The Doors - The Soft Parade

The Doors (not counting post-Morrisson) have six studio albums, I'd put the other four at at least four stars, I wouldn't give The Soft Parade Two.

But yes, the SONG the Soft Parade is good.

I'd say Strange Days is definitely their most progressive album overall, with Morrison Hotel and the S/T being my favorites.  LA Woman closely behind.

 

See ... that's an issue ... almost ALL music has its start in a jam ... and some takes off on the lyrics and the visual content that it offers, and others go to the conventional music formats.

 

Why, why, why ... can not an experiment, or a jam, define a piece of music? ... might as well call krautrock a bunch of crap, because many of them started with jams, and in the case of a couple of bands, they even admit they were so ripped it didn't matter what came out ... to the point that one person even said ... we were all so stoned and looking at each other I had to do something!

 

Music is music!

 

When the music is over, turn out the lights ... will be the end of progressive music since you are not allowing music to "live"! ... that's the part I don't ever want to miss, and the part that makes it for me ... without that special feeling ... there is no music ... and it doesn't matter if it is a jam or a staff ... but please do not determine that one is right and the other is wrong ... you will kill music in one swell foop!

 

Most people ... do not EVER ... know or understand or feel an artist ... it's why they are fans, you know?

 

But don't ever try ... to kill the music inside ... for I have a feeling inside ... INSIDE ... and you are basically telling me it is not a true feeling because the music is a jam? I would think that Ray, Robbie and John would not appreciate you a whole lot right now!

This ramble was such a delight that I had to come out of progarchives retirement, if only for a moment. Codification of something is not the same as understanding or even loving it. There is a fair amount of musical vivisection on this site, and little artistic sympathy. The Doors had utter soul. The Soft Parade is an awesome album...from my point of view. I encourage everyone to listen to it sans any moldering prejudices.

 

 

I agree and especially with your points about Krautrock and jamming in general. I might add that there have been many cases with superb writers who write a particular unique chord sequence for a song and command the band to simply play that sequence over and over..like a jam, until a signature line comes to mind. In otherwords, let's see what happens. In many cases . jamming is mixing the brew and preparing the formula for an outcome of some kind. Another case may be John Lennon asking the band to jam over 3 chords he wrote and waiting for George Harrison to play that certain appealing group of notes, stopping the jam and saying..."I think I'll sing the notes George has just played" "Okay, back to the song"   In rock and progressive pen and paper does not always enter into the picture. Many Classically trained musicians in prog insisted on forming pieces , coming up with signature riffs, directly from jamming with their own band. Tony Banks for one. Tony Banks could read the music written by Univers Zero or Art Zoyd, but prefers himself to create structure with Collins and Rutherford by jamming. Not the kind of jamming that Brand X did..but the kind where musicians listen for a formula to naturally develop, listen back to the tapes, break up those fine bits and pieces and in the end creating a song with lyrics. Nothing is exacting . No method has been laid down by an old man up in the puffy clouds and blue sky to form or compose music in the way that a majority of people in society (it seems to me), take it to be. As you said..music is music!