Do The Doors get a bad rap?

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I mean, I've always hated them. The connotations alone - the black velvet posters, the horrible poetry...plus those terrible 'organ' solos that sound about as psychedelic as Steel Wheels...

BUT...you gotta admit, man, when Jim Morrison comes on the TV, on VH1 Classic or whatever, it's kinda hard to look away. And there ARE a few really great Doors songs, no? Would anyone care to dismiss "Touch Me," "Roadhouse Blues," "Wild Child"....?

Are The Doors unfairly maligned? While we're at it, SEARCH & DESTROY...

― roger adultery, Tuesday, 19 August 2003 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a really good doors thread somewhere where someone (geeta?) sez 'everyone agrees all the doors tunes suck except for one but noone agrees what that one is'

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 23:47 (twenty-two years ago)

lament my cock?

― Spinktor the Unmerciful (mawill5), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I fucking HATE the doors, though I DO enjoy Roadhouse Blues an incredible ammount for a band I despise.

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 02:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just now emerging from a fog of disgust that settled in around my junior year of high school. The girl who gave me a ride every day was the biggest Doors fan and listened to nothing but that band to school and from school for the whole year. I know more about the ins and outs of every Doors album than I'd ever care to.

Last year, I tried to separate my high school experience with them from the actual music they made. While I managed to make some headway, I'm still pretty sure they're nothing spectacular.

If I had to pick one album, it would be Strange Days. One song, it would be "Roadhouse Blues."

― Andrew Frye (paul cox), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

roadhouse blues. that'd be the one doors song i never want to hear again.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 05:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"Touch Me" sounds like bad Archies. But I like some Doors stuff, sure.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

you people are fucked.

― reo fordecor, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:32 (twenty-two years ago)

racist!

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:37 (twenty-two years ago)

'waiting on the sun' - classic west coast psych - up there with love's forever changes and chris lucey's stuff.

― deathnight, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:38 (twenty-two years ago)

we've had this arg on many doors threads roger.

''plus those terrible 'organ' solos that sound about as psychedelic as Steel Wheels...''

but this is a bit different.

what would you say is a 'psychedelic organ solo'? and can you point me to a record that has one?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

some of that stark reality record

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:48 (twenty-two years ago)

what would you say is a 'psychedelic organ solo'? and can you point me to a record that has one?

search any late sixties early seventies temptations and sly and the family stone.

― deathnight, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:49 (twenty-two years ago)

ok. what is it that makes it 'psychedelic'?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:53 (twenty-two years ago)

it emulates the sensations you experience when you take psychedelic drugs

― nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 07:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Do The Doors get a bad rap? Yes. Especially around here.

Search: The End, When the Music's Over, Riders on the Storm, People Are Strange, Hyacinth House, Love Me Two Times, Hello I Love You, LA Woman, Runnin' Blue, Love Street, Love Her Madly, Break On Through.

Destroy: Light My Fire, L'America, Horse Latitudes.

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 08:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely criticising The Doors has been done to death, for about the last 20 years to be exact. So much so that a few years back I started listnin' to 'em again because I knew they weren't as bad as people make out (neither are they as good, but that's another thread maybe). Now, I like 'em lots, I like Ray Manzarek's organ playing, I love Robbie Krieger's guitar playing, Jimbo had a great voice and he's very very funny (tho not always intentionally). They're better than Jefferson Airplane or Crosby, Stills and Nash or The Grateful Dead and numerous others. If they hadn't been over-rated for 15 years they wouldn't have subsequently been under-rated for the next 15 years.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 09:52 (twenty-two years ago)

''it emulates the sensations you experience when you take psychedelic drugs''

so if you don't take psychedelic drugs then you can't be sure what is or isn't psychedelic?

but acatually some bands that don't take drugs (and do take a stance on it) are thought to be psychedelic.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 10:16 (twenty-two years ago)

He had to have been doing something right, to influence Iggy Pop and Ian Curtis that much. Hell, even early MBV songs sound like the Doors (Last Supper). I think the band becomes a lot more fun when you stop thinking about Jim Morrison as a poet, and stop thinking about Ray Manzarek as anything but a cocktail pianist.

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, the Doors got a very good rap: "The Takeover."

