Hot damn! I guess that's why they called him Mr. Mojo Rising.
What I soon found when I slapped that precious piece of vinyl on my fifty dollar turntable was that "Light My Fire" was merely the tip of the iceberg. Though I had no idea what such songs meant at the time (and thank God for that in the case of "The End"), I soon found myself lost in songs like "The Crystal Ship," "Back Door Man," and of course, "Whiskey Bar."
Like I said, Morrison and the Doors — like the Beatles, the Stones, and Dylan before them — had perfectly ruined this young, impressionable lad for life. Blame them, not me okay?
And that is why this DVD is so damned cool. Because, all of these years later in the infinite years of worldly knowledge I would like to think I have since gained, I can now finally learn just how and why these four evil musical alchemists from L.A. led me into such a life of ruin and sin.
Live footage and interviews with those who witnessed the creation of this landmark album — including the surviving band members Kreiger, Densmore, and Manzarek, and engineer Bruce Botnick and manager Bill Siddons nearly complete the picture here. When you add in discussions with those influenced by this album — guys like Perry Farrell and Henry Rollins — it becomes as close to providing the whole story as you will ever get.
At least it helped me make a little more sense of it. Which translates here into just why this music so intoxicated me so long ago. Like the song says, "the men don't know, but the little girls understand."
In this case, you can count at least one little boy among those who did indeed.
Eagle Rock's Classic Albums Series: The Doors, will be in stores on April 22.
Get it.
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