Do you rate The Doors highly?

[Rip Van Dan]

yes i have been a fan since i was a kid. i don't care that they don't have bass on some stuff.

They actually had a bass player. His name was Ray Manzarek and he was the guy playing keyboards. He had a small keyboard on top of his organ that he played bass on with his left hand. Originally early recordings were done like that and later recordings did indeed finally use a bass player on the recordings. I never saw them but a bunch of my friends went to their concert in San Luis Obispo back in 1967 right after they released Light My Fire. He was playing bass on that small keyboard - might have been 2 octaves? I also preferred it with a real bass player playing on a bass guitar.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

With how terrible bass frequencies were reproduced in a live environment “back in the day” could anyone really hear the subtle differences between key bass and bass guitar.

On a record back then, through a good hifi, you could definitely hear the difference, but live in a big concrete box, I doubt there was much intelligibility on the lower end of the frequency spectrum.

Could absolutely hear it on stereo records back then, but I never saw the in concert. Here's a video where they are playing live and very definitely have a bass player:

 

[el murdoque]

But they are a band without a bassist and that's the unique thing about them.

They are a band without an electric bass player.
The Doors had a bassist: Ray's left hand.

 

[Dlew919]

I think Ronnie Krueger and John densmore are good musicians. Jim Morrison’s appeal and lyrics are lost on me, though that’s a minority position. And that organ … grrr

And they had bass players on record. You notice it on live bootlegs.

 

[Tommy Sparks]

Definitely in my top 10.
I didn’t like them until I was about 19 and someone turning me on to the American pray album and then soft parade.
I was hooked.
The live stuff without a bass player was a bit odd to me, but I still liked it.

 

[dougjwray]

They were my favorite band at the time.
One of their great strengths was their quirkiness and unique chemistry: a poet who never intended to sing; a flamenco guitarist learning the blues; a classical keyboard player; a jazz drummer who often utilized Latin grooves.
I think it made perfect sense that they didn't have the standard rock lineup.
Anyway, they did use bass players at times. When I saw them, they had Harvey Brooks. Plus, Ray was a phenomenal keyboard player who could handle the bass parts quite well.

 

[Lo-E]

Never cared for The Doors at all. They were all talented players, especially Ray Manzarek, but I found most of the songs boring and Morrison’s bombast rubbed me the wrong way. Not that he was untalented; I just found him annoying.

Somehow, the whole equalled less than the sum of its parts for me.

 

[badinage]

The Doors for me are both great at times but can also get on my nerves pretty quickly. Since finding out "Mr Mojo Risin" is an anagram for "Jim Morrison" it makes me hit the skip button on that one even faster. The off-pitch bellowing part was never enjoyable to me to begin with.

Keyboard/Synth bass doesn't bother me at all. Anthony Jackson had the right attitude I think, they're not going away so just up the ante on them.

 

[turf3]

The classic rock instrumentation of electric guitar, electric bass, drums and vocals was set by Buddy Hollie.

But I wasn't talking about the first group to use that instrumentation, I was talking about the phenomenon of it becoming set in stone. Well into the 1970s new groups were being formed with instrumentations that would today be considered "non-standard".

 

[Jay Corwin]

As a punk rocker kid a steered away from the hippie stuff early on. However I came back around later in life on them. Ignoring all of the mystique nonsense about Jim, at the core I think they were a great band - and he sang some great melodies. They still sound uniquely original to me. Plus consider that they laid down that first record more/less live on tape. They could play.

 

[RichardW]

Which is my principal gripe against them. If you are going to have a bass player on the record, then why not have one in the band?

This could apply to many bands. Ian Stewart co-founded The Rolling Stones, was kicked out by Andrew Loog Oldham, but who still played on almost every Stones record and toured with them until he died in 1985. He just wasn't "in the band."

 

[morrisonhendrix]

I forgot about him. I believe he was post Morrison?

He was, but he also did a few live dates in 1968 if I recall correctly.

 

[sleddogn]

Truly one of the bands i can't change the channel fast enough.... not many fit this category for me, but this band did and does for sure

 

[morrisonhendrix]

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”.

Weird, that yesterday it was just a picture, and was again a few minutes ago, but now it's showing up as a link. Not sure why that happened.

Are you really saying by 1969 (at the time of this interview) there was already 15 years of synthesizer music, some being computer driven? I find that hard to believe, especially the computer part.

 

[morrisonhendrix]

Carol Kaye was one of their studio bass players. Too bad she didn’t do shows with them

Carol never played on a Doors album. Robby Krieger played bass on a few songs on the first album. Doug Lubahn, Larry Knechtel, Lero Vinegar, Jack Conrad, Harvey Brooks, Lonnie Mack, and Jerry Scheff did.

 

[turf3]

I find it interesting that so many people have this visceral "Yuck!" to the Doors.

 

[shadven]

Carol never played on a Doors album. Robby Krieger played bass on a few songs on the first album. Doug Lubahn, Larry Knechtel, Lero Vinegar, Jack Conrad, Harvey Brooks, Lonnie Mack, and Jerry Scheff did.

You’re probably right, but I’ve heard several times over the years that she did some sessions. I’ve also heard people complain that Carol took credit for having played on tracks that she didn’t play on. Those studio players were often playing 4 or 5 sessions a day during their peak. Carol Kaye was one who saved her schedules for posterity.

 

[Michedelic]

Weird, that yesterday it was just a picture, and was again a few minutes ago, but now it's showing up as a link. Not sure why that happened.

Are you really saying by 1969 (at the time of this interview) there was already 15 years of synthesizer music, some being computer driven? I find that hard to believe, especially the computer part.

In 1969, FM rock station programming was an entirely different animal, more like college stations today, but as a tyke I heard stuff like this…

 

[Gorn]

Can't stand them.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Personally, no but I recognize that they have an impact on the music scene in days past.