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Rating: The creative trajectory of the Doors was quite short, due to the untimely death of Jim Morrison. Moreover, it was almost completely descending, given that their exceptional debut album immediately showcased the group’s artistic content at its best.
"The Doors" was something entirely unheard of in an era where the simplicity of the Beatles still reigned. The underlying material was a more or less frenetic rock, with a strong blues accent, but the way it was presented was unique, partly thanks to Jim Morrison's voice, predominantly dark and cavernous, yet capable of shifting to hysterical, neurotic screams, a hopeless rage, far removed, for instance, from the healthy, athletic anger of a Bruce Springsteen. Even more so thanks to Ray Manzarek’s constant use of the organ, an unusual instrument for rock, an organ rarely "liturgical," more often engaged in wild evolutions, and the guitar style of Robbie Krieger, between the languid and the visionary.
With these trademarks, even the more standard blues-rock tracks like "Soul Kitchen," "Twentieth Century Fox," "I Looked At You," "Take It As It Comes" gain a sinister and dark tone that is inherently part of their charm. Even more so for the harder rock tracks on the album, the frenetic, breathtaking "Break On Through" and the stubborn, shouted "Back Door Man," which reveal a diabolical, sulfurous character that distinguishes them from the amorphous noise of common hard rock.
"Alabama Song" is a particular moment on the album, a Brechtian theatrical march, twisted and alcoholic just right. But the tracks that make this album a masterpiece, even regardless of the time it was released, are those in which the Doors rise above true rock to reach the realms of visionary art. "The Crystal Ship" lasts just a moment, but it is a true musical "apparition," where the already stunning melodic base undergoes a crescendo of emotional tension, well highlighted by Manzarek's piano and Morrison’s voice, more otherworldly here than ever. "Light My Fire" starts and ends like a simple rock song, but the long central bridge is a deep journey into the human mind (and also into LSD), marked by a circular and hypnotic rhythm. "End Of The Night" is another rarefied moment, a musical hallucination, thanks to Morrison's otherworldly voice and Krieger’s spectral guitar distortions.
But the musical nightmare par excellence, a sublime torture of over 11 minutes, is "The End," which closes the album with one of the most apocalyptic tones in the history of rock. It's a slow cooking, a swaying of distorted and almost uncertain sounds, where Robby Krieger's "ethnic" guitar, now oriental, now Hawaiian, dominates. Despite its length and obsessiveness, the magic manages to sustain itself until the end, perhaps precisely due to a theme so profoundly hypnotic that it transports the listener to another dimension.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples 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 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 francis
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.
They haven’t influenced a damn thing, and certainly not because their style was inimitable.
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."
