Critical Junctions: The Doors

1967 was quite a year for music, The Beatles released Sgt Peppers, Jimi Hendrix let loose with Axis Bold as Love, The Velvet Underground released their début, as did The Doors. This landmark album combined psychadelic rock with blues and dionesian poetry altered the minds of millions at the drop of a needle.

Break on Through was the first single to explode from the album. Raw and evocative, it was censored because Jim Morrison said “she gets, she gets, high” Such controversy only fuelled the public's hunger for the band and their music. Another track on the album the final track The End was also censored, though not for a drug reference, but because Jim said the word fuck over and over again, its not exactly Public Enemy, but they were the most controversial band of their day.

One of my favourites from the album is the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Alabama Song. The one great whimsy on the album, it works well with dark nature of The Doors sound and the heavy drinking nature of its tragic lead singer

The other big hit from the album, Light My Fire went to number one. This song has set a template for psychedelic rock and even psychedelic jazz. When the band performed the song on the Ed Sullivan show they were asked to change the lyrics from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to “Girl we couldn't get much better”. Morrison agreed, but when the show went out live he never changed the lyrics. Ed Sullivan was so furious he refused to shake Morrison's hand. The band were due to appear on seven shows but this was cancelled after the performance, the response from Jim, “ Hey, man, so what, we just DID the Ed Sullivan show” God that man was cool.

The album ends with The End. A 12 minute opus with a haunting spoken word section which begins with “the killer awoke before dawn...” the ending of this section has long been controversial for its not so suttle Oedipal references. When Morrison screams “Mother... Yes Son..... I want to fuck you” little was left to the imagination of the more conservative in the late 60's. Lifted from many Greek theatre plots, The Doors set it to rock and roll, no one had heard anything like it before.

Other high points, pardon the pun, on the album are Take it as it Comes, The Crystal Ship and the Willie Dixon penned Back Door Man. They may have realesed more albums, but L.A.'s greatest band begun something remarkable when they put this onto vinyl and changed the rules forever.

Track Listing