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Do you rate The Doors highly?
- Thread starter MidnightRunner
- Start date
I tend to view them as a whole as good as their weakest link. Kreiger may have been a good song writer, but compared to other guitarist of the era he was very limited. The same could be said for Densmore. Morrison no doubt was a force, but personally listening to him exorcising his demons was a little too dark for my taste. Manzerak was above the line.
One other point, they used a bassist on some songs.
Like most bands in the 60s and 70s, they had their own sound and style. Not my favorite band to listen to, but they certainly were interesting!
Morrison is probably my favorite rock singer, and I loved everything about his persona. I think he was one of the very best lyricists ever, too.
One thing that some younger folks might miss (sorry) is that the Doors were maybe the first "dark" rock band, along with the Velvet Underground. To me, even the fact that Morrison sang like a suave crooner made the whole thing sound even more twisted. I always felt that the "bad boy" Stones were posers; the Doors could be more authentically disturbing, in those days before Black Sabbath, et al.
One thing that some younger folks might miss (sorry) is that the Doors were maybe the first "dark" rock band, along with the Velvet Underground. To me, even the fact that Morrison sang like a suave crooner made the whole thing sound even more twisted. I always felt that the "bad boy" Stones were posers; the Doors could be more authentically disturbing, in those days before Black Sabbath, et al.
There are TONS of bass lines in Doors songs, you can learn how to play basic groove bass by learning them. Does it matter that they were written and usually played by a keyboard? Bass is bass and electric bass only owns the terf since 40-50 years ago (with periods of keyboard necessity like Bernie Worrell). They did use bass guitar players in sessions but that was to play or augment a line that RayM wrote and jammed out previously with the rest. I'm not aware of any original material coming from one of the studio cats.
When the Doors recorded Morrison Hotel the guest bassist was not Doug Lubahn but Lonnie Mack. Jeez, they had a guitar wild man like Lonnie to play bass? Harrumph!
Yes, the Stones' bad boy persona was very much thought out and consciously adopted. The Beatles had the "nice young fellows" channel, the Stones took the "bad boy" channel. This was all worked out between them.
The Doors, for all their limitations, were actually serious about this stuff.
I don't get the slagging on Krieger's guitar playing. He was not a virtuoso, but virtuosity has never been the price of admittance in rock and roll.
Are the Doors' lyrics and Morrison's singing and stage antics solipsistic and frequently juvenile? Oh yeah. But there's a lot of "there" there, too. Comparing the Doors to the music that was current in my teen years (disco; Muskrat Love; the worst of the Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers; Donnie and Marie...) well, one can see why I dug the Doors.
Another band I know of that does this is Local H. They briefly had a bass player as an official member of the band, and their records have bass lines on them, but when they play live it's just the drummer and Scott Lucas, the singer/guitarist. He has a few different guitars that he's wired up with a second output connected to half of a P bass pickup, installed at an angle under the E and A strings. That signal goes through an octave pedal into a bass amp. Very different style from the Doors but it is possible to make it work. In the case of the Doors they got away with it because they had Ray Manzarek on the keyboard providing the bass line with his left hand.
I listened to the Doors a lot back in high school, but haven't put one of their records on in years. Might have to give them another listen today to see if they still scratch that itch.
Now whenever I think of the Doors, I am reminded of this old Kids In The Hall sketch:
Simplistic in structure, but very California in influence, I consider their sound to be foundational to rock and roll, not a definitive standard to meaure others by - or themselves. Krieger and Manzarek brought different musical backgrounds together to create the iconic sound they created.
The simpler compositions of that day are clearly less sophisticated but highly melodic and made listening easy for everyone. That's what music is all about!
The simpler compositions of that day are clearly less sophisticated but highly melodic and made listening easy for everyone. That's what music is all about!
Krieger was not limited, he just didn’t regurgitate second and third class imitation blues licks like most of the rock guitarists of that time period did. And his slide work was eerie, almost theremin-like, not beholden to the Mississippi delta.
While this is an actual classical guitar piece that he incorporated into this song, what other rock guitarist(save for possibly Peter Green a year later)was doing this sort of thing at that time?
And what other band would attempt something so eclectic? The Beatles?
As for Densmore, he had a groove all his own, based on bossa nova, Latin styles, and jazz, and his percussion during the long explorations of Jimbo’s id were always theatrical and dramatic. Plus, he spared audiences of long self-indulgent drum solos.
I think Densmore belongs in the pantheon of "jazz drummers playing rock", along with Baker and Mitchell. Horribly underrated.
How is that any different from Keef, Mick Taylor, or Ron Wood laying down bass lines? Mack was working for their label in a non-performing capacity, had retired from playing, but happened to be in the studio at the time. The scheduled session bassists couldn’t make it, so Lonnie was talked into it.When the Doors recorded Morrison Hotel the guest bassist was not Doug Lubahn but Lonnie Mack. Jeez, they had a guitar wild man like Lonnie to play bass? Harrumph!
For those who have heard only the big hits...
“Dead president’s corpse in the driver’s car, the engine runs on glue and tar”…yep, that sounds about right for back then.
I believe Lonnie played bass on L.A. Woman (the song). Great bass playing on that song!
Huh? How are they “foundational” to rock and roll when they came along a good 10-15 years after anything considered ‘rock and roll’ emerged in the first place? Their sound was not exactly California influenced…(where’s the Beach Boys or Sunshine Pop?)but culled from strains from all over the world: eastern European, Brecht-Weill operettas, creepy circus music, jazz, classical….there were flavors of the blues, but it wasn’t the entire ball game.
I would describe the Doors' sound as dark, eerie, and somewhat disturbing. And I don't mean in a good or bad way; that's just how I hear it. It's like the soundtrack to a '60s psychedelic horror movie, with emphasis on the weird and psychological as opposed to slasher style. It's in stark contrast to the peace-and-love "flower power" music of the same time period.
If nothing else, it's definitely interesting.
If nothing else, it's definitely interesting.
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