The Smiley Smile Message Board

After buying a physical copy of Glimpses, and reading the whole thing, I'm ready to expand my library to the Doors.

What 3 albums should I get?

I'm thinking...

The Doors
Waiting For The Sun
Morrison Hotel

The Doors
Morrison Hotel
LA Woman (definitely this one)

Also buy American Prayer.

And read 'No One Here Gets Out Alive'

The Doors are such an amazing band - glad you're getting into them!

Download "Orange County Suite", open the song in the audio editing software of your choice, loop the part where Jim sings "Well I'm MAD. And I'm BAD" for thirty minutes, and make 70 copies of the file. This is all you really need.

1. The Doors - it would've been great to have it for the summer, but there's still time
2. In Concert - very diverse, it'll carry you through the winter
3. L.A. Woman - perfect for next spring

Then fill in the gaps at your leisure. You're in for a great ride.

alrighty, sounds good! Looks like I should grab L.A Woman, Morrison Hotel, and The Doors. I may also get the 40th Ann. Version of WFTS because I REALLY like some parts Of Celebration of the Lizard.

Wait!

Get Strange Days...it was recorded in late 1967 (there are a few nuggets about that process in the "Sunset Sound" thread topic if interested), and it was still early enough in their career to capture their sound as a core band akin to what they were doing on the Sunset Strip. They used 8-track tape for the first time, so they did have more tracks to overdub and experiment, but unlike a few other albums they didn't go crazy with it.

Strange Days features some really nice Moog synthesizer work, including patching various tracks like Jim's vocals through the synth and creating some bizarre sounds which at that time were new to a lot of listeners. And Krieger's fuzz guitar on "When The Music's Over" is a highlight of his entire career.

I think the first Doors album (essential) and Strange Days are like Rubber Soul and Revolver are to The Beatles - they're musical relatives to the point where you need both to get a more full picture of what the band was at that time. And as a live band, in 1967 I think they were either at or near their peak, and it was captured on those two albums.

LA Woman is good, definitely, but I've come to think it was an attempt not as much to sound like a bluesy live bar band, but instead to capture what they did on the first two albums, 66-67 - The Doors and Strange Days.

(At this point why not just get all the studio albums they made with Morrison, they aren't that many... :-D)

Strange Days would be my #1 choice. And if you like orchestrated LA pop, The Soft Parade.

okay now I might just get the box set :P

If you're gonna read something, read Riders On The Storm by their drummer John Densmore. It's far and away the best book on The Doors.

Just get the box. Really.

I happen to like the remixes that are out on the single disc + bonus tracks issues of the six albums. They are revisionist for sure. I wouldn't listen to them before you listen to the original mixes, but they are fun.

Favorite Doors album? S/T. Maybe cliche, but I don't care. Just a solid, solid, solid album.

"The Doors" - one of the best debut albums ever for a band. 
"Strange Days" - a cool trip
"LA Woman" - one of the best albums ever by anyone

I ended up getting the Legacy 2 CD set, because it seems that they have WAY too many good albums haha

I'll probably get the box soon though, really digging it!

Six albums is their whole catalog! (not counting anything after Jim Mo.)

they had SD and LA Woman but together it'd cost 1/3rd of the box so ehh

This is a much cheaper alternative to the box. All 6 Morrison albums, if you're cool with buying from merchants on Amazon. I dunno if they are the remixes or the originals. Still, nice price.

http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Doors/dp/B0052FG750/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347754593&sr=8-2&keywords=doors+box

In Concert is being sold way too short in this thread.

It has the great "Who Do You Love", "The Celebration Of The Lizard", "Break On Thru Part 2" with Robby's fantastic solo at the end, "Roadhouse Blues" taken from American Prayer,  maybe the best live version of "When The Music's Over", a 16 minute "The End", and other goodies such as "Gloria", "Soul Kitchen", "You Make Me Real", "The Unknown Soldier" - and "Light My Fire"

A nice career overview, post-Miami, and Morrison cared. Amazon has it for $14 bucks!

Oh man I may have to grab that... I dont think its the 40th remasters... still good?

Went for it, couldnt let that go haha

The Perception box set has all the albums remastered, and ALSO, all albums again in a surround sound re-mix by Bruce Botnick.

But what ever you buy, go ahead and get EACH of the 6 original CDs.  EACH of them are very good to excellent in their own way.

They are well worth anyone's time.  I've never lost my taste for this band.

