VIDEO'S OF THE WEEK - THE DOORS Special

[Niels (Mod)]

VOTW - THE DOORS Special

I'm a fan of many of the english bands from around the mid- to late sixties, and probably only one american band (so far), The Doors. I AM a fan of Dylan, from the same periode, so it's not, that I'm not a fan of american artists from the 60's. As many others, I became more familiar with The doors, when I saw Oliver Stones movie in 1991. I even bought the soundtrack-album. But it wasn't until late 2000, when I got a double CD (Best of The Doors), that I realized, how many great songs, they've done. Actually, it was that album exactly, that started me to check out all of the albums from the 60's and early 70's, that I hadn't checked out earlier on like, every single albums by The Beatles, Zeppelin, The Who, Sabbath, Purple, Jethro Tull, Floyd and so on, and I've never looked back since, or probably the other way around, I'm mostly looking back. The music/bands from this peiode of time, is still my favorites. These are some of my favorite Doors-songs:

LOVE STREET

"Love Street" was my favorite track on the soundtrack from the movie, The Doors. It originally appeared on the album "Waiting For The sun", which I bought in 2006, I think. I bought all the Doors-albums that year, or at least the ones released before Morrisons death. The song was originally a poem written by Morrison about the street in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles, California where he lived with Pamela Courson. Morrison and Courson referred to Rothdell Trail as "Love Street" because they would sit on the balcony and watch countless hippies walk by.The song is noted for Morrison's spoken narration, which occurs in the middle of the composition: "I see you live on Love Street/ There's this store where the creatures meet/I wonder what they do in there?/Summer Sunday and a year/I guess I like it fine, so far". The store in question was the Canyon Country Store across the street from his house. Morrison also wrote the Waiting for the Sun album and much of The Soft Parade at the residence.Released as the B-side of "Hello, I Love You", "Love Street" received a small amount of radio airplay.

SPANISH CARAVAN

"Spanish Caravan" is from the album "Waiting for The Sun", my favorite Doors-album. It's their third studio album, recorded from February to May 1968 and was released in July 1968. It became the band's first and only No. 1 album, spawning their second US number one single, "Hello, I Love You". It also became the band's first hit album in the UK, where it peaked at No. 16 in the chart. I love the riff in this song.

LOVE HER MADLY

They use the word "love" a lot in their songs, huh? "Love Her Madly" was released in March 1971. Composed by guitarist Robby Krieger, it served as the lead single from L.A. Woman, their final album with Jim Morrison. It became one of the highest-charting hits for The Doors. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and reached No. 3 in Canada.

SHIP OF FOOLS

A song from the album "Morrison Hotel". Not one of their best known tracks. Morrison Hotel was, upon its release, seen by many as a comeback for the Doors following the critical failure of The Soft Parade and the Miami incident of 1969. Dave Marsh, the editor of Creem magazine, called the album "the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard. When they're good, they're simply unbeatable. I know this is the best record I've listened to [...] so far", while Rock Magazine called it "without any doubt their ballsiest (and best) album to date". Circus praised it as "possibly the best album yet from the Doors" and "Good hard, evil rock, and one of the best albums released this decade".

LOVE ME TWO TIMES

Sorry about the annoying talk and spanish "lyrics". "Love Me Two Times" was written by the band and first appeared on the 1967 album Strange Days. It was released as the second single (after "People Are Strange") from that album, and reached number 25 on the charts in the US.Ray Manzarek played the final version of this song on a harpsichord, not a clavichord. Manzarek described the instrument as "a most elegant instrument that one does not normally associate with rock and roll.""Love Me Two Times" was considered to be somewhat risqué for radio airplay, being banned in New Haven for being "too controversial," much to the dismay of the band.The lyrics were written by guitarist Robby Krieger. According to band members, the song was about a soldier/sailor on his last day with his girlfriend before shipping out, ostensibly to war (Vietnam). Ray Manzarek described the song as "Robby's great blues rock classic about lust and lost, or multiple orgasms, I'm not sure which."

[Scott]

I cant say that Im much of a Doors fan.  There a time that they had a renaissance and they were kinda cool to get into.  Maybe it was the movie, I dont recall, but it never caught on with me...

LOVE STREET ...  eh, its OK, the video is interesting from a historical perspective, but the tune doesnt move me one way or the other from my current thinking.

SPANISH CARAVAN ...  Well, they certainly didnt put on a show, maybe it was more of the trip seeing them live maybe it was an art thing, I;m not hearing it...

Will come back for more later, been a bit busy this week...

[RJhog (Admin)]

The Doors are okay for me.  Not a huge fan, but I do like their hits for sure.

Love Street - Good song.  Can't say I remember it being played on the radio like their other hits.  I'm guessing that's a video made well after the song was done, just somebody putting down some old footage to the song.

Spanish Caravan - Simple footage video.  I like the song.  Is it a true live performance?  At times it sounds like it, but at times it doesn't.  I keep reading articles that says The Doors didn't have a bass player and that Manzarek played the bass parts on the keyboards.  Sure sounds like there is some bass in this song.  The guitar work is interesting too.

Love Her Madly - A masterpiece.  Definitely hear bass in this.  Video is pieced together, looks like by an amateur.  Not saying I don't like it though, Manzarek was a beast.

Ship of Fools - I guess there wasn't a lot of proper videos shot back then.  Most of these videos are just pieced together clips.  But the clips, especially here, are neat.  It's a shame somebody with so much talent wasted it.  This song is just okay for me.

Love Me Two Times - Another huge hit.  That's the studio version, right.  All of the talking and captions are a bit distracting.  The video just cuts out suddenly at the end.  

It's cool that you didn't do just the hits.  Nice job.

[Scott]

LOVE HER MADLY ... Would be hard to imagine anyone over the age of 10 not ever hearing this.  I like the feel of this one and certainly love the keyboard work it very interesting to watch him play and Morrison's vocals are great here, at least the band showed some fire on stage in this clip versus just standing there as they did in Spanish Caravan.  The crowd was more interesting to watch though, the dance moves back then seem to be from an alternate universe.

SHIP OF FOOLS ...  Got to wonder how auto biographical this was?  I can't comprehend how such a talent could put himself in such altered states so often, what a waste!  Given that these videos all seem to be afterthoughts, it scary to me to see how many clips of Morrison are of him spaced/whacked out.  Its a shame that he wasted himself to the point of death..

LOVE ME TWO TIMES ... Can you imagine how good he would have been with a clear mind?

While the Doors don't work for me you keep posting very interesting topics and commentary.  Great work my friend!

[Niels (Mod)]

If I play "Love Her Madly" for my 15 year old daughter, I'll bet she claims, never to have heard it.

Thank you, as Zeppelin puts it from the best side of their second album.