THE DOORS

"The Doors" is the eponymous debut studio album of The Doors and was released in 1967. It was central to the progression of psychedelic rock, and has been critically acclaimed. This is in general considered their best musical effort and it appears in many music lists as one of best albums of all time. It's present on the "List Of 200 Albums In Rock And Roll Hall Fame" and it was ranked number 42 in "Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time".

"The Doors" has eleven tracks. The first track "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" was the first single released by the band and it was an unsuccessful song. However, it remains as one of the band's signatures and one of their most popular songs. The second track "Soul Kitchen" is a tribute to the soul food restaurant "Olivia's" in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, where Jim Morrison often stayed for a long time. It was also the place where he and Ray Manzarek met for the first time and represents the place where all began. It's a nice rock song played with energy. The third track "The Crystal Ship" was the song chosen to be the B side of their hit single of this album "Light My Fire". This is a wonderful love song inspired by Jim Morrison's first love, Mary Werbelow, a girlfriend with whom he was ended. Like many of the songs written by Jim Morrison, it has a mysterious and dark sound. The fourth track "Twentieth Century Fox" was a song written about a fashionable but unfeeling woman, and is a metaphor for the famous movie and TV Company. It represents one of the light and soft ballads on the album, a song with a bit of humour on it. The fifth track "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" is a song found for the first time in the play "Hauspostille", in 1927, by Bertolt Brecht, with music by Kurt Weill, and it was used again, in 1930, in the opera "Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny". In 1966, Ray Manzarek's wife had heard a recording of Bertolt Brecht's opera, and she quickly showed the song to Ray and Jim and immediately suggested that they should make a rock version of it. This is a great version, indeed. The sixth track "Light My Fire" was released as a single and became the first great success of the band. It has brought the world fame and recognition of the band in the summer of 1967, bringing The Doors to the top of the charts and a symbol of that generation of the late 60's. This is one of the songs that most contributed to immortalize the name of The Doors. "Light My Fire" is on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time" and it was also included in the "Songs Of The Century" in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs Of All Time". The seventh track "Back Door Man" is the second and last song on the album without the signature of the band. Originally, "Back Door Man" was a blues song written by Willie Dixon and was recorded by Howlin' Wolf, in 1961, and it became considered a classic of the Chicago blues. This version of The Doors is the bluesiest number on the album and represents a great cover of the original song. The eighth track "I Looked At You" is another rock ballad and represents also another light and soft song on the album. The musical structure of the song is very simple but the final result is a very nice and pleasant song to hear. The ninth track "End Of The Night" is another ballad. It's true that we are in presence of another ballad, but this time, we are in presence of a totally different type of ballad. This is a very interesting song, very obscure and with a very dark musical atmosphere that makes of it a hypnotic song. The tenth track "Take As It Comes" is an incredible and beautiful pop rock song, very well made, highly attractive and which still sounds fresh and young in our days. We can even say that this song is so well written that sounds much better than many of the songs on the pop scene today. The eleventh track "The End" was originally written as a song about breaking with his girlfriend Mary Werbelow. It was created over several months of performances at the Whisky a Go Go, in Los Angeles. It was first released in January, 1967 and the band would play this song on their last live performance. "The End" is in the list of "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time", in Rolling Stone Magazine and became to be immortalized by Francis Ford Coppola in his movie "Apocalypse Now", released in 1979, when the song was used in two sequences of the film, the opening sequence and during the sequence of the killing of Colonel Kurtz. "The End" is also considered by many the best and also the most progressive song made by the band.

Conclusion: As I wrote before, "The Doors" is in general considered the best album released by the band and I agree completely with that. It's also considered one of the best albums ever made and, personally, I love it, really. This is a perfect album with no weaknesses. Some of the songs included on this album, like "Light My Fire", "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)", "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" and "The End" are successes that have been immortalized by the band and that helped to immortalize the band too. Concluding, and merely seeing by a single point of view strictly progressive, when we heard "Light My Fire" and "The End" we immediately see why The Doors are considered one of the most important bands to the foundation of progressive rock music and why they belong to our progressive world.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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