ORIGINATION Waiting For The Sun CD
LAST LISTENED TO early December 2010
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT low
RATING ★★★★★
I've been listening to the Doors for twenty years, which is not as long as some have, but long enough. For what it's worth, their debut was the very first CD I bought. Today's song is from their third album, when their initial rush of inspiration was beginning to run thin. It is one of the lightest songs on the album and is neither strong lyrically nor musically. Doors-lite. For all that, it is as indelibly etched onto my brain as most of the rest of their catalogue.
Showing posts with label The Doors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Doors. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Doors - The Soft Parade
ORIGINATION The Soft Parade
LAST LISTENED TO foolishly it was this week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT higher than it should be
RATING
Funnily enough, just the other day i was wondering who would be the first artist to appear on A Song For The Day twice for different songs. Today is that day and that artist is The Doors. Or are The Doors. Whatever. Sadly, this morning's song leaves a lot to be desired and, whilst it's not pure pish, it's certainly not pure genius either. In fact, it's not pure anything. It's much too much of a cross-breed bastard to be that.
To begin with, you need to know that The Soft Parade album is the worst ever recorded by The Doors. There are many things wrong with it, too many, in fact, to go into here. However, the problems in the title track are a good example of the problems of the whole.
For starters, there is the start of the song. It's really crap. Pretentious Jim "American Poet" Morrison twaddle at it's worst. That's followed up by two minutes of The Doors Musical Improv School as they take a bash at a number of very ill-advised music styles. At best this portion is embarrassing. At worst there is Morrison with more stupid lyrics. It's really quite hard to take and it's advisable to skip forward to 3:04, the point just after Morrison's ludicrous exclamation of "The monk bought lunch!" and the end of the nonsense. From here on it's Doors-by-numbers, fairly enjoyable, but nothing special in itself. Only Manzerak's organ is notable for being better then average.
The Soft Parade represents the end of the path The Doors had found themselves straying down: the nadir in their career, unless you want to be picky and note that as the death of Morrison (and we'll not even mention their most recent incarnation with The Cult's Ian Arsebury). This path had carried them down a vaguely hippy-ish, vaguely mystical path. It's easy to put all the blame for this on Morrison as it's his lyrics that seem to be the most guilty of leading them down this path. But that would be unfair. Well, a little unfair. All four of them got them to this point and clearly their inspiration was all but exhausted by the trip. In The Soft Parade, none of the extra instruments or money thrown at them helped alleviate this problem. It took a stripped, back-to-basics sound and less Morrison nonsense to solve that, which is where their next LP came in…
LAST LISTENED TO foolishly it was this week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT higher than it should be
RATING
Funnily enough, just the other day i was wondering who would be the first artist to appear on A Song For The Day twice for different songs. Today is that day and that artist is The Doors. Or are The Doors. Whatever. Sadly, this morning's song leaves a lot to be desired and, whilst it's not pure pish, it's certainly not pure genius either. In fact, it's not pure anything. It's much too much of a cross-breed bastard to be that.
To begin with, you need to know that The Soft Parade album is the worst ever recorded by The Doors. There are many things wrong with it, too many, in fact, to go into here. However, the problems in the title track are a good example of the problems of the whole.
For starters, there is the start of the song. It's really crap. Pretentious Jim "American Poet" Morrison twaddle at it's worst. That's followed up by two minutes of The Doors Musical Improv School as they take a bash at a number of very ill-advised music styles. At best this portion is embarrassing. At worst there is Morrison with more stupid lyrics. It's really quite hard to take and it's advisable to skip forward to 3:04, the point just after Morrison's ludicrous exclamation of "The monk bought lunch!" and the end of the nonsense. From here on it's Doors-by-numbers, fairly enjoyable, but nothing special in itself. Only Manzerak's organ is notable for being better then average.
The Soft Parade represents the end of the path The Doors had found themselves straying down: the nadir in their career, unless you want to be picky and note that as the death of Morrison (and we'll not even mention their most recent incarnation with The Cult's Ian Arsebury). This path had carried them down a vaguely hippy-ish, vaguely mystical path. It's easy to put all the blame for this on Morrison as it's his lyrics that seem to be the most guilty of leading them down this path. But that would be unfair. Well, a little unfair. All four of them got them to this point and clearly their inspiration was all but exhausted by the trip. In The Soft Parade, none of the extra instruments or money thrown at them helped alleviate this problem. It took a stripped, back-to-basics sound and less Morrison nonsense to solve that, which is where their next LP came in…
Saturday, November 26, 2005
The Doors - Waiting For The Sun
ORIGINATION 1991 CD
LAST LISTENED TO not for over a year
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT very low
RATING
Well here's a band to argue over. Most people, let's face it, think of one person when they think of The Doors: he was over-fed, over-watered, literally over-drugged and a 'poet'. Ha. Poet.
As you can tell, Jim Morrison is someone i have little time for. There are many reasons for this that are clearly evident even in the most flattering of portraits of the man. However, the music he collaborated in making has stood the test of time.
The Doors were Ray Manzerak, Jim Densmore, Robby Kreiger and Morrison and for most of their career they worked as a democratic unit. Their music was fairly different from that of their contemporaries. Not only were the themes often darker, but musically they were different too. They were a very tight band that drew on influences and training that were quite diverse - jazz, classical, Spanish guitar amongst others.
I do like there music, not all of it, but much of it. There are overly indulgent moments, no surprise considering the times, that are most definitely of that time. Most noticeable when Jimbo was being particularly poetic.
'Waiting For The Sun', is from their second last LP 'Morrison Hotel' released in 1970. It's a pretty good song. As ever, the music is tight and interesting and here has some fine, understated drama. Kreiger's fluid guitar floats over a rolling rhythm provided by Densmore and Manzerak, whose organ has a slight harpsichord feel. It's one of their more mature moments and came not a moment too soon after the flop of their previous LP, 'Soft Parade'.
Give The Doors a little re-think. There is a lot more to them that a drunken, dead man in leather breeks with his old man out.
LAST LISTENED TO not for over a year
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT very low
RATING
Well here's a band to argue over. Most people, let's face it, think of one person when they think of The Doors: he was over-fed, over-watered, literally over-drugged and a 'poet'. Ha. Poet.
As you can tell, Jim Morrison is someone i have little time for. There are many reasons for this that are clearly evident even in the most flattering of portraits of the man. However, the music he collaborated in making has stood the test of time.
The Doors were Ray Manzerak, Jim Densmore, Robby Kreiger and Morrison and for most of their career they worked as a democratic unit. Their music was fairly different from that of their contemporaries. Not only were the themes often darker, but musically they were different too. They were a very tight band that drew on influences and training that were quite diverse - jazz, classical, Spanish guitar amongst others.
I do like there music, not all of it, but much of it. There are overly indulgent moments, no surprise considering the times, that are most definitely of that time. Most noticeable when Jimbo was being particularly poetic.
'Waiting For The Sun', is from their second last LP 'Morrison Hotel' released in 1970. It's a pretty good song. As ever, the music is tight and interesting and here has some fine, understated drama. Kreiger's fluid guitar floats over a rolling rhythm provided by Densmore and Manzerak, whose organ has a slight harpsichord feel. It's one of their more mature moments and came not a moment too soon after the flop of their previous LP, 'Soft Parade'.
Give The Doors a little re-think. There is a lot more to them that a drunken, dead man in leather breeks with his old man out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)