Posted on 01/04/2017 2:39:50 PM PST by EveningStar
One glance at the cover of The Doors’ debut album and you knew the summer of love was over and the flower children were headed straight for the sanitarium. These Doors, as drummer John Densmore later quipped, were clearly “unhinged.”
Ray Manzarek carried the stern countenance of a Protestant preacher, hunched over the keyboard driving Jim Morrison into new, uncharted realms as he delivered psychedelic sermons. Manzarek’s studied glare behind his rimless glasses and stiff, formal appearance (preferring suits to the colorful ad-hoc hippie esthetic) gave him the air of a tidy yet maniacal schoolmaster while guitarist Robby Kreiger resembled a frazzled Venice Beach ragamuffin. And Densmore just seemed like that guy in high school you knew you had to keep away from your little sister. Well, they all did, but none more so than the self-proclaimed “Lizard King,” Jim Morrison.
True rock ‘n’ roll seethes with danger, bordering, at times, on madness, whether Jerry Lee Lewis pounding his piano like a man possessed by the devil he feared, or Jimi Hendrix’s feedback melting your face as he nonchalantly asked, “Are you experienced?”
Released on January 4, 1967, The Doors’ self-titled debut presented the peace and love crowd with a strange invitation. Like some crazy stranger you just met, Jim stands on a precarious precipice, arm stretched out beckoning you to leap with him into the great unknown.
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...
ping
I have that album. They were the first concert I went to Nov. 1968.
“You know that it would be untrue.
You know that I would be a liar
If I were to say to you
Girl we couldn’t get no higher.
Come on baby light my fire.....”
Eat enough Owsley blues or windowpane and anyone becomes “unhinged”. (At least that’s what I’ve heard) /s
I also am clueless about that, but one of my personalities has passed me a note that it is indeed correct.
*possible ping of interest*
I still enjoy The Doors music, and love this one very much.
Most over-rated band ever until U2.
Thanks for posting this Evening Star!
PINGING a few buddies that I think would enjoy it!
I have been a good dad . . . never revealed to my adult children how much their music stinks compared with what we had in ‘60s-early ‘70s.
LOL My lawyer knew Ken Owsley. True story.
Wow, 50 years ago.
My 18 year old only listens to “our music” He’s into Blue Oyster Cult right now. The kid ain’t right. LOL
Strange coincidence: My Dad knew Helen Hayes, and I went college with her son, Purple.
I went to school with Sunshine, the orange kind. I better shut up now.
LOL! Me too, especially since my 30 year-old son is in a band. But I never pushed my '60s music on my kids when they were little preferring to let them develop their own interests.
I was listening to The Beatles Rubber Soul album one day a few years ago, and my adult daughter came over and listened for awhile and then said "Wow! That music is so good I could listen to it all day."
But then again I enjoy all different kinds of music. I'll admit it took me awhile to start listening to the newer stuff. Because I was biased and thought nothing could beat our music. Perhaps they might even find dad is pretty fly for an old guy.
Then you'll find they start showing an interest in our music. Never stay still is my view on life.
I really enjoy Henry Rollins commentary about the album in VH1’s Classic Albums. He really explains how in the world of dark music that album is a dividing line, there was the time before when you could maybe sneak a little darkness into your music and the time after when you could just put it out there. Especially when you get to “The End”, he talks about his first time hearing it asking himself “is this a song about death, can you make songs about death”. While in many ways they have been surpassed, they’re that all important gateway (or I suppose doorway ;) ) that lets us have Black Sabbath, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Black Flag and all that messed up rock and roll I live for.
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