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Rating: I am sure that many hateful long-haired people infesting Italian universities with their "wild alternative who doesn't care about the masses but is so cool" poses, and who use this revolting cliché to pick up naive, eager young women (and who are ultimately more preppy than I am while wearing Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and sporting Prada shoes, but at least I don't bother anyone) will have something to say about this review.
And I'm sure there will be many nerds who will immediately not know what I'm actually talking about, but who won't hesitate to shower me with their predictable flow of farts sourced from their limited comprehension abilities: but all of this is the foundation of a discourse I've been nurturing for a long time, which beyond appearances is not intended to be a pointless waste of time, neither for me nor for those reading.
I finally want, damn it, to say a few words I've been holding on to for years about the Doors and especially about their leader Jim Morrison, the Artist, the Lizard King, the Poet.
First of all, I've always been musically disgusted by them, but this is a purely objective factor; my musical taste buds have suffered unspeakable agonies every time I had the occasion to listen to one of their songs, with that horrible little organ like a beat group from the parish, Morrison's pompous voice (who always sings as if revealing unknown truths to humanity while maybe saying crap like "come on, Baby, light my fire/come on, baby, light my fire/try to set the night on fire").
I've always had a strong desire to see it end, once and for all, with this bullshit about this group being influential in the history of rock: they haven't influenced a damn thing, and certainly not because their style was inimitable; actually, I don't see why the argument made by that blowhard Scaruffi about the "three minutes" of the Beatles' reactionary pop (his words) shouldn't also apply to the Doors.
It pisses me off that in order to listen to the banal and mediocre Doors, people overlooked the Kinks or the Who, who really had something to say, who truly had a strong message, much deeper than Jim Morrison's egomania. In the end, the things for which he's truly remembered were pulling out his dick on stage and saying in a song that he wanted to kill his dad and screw his mom. Damn, what an artist.
Morrison, a failed model, is nothing more than the prototype of the "cursed" star like many throughout the history of music, mythologized beyond his actual artistic merits...I would have loved to see what he'd have done if he had Rino Gattuso's face: trite poets like him were a dime a dozen in the '60s.
He was simply the one with the prettiest face, a classic teen idol: Robert Wyatt, old and paralyzed, kicks his ass from here to eternity, but only those with true sensitivity will remember him because people will continue to mythologize a guy who, to sell records, got himself photographed shirtless with a pout of a pretty-boy-damned-but-so-cute. Go to hell.
Only puritanical America in the southern states could be scandalized by his transgressive poses, in an era when the truly transgressive didn't even let themselves get contaminated by mass media: it's no coincidence that the Doors had much more success in America because in England (where they are more astute), after the chart single "Light My Fire" (which without that psychedelic organ by Manzarek would appear as a very plain easy listening piece), even the chickens laughed at them.
I mean, even Lou Reed in some of his solo pieces indulged in silly things with his "oh baby baby oh yeah," but at least he openly admitted he was screwing around on purpose, unlike that brat Morrison who even had the nerve to be considered an artist, a revolutionary poet. Are we kidding?
Someone might throw songs like "The End" at me (which, truth be told, is not a particularly original piece, neither in theme, which is banal, nor in music, which is boring), one of those classic pieces that people say "you either love it or hate it": well, I'm for the latter option.
Aside from a few cases where truly the self-indulgence of the Doors' artistic presumption became unbearable, this band came forward by fundamentally presenting pseudo-transgressive songs for agitated young girls...not that it was a bad thing, but then why all this idolatry, this excessive consideration? Simply because of Morrison's pretty face, and nothing more. There's nothing else.
Ah, and don't tell me to read Morrison's lyrics better, to interpret them blah blah blah: I've read his lyrics, they made me read them ad nauseam since middle school on my schoolmates' diaries.
I'll keep Rimbaud, Keats, Baudelaire, Byron, and Shelley for life.
And also Dylan, Reed, Lennon, and even Cobain.
I already know there will be those who will swim like pigs in the mud (their own) while insulting me by saying to listen to my crappy bands and to go screw myself.
Of course, I listen to crappy bands and will go screw myself...
But screw you too, bastards!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Break On Through (02:29)
You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Chased our pleasure here
Dug our treasure there
Still recall
Time we cried
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through, yeah!
