THE DOORS

John Densmore said "On each song we had tried every possible arrangement, so we felt the whole album was tight." Yeah, I would say so. I know Jim Morrison was the focus of the media, but man these three other guys could really play. And it's all here for everyone to hear on their debut album.

"Break On Through" is a passionate, uptempo song that really starts things off rocking ! I love the organ play a minute in. "Soul Kitchen" is an organ driven tune that's quite catchy. "The Crystal Ship" is a mellow song with some nice piano melodies. "Twentieth Century Fox" and "Alabama Song" are both ok but don't do a lot for me. "Light My Fire" on the other hand is my favourite DOORS tune. The organ play is amazing, almost hypnotic. And the guitar 4 minutes in is great too. And check out the guitar / drum interplay that follows.The drumming is fantastic as well. I love everything about this song. It's funny but as a kid I had a "Hot Wheel" car that was a 1967 firebird, and the name of it written on the bottom was "Light My Fire".

"Back Door Man" is an old blues song they covered very well. "I Looked At You" features some more outstanding drumming, while I don't really like "End Of the Night". "Take It As It Comes" is a good, upbeat song with some more incredible organ melodies. "The End" is a dark song with explicit lyrics that got them fired from the "Whiskey-a-Go-Go" where they were the house band at the time. I also remember Ed Sullivan telling Jim Morrison not to use the word "higher" in the song they were to sing on his show "Light My Fire". Well Jim sang it anyway and they were banned from coming back on his show. Ah yes, the rebellious sixties.

For me this is a solid four star record, containing one of the best songs i've ever heard.