Music Review: The Doors – Full Circle

The Doors began working on Other Voices during the summer of 1971 with the expectation that Jim Morrison would return from Paris. He didn’t. The result was an album that contained music identifiable with the Doors but with the major piece missing. The music was both good and bad and the commercial reception average.

Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, and John Desmore returned to the studio during the spring of 1972 with no expectation that the deceased Morrison would ever return. The resulting album, Full Circle, was poorly received and their least commercially successful studio album.

Either the ideas had worn out or they made the conscious decision to make a Doors album unlike any others. If it was intentional at least they tried to move in a new musical direction that would have put some distance between them and the Jim Morrison era. Unfortunately the results were for the most part poor and they would break-up during 1973.

The music moves in a boogie rock direction with some jazz thrown in for good measure.

They released two singles, neither of which was successful. “The Mosquito” was an odd song. The musical breaks and tempo changes have a sort of a jazz feel. While Manzarek’s keyboards are excellent, the nasal sounding vocals detracts from the songs appeal. It would spend four weeks on the American singles charts but only reach number 85. “Get Up and Dance” is a bouncy number and was released as the second single but would fail to chart. Its claim to fame was the B side which is the rarest studio track in The Doors catalogue. “Tree Trunk” was a non-album track which has rarely been released on any compilation album.

“The Piano Bird” is really a jazz number rather than a rock song. They took “Good Rockin’” by the old rhythm & blues artist Roy Brown and move it in a rock direction. “It Slipped My Mind,” and “The Peking King and The New York Queen” are average rock songs and quite forgettable.

Full Circleremains a historical curiosity. It was a valiant, if failed, attempt to keep The Doors alive. While Manzarek, Krieger, and Desmore would reunite several times down through the years, the classic Doors died with Jim Morrison.