Wow!
Wow!
Everybody loves my baby
Everybody loves my baby
She get
She get
She get
She get high
She get high. She get high.
She get high. She get high.
The woman get high. The woman get high.
She get high. Baby, get high.
She get high. She get high.
The woman get high. She get high.
She get high. Baby, so high.
She get high. She get high.
The woman get high. She get high.
Wow!
She get high. She get high.
I found an island in your arms
Country in your eyes
Arms that chain us
Eyes that lie
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through, yeah!
All right!
Yeah, made the scene
Week to week
Day to day
Hour to hour
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through
Break on through
Break on through
Break on through
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
02 Soul Kitchen (03:34)
Well the clock says it's time to close now
I guess I'd better go now
I'd really like to stay here all night
The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes
Street lights share their hollow glow
Your brain seems bruised with numb surprise
Still one place to go
Still one place to go
Let me sleep all night
In your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves
Well your fingers weave quick minuets
Speak in secret alphabets
I light another cigarette
Learn to forget
Learn to forget
Learn to forget
Learn to forget
Let me sleep all night
In your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves
Well the clock says it's time to close now
I know I'll have to go now
I really wanna stay here all night
All night
All night
03 The Crystal Ship (02:34)
Before you slip into unconsciousness
I'd like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss
The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We'll meet again, we'll meet again
Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You'd rather cry, I'd rather fly
The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I'll drop a line
04 Twentieth Century Fox (02:32)
Well she's fashionably lean
And she's fashionably late
She'll never wreck a scene
She'll never break a date
But she's no drag, just watch the way she walks
She's a twentieth century fox
She's a twentieth century fox
No tears, no fears
No ruined years, no clocks
She's a twentieth century fox, oh yeah
She's the queen of cool
And she's the lady who waits
Since her mind left school
It never hesitates
She won't waste time on elementary talk
'Cause she's a twentieth century fox
She's a twentieth century fox
Got the world locked up
Inside a plastic box
She's a twentieth century fox, oh yeah
Twentieth century fox, oh yeah
Twentieth century fox
She's a twentieth century fox
06 Light My Fire (07:07)
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
07 Back Door Man (03:33)
Oh yeah babe
Yeah I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand
Hey, all you people that tryin' to sleep
I'm out to make it with my midnight dream, yeah
'Cause I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand
All right, yeah
You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans
I eat more chicken any man ever seen, yeah yeah
I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand
Well, I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
Whoa, baby
I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand
08 I Looked at You (02:21)
I looked at you
You looked at me
I smiled at you
You smiled at me
And we're on our way
No, we can't turn back
Yeah, we're on our way
And we can't turn back
'Cause it's too late, too late, too late, too late, too late
And we're on our way
No, we can't turn back
Yeah, we're on our way
And we can't turn back, yeah yeah
I walked with you
You walked with me
I talked to you
You talked to me
And we're on our way
No, we can't turn back
Yeah, we're on our way
And we can't turn back, yeah
'Cause it's too late, too late, too late, too late, too late
And we're on our way
No, we can't turn back
Yeah, we're on our way
And we can't turn back
'Cause it's too late, too late, too late, too late, too late
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Other reviews
By Grasshopper
"Jim Morrison’s voice, predominantly dark and cavernous, yet capable of shifting to hysterical, neurotic screams."
"‘The End’ closes the album with one of the most apocalyptic tones in the history of rock."
By joe strummer
The Doors is one of the cornerstones of Rock, if not the cornerstone of all rock-blues.
'The End' is not merely a song. It is theater, a monologue between Jim and his psyche, a slow catharsis of man against his inability to overcome death.
By MojoRisin
With the first song, a lively rock piece... the Doors immediately give voice to a generation that must express itself freely, breaking down those stone walls.
'Light My Fire'... is probably their most famous piece.
By freigeist
"’Break on through to the other side!’ – those doors were the Doors, a limit reached beyond which no one would return."
"The eleven minutes of ‘The End’ express madness, loneliness, and resignation in a haunting, unforgettable final song."
By Nottetempo88
"The album is an explosive cocktail of blues, psychedelic rock, beat, and decadent poetry."
"'The End' enshrines The Doors in the rock Olympus."
