9. The DoorsL.A. Woman
Charlie Burchill’s big brother Jamie was the one that got us into The Doors. When I say that he got us into them, he didn’t actually know he got us into them. We owned a few of our own records but Jamie had a big collection so when I’d go up to Charlie’s house and when Jamie went out, we’d get all his records out and play them. We tried to make it look like we hadn’t and we made sure we never scratched them. He was a huge Doors fan and, of all of them, L.A. Woman was the record that was played most. We’d never heard anything like it. No bands really sound like The Doors do they? They’re essentially a three-piece band and then there was the poetry and voice of Morrison.
Saying all that, it seems to me that the jury’s always been out on The Doors. A lot of so-called ‘serious’ music journalists pooh-poohed them, just trashed them, and we just don’t get it. In fact, last week we were talking to Chrissie Hynde about this because she was there and it was her generation. We asked her: "Were The Doors actually taken seriously at the time?" And she said: "They were where I was from…" So, I love the record and whenever we’re playing we like to muck about with a few cover versions.
