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Do you rate The Doors highly?

Would you rate The Doors highly?

  • Total voters
    343
#81
turf3 said:
The Doors, like many other groups, formed before the received wisdom had dictated the ONE TRUE instrumentation for a rock and roll band. They had three players and a singer, and they went with that. Today most rock and roll players would pull their fingernails out with red hot pincers before they'd consider having the keys player play keyboard bass. Back then, if it worked you went with it. The good old days before rock and roll locked itself into a little box.
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The classic rock instrumentation of electric guitar, electric bass, drums and vocals was set by Buddy Hollie.
 
#87
I had to really think about this one for a second. I almost voted unsure but I would just be lying to myself. I was huge into Jim Morrison and his poetry & lyrics back in my college days. Their music, while not every song of course, was very catchy and could even be argued some of them stuck in your head for days. Kind of bummed they never had an official bass player but Manzarek made up for that with his keys. I also agree with another's post that because it was unique like that (3-peice w/ no bass) is what made them so special.
 
#89
jthisdell said:
The classic rock instrumentation of electric guitar, electric bass, drums and vocals was set by Buddy Hollie.
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Hollie? Really?
Holly’s bassist, Joe B. Mauldin, used a standup bass for years, and that’s what you hear on the classic recordings. He did eventually move to electric, then Waylon Jennings took over for road gigs, most notoriously that last tour, but that was pretty late in the day, 1959.

Way before that, Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps had taken the similar route, acoustic bass first, then electric(with rhythm and lead guitars), Elvis himself played an electric(for the first time on one of his recordings)for ”Baby I Don’t Care”, 1957, with Bill Black finally converting on “Jailhouse Rock”, same time period, but they already had the two guitars, (acoustic)bass, drums set-up in place, whereas Holly initially was a trio(with the upright)only later adding Nikki Sullivan on second guitar. Carl Perkins as well had a second guitarist in a quartet. Eddie Cochran was already up and running with only an electric bassist before Holly came along.

But before all that, while there may have been sax(a 50’s rock mainstay)or piano, there were these forerunners, with electric bass….


And of course…
 
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#90
Wow! Didn't realize so many of us harbor the same grudge! That being said, having been tasked with learning a few Doors tunes, I'm really impressed and challenged by the bass parts. "People Are Strange", "Light My Fire", "LA Woman" e.g., are not what I would consider "run-of-the-mill" rock tunes. "Waiting For The Sun" is so heavy it's proto-metal. Cool chord changes, demanding repetitive parts. Yeah, I got over myself and am a better player for it.

BBB
 
#91
morrisonhendrix said:
I've seen this a million times, he's predicting the future. Your link isn't there, it's just a pic.
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What do you mean, that is a video. It’s a link to YT.
He took a reasonable educated guess, but the idea I’m sure was still shocking to some. The thing is, there was already a good 15 years, if not more, of synthesizer music, some computer driven, by the time of that interview, then you had Stockhausen and Walter Carlos, Delia Derbyshire the tape loop queen, plus on FM rock radio of the time you could hear the likes of Terry Riley, Silver Apples, Dick Hyman, Margouleff & Cecil, plus Top 40 pop stuff like “Popcorn”.
 
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#93
No and NO

And I dig bass-less jazz funk Organ trios where the B3 player can really groove with his left hand and foot. The doors key player is not in that category. Just isn't and the fact that they used bass players and not credit them, made that NO more emphatic for me.

Bu Jim was enigmatic to some and I can see why they had a following,
 
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#95
logdrum said:
No and NO

And I dig bass-less jazz funk Organ trios where the B3 player can really groove with his left hand and foot. The doors key player is not in that category. Just isn't and the fact that they used bass players and not credit them, made that NO more emphatic for me.

Bu Jim was enigmatic to some and I can see why they had a following,
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I need to check, but I believe bassists are at least credited on Waiting For the Sun and Morrison Hotel.
 
#96
80jazz said:
I need to check, but I believe bassists are at least credited on Waiting For the Sun and Morrison Hotel.
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Possibly but do you have the original LPs. Back in the pre Wikipedia days, that information was not readily available. When I was a teen, I had to argue with my friends that there must be bass on the debut album and subsequent ones. It only took 30 years for me to confirm my suspicions I also never really dug them so did not care, barely listened.
 
#97
They were huge for me when I was a teenager. I thought the lyrics were really deep and profound and the music was great.

For me, they didnt age well. When I hear The Doors today I feel Im listening to a bunch of pretentious kids. Maybe they just remind me too much of myselfe when I was one.
 
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#98
Yes I do! They were the first rock band that I got into when I was a teenager (about 2 years before I became a bassist). One of my teachers in middle school was a Doors fan and he gave me a few song suggestions. I checked them out and I was hooked. Their debut album was the first full album I ever really enjoyed. This was at a time when I liked individual songs more than albums (the way I do now).

Jim Morrison is also one of my biggest influences as a singer. From the moment I first heard "Break On Through", I knew that I wanted to sing like him. But I was 13 then and I had some maturing to do! 🤣 Once all that happened, I was able to sound like him (or at least sing in that rich baritone range).

I don't play as many Doors songs as I used to in my teens because I have progressed onto heavy metal. But they will always have a special place in my heart.

RIP Jim Morrison (1943-1971) and Ray Manzarek (1939-2013)
 
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