I heard the 5.1 mixes are sh*t, so I ignored them and got the 6 albums (the 40th mixes) in the "A Collection" box

'back in the day I bought all their sh*t.  I soon decided that L.A. Woman was amazing.  I like a lot of their lesser songs too like "The Cars hiss by my Window".  It's basically just good blues stuff.  They were a high quality band, the 'gimmick' of their sound never really got old.  He could write a song about nothing and you'd still enjoy it. 

You gotta check out some of their live stuff they did too of course.  15 minute long "Light My Fire" s, Break on through with the "Dead Cats" intro, all the poetry stuff he did in concert, the awesome versions of Gloria (when the band didn't screw up, or Jim didn't screw it up). 

Such a phenomenal band, you really can't go wrong with any of their cd's although I'm not familiar with the wealth of stuff that's been released in the last 10 years. 

Oh, btw, didn't see many people talking about the Soft Parade.  Awesome album!

After being a huge fan of Morrison-era Doors for years, I finally got me the new CD-release of Other Voices/Full Circle. My lord, it's amazing stuff! Maybe not the starting point for anyone, considering the fact there is no Jim, but definitely worth checking out. Don't let anyone tell you other.

If you don't believe, take a listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJczjnVphWU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJczjnVphWU)

Should I get another Doors album if I don't really care for the first two releases? They're good, but there are other Doors-like bands that are more to my liking, namely HP Lovecraft.
Strange Days is a solid album, and I think a few of the songs are great, Unhappy Girl especially, but it just doesn't do it for me. Is it worth my time to listen to any of the other albums they put out?

I tried getting into the Soft Parade a few years back. Touch Me and Tell All the People were the only songs that really tickled my fancy. Part of the problem may have been me expecting "Morrison singing over Pet Sounds-esque tracks". I just remember being really disappointed when I wasn't hearing "big" string and horn arrangements on every single song on the album.

I highly recommend L.A. Woman. The Doors' sound had changed since 1967, starting with Morrison's voice, which became fuller and deeper, replacing the romantic croon with a bluesman's growl - though he still retained that mystic quality a la "Riders On The Storm". Overall though, the band rocked harder, at the same time retaining the jazz feel, and really getting into the blues. It was a more mature sound, maybe because of the exodus of Paul Rothschild and the band self-producing. Jerry Sheff on bass and Marc Benno on rhythm guitar didn't hurt, either. I love the album.

While L.A. Woman turned out to be the end, listening to the album always makes me wonder where The Doors would've gone. As a band, they were so good...

No.

This thread prompted me to get out my Doors' comps in my car, not that I needed the additional motivation. So, I have a long question...

Regardless of what you think of The Soft Parade, meaning the material, the horn/string arrangements, and its comparison to the first three Doors' albums, you can't deny how great Jim's vocals were on that album. I think it was the peak of his "voice". I'm referring to the clarity, strength, his phrasing, his crooning, basically everything. I mean, Jim's singing didn't get much better than on "Touch Me", "Shaman's Blues", "The Soft Parade", "Wild Child", and even his part of "Runnin' Blue".

So I'm now listening to Maggie M'Gill from Morrison Hotel, the follow up to The Soft Parade, and his voice is so different. Listen to the way he growls the opening verses. "Miss Maggie M'Gill, she lived on a hill, her father got drunk and left her the will so...she went down, down to Tangy Town...". Then he growls, "People down there really like to get it on...." Where did THAT come from? I love the rasp, the growl, the blues. He literally did transform his voice, transform himself. Some biographies state that he was losing his voice. I don't agree (listen to "L' America", "Love Her Madly" and "Riders" from late 1970); he was intentionally changing. Maybe like Dylan, maybe like B. Wilson, maybe like Sinatra, who knows. Maybe he just wanted to sing the blues.

Morrison uses that growling blues voice a few other times on Morrison Hotel, but he retains the romantic crooning style on "Blue Sunday", "Indian Summer", and even on "The Spy". But you can tell something was happening. OK, here's the question.

The Doors only recorded six studio albums, but there are now a lot of live albums out there, thanks to Bright Midnight. So, maybe there's about 100 different songs on record, sung by Jim Morrison. Let's assume, for the sake of argument and discussion that Elvis Presley is the greatest singer in the rock and roll era. After Elvis, Is Jim Morrison the greatest singer of the rock and roll era? If not Jim, who would get your vote?

I know too little about rock singers to answer your question, but...

