourite songs), but this slower version is still pretty good.

So. This is a good album, and a remarkable debut. If you can tune out the fifty-odd years of people lauding the Doors as the last word in Serious Art, it's definitely worth a listen. I'm actually kind of looking forward to the next few Doors albums, as I suspect Morrison will improve as a lyricist, and I have "People Are Strange" and "Roadhouse Blues" to look forward to. I suppose one good thing about this project is that it's forcing me to reassess a lot of my prejudices as regards music. I would like someone to explain what "She's got the world locked up inside a plastic box" means, though. Is it about drugs? This album mostly seems to be about drugs. For some reason I listened to The Doors three times, and each time I was sober. So maybe if I'd ever taken acid, or if I were drunk while listening to this, I would have liked it more.

The End.