Hi everyone!
Today I'm gonna be talking about The Doors- specifically the self-titled album- and talking in more detail about each song.
Break On Through (To The Other Side)
This song became quite popular for the Doors- and, in my opinion, it completely deserved to. It's not a particularly long song, but it's catchy, and has some great lyrics (one of my favourite bits: "I found an island in your arms/Country in your eyes/Arms that chained us/Eyes that lied"). The song itself isn't too musically complicated- it's a fairly simple riff, and has only a short keyboard solo, but the drumming is interesting- and of course, there's nothing wrong with a simple song.
Soul Kitchen
I'm not sure why, but this song really gets stuck in my head. It's a pretty good song- I've heard it's a tribute to a place Jim Morrison used to eat, so it's not as deep as some other songs in terms of lyrics, but it's still musically good. One strange thing about this song- even though it's hardly over three and a half minutes long, it's actually the 3rd longest song on the album. There's a huge jump from there, though- 7 minutes for the 2nd longest, and almost 12 for the longest.
The Crystal Ship
I'd have to say this song is tied for being my favourite on this album. The music is really mellow and calm, only picking up a little towards the end of the song. The singing is typical of Jim Morrison, in the best way possible (I'm not sure if I've mentioned before, but I've always felt there's a lack of tenor/baritone singers in rock music). It starts off quiet and sad, and in the last verse it picks up in volume, and gains an almost hopeful quality to it, which is reflected in the lyrics. This song, along with End Of The Night, are great songs to relax to, in my opinion.
Twentieth Century Fox
This is probably my least favourite song on the album- though to be fair, I still quite like it. The song sounds to me like Soul Kitchen, but with a slightly altered tune and different lyrics. Unsurprisingly, this one also gets stuck in my head a fair bit- if anything, even more. It's a full minute shorter than Soul Kitchen though, and since that one isn't particularly long to begin with, I don't mind having what is, in my eyes (ears?), a bit more of the same song.
Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)
I actually quite like this song, and I'm realising now I don't listen to it often enough. It's a cover of an older song, from a German opera. I was surprised to hear that the Doors actually pop-ified the song quite a bit- other versions I've heard are very different. They're almost creepier in a sense, but also less dark than the Doors' version, as counter-intuitive as it may sound. David Bowie actually has a cover of this song too (which I believe happened independently of the Doors covering it, but I'm not certain), which is more like other versions.
Light My Fire
As I mentioned in my other post, I find the solo in this song a bit long. That said, I often listen to Doors songs while I'm not doing much- unlike a lot of other bands, that I'll listen to as background music when playing games, for instance- so sitting through a 5 minute solo takes more concentration. The other issue I have is that the keyboards are a bit shrill for my liking, especially without Jim Morrison singing over them. That aside, it's not a bad song. Interestingly, though, I recently learned that the song is slightly slower than it was meant to be. Most versions are around 7:11, whereas the song was only supposed to be 6:59. This doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to change the key of the song by nearly a half step.
Back Door Man
Apparently this is also a cover, as I found out today. As with Alabama Song, the Doors sort of pop-ified the song, which was originally a slow, dragging blues tune, to make it more upbeat, and add some instruments in. Personally, I do prefer the Doors' version- but as I mentioned before, some of my favourite music is made my bands inspired directly by the blues, rather than the blues itself. I'm also quite a big fan of Jim Morrison's singing, so that doesn't hurt.
I Looked At You
This is the second shortest song on the album. I'm not a huge fan of this one, honestly- it's a bit repetitive, and not all too interesting musically or lyrically. I might have to take back what I said earlier, and instead say this is my least favourite song on the album, not Twentieth Century Fox. I do find it kind of fun from a psychological point of view though- the song sounds like it ends, stops for a second, then starts again. When I'm not paying much attention, it can be fun trying to remember if the song really ended or not.
End Of The Night
This one, too, is tied for being one of my favourites. It's very slow, mellow and dark, but somehow not too dull. There's a lot going on- a simple bass line looping, a guitar adding little touches here and there, a keyboard mirroring the vocal line (twice, by the sound of it- one high pitched and one lower with vibrato). There's a lot of emotion in the singing, too, which is matched by the dynamics of the song.
Take It As It Comes
Although this song isn't too complicated lyrically, it's pretty enjoyable. It's very upbeat, and has a certain feel to it- I think it's something to do with the chord changes in the chorus, but it almost reminds me of tango music. It's probably the "happiest" sounding song on the album- especially when put beside End Of The Night, which is rather gloomy and quiet.
The End
There's a lot going on here. This song goes through a large number of changes, and you can almost break it into chunks- the intro bit, when he sings "this is the end"; the spoken bit about Oedipus; the bit about the bus, followed by more swearing than I'd have thought possible; then back to the intro bit, essentially. Overall, this is another fairly mellow song, though there are, of course, some higher-energy parts. Lyrically, it's very interesting- of course, I don't understand the vast majority of it- but what I do understand is rather poignant. Specifically, the line "I'll never look into your eyes again" always stands out to me, though that might be just because it's dumbed down enough for a less than poetic person like me to understand.
Anyways, that's it for today- hopefully you enjoyed this post!