Blogcritics: Comments on The Doors - STILL Underrated

Comment by Eric Berlin

Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:51:10 EDT

Great take on the album -- EO. Fascinating how the story of "The End"'s recording both heralds the birth and death of the band. Maybe Morrison wouldn't have had it any other way.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:37:34 EDT

In general, the first and last (with Morrison) seem the most real to me, although there are plenty of great songs scattered between.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:23:30 EDT

i agree...some of the stuff on The Soft Parade was just plain icky.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 08:05:02 EDT

Clearly you like the "pop" side of the Doors, which is fine, but ultimately not their greatest strength from my perspective.

Comment by David

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 21:35:16 EDT

I like the 2nd album best. I like the single version of Light My Fire with long crappy solos chopped out. I heard Manzerik on the radio, talking about how he had his "chops together" when he was with the Doors. Wrong.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 18:06:48 EDT

Mark, my favorite Doors/Morrison book is "Break On Through" by James Riordan. He is a FAN, but not a nut, and is sickened by the decline.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 15:38:01 EDT

so i've read "No One Gets Out Of Here Alive" and also Manzarek's book...both books had big problems (including using that danged Dionysus word a bazillion times)... is there a good book on the Doors? Densmore's?

Comment by TDavid

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 15:34:25 EDT

Val Kilmer played a great Morrison, I thought, but I'm not sure how accurate that movie was portraying Morrison's life though. The Doors have some great songs, but I haven't bought much of their music. Sad, but true. Crystal Ship, now that's an interesting song.

Comment by andy

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 15:28:55 EDT

the question is...was he only great at what he did because of the drugs and alcohol? in other words, could he do it sober?

Comment by Eric Olsen

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 08:18:54 EDT

I think the fascination with Morrison is that he was a drunken buffoon AND a great singer/performer/figurehead/lyricist (only sometimes on the latter) - again with the duality.

Comment by Chris Arabia

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 07:36:56 EDT

or bacchanalian. never forget bacchanalian. unless i'm mistaken, the doors recorded two albums after jimbo "died." not quite as weak as would have been another jimi hendrix exp album, but still pretty bad.

Comment by Steve Rhodes

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 04:46:26 EDT

Ray Manzarek is rather full of himself, but very entertaining talking about the early days of the doors if you ever have a chance to hear him speak. And as a former filmmaking student, he says he gave Oliver Stone all sorts of great ideas for the movie which were ignored.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:39:25 EDT

morrison was most defintely a drunken buffoon...but there's no denying that the first Doors records was great. no holes in it. none. then, The End. perfect. ...and kudos to Eric for writing about the Doors and managing to not use the word "Dionysus".

Comment by James Bondage

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 22:31:19 EDT

I agree with Lester Bang's line in the movie Almost Famous: "Jim Morrison is a drunken buffoon".

Comment by Bruce Kratofil

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 20:12:29 EDT

I second the motion -- When it came time to move from albums to CDs, this and "LA Women" were towards the top of the list.