Personally, Jim Morrison is one of my favorite singers, period: he has the power to hypnotize you with poetry in a calm voice, then the next minute he is screaming beautifully into a mic (while still hypnotizing you). example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txWoEPAeBeA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txWoEPAeBeA)

John Lennon. But I love Morrison's voice too.

If someone dared try to say someone other than Elvis was the greatest singer in rock 'n roll music, well...let's just say it wouldn't end well!

Elvis is THE greatest singer in rock and perhaps of all-time (sorry Carl)!

And it goes well beyond the plain power and raw sex he exuded in his singing. In my opinion, he is the single BEST song interrupter of all-time as well. No one, and I mean NO ONE has ever sang out lyrics so innocently and full of genuine belief than Elvis. No one's ever seemed to MEAN what they are singing more than Elvis. He had something I feel I can honestly make the claim that no one else had. It was bordering on supernatural. It almost seemed like the only way he could really exists and understand the world was through singing. Therefore the words he sang (that others wrote: which is key) were almost sacred to him....... The Beatles didn't even have this! Most performers/writers have this sort of intellectual distance from even their own material. With Elvis: nothing separated himself or his ego from what he sang. There were no walls.....

All the evidence one could ever need:

http://youtu.be/2xtfazXu45U

Fellas, fellas. If you read my post, I said, "Let's assume, for the sake of argument and discussion that Elvis Presley is the greatest singer in the rock and roll era." Nobody's saying that he wasn't. But, you could start a thread debating that if you wish.

I wanna know, if Jim Morrison isn't the greatest singer - after Elvis - who is? I don't think there is anybody. But, we got a vote for John Lennon, and I can certainly understand that. Does anybody else have an opinion?

I'd say Morrison has it over Lennon! I do think Lennon is close, but for me it's early Lennon that rules a bit over later Lennon, if that makes any sense.

I think it will be a while before Morrison gets his true due because of all the drugs/lizard king/Val Kilmer nonsense seems to have muddied up the picture.

I'd have to say Chuck Berry should be be next in line after Elvis because both guys just SOUND LIKE what rock n roll is.

Being a massive Morrison/Doors fan I must say that in my opinion he was at first a poet and rock and roll star second. I love his voice, his look his presence etc as for one of the greatest "singers" well I think he was very good but I would rate other singers higher. Elvis, Lennon would certainly be higher.. He could certainly sing though.. Crystal ship , moonlight drive, not to touch the earth (live version is breathtaking) and his/their version of Gloria off the top of my head are all superb. As pedestrian as Light my Fire sounds from a vocal point I would love to hear how it would have sounded with his "older" voice, in the studio

Spot on about "Cars Hiss by My Window".  The Doors could take a totally nothing song and turn it into a tune that won't leave your head EVER!

Love Street, Crystal Ship, Indian Summer.... nothing like it, before or since.

And yeah, Soft Parade is a GREAT album.

YEAH try another!

I would DEFINITELY give Morrison Hotel a try.  It's one of their craziest, rocking-est, most exuberant/extroverted albums.

there's a vinyl comp called 'Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine' that's a good overall representation of the band.

my favorite of their orig. albums are 'The Doors', 'Soft Parade' and 'Strange Days'.

I'd say all the doors albums are indispensable and as complete a body of work as any band could ever be proud of.

And Other Voices, Full Circle, American Prayer fit in as intriguing footnotes.

Doors
Strange Days
Morrison Hotel

Don't get waiting for the sun & L.A. Woman because they have too many filler songs.

erm.... I got them all for $30, deal of the century?

Pretty neat, pretty neat, pretty good, pretty good...alright! 8)

"Build Me A Woman?"

Very intriguing, as is some of their solo stuff, especially Ray's. I just picked up a CD by the Ray Manzarek/Roy Rogers Band called Translucent Blues. It includes a great cover of "Game Of Skill" by Nite City. Remember that band? I wish that album would come out on CD.

Actually, last night and tonight, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger are/were performing at The Borgata in New Jersey. I should've went...I'm glad to see they ditched those corny group names and are now simply going by their names. They earned that right.

There's a cool video on YouTube of Ray and Roy performing "Game Of Skill". If I can figure out to post it, I will.

And you included the question mark...A true fan....

I don't listen to the Doors, but I've been reading this thread and maybe I should see what all the fuss is about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxMaE8dPfQs

The mono 45 of Light my fire is the sh*t!

WOW that's a good song, gotta get a better turntable :P