9. The DoorsWaiting For The Sun
It’s a lot harder to say you’re a fan of The Doors than it is to say you’re really into Love. While this wasn’t the case when both bands were active in the 60s, it most certainly is the case now. The Doors have always been a favourite of ours, and it’s amazing to me how much derision this statement is met with.
While it’s obvious to us as to why – there’s the Oliver Stone movie, the poetry books, shamanism, etc, etc – we know about that stuff. But beyond all this is an incredible body of work that is as adventurous as it is unique.
When recording They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, we came across a copy of The Doors’ Soundstage Performances DVD. We watched it a few times and were completely blown away. Now, to remind you in case you ever decide to watch it these are soundstage performances, NOT concerts. These are performances that are filmed like Letterman, Saturday Night Live, or Later… With Jools Holland. With that in mind, when is the last time you’ve seen any band deliver a performance like any one of these? Just once? Here, on this DVD the Doors have roughly 17 of such performances through the years!
The big difference between these performances and their concert footage is the environment. Jim Morrison is more focussed, and what you get to see is a band playing how I’d imagine they play in their rehearsal space without the grand posturing they put on for their big concerts. You get to see how great of a band they are, and how great of a singer Morrison really was. In these performances, he’s more a part of the band, an instrument that sits in the song along with the guitar, but with an intense focus that brings forth a stage presence I feel worthy of the hype.
We basically went Doors crazy and ordered every Doors record on vinyl. I bought a Rhodes bass organ. We’d take breaks to eat and put on a different Doors albums for every meal until we got through their entire catalogue. Now, I think we’d all possibly say that The Soft Parade is our ‘favourite’ Doors record. But I think we’d also concede that Waiting For The Sun is their ‘best’ album. It’s just so unique.
I can’t think of any band since The Doors that sound anything like them. They’re too bizarre! A jazz drummer, a keyboard player with a Rhodes Bass, a flamenco guitarist, and a blues singer. What?! There have been plenty of bands since the 60s to sound like The Stones, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, etc. Name one current band that has made anything remotely close to ‘Spanish Caravan’, ‘The Unknown Soldier’… or even ‘Hello, I Love You’. Check out the great, lesser known tracks on this record like ‘Yes, The River Knows’ and ‘Not To Touch The Earth’.
