Doors - Doors (The)

Anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know that my musical tastes lean towards pop. So what am I doing reviewing a Doors album? Well, I am actually a fan of the band, mainly because of friends at uni who played their music, which really grew on me. The band, made up of singer Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore, took their name from Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which is itself a Blake quotation. Any band inspired by poetry is likely to win my interest!

The Doors’ self-titled debut album was released in 1967 on the back of a number of gigs which took place around Los Angeles. Focused on a mixture of blues, rock and jazz, it is dominated by the use of the organ which makes the music stand out.

Track Listing
1. Break On Through (To the Other Side)
This is probably one of the band’s most famous songs. It’s short but powerful with a strong beat and a chorus that gets into your head.

2. Soul Kitchen
Another memorable song, it has a more laid back blues vibe.

3. The Crystal Ship
This song is rather melancholy, and for some reason always reminds me of that bit at the end of Lord of the Rings where some of the characters sail off to the Grey Havens!

4. Twentieth Century Fox
Though reasonably catchy, this song is quite light and poppy though it does sound dated now we’re well out of the twentieth century!

5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
A cover of a song by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill written in 1927 for an opera, this has a jaunty tone.

6. Light My Fire
This is possibly the Doors’ most famous song and it really stands out, especially with the use of an organ to give it a unique sound. It’s a fairly long song with an instrumental mid section (which was cut for the single release). Someone I knew once said that this song was the modern-day musical equivalent of Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (“Had we but world enough, and time, / this coyness, lady, were no crime”) which I think was a great comparison!

7. Back Door Man
This song was originally written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin’Wolf.

8. I Looked At You
This is another lighthearted poppy song.

9. End of the Night
This is very different – slow and melancholic, it takes inspiration from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence (“Some are born to sweet delight, / Some are born to endless night.”).

10. Take It As It Comes
This is a more uptempo song, and has a more lighthearted feel compared to the rest of the album.

11. The End
Another standout song, The End, is a slow, long, haunting, melancholy, Oedipal epic unlike anything else on this or any other Doors album. It was considered groundbreaking at the time, less so now, but still makes an impact.

As a debut album this is fantastic. It was considered groundbreaking in its day and several of the songs are still considered classics. Some of the songs are more straightforward and, for the time, mainstream, but the album as a whole works together really well. I have to give it five stars!