100% agree. Of course this is how a lot of these songs, especially outside of the hits, were meant to be heard, in the context of an album of songs. Applying Syed's music brain onto an album is getting great musical appreciation the way it was intended. Love this, Syed.
Frigging Doors! I remember when this album hit - January 1967. What an amazing year for music. Doors first album, Stones - Between the Buttons featuring Ruby Tuesday, Hendrix's first album "Are You Experienced" - May '67, Jefferson Airplane released White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, Otis Redding "Dock of the Bay", Donovan "Wear Your Love Like Heaven", the Cream - Sunshine of Your Love, Respect - Aretha Franklin, A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum, "The Beat Goes On" by Sonny and Cher, "I Can See for Miles" by the Who... and topping them all, the monster - Sgt.Peppers by the Beatles.
The Doors are brilliant. I grew up with them amongst other greats of that era thanks to my older sister. Thanks for taking the time to delve into the background and nuances of the bands and members. It's awesome how younger generations have been learning to appreciate timeless great music unlike todays.
Robby Krieger was heavy into Spanish guitar and Flamenco 6 months earlier and had not really played rock or blues, Ray Manzarek was in a jazz band with his brothers, John Densmore was a jazz drummer, and Jim was living on random rooftops and sleeping on couches, devouring LSD, Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Nietzsche, and many beat poets. Put em all together.......
This is all awesome, but I’m seriously looking forward to your continued review of Zep II and beyond . . . Should I have said that? Love your channel, man!
Really enjoying these whole-album explorations. As a guy who grew up listening to this music, I always look forward to hearing your insights. Keep them coming!
Love the fact your listening to albums now. Sometimes songs sound 10x better in the context of an album then just alone. If you check out Ok Computer by Radiohead or In Utero by Nirvana I will freak out. Close to the Edge and Court of the Crimson King would be good progressive albums to do
Truly one of the greatest albums of 20th Cent! I know you have other albums in mind for future, but at some point down the road Strange Days is just as good. “I can’t see your face in my mind” on that album is one of my all time Doors favs. And “When the Music’s Over” rivals “The End.”
I've always felt that Strange Days is a better album in terms of it's overall mood. It feels more complete as opposed to a collection of songs. When The Music's Over is definitely right up there with The End. After that their "end of album epics" became a bit lacklustre.
I'm SO happy to see you react to this album. Your reaction and analysis of Pink Floyd's The Wall was superb. You may find, as you work through this album that a couple of songs are just "filler" but I can't wait to see your analysis of "the end" and I really hope you continue your Doors journey. They only made 6 studio albums before Jim Morrison died and they are all significantly shorter than The Wall. It may also be worth watching the Oliver Stone movie about them for some context.
I love that you've dived into doing these segmented album reviews. Super cool. Fun fact: When I was 15 in 1969, this album - The Doors - was the first one that I spent my own money on. I had listened to many many albums before this but all that was funded by my parents. I listened to this album literally over and over and over. It changed my mindset about the world and, subsequently, my life's trajectory.
An often overlooked but important LP of the times is the Jefferson Airplane LP Surrealistic Pillow. Best known for White Rabbit and Somebody to Love they actually cover a wider range of music/style than those 2 songs portray. An early classic LP.
Hey man keep playing that album I'm 55 years old Surfer John from San Diego California Oceanside County really excited for you to do the rest of the album what's funny is I'm 55 and that album precedes me and I fell in love with it just like you're about to rock on brother
Long before Jim Morrison ever thought about being a rock star, he saw himself as a poet, and you can see that certain Doors lyrics can stand alone as a poem, such as "Break On Through." I can just see Morrison bringing this to the Doors when he first joined the band, "Hey, I've got this poem I wrote a couple years ago, can you make a song out of it?"
Got to see them November 1967 @the old Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Wonderful concert with only 100 people there. Procol Harem was playing first that November night. So long ago and we were all so young.
