While I’m surprised at how profuse the reaction was to Dan’s outta nowhere but fairly mundane blast at the Lizard King and his bandmates yesterday, I’m sympathetic to those aggrieved to see that we’d give rock and roll’s preeminent shaman so little respect. So I figured it’d be only fair to share some reasons why I, personally, do not hate the Doors.
1. They are really fucking funny.
My god, did you watch that trailer for the movie? Maybe it hurt at the time, but after fifteen-plus years, that tragedy is comedy now if it wasn’t the second it came out. If Dan didn’t also have some kneejerk beef with Lester Bangs, he might have read a great piece in Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste named “Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus A Decade Later” that shows how it easy it was to find and enjoy the camp in the Doors, even while finding Morrison’s sociopathic and self-adoring tendencies repugnant. And that was written in 1981, when it was probably a lot harder to ignore his lionization.
While classic rock hegemony has obviously survived in the Web 2.0 era (I mean, check out that comments section), the increase in differing voices and the rise of nostalgia for years well past the Summer Of Love make it hard for me to resent these dinosaurs the way I did back when there were only 57 channels (and nothing on). We’re not forced to hear that nothing will ever beat the ’60s anymore, so its easier to take the icons of the age at face value.
2. At face value, the Doors are really fucking funny.
So this pretty boy poet gets together with an organist he knows from film school. Soon they get a little bass-free band together that mixes supper club schmaltz and classic blues as if it’s all the same trip. And while Jimbo’s a wordsmith, he’s not above singing a ditty by the guitarist that winds up being over six minutes long! And this is what they take to Ed Sullivan! Weirdos!
3. They wrote their share of groovy little tunes.
Get over (or surrender to) the idea that you’re dealing with a prophet and it’s pretty easy to get into stuff like “Break On Through” and “L.A. Woman.” As ridiculous as organ-based bands can sound, the band could work up a dramatic backdrop for Morrison’s shtick. Sez Bangs: “he took all the dread and fear and even explosions into seeming freedom of the Sixties and made them first seem even more bizarre, dangerous and apocalyptic than we already thought they were, then turned everything we were taking so seriously into a big joke mid-stream.” That’s actually kind of cool.
4. We’re pretty quick to tolerate trippy ’60s bullshit if the artists are “underappreciated.”
Dan talks about not wanting to blame Arthur Lee for getting the Doors signed to Elektra. Arthur Lee? The guy who lived in bottles and pretended they were cans? The guy who dropped garage rock to sing over strings like Johnny Mathis about the snot on his pants? Can you imagine how much people would resent Love if they had a Doors-like cult behind them? Inversely, if you treat the Doors like just another bunch of sixties screwballs, there’s a lot of gold in thar hills. Don’t sleep on The Soft Parade just because Mom got there first.
5. They are really fucking funny.
Ha ha, Tom Jones.
Oh, I forgot: “The Doors had no bass. Just like the Gypsies had no homes. Don’t let that scare you, let that FREE you. ‘Cause when you’re free-flyin’ with The Doors, man, you don’t need no safety net!”
There. Now I feel better. And so does Bruce McCulloch.
After thinking about it for a few days, the stupidest part of “indie” people ragging on Waters is this:
“OK Computer” and everything Radiohead have done since then sound like nothing so much as rejected tracks from any Floyd session in the 70s.
@TheContrarian: To me Zeppelin is a great example of this. They were a great band, but that loved is tempered and yet enhanced by their laughable pretentiousness. Plant is more likable than Morrison but he was no less obsessed with goofy mythology and mythmaking.
So, a few readers rebel against the recent wave of Everything-sucksism on Idolator, and all of a sudden there’s a “classic rock hegemony” on the Web. Oh, really? Guys, it’s time to lower your weapons and remove those humongous Oedipal chips on your shoulders. The poptamists won the rockcrit wars, okay, so can we please stop going for the lazy “so-and-so classic rock or indie rock band sucks!” punchline, like, every single time? Baby boomers drool and we rule! Let’s move on.
(I know you acknowledge as much