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The Doors - Morrison Hotel CD (album) cover

MORRISON HOTEL

The Doors

 

Proto-Prog

3.38 | 388 ratings

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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars "Save Our City!"

"Morrison Hotel" is a rather subdued album from The Doors that has some forgettable material, among two classic songs, and these classics shine strongly and are indispensable treasures of rock. One of these treasures is the wonderful sing-alongaholic 'Roadhouse Blues'. Many versions of this have been recorded since, one of my favourites being blind guitar great Jeff Healey and heard in the movie "Roadhouse". The line "Woke up this morning and I got myself a beer" is one of the more fun lines that crowds love to yell out in concerts I have attended when this song is covered, also the section that says "Save our city!" It is a great song with Morrison at his best ad lobbing and having a ball. After this the album tends to bog down into some rather pedestrian rock unfortunately. A standout though is definitely 'Ship Of Fools' with some fascinating lyrics; "The human race was dying out, No one left to scream and shout, People walking on the moon, Smog will get you pretty soon, Everyone was hanging out."

The other classic is the creepy 'Peace Frog' that features an interlude of Morrison's dark poetry; "Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding, Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind." A lot of commentators believed Jim was possessed by Indian spirits, and Morrison even said in an interview that at a young age he saw a car crash with dead Indians "scattered on dawn's highway" and some of the spirits of these dead Indians, dancing wildly about jumped into his soul, "and they're still in there", said Morrison. This was re-enacted on 'Dawn's Highway/Newborn Awakening' from "American Prayer". Morrison was a poet and liked double meaning in his lyrics, leading to his enigmatic cult following. The fact that he was said to be sub human or possessed by Indian spirits helped his stage persona. This enigma is not very present on this album as many of the songs are rather mediocre. 'Queen Of The Highway' and 'Indian Summer' are interesting, shamanistic Indian rhythms and spirits pervade the music. However apart from these glimmers of genius the rest of the album is only a pale shadow of the debut masterpiece.

AtomicCrimsonRush | 2/5 |

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