Soul Kitchen is the epitome of psychedelic rock to me, with the kitchen offering whatever the customer wants. Dropping out, and enjoying life anyway you want. I really like what you're doing with covering whole albums.
I was in 7th grade when this album came out. I was blown away, & an instant fan. 3 years later they were my first live show, at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, and learned that live shows took you to a whole new level. The were the great American Rock band. ✌️❤️🎶
how was morrison live presence wise vs all the greats of that era? Im too young to have seen him. yet, you here so much about morrison re his presence on stage & his ability to work a crowd. since you saw them, & im assuming you saw others in that great era, I'm just curious if the legend was indeed true, or was it just manufactured hype that we hear about now? .... of everyone you've seen since, is there anyone you could compare him to on stage?... lastly, while your in highschool & morrison was alive, did a lot of fellow students talk about the band & what type of image did they have.... they're a legendary band & its fascinating to hear from people as yourself who saw the real deal live. would appreciate any takes you have... thx.
@@kelvinkloud He was mesmerizing on stage. He interacted with the crowd, at one point tossing beers out. And Robbie, Ray & John could jam. As I said, after that show, I wanted to see every band I liked live. So far I’ve seen over 100 different acts, and would recommend live shows to everyone. ✌️❤️🎶
@@alpetrocelli4465 thx.... re, of the 100 you saw, esp in such a great era, how did morrison compare & standout to other great lead singers? .... was he truly unique aside from being good or was he more in the mold of just another talented hired gun lead, like a roger daltry or steven tyler for ex..... & again, what image did the band have w/ students when you were in highschool? .... were they like at as a dangerous edgy band or more mainstream rock?
@@kelvinkloud I saw Elvis in ‘72, and he didn’t come close to Morrison. Steve Marriott of Humble Pie was awesome, Springsteen was the greatest showman I saw, but the band I eventually followed, & alone saw the most, was the Grateful Dead. They weren’t like Morrison or the other performers I mentioned, but their music & shows were magic. ✌️❤️🎶
The Doors albums were the soundtracks on my high school (and beyond) days as well as a major influence on my budding guitar skills - "Break On Through" was edited on the original record release, the word "high" was deleted - that was the thing back then, also was a point of contention when they played on the "Ed Sullivan Show", the show didn't want the word "higher" sang in "Light My Fire" (and the band agreed), although Morrison made an intentional effort to say it during the live performance.
A friend who practiced Wicca tells me that the lyrics "the day destroys the night. The night divides the day", are straight from that religious tradition. The opposing forces of nature, one impossible to exist without the other.
Probably my favorite Doors song, but the song that is very interesting on the album is "Alabama Song." I am still amazed that they recorded that song for a debut album in 1967 with a sound that though modern still paid homage to the original. It's quite a controversial song if you've heard the original Bretcht/Weill recording sung by Lotte Lenya in 1930.
In the late middlish 60s The Doors, Strange Days, Disraeli Gears, Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, Forever Changes and Easter Everywhere were THE Austin Tx psychedelic albums.
Hi. Most of the band members of the doors most or all of the time high as a kite. Mind you most bands from the psychedelic aers was high as a kite. What wonderful times they were. From UK
Theres a great tv series called classic albums which have the artists pull apart the songs and tell stories of how they were made. Definetley worth a watch but would be great to react to I think. Theres the Doors, Black Sabbath and many more
He is a shaman....and it's always more than the literal with him. He pitched always to that liminal line, that threshold between the conscious and Collective Unconscious. Always trying to break out of and break through ordinary conventional consciousness. The name The Doors is taken from English mystic poet-shaman William Blake, who said..."If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would apoear to man as it is, Infinite." William James picked up on that a century later and wrote The Doors Of Perception. Then came Morrison and the Doors in the 60's. A direct line acknowledged by Morrison.
I don't know what Morrison is doing, I just know he sounds better than everyone else doing it. And I don't see him being crazy or drunk or anything like that at all. He is a creative and expressive artist with a killer voice and life force.
