THE DOORS

Hah, The Doors' debut. It's interesting - while some people will find similarities with this one and a work of VELVET UNDERGROUND, the other will found prototype of progressive rock.

This is a good starter. And even more; it's a good starter for anything. Regardless of listeners' taste, this is worth spinning.

This is an excellent rock album; when the first seconds of "Break On Through" start to cuddle your ears, you will know you are in good hands. In it's essence, the song is based on Latino-American music, but it's the most rocking rock and roll songs ever. "Soul Kitchen" is another good rock song with nice organ lines and nice chorus, but those lines will be derived and re-derived in quite short Doors' career. Never mind. "Crystal Ship" is a beautiful slow ballad, piano-driven, with, needless to say, excellent lyrics. I must admit that I'm not big fan of Morrison's lyrics (although I used to be back in my teens), but this song is lyrically the top. "Twentieth Century Fox" is another good rock tune, somewhat similar to "Soul Kitchen". The Doors covered Brecht's "Alabama Song" and the result is...let's just say, great psychedelic carousel. For the comparisons, Bowie's adaptation of the same song is not even close (and I think Bowie is a genius). "Light My Fire" is so overplayed that I can't hear it any more. However it's longish jam session (a nice interplay of Manzarek's organ and Krieger's guitar) with (again) traces of bossa nova, and catchy, pseudo-classical intro. A piece of history.

"Back Door Man" is a simple and good blues-rock song, not too demanding. It's definitely lacking the energy that band provided on their live shows during the performance of this one. "I Looked At You" is the weakest track on the album, just a dull rock song. "End Of The Night" is rewarding us with great atmosphere, somewhat comparable to VELVET UNDERGROUND (yes, THE DOORS were influenced), with a nice guitar and a scent of sin. In a very natural floating way, "Take It As It Comes" is a song about heroin, with a certain spleen of despair in it. Great and sincere song, including brilliant psychedelic organ solo.

"The End" is one of the most depressing and most powerful psychedelic songs ever. The traces of VU are evident here, too. This is some sort of a epic, it's a vivisection of someone's madness, or I dare say despair caused by a painful alienation. The song is clearly evoking reddish pictures, changing moods from calming to gory. The lyrics are accenting the song in a some way simply because they can be interpreted as a pure nonsense or as a continuous story with an Oedipus complex used as a leitmotif. It is a masterpiece. And the album is very close to that status, but contains a few weaker moments, and it slightly paled in my eyes (ears) during the years - but the album's highlights are still good; or shall I say eternal.

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