Strange Days: The Doors After 40 Years

The Doors.

The band that transcended definite musical catagorization, defied a dying America and looked forward to the creation of a new one, and produced one of the greatest bodies of cohesive music to date. It included America's foremost rock genius and poet laureate, Jim Morrison, who defined what it meant to be an artistic superstar, tortured as he was. Their music still endures today, 40 years after their first album The Doors was first released. Songs like "Break on Through" and "Riders on the Storm" still echo in our heads, repeating like some lovely symbol of a time where music was made simply for its own sake.

They were the perfect band. Ray Manzarek, with his revolutionary and always brillant vox-organ playing re-defined what "keyboardist" meant in the modern band. Guitarist Robby Krieger was the ultimate rythm guitarist (maybe with the exception of Pete Townshend of The Who), who never drowned out the band or Morrison while playing the riffs which have been copied and mimicked ever since. John Densmore seemed to always have a perfect beat to follow Robby's leads, and though he was no Neil Peart or Keith Moon, he consitently kept the band tight and fast.

And Morrison. Jim Morrison. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Maybe he could put it best..............

“I see myself as a huge fiery comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps "Oh look at that!" Then- whoosh, and I'm gone...and they'll never see anything like it ever again... and they won't be able to forget me- ever.”

And we haven't. The Doors seem to get increasingly popular as each generation rediscovers the world that was The Doors music, and in recent years, their popularity has even outstripped their fame when Morrison was alive.

Over the years, many critics have claimed that The Doors were simply media hype, driven my a maniacal lead singer who tripped on his own ego. But bands that are media hype fade away, and though their albums may be great at one time or another, do not have lasting effects on culture and music. This was not The Doors. Morrison may have been crazy and disturbed, but the music The Doors produced was unlike anything that came before or anything after. I think the genius that was Morrison could be summed up in "Riders on The Storm": "The world on you depends, this life will never end."

This was the Doors.

My Personal Top Ten Doors Songs:

1. Riders On the Storm

2. L.A. Woman

3. Five To One

4. The Crystal Ship

5. Roadhouse Blues

6. Love Her Madly

7. The End

8. Light My Fire

9. Waiting For the Sun

10. Break On Through (To the Other Side)

Love and Peace.