THE DOORS

I think that I first listened to The Doors in the early seventies. One of my brothers was a big fan of their music, something that years later influenced my father too. Both had a big collection of their albums. Despite the fact that I listened to their albums in excess during the seventies, I still consider the Doors as a very good and influential band.

This album is a very good album, a very good debut, with a "dark" atmosphere, but still with some "light" and commercial songs.

"Break on Through": one of their most known songs. I remember that there was a promotional film which was broadcasted on TV a lot. This is one of their "signature" songs, showing Morrison`s great voice.

"Soul Kitchen": a rock song played with energy. It is good to say that Producer Paul A. Rothchild knew how to let the band show their energy on albums.

"The Crystal Ship":one of my favourite songs from this band, with great piano & organ arrangements. Morrison sang with feeling.

"Twentieth Century Fox": one of the "light" songs of this album, with a bit of humour.

"Alabama Song": taken from a musical, this song is also another "light" moment with some humour. I think that someone played a mandolin in this song, but I`m not sure.

"Light My Fire": an energetic song, maybe the best from this album, another "signature" song from this band, with everybody playing and singing their best. A classic rock song.

"Back Door Man": a song composed by Willie Dixon which is not one of my favourites from this album.

"I Looked at You": a rock ballad, another "light" piece of music.

"End of the Night": with interesting "dark" atmospheres, a slide guitar and "tonal changes".

"Take it as It Comes": a Pop Rock song which still sounds "fresh" and "young".

"The End": the most "dark" song in this album, the most "proto-prog", with Morrison`s poetry telling a story which has influences from Greek mythology, with Krieger making sound his guitar like a sitar. It grows in intensity until the final climax. A great song and a good way to close this album.

This album was recorded in late 1966 and it was released in January 1967. This happened 40 years ago, and this album still sounds very good, not very dated.

The cover design is also very good.

The only thing that I don`t like very much from this album is the mixing: the Fender piano bass and the drums are mixed in one channel, and the guitar and the other keyboards in the other. The piano bass sounds thin. The Producer also didn`t like the piano bass then, and someone recorded some bass guitar parts over the piano bass parts, without mixing out the piano bass. This can be listened in several songs. The Producer suggested to use bass guitarists in the next albums, but the piano bass still appeared on a few songs in their next albums.