Do you rate The Doors highly?

[Paul New]

Can't stand them.

Good.

 

[BigJohnAZ]

I liked the Doors in junior high, when they were active, but not huge fan. I remember the girls were

I didn't begin to really appreciate them until I saw the Doors movie. I bought "The Very Best of the Doors" CD and really loved it, still do.

There are some really good interviews out there with them, and it helps me appreciate them even more. Yes, Jim was a handful, but, creative people are a species all their own, at times.

They were another piece of that fantastic puzzle of the mid to late 60s music that originated mostly in California. Lots of good memories of that era of the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, CCR, Mamas and the Pappas, Santana, CS&N, etc.

I never realized they didn't have a bass player live, and it still makes no difference to me 50+ years later. They made great music, and were unique. Good enough for me!

 

[dougjwray]

There's a good, recent Rick Beato interview with Krieger and Densmore. (I was delighted to see Beato get out of his '70s and '80s rut, for once.)
They are like an old married couple! Densmore is talkative, gregarious and free-spirited. Krieger is introverted, and kind of sits with his arms folded while he repeatedly says, "No. That's NOT how it happened."
There are mentions of how hard it was to work with Morrison, because of his alcoholism. But you can see how much they respected him as an artist.

 

[Paul New]

I’ m a sucker for 10th grade poetry and Un relatable angst, I reckon.

 

[jerry]

I believe Lonnie played bass on L.A. Woman (the song). Great bass playing on that song!

I’ m a sucker for 10th grade poetry and Un relatable angst, I reckon.

It was Jerry Scheff on L.A woman.
Hair metal lyrics, were worse.

 

[wboyd68]

It's not the lack of a bass live that bothers me, it's the presence of Jim.

 

[JRA]

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

same.

 

[Michedelic]

I believe Lonnie played bass on L.A. Woman (the song). Great bass playing on that song!

That entire album was Jerry Scheff, P Bass through a Sunn 200s…

Plus Marc Benno on rhythm guitar for a few songs. Mack’s involvement was a one-off situation.

 

[80jazz]

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.

Nope. You may be right (I'm not saying you're wrong). I thought some of the debut has the keyboard bass?

 

[80jazz]

Waiting For The Sun had Lubahn, Leroy Vineger, and Kerry Manners on bass. Morrison Hotel was Lonnie Mack on Roadhouse Blues and Maggie M'Gill.

I believe it is Kerry Magness.

 

[80jazz]

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!

I seem to recall either him just being around one day or Mack being down his luck. There has also been suggestion he did some guitar work on the album.

Ray Neapolitan is also credited with having played bass on that album. He may have handled the majority of that record.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

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.

You’re welcome to your opinion. And thank you for sharing. Having been a working musician in that era, I’ll stand on what I posted.

 

[sleddogn]

I'm kinda in if.... no singing and no keyboards....maybe

 

[brianrost]

Don't forget Lee Michaels .... He was bassless, and guitarless.

Until his final album for Epic, where he had switched over to guitar and added a bassist to the band.

 

[Guitalia]

I've come to think that at least some of the bands I tend to think of as overrated just happen not to be the bands I fell helplessly in love with in my teens. Simple as that.

The Doors fall between those two categories for me. One thing I know for sure: they were the very first band I'd heard of whose name was a shock: "What? You can't call a band The Doors!"

After them, non-standard band names became the standard, with the obvious result that they were never as shocking.

The Doors can be thought of as overrated in at least one sense: they attracted some of the kind of uncritical, reverential awe that made people see musicians like Dylan and Hendrix as somehow not of this world.

None of them asked for that kind of adulation. All the Doors and Dylan and Hendrix had aspired to was to be successful entertainers. But people evidently wanted gods.

 

[morrisonhendrix]

I believe Lonnie played bass on L.A. Woman (the song). Great bass playing on that song!

No, that was Elvis' bass player, Jerry Scheff on LA Woman. Lonnie played on the previous album, Morrison Hotel. He didn't play on every track of MH, mainly Roadhouse Blues.

 

[80jazz]

All the Doors and Dylan and Hendrix had aspired to was to be successful entertainers. But people evidently wanted gods.

I believe Morrison wanted to be taken seriously as a poet and saw rock music at that time as a vehicle for it. I suspect by mid-1968, he realized that the adulation wasn't getting him the recognition he wanted in this arena and that his celebrity status was coating people (to paraphrase January Jensen). In this sense, we would see something of a repeat with this with Kurt Cobain.

Morrison made comments by mid-1969 along these lines, with the observation about people wanting to believe he was high all the time because maybe they thought he could take the trip for them (his phrase). The riots at some concerts that year and the Miami incident the next year may serve as outward manifestations of this.

 

[morrisonhendrix]

I believe Morrison wanted to be taken seriously as a poet and saw rock music at that time as a vehicle for it. I suspect by mid-1968, he realized that the adulation wasn't getting him the recognition he wanted in this arena and that his celebrity status was coating people (to paraphrase January Jensen). In this sense, we would see something of a repeat with this with Kurt Cobain.

Morrison made comments by mid-1969 along these lines, with the observation about people wanting to believe he was high all the time because maybe they thought he could take the trip for them (his phrase). The riots at some concerts that year and the Miami incident the next year may serve as outward manifestations of this.

I agree with your assessment. He was disallusioned by 1968, even telling the band that he thought he was having a nervous breakdown. Manzarek begged him to give it 6 more months. Of course, he fulfilled their contract with Elektra, giving it 3 more years. His aim was poetry & film. His degree was in film from UCLA. He self-published some of his poetry, and some was published by Simon & Schuster.

 

[80jazz]

I tend to forget about him telling the others he wanted to bounce in 1968.

 

[MrAB4003]

For those who have heard only the big hits...

I've never heard this one, but I really like it!