The Doors (of Perception)

It has to be serendipity for a group of people to come together, make absolutely magical music for just 6 years and yet be remembered as one of the greatest acts of the music scene especially that of Rock of the 60s/70s. What makes the story fascinating for me is that the two founding members of the band were seemingly very different in their personalities. Jim Morrison - a rebellious poet & Ray Manzarek - A pianist influenced by classical & blues music. To add some more mystique to the origins is that the remaining band members wouldn't have joined if it were for the controversial Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Manzarek met John Densmore (Drums) and Robbie Krieger (Guitar) at a meeting of the Maharishi and roped them into the band.

Much is already written about the Doors as a group and plenty of it is available online. There's even the 1991 movie by Oliver Stone titled The Doors but mainly focuses on Morrison which is rather unfair to others. I personally think Manzarek should be credited more than he is for the success of the band. I personally enjoy music from this band because of the mellifluous voice of Morrison, the melody and the fact that they did not have a full time bass guitarist (which, when I started listening to rock music, I believed was a basic necessity for a rock band).

I've uploaded three albums from the doors to my collection but will share some of my favourite songs and reasons why.

1. The song 'Break on Through' has many interpretations. Some believe it is about breaking through the mundane existence and finding your true purpose about life. There are other references that it is a romantic song. For me the line that really captures the song is

I found an island in your arms
Country in your eyes
Arms that chain
Eyes that lie

The first two lines reek of romance and with Morrison's voice, makes you wonder what he may have been as a person and yet it immediately transcends into a very sinister zone with the lines that follow.

2. LA Woman is a song that I enjoy more for the spectacular music than the lyrics. Close to eight minutes long, the song starts fast paced, eases into a slower rhythm, abruptly halts with Morrison's voice only to pick up again. To me, this is pure joy.

3. My favourite song from this band is Riders on the Storm. To me this is a great song to showcase the talent of Morrison's writing and Manzarek's keyboard skills. The influence of jazz especially on the parts of the keyboard elevate the song to a different level. The simulation of rain on the keyboard with sounds of the thunder in the background brings out an eerie feel to the song. What adds to the legend of this song is that it was the last song recorded before Morrison's fatal trip to Paris.

There's an interesting interview of Ray Manzarek where he talks about how this song came to be. It is around 10 min long and makes for an interesting watch.


An interesting side note is that The Doors were one of the handful of mainstream bands of the time that turned down the opportunity to play at Woodstock '69. (The list is rather prestigious with The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin etc). There's two theories about why that I have read in the past. One was that Jim Morrison was not particularly fond of performing outdoors and two, Robbie Krieger in later years said that they were just too dumb because they thought this was another music festival with overcrowding of bands.

Robbie Krieger however had the opportunity to play at Woodstock but in 1999 along with the group Creed when they did a cover of Roadhouse Blues. I liked it because Creed was a band I was listening to at the time (They had an album called Human Clay that had been released of which I had a tape). I've uploaded a copy of this in the folder Various Artists.

The performance can be seen here.


The collection of The Doors is available here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiYwJm3Pb8i9gpcQAgk5s6PE9xPDRQ?e=AaPECQ

Entire music collection available here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiYwJm3Pb8i9gpERwAPLpYGKDZor2w?e=iIbPFB

Have a great week ahead.

Cheers,
Avi