Baudelaire meets John Coltrane – THE DOORS taking (and twisting) the world by the head
THE DOORS, arguably the greatest band to emerge from “Acid America” of the 60s, was among the very few acts able to be simultaneously great experimentalists and million-sellers. Their astonishing body of work represented the pinnacle of the decade’s ambitions to trespass the boundaries between instinct and reason, Aesthetics and Politics – but they weren’t afraid to criticize and mock the whole thing in the process, with dazzling nihilism and sarcasm. Full of controversy, they were carnivores in an era of vegetarians. Freudians amidst the “Summer of Love” with inscrutable poetry adorning their Pop numbers.
The sound, the tragedy, the greatness and rabid madness of this decade was the DNA of this foursome – Jim Morrisson (vocals & lyrics), Ray Manzarek (keyboards), Robbie Krieger (guitar & lyrics) and John Densmore (drums). Without a bass player or a safety net, they would go on to unprecedented catharsis and swaggering tension, delving deeper and deeper into the range of Human emotions, tying Past, Present and Future in raw, pervasive ways.
Their cinematic epics touched upon many music genres with daunting prowess – Music Hall, ancient Blues, Bossa Nova, Hard Rock, SINATRA-like incursions, English Pop, Psychedelia. Above all, the mesmerizing prose of fallen angel Morrisson, one of the most charismatic frontmen in History, spanning decades of poetry from Symbolists to Beatniks under a pillow of undulatory, soothing, extended CONTRANE-like free jazz soloing – ranging from Flamenco-like guitars aroused by toyshop keyboards to Eastern siblings fused with droning riffs, including theatrical jam-like sessions. A distinguished outcome sprinkled from their peculiar dynamics, differing in form and content from their Rock N”Roll counterparts.
Their debut (and best record overall) managed to display all the facets of their intense nature in the best imaginable way. Every number builds on the dynamics of the former, engendering all the more impact, a series of knockout punches, alternatively subtle and explicit, provocative and thought-provoking, lovely and cruel, sketchy and depictive, ironic and philosophical, aggressive and delicate. So many classics, so dearly arranged, they would never be that successful again (indeed, very few Rock acts managed to do so).
So, time for the review. I’ll not reproduce the lyrics here, once they are overall astonishing, it would be unfair to select just portions of them. Take the booklet and nice trip! The Tracklist is the following:
1. Break On Through (To The Other Side) *****
2. Soul Kitchen *****
3. The Crystal Ship *****
4. Twentieth Century Fox ****
5. Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) *****
6. Light My Fire *****
7. Backdoor Man *****
8. I Looked At You ****
9. End Of The Night *****
10. Take It As It Comes ****
11. The End *****
The record starts in full gear with stone cold classic Break On Through (To the other side), the ultimate anthem for Modernity rupture. Aptly fusing romantic and dreamlike motifs whereas the band intends to play Bossa Nova with Punk intensity, the gripping outcome is one of the highlights of the decade. Immortal Soul Kitchen follows dragging the listener to husky Romantic agony, the carefree but captive protagonist seeking the heating refuge of the lover’s body with angular rhymes. Lovey-dovey stuff never sounded so redeeming, before of after, Morrisson howls with convincing spontaneity supported by first-rate Rock N’Roll. The Crystal Ship astonishes listeners even more, relentlessly delicate in its exploration of intimacy, Morrisson crooning with majestic abandon, the band tight as a minimalist orchestra. Three classics in a row, and this band had never recorded anything before.
Uncompromising Twentieth Century Fox is the first non-classic, but the mind’s eye quirky depiction of Modern women is nonetheless pleasing and sound as fresh as when it was recorded (superb surf riffing being the highlight). Even more uncompromising is the stunning rendition of KURT WEILL/BERTOLD BRETCH standard Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar), with its theatrical quotient increased tenfold by a drunk arty band on their apex. Maybe the best number of the whole set. Even better than supreme 60s number Light My Fire? After listening to Morrisson’s rally cry for sexual revolution pulsating with Bossa Nova-Psychedelic-Jazzy rhythms, the question turns into empty speculation, so many first-rate numbers are displayed here.
Next number, savage Backdoor Man (a WILLIE DIXON rendition) puts aside the “best track” question even more, never a white band sounded so vengeful, so drearily possessed, so carelessly on the verge of collapse, playing a Blues tune. Morrisson delivers one of his fiery, defining performances but Manzarek reaches even higher with his otherworldly control of mood and dynamics playing the keyboards (simulating bass as well). Then, we have a minor gem, I Looked At You, resembling THE KINKS bouncy English Pop and THE MONKEES bubblegum psychedelia. And another carefully-built classic, spooky acoustic End of The Night, with its moving, moaning deep-down melancholy with guitars sounding like strings, highly original – it would even become the foundation for another THE DOORS classic, When The Music Is Over.
THE DOORS found some room to breathe with another minor Rocky gem, Take It As It Comes (it could have been a hit) later covered by THE RAMONES, what indicates its bubblegum and simplistic but addictive affiliations. And, of course, to close the record in fine fashion, the band released the fractured grandiose of doomed epic The End, the best overall representation of their peculiar aesthetics. Multidimensional and daring in the purest of senses, this beguiling Eastern narrative of narratives builds a single-tone drone nightmarish ambience for Morrisson to pound his morbid, sketchy lyrics, ranging from the blues bus of Psychedelia, going through weird scenes inside a gold mine to reach an Oedipal character killing his father and doing his mother under a convoluted guitar cry. There’s simply no better representation of distorted, fragmented, kaleidoscopic Modernity – from the point of view of many layers of its “dark side” and decadence – in all of Rock N’Roll, than this perfect-to-note number. Simply breathtaking. No better conclusion to this review than to sort out that…This is the end, my friend.
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