[Today: Battle of the bands...]
A few years back, I happened to find myself in one of my favorite (and now defunct) East Bay record stores one nice Saturday afternoon. This particular establishment resembled the store Championship Vinyl from the movie High Fidelity – a small, cramped place that was loaded with vinyl and had three employees for every paying customer. I made my final selections and stepped to the register, and right into the middle of an intense debate: “You don’t seriously think that The Doors are a better band than Love, do you?” The two employees debating were (on behalf of Love) a be-stubbled, cardigan and glasses wearing music geek who could have passed for Weezer’s lead singer, and (for The Doors) a t-shirt and jeans, jock sort of dude. Dude was obviously in over his head with this music geek hornet, and was hemming and hawing his way out of whatever positive words he had spilled on behalf of The Doors. Meanwhile, I was taking this all in with utter bemusement, when the third employee (a rather attractive female) turned to me and said: “So, what do you think – The Doors or Love??”
Both groups were from mid-60’s Los Angeles, both groups were on Elektra Records, and both groups featured charismatic, enigmatic, and self-destructive lead singers (Arthur Lee and Jim Morrison). When The Doors first started out, their dream was to be as big as Love – the local hot band. But aside from the obvious connections, these two groups are completely different in almost every way, and comparisons between them do a disservice to both. Love played a baroque, psychedelic strain of pop that was loaded with obtuse metaphors and bright colors. The Doors, meanwhile made tough, blues-inflected rock that was heavy on poetic and mythic allusions. The Doors were massively popular and helped define the sound of their generation, while Love slipped through the cracks (in part because Lee refused to tour) and made dense, sonically challenging albums that are manna for music geeks.
“But which one of them do you like better?” cardigan-employee asked me pointedly. And then it was my turn to hem and haw, saying they were both great in their own way, and trying to not piss anyone off until I got my new vinyl safely out of their store. But here’s my real answer and it’s not even close: Love is an interesting band who made some excellent music, but The Doors are one of the great American bands. It’s easy to bash The Doors, because they’re so popular and Jim Morrison was both a first-rate wanker and third-rate poet. Regardless, this group made some of the greatest songs of the 60’s – just off the top of my head, the trilogy of ‘The End’, ‘Riders On The Storm’ and ‘L.A. Woman’ are as monumental as any three songs by any group of that decade. Perhaps it’s true that Love is underappreciated and The Doors are overappreciated, but it’s also true that Love was merely good, while The Doors were mostly great.
Listen: My Little Red Book [Love]
Listen: Break On Through [The Doors]
Listen: Signed D.C. [Love]
Listen: The End [The Doors]
Tags: Elektra Records, The Doors, High Fidelity, Love, Jim Morrison, Championship Vinyl, Arthur Lee, Weezer
11 November 2009 at 12:01 am |
amen, reverend dk. amen.
how did you know that my internet wanderings yesterday were an exploration of all the recently-released doors concerts?
IMO, they and the beatles stand above all other acts when it comes to creating brilliance in both the heavy rock and ballad genres with equal aplomb.
11 November 2009 at 3:39 am |
“then it was my turn to hem and haw, saying they were both great in their own way, and trying to not piss anyone off until I got my new vinyl safely out of their store.” So great!!!
Forever Changes in my book is a great psychedelic album of the 60s, Arthur Lee a Beautiful Madman.
Funny too I was talking on the phone yesterday about footage of Morrison’s Bearded Years being shown on VH1 Classics
and Yes the Doors are Great Well Known American Rock band but as I think
do I repeat listen to any of their albums
Nope!
Love Yes!
11 November 2009 at 9:54 am |
For what it’s worth, Love. This is not a decision informed by any sort of real knowledge of their catalogue, and purely on the merits of Forever Changes.
I know Forever Changes is a safe and cliched choice, but it really is unique, evocative and brilliant. I actually thought it was shit at first, with half-baked songs and too much reliance on strings and production window dressing. How wrong I was.
Could never be bothered with the Doors though. The stench of novelty band always seemed to hang over them for me.
1 December 2009 at 4:36 pm |
This may be a perversion of the actual quote–from Duke Ellington?–that goes “there are only two kinds of music, the kind you like and the kind you don’t.” Whatever fits into those two categories is entirely up to the listener. What constitutes good and bad may not be entirely based on the musical quality either; We all have our guilty pleasures. There are also a myriad of emotional, cultural, and intellectual components that have nothing to do with music that make things even more complicated.
Music is an emotional medium. Trying to explain it as an intellectual experience is futile. There are people who respond to Britney Spears. The experience is unique to every individual.
I love The Doors. Always did. They were my first love. I discovered them through my big brother at age six. They became the way I measured music. Someone above dismissed them as a musical novelty and I’m sure there’re many people who might agree. I don’t understand that but okay.
Morrison was a great singer: untrained, unpracticed, just a deep and natural gift. His confidence, good looks, innate charisma all expanded the gift; They are intangible and ineffable qualities but they no doubt add to the measure of his presence. I loved the keyboard sounds. I loved the guitar. This band had two of the best soloists of the rock era. Kreiger was also one of the best composers of the rock era. What they created as a band took the songs–and importantly, how they were performed–and extended them into a deep space that no one member could’ve achieved without the other. They were a cultural landmark and phenomenon. Songs like When the Music Is Over, The End, and The Soft Parade are wholly unique to the rock and roll canon. The fact that they were also monumentally successful only adds to the mystique.
Morrison had the ability to be a great writer. He often wasn’t but that was part of his charm. No matter, he wrote like no one else.
I enjoy Love as well, but not on such a profound scale. Everybody has an opinion; This is mine.
1 December 2009 at 6:14 pm |
Well said Deiter – I couldn’t agree more with your first two graphs. Thanks for chiming in…