Like thousands of others I went through a major Doors phase when I was sixteen or seventeen. I must have bought all six of their studio albums within the calendar year. The Doors appeal to many at this point because they're a rites of passage band. They seem grown up. But they're also approachable. Their melodies are strong and the lyrics are accessible.
Also of course Morrison must be a major part of the attraction. He was and still can be an utter arse but tell me honestly that in part many of us wouldn't like to be and come across as Morrison does. Or we wouldn't at one stage of our lives at least. At least if you're born male. There's also something very adolescent about his crassness. He remains a teenage icon because he expressed a certain idea of the teenage journey of petty rebelliousness better than anyone else.
When we matured, we moved on to Iggy Pop and Lou Reed and Patti Smith. But it should never be forgotten that Morrison and The Doors had genuine pop hits unlike those three and he somehow maintained a cool even at his lowest points. He went on a trip because the rest of us couldn't or our lives weren't really as bad as we pretended. His was the ultimate rebellion against bourgeois, establishment parents and in the end he paid the ultimate price. For his foolishness but also because of the risk he took.
So why write about Strange Days, rather than the band's two best albums which are surely their first and last The Doors and LA Woman. Because its easier for starters, you don't have to get into long debate about the merits of the bands work as 'art' which I'm keen to avoid, as their records could just as easily be discussed as great pop as great art.
Also because it's a really good record. It's got great, punchy, powerful tunes plus one piece positing Morrison as a poet and a long, protracted closing track which might be the record's bone of contention. But Strange Days from its cover to its overriding concept, to its tunes and lyrics is a great album. Probably third or fourth in their catalogue depending on whether you prefer it or Morrison Hotel. Leaving Soft Parade fifth and Waiting For The Sun a forlorn last. Their one studio failure. A messy incoherent record, despite containing some good tracks.
Meanwhile Strange Days is cool and it knows it. It's one of the reasons why people wear shades. It struts. It's imperious. It came out in late 1967 only a few months after their debut had seized everybody by the collar and Light My Fire had been a fully deserved actual billboard Number One hit. The Doors were in charge and determined to seize their moment.
Which they did and still do, from the glorious, signature Manzarek opening to the first track, the record's title song. Its lyrics and mood draw you in helplessly like a beckoning finger inviting you to your first teenage parties. The first side of the record is one glorious, sensual, textured ride from here on in. A couple of slower numbers that hint at opiates, You're Lost Little Girl and Unhappy Girl. Though frankly every song the band ever put out is utterly drink and drug drenched. What was Morrison doing with every waking hour between '67 and '71 after all?
The rest of the band were more restrained than Morrison and so kept the show together. Manzarek, Krieger and Densemore were all three damned fine players, understanding jazz, soul and a lot lot more, and have probably never quite got the respect and attention they deserve. But that was always inevitable with Morrison in the band. He was the reason they made it as big as they did pure and simple. Try listening to the records they made after he died if you want proof.
But if you're after evidence that the band were good, look no further than the other two essentially musical pieces on Side 1 of this record (i.e.not Horse Latitudes), Love Me Two Times and Moonlight Drive. The former has a lyric that I've always found nonsensical and throwaway. But the tune. It's like a series of punches from a primed heavyweight in a three minute round building towards the knockout blow. As such it's an explanation of why some people love boxing. Because it has fierce brutal poetry despite the fact that it's clearly wrong. The Doors understood the raw appeal of the dumb and the lure of the prohibited too.
As for Moonlight Drive of course it's one of the reasons The Doors formed in the first place. With Morrison talking Manzarek through its lyrics on Venice Beach then discussing the idea of forming a band on Venice Beach in 1965. Perfect Pop mythology. Apart from McCartney meeting Lennon at a Saturday fete and Marr knocking on Morrissey's door there's nothing to match it. The song lives up to its story. Its silky and sensual, flirts with tragedy then nimbly sidesteps it at the last moment. Remarkably it was never put out as a single. An indication of just how much The Doors had going for them at this point.
So to Side 2 and People Are Strange, the best Brecht Weil song that Brecht and Weil never wrote, The Doors had done their audition with a cover of Alabama Song on their first album of course. People Are Strange is only two minutes and ten seconds long and quite perfect. One of the very best things they ever did. An indication that you don't have to do ten minute epics to make big artistic statements. A lesson the band learned to their own cost when some of their longer efforts floundered.
So from here through My Eyes Have Seen You and I Can't See Your Face in My Mind. Filler essentially but damned superior filler. To When The Music's Over the album's closer and to the discussion of the problem with The Doors. Their pomposity.
Of course the Doors had already made their grand, drawn out statement with The End. When The Music's Over was the other long song in their set at the time. It's not as good as The End even though it has its moments. Ultimately, how could it be? It's about sex and music while The End is about sex and death. When The Music's Over tries to shoehorn death into the equation, ('until the end', 'before I sink into the big sleep'), but never truly convinces. And subsequently lags. It's alright. But it's no classic.
In fact it's fuel to the fire that The Doors can be a bit boring. At their most portentous they were. If they keep it short and sweet, as they do with Horse Latitudes on Side One they can easily get away with being pretentious. But listening to this song is like coming upon an exhibition's 'great work' after enjoying everything else and finding it a bit tiresome. I love Strange Days until When The Music's Over but then I get restless. But I'll still defend The Doors almost to the hilt.
Because they're a great band. The band you have to listen to before you graduate to The Velvets and The Stooges and Patti Smith, just as you have to read Lord of The Flies and Salinger before moving on to Sartre and Camus. Well that's what I did anyway.
I was irritated a few years ago when somebody suggested that anyone who still listened to The Doors after twenty should take a long hard look at themselves. Partly because I don't like being told what culture to like and what not to like. I hope I don't do the same thing with other people myself although I know that I actually do all the time. I regret that side of myself. At fifty four the best part of me really thinks that everybody should be allowed to consume the culture they damned well want to.
But I was also affronted by this comment because I stand by The Doors and my sixteen year old self. Falling in love with The Doors is by no means the worst thing you can do at that age. They lead you down good roads to great poetry, art, films and music. After them I moved on to Velvets and Stooges and Patti as well as Camus, Sartre and myriad others. Partly I'd have to say, because of their lead. But I came back with time to The Doors. Strange Days makes its own case. Astonishingly eloquently.
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