The Doors – The Doors
Thirteen and fourteen year old me lived for this band. I listened to Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine on cassette, I read the obligatory No One Here Gets Out Alive book, I drew the logo on every desk as soon as I sat down (in pencil, I was a closeted delinquent) and wondered if in fact Jim Morrison had faked his own death.
It isn’t so much that I stopped listening or liking them, it’s just that my musical world kept expanding so their part in it took up a lower percentage of space in it as years passed. Now forty(mumble) years later I have a normal comfortable relationship with The Doors and this album. I have an extensive playlist I listen to (when Gina leaves the house – she abhors Jim’s voice!) but I rarely put on individual albums.
So listening to this today I am struck by just how remarkable this debut is. I wasn’t alive in 1967 when this was released but I can only imagine discovering it and hearing it for the first time. I mean, no one sounded quite like them prior to, or since, their run. The mix of Robbie Krieger’s unique guitar sound, the hypnotic Manzarek keys, John Densmore on drums and of course the larger than life Jim Morrison’s vocals and lyrics. The stars aligned and something very unique was created, never to be repeated.
On a side note, the Internet has failed me today. I searched for the episode of Square Pegs which featured John Densmore because I couldn’t remember the exact quote of how they refer to him. I think it’s “original drummer of The Doors John Densmore” but I wanted to be certain. It’s nowhere to be found and I wasn’t going to buy the episode to verify it.
Your thoughts?