Since you're doing reviews of full albums, in your fantastic ways, could I suggest you to continue with my 2 favourite bands of all time: the Stones and the Clash? Thanx and keep up the good worrk !
Break on Through still sounds great after 50+ years! I always thought it meant to break through consciousness by using drugs. When this song was played in the radio they left the word “high” out of “she gets high”. Censorship of the drug reference in those days.
Nice Syed, you are picking great albums to review.. At some point I suggest Who's Next by The Who, a seminal album in rock history and a hard rock classic. Enjoying the Doors. 🎵🎹🎤🎸🎶
Definitely, john demsemore was the order, the one who held it all together & reigned it all in, always on time with the tight, unifying , signal drum fill....and ur also right about the brazil/samba thing, that dude was crazy fluid in every type of jazz beat and latin jazz beat known to man...elvin jones (john coltrane;s drummer) and john coltrane were his absolute heroes.
In Break On Through, Jim is leading us through the Doors of Perception (see Aldous Huxley) to The Other Side. He is our leader and guide. This is my opinion.
I think you should do one side of an Lp per video. The wall could have been done in four and the doors in two. I still enjoy the reactions to albums I grew up with, for the most part buying in my mid to late teens. I got this album in 89 when I was 17. Keep it up. Looking forward to a Dylan album and I really hope you do animals by Floyd. That album should blow you away in every way.
Hey Syed, you interested in listening to some more Bob Dylan? I would like to suggest "Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (Official Audio)" I heard you enjoy history, so this should be interesting for you. You can never go wrong listening to Dylan. Nice reaction thanks for sharing🎶
whats fascinating about this album & the doors saga is they hit so hard w/ a new singular & innovative sound & mindset, yet Jim literally had only been singing and writing songs for only a year! ... think about that. from age 20 & back he never sang, played an instrument nor wrote a song. then a year later, boom, this!... thats a wtf mindblower imo, to be able to boot up so quickly to create such an iconoclastic lead work. Its almost savant.... heres my concl., on the morrison trajectory from '65-'66 (most of album was done in late '66), he pulled it off b/c of 3 key reasons. 1st, he was blessed to have ray as his bandmate & direct teacher. they were college friends, intellectually & artistically had the same interests & film score, wide scape sensibilities & ray really understood what was unique about morrison & never let him drift from that, rather grow on it. 2nd, rothchild, as a producer was very gifted & was on the cutting edge of calif sound then. once in the studio, he like ray knew what was special about jim & knew how to expand it. the echo sounds worked perfect w/ his baritone as did allowing the band to free form but w/ his structure knowing how to arrange it into a body w/ flow & transitions. the doors could drive a song like one moves a porche around curvy calif roads. their ability to pause, speed up, transition was fluid & rothchild oversaw that & made sure jim would accent those tempo changes so well.... 3rd, finally, morrison, though not previously a musician, was nevertheless a gifted big thinker. his literature, philosphy & history background gave him a true sense of the large scape & epic terrain. even before floyd, the doors set the tone for long powerful drama pieces. morrison's writing & reading background, esp of blake, allowed him to put those visions & ideas into a scaled out structure wh/ could ascend up in vision, yet like a hawk, quickly w/ intensity also hone in on detail w/in that large framework. his film background also helped this, along w/ the acting he did in college. he had a innate sense of drama & the intellectual chops to put it into a framework. plus the unbridled intensity & courage to go for something completely singular.... the band would never have that same sense of urgency & visitation of energy that was displayed in the first album. the other works had great moments (esp, strange days, hotel & LAwoman-wh/ may be as powerful as the debut, but more somber & mature), but that feeling of an arrow being released into virgin electric air was never quite captured again like this album. its for the ages.