― Ess, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Do The Doors get a bad rap?

Err... Dunno!!!! I haven't heard any rap songs about the Doors to be honest, never mind a bad rap song!!!!! Mind you, I heard that Jim Morrison chappie attempt a rap on one of his songs (I think it was "The End", which strangely enough took an awful long time to end!!!!) and quite frankly, it wasn't a patch on Vanilla Ice I can tell you!!!! Why, the man couldn't even swear properly!!!! So, the Doors might not get a bad rap, they certainly give rap a silent "c"!!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

*sings*

"He died having a wank in the bath / He died having a wank in the bath"

WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

"He's not the Messiah he's a very fat and drunk boy."

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate listening to the Doors, but I think their a bit unfairly maligned.. A lof of people hate them because they hate the people who like them. Or because Jim was a pompous asshole. Personally, i can't get past their hippies-as-artists image. It's so annoying. But I can stomach a random Doors song occasionally.

Peace Frog is a great song.. And The End isn't bad, but it would be better without the peotry.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Jimbo was no hippy

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Hate "The End". Love "When The Music's Over".
Like lots of their other songs.
Have no time for the 'lost poems of Jim Morrison' type of tomes.
Haven't read exactly every single Doors thread on ILM. But get the impression there're more Doors-hataz than -luvvaz round here.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

"i can't get past their hippies-as-artists image. It's so annoying"

That image is rubbish. Get over it.

Can ask you a question Dadaismus... are you KC?

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hate The End. Love When The Music's Over."

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― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't get past their hippies-as-artists image. It's so annoying"
That image is rubbish. Get over it.

I know it is. I'm telling you I can't get past it. My problem. Because I don't think the Doors are terrible - but they have this stigma that bugs me...

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Was no error, Alex K.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry dude but I can't get how you'd love the one and not the other. The error is inside my head I think.

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"If they hadn't been over-rated for 15 years they wouldn't have subsequently been under-rated for the next 15 years."

Nailed it. If Ray Harlowe and Gyp Fox had gotten famous instead, and the Doors only made their first record before drifting into obscurity, psych collectors would be paying triple digits for the Doors and hating on poor Gyp Fox.

― roger adultery, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex K - hey, lets not talk 'bout the "error" no more ;)

As per loving one song and hating the other, I'm surely as subjective as the next guy, obv. The reason for preferring "When The Music's Over", I suppose, must've something to do with being more interested in what-happens-when-the-music-stops as opposed to killing-one's-papa-and-fookin'-one's-momma.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

For me though, both songs are much more about mood, tone and texture than lyrical narrative. I find both of them swirling, dark trips, visions of the shimmering void. They both sprawl and twist, build into seething black masses before calming and brooding. although Morrison talks alot of shite, both songs have some great soundbites, impeccably delivered. I can never get over "cancel my subscription to the resurection", I love that. Even though it means nothing, it still sounds like it means everything and that's one of the things I like about The Doors. The... improbable grandeur.

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

The Doors were one helluva rock-n-roll band; If only for telling their idiot fans that they were nothing but a bunch of freakin' idiots.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

the hooky intro to "Hello, I Love You" is an alltime classic riff, yo! Someone says its a rip of the Kinks, but i dunno...

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Thursday, 21 August 2003 01:04 (twenty-two years ago)

classic doors complaints:

1) they take themselves too seriously
2) they don't take anything (eastern philosophy etc) seriously

i briefly considered launching into a solipsistic rant about how complaining about the Doors reflects more on the insecurities of the person etc, but let's face it: they're really just _bad_, aren't they.

(P.S. Yay the triumphant return of Old Fart!)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 21 August 2003 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

The movie was better than the band.

*ducks*

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 21 August 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

As has been said, it mostly comes down to an extremely pretentious singer who--much of the time--took himself too seriously. As far as the band goes, they weren't that great; the extended numbers don't really take off because they lacked either instrumental virtuosos, or the sheer intensity of say the Stooges. Was it on LA Woman that they added session guitarists, etc? That one sounds a little better. BUT... if I ever listen to the Doors, it's for their true gift, which was pop songs. More than enough to fill a greatest hits lp, and each one memorable. And despite his pretentions, when he focused the singer was pretty good.

― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 21 August 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

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