Although we in hindsight can conclude that songs like Light my Fire and Break on Through clearly are bigger hits than what the Doors had achieved on their follow-up, Strange Days (1967), there's no mistaking the confidence the band gained after their self-titled debut, which was released earlier that same year. After a few months of touring, the group was also more cohesive than ever.
Frontman, singer and lyricist Jim Morrison has gone down in history as a troublemaker, alcoholic and explorer of the limits of consciousness, but at this stage these excesses apparently did not lead to any major limitations in the recording process.
When we talk about the Doors, we are dealing with 3/4 educated musicians. Both keyboardist Ray Manazrek and drummer John Densmore were jazz musicians, while guitarist Robbie Krieger had provided himself with a somewhat broader education in genres such as flamenco, folk, blues and jazz. Morrison, on the other hand, was self-taught in both singing and writing lyrics. His poetic lyrics are often debated as to whether they are irrational nonsense or deep reflections on his explorations of the limits of consciousness.
It should be added that Manzarek, in addition to playing the organ, also played the bass parts on his keyboard during the band's live performances and on occasion on the album.
Strange Days consists of 10 songs, of which the closing track is an 11-minute long reflection of the end of the music in When the Music's Over. Closing songs that were long in terms of time became one of the Doors' hallmarks.
I don't know how the Doors' compositions were created, but most at the on this album at the latest, it is not far-fetched to think that the music was composed to a finished written text. That is how well-integrated the overall expression is. The choice of Paul A. Rothchild as the band's producer must also be considered a hit.
The Doors differed in part from the popular music of the 1960s in that most groups preferred to convey positive boy meets girl messages, while the Doors largely had a darker message. Both lyrically and compositionally. Something that perhaps began to dissolve little by little when the world's expectations of the band's expression became too strong to hold back.
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Rating: 5.1 / 7