You really should react to "Not to touch the earth" by the doors, Jim Morrison's lyrics and voice in this song will BLOW YOUR MIND! I can rarely get reactors on youtube to play doors songs that are not that well known by the population, but if you are an avid doors fan like me then you will KNOW these two songs. I know all the lyrics of each and every song. "Not to touch the earth" and "The soft parade" are my two very fav songs. It would be great if you were to give these two songs a shot. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Well now you have a real life "Pink" from Pink Floyd. Been a fan since 1978. Jim was a mad genius and an unfortunate alcoholic. He hated his fan's for the most part and thought of them as sheep. He wanted to be taken as a serious poet. He despised hippies. A tragic tale. I could go on forever about Jim but check out wikipedia for more info. RIP Jim.
The “soul kitchen” was a soul food (african american food) restaurant that jim loved & frequented a lot when he was poor & had not many places to loiter for the price of a cup of coffee (this, obviously, being the first album, they were all college student poor , but especially jim, was homeless person-level poor, just 18 months prior, he’d been living on a rooftop on venice beach doing copious amounts of lsd and getting drunk, sobering up& then getting drunk again, writing songs....i think he might have lived at ray’s (keyboardist’s) house by late 1966 early 67, when this was recorded.... he also did a lot of crashing at random ppl’s houses & living at the chateau marmont....but.....all that stuff was a habit he’d keep up once he was wealthy, he was kind of nomadic in that way.....his only comstant pocessions were his notebooks his credit card (once wealthy) & his driver’s license....amd he owned a ford mustang for a while, but that was his only real “asset”
Jim literally wanted to sleep at the restaurant ...and of course theres all the abstract, poetic metaphors & double meanings, & stuff.......ur reactions are always great, whatever alternate, drugged up, crazy meanings may be for songs like this.....him literally wanting to sleep there was a factor for sure........
Every time that I hear a song from The Doors it makes me think of Halloween, The Adams Family and those old 1930s horror movies. I think the organ is what gives their music that vibe.
You really have to hear the late 70s cover of this by X, a punk and post punk band out of Los Angeles. They were incredible but the thing is, they covered this on their first album and guess what? That album was produced by Ray Manzarek of The Doors and not only that, he played keyboards on this album, including this cover of Soul Kitchen. m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k5ikNYY0JgQ.html
I sang both of those songs in my band back in the 60s-70s. So nostalgic. Yes I was drunk, I was high, and feeling sexual because of the the girls lined up at the stage before me. LOL
Break on Through is a 2 1/2 minute classic song by the Doors. However, the live cover of it by Midnite Trippers is an 8 minute masterpiece: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Em7aoSAwG_g.html If you think the Doors version is high-energy, this cover is 3x the energy and the drummer kills it.
Morrison was very much influenced by 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud. You should take a look at Rimbaud's "A Season in Hell" or "Illuminations."
Reviewing entire albums may be a very good format. That said, I would disagree with your "night day" theory. Note after it is time to close Jim turned out into the night of "neon groves" thus I would submit the "soul kitchen" is a respite from the madness of the night (of life), whether that respite be a place of comfort and security or a person within who Jim takes solace. Further that the song is not about embracing the madness but his discomfort with it. He wants to stay away from the night, from tje cars stuffed with eyes that share the street lights hollow glow.
They young women I new back in 1967 will say even in their 70's that it was the lust part. Us guys focused on the mystery of the lyrics. It was panty time on the stage whenever they played.
They were interesting for a short period, when Morrison was at his peak. A great band, but sort of an artistic dead end. They rocked, but they never really rolled (moved ahead in their career)
@@kelvinkloud i will half concede that point. better production and better execution. At this point they had better songs, and a beter feel for what they could do. But i do not see any real artistic growth in Morrison. He died too soon.
@@jbellinger99 Ill grant you, he was still wrestling w/ what to do & how to navigate the image he had created by '68. hotel & la Woman imo did a great job in maturing the work both lyrically & sound wise in the studio. but on stage, he was still trapped by the past image & it came back to really bite him. & that image & live projection was a decent portion of the composition of what the doors were..... but in the studio, they showed real strong progress. both hotel & laWoman show depth from all band members & I think morrison's lyrics got even better. There was even a vision out of his previous stage image live wh/ perhaps couldve materalized to work on stage if he had gotten back from paris.
