Do you rate The Doors highly?

[brianrost]

Their recordings haven’t all aged well, but their self-titled debut, Morrison Hotel and LA Woman are all great. The debut was really something different at the time. The last two had them moving back to their roots in blues, which was a relief after the debacle of Soft Parade.

Too bad Morrison couldn’t keep from burning out. He died only two months after LA Woman was released and hearing “Riders On The Storm” over the radio was pretty eerie late at night while driving, which is where I first heard it.

Too bad they chose to carry on as a trio, because those two albums were really weak.

 

[Low Main]

The surviving members had the wisdom to hire the great Willie Ruff to play upright on Other Voices after Morrison died.

If Ruff had done a whole record with them, I probably would have liked that better than Astral Weeks.

I thought that if they hired a bassist and gigged as a quartet with a few instrumentals, they could have done some fun crossover gigs with Charles Lloyd, who was wowing rock crowds.

I first heard of Doug Lubahn when he formed Dreams with Jeff Kent. That was also when I first heard Billy Cobham. I had to work backwards to find Doug's work with the Doors; I hadn't followed them closely.

 

[salmon256]

Love the Doors.

I always appreciated their lesser respected Blues covers - Back Door Man, Crawling Kingsnake. I actually really did enjoy their post Jim passing album. I thought it was well done, I love 4 billion souls think also it is a song that insanely captures that the 70s only had 4 billion people now we have 8 billion like what...

Now though I think Jim was an amazing poet, singer and such but in my own life his personality and the things he would do, I would for sure would never want to be friends with him, be in a band with him, I would for sure be the workaholic I am getting pissed at him...

Ray used a keyboard that was based off a bass sound, they are great they recorded with bassist, they have "bass" in it. Anyone who thinks less I think personally that is odd...

 

[Carl Hillman]

A band without a bass player is like an actor out on loan… a dog without a bone.

 

[Pilgrim]

I was about 17 when their first album was issued. Light My Fire steamrollered EVERYTHING in its path. It was heard everywhere, and we all loved it. You folks without grey hair don't have any idea how popular they were and how their music dominated the airwaves. They were "YUUUUGE."

Who says they don't have bass live and on some cuts? SURE they do, it was just keyboard, not someone playing an electric bass. Ray Manzarek is one of the great keyboard players, and he covered the low end on their music as well as a pro bass player could have. In the studio they used Jerry Scheff and many others, and that's cool and does not detract from their incredible live performances. Playing some of their bass lines is a real challenge!! (And there are numerous articles listing the players they used in the studio.)

I'm not enough of a bass snob to demand that there is a player with an electric bass on every cut of music. It's not necessary if the music works with other instruments filling in whatever's needed on the low end.

 

[ajkula66]

Some of their songs still sound incredibly strong and fresh to me, almost five decades after hearing them for the first time so I guess that I do hold The Doors in high regard indeed...

 

[Spectre Gunner]

As a bass player I'm disappointed that The Doors didn't have a bass player but I think Ray Manzarek deserves some credit for those excellent bass lines even though they were "keyboarded".

 

[KenSmithFan]

I like a lot of the Doors tunes, but I never understood the love for Robbie Krieger. His solos are just aimless, wandering noodling.

 

[Guitalia]

Chuck Rainey never played on a Doors album.

Correct. As I said, he was busy playing on Rascals sessions.

 

[morrisonhendrix]

Correct. As I said, he was busy playing on Rascals sessions.

I read your post twice to make sure I didn't misunderstand it before replying. I suppose I still did.

 

[dune]

I respect the musicianship and artistry, but I find much of their stuff too dark and depressing. Downer music just isn't my bag.

 

[LiptonJigglers]

As much as I appreciate the Doors (was in a Doors/Pink Floyd tribute band for years) I find their music frustrating at times. They have you travel down this long winding musical road that looks and sounds promising yet rarely do they ever reach "climax" for want of a better word... there's seldom the big pay off, the "qualude thunder" as Mr Zappa would say..

 

[Geogio]

The Doors, both early and late releases had their moments. Their concert fare was doomed by Morrision's drug and alcohol abuse and early technology that wasn't up to task.

 

[Guitalia]

Don't forget Lee Michaels .... He was bassless, and guitarless.
A good enough keyboard player can kick almost everybody out of the band!!

Another keys/bass/drums/singer band: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

 

[80jazz]

I loved The Doors when I was a teenager, and I still like them. I learned a lot about bass playing by playing along their cassette tapes back in the day. They did have a bass player when they recorded.

Doug Lubahn's autobiography is worth reading.

Yes, I rate the Doors highly. I have been studying their singer for about 30 years. I have also read the book where the band name was derived from. I am something of a nerd.

As far as learning goes, I cut my teeth on their songbook for the piano in my teens. Ray Manzarek's parts are dense (but I am the crazy who thinks John Densmore was the key ingredient in what they were doing. Robby Krieger should also get props for how his interplay with Manzarek worked).

 

[retslock]

I thought Morrison was overrated but I did like 'Light My Fire' and 'Riders On The Storm'

 

[Michedelic]

Jim Morrison was ahead of his time

Well, he more or less got this right…

 

[80jazz]

As others have said I never understood the bass on the record but not live thing.

It was either Ray Manzarek or Paul Rothchild that said the keyboard bass moved good low end air in concert but didn't have the attack of a string on record (I believe this quote is in the early '90s book Break On Through).

As far as Scheff being a touring bassist, I am not sure if he was asked. It seems the band discussed it, but I don't know if they took it as far as to ask him (my guess would be no based on where things were internally with that band come early 1971).

 

[80jazz]

They actually did some live shows with a bass player in 1968 & 1969, including Madison Square Garden and the L. A. Forum.

I believe this was Harvey Brooks.

 

[80jazz]

I like a lot of the Doors tunes, but I never understood the love for Robbie Krieger. His solos are just aimless, wandering noodling.

It kills the fanboi in me deep down inside to post this, but this is one point I agree with when it comes to negatives about this band (I am of the opinion that there are few).