THE DOORS

There were many bands in the sixties that no other group has ever sounded like before or since. The Beatles, The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin just to name a few. The Doors also belong on that list. Once can't even tag them with the "Southern California Sound" label because no one else from L.A. produced music like them, either. They stood completely apart from their competition. And they belong on this site because they were absolutely unique and because they utilized so many influences in their compositions. Jazz, rock, blues and classical atmospheres all tossed together without bias toward any of them. This album burst upon the FM airwaves like a bombshell. Unlike the aforementioned bands, this was a keyboard-driven group with the guitarist adding most of the colors and that set them apart instantly. They compelled your attention. Just listen to the first notes of "Break On Through" and you'll know what I mean. It's coiled like a Cobra. And then you hear Morrison's arresting voice and you are hooked like a big mouth bass. The music is immediate, sleek and fast. There is an undercurrent of sexuality that infiltrates your libido like some kind of subliminal messages flashed on a movie screen. "Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen" and "Come on, Baby, light my fire" he croons. There are "A thousand girls, a thousand thrills" on the Crystal Ship and they "Specialize in having fun", he promises (on Take It As It Comes). And he "eats more chicken any man ever seen" he drawls boastingly. These were revolutionary lyrics in those days and they still cast a potent spell. But it wasn't just sensuality. There was danger in taking that stance. "Alabama Song" sounds innocent enough but there's a palpable evil presence lurking just underneath the tune like a hidden dagger and we never forget that it's there for the remainder of the album. That same cold blade is, at last, fiendishly brandished during "The End." Any questions about them being truly progressive are definitively answered by that incredible song alone. It has every necessary ingredient for the genre. Very few artists have taken the world on their first outing but these four musicians did just that. These are the songs they fine-tuned and crafted before the deluge of fame, out of the glaring eye of the public. The songs that made them what they are. What came after this was good by any standards but never as magical and hypnotic as this collection of tunes.