July 1965 – A twenty-one year-old Jim Morrison and fellow UCLA film graduate; Ray Manzarek, met on Venice Beach one day, for a conversation that would forever change the face of rock music. In the following weeks both Robby Krieger and John Densmore were inducted, thus completing the formation of one of the greatest bands in history. The Doors – a name derived from Aldous Huxley’s reputed work: The Doors of Perception – the subject of which, is proportionately relative to a number of their songs. From then on, until 30th August 1973, the band produced eight studio albums encompassing eighteen singles before the remaining members decided to call it quits, a little over two years after Morrison’s untimely death. However, as it turned out that wasn’t the end. Five years later, they reformed to record a series of backings for their departed comrade’s spoken-word poetry. But the less said about that, the better.
To celebrate the ever-present, phenomenal legacy of one of the world’s most beloved and revered rock bands, we at The Indiependent, have selected our personal favourites from The Door’s vehemently valued body of work.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deB_u-to-IE&w=560&h=315]
Samm Anga: Light My Fire from The Doors (1967)
From its wacky Fender Rhodes Piano riffs and solos to its controversial innuendos (which fuelled the infamy of its 1967 Ed Sullivan show performance), Light My Fire is 7 minutes of pure brilliance and exemplifies everything that The Doors were all about. It is pretentiously long, Morrison is in his element with his sultry whines and passionate screaming, and the instrumental solos are simply euphoric. The sentiment is simple, ‘Come on Baby, Light My Fire,’ but the song really develops it deliciously, with its constant rise and fall in tension, contrast of mood and sudden moments of chaos (“HIGHEERRR”). It perfectly blends the trope of the hopeless romantic with the awry, experimental endeavours of youths that were just about to explode into 70’s culture. It captures, accurately, the mind-numbing, body-shaking stabs of teenage desire in a cluster of sexy experimental rock grooves and cements The Doors in rock history as one of the most exciting bands to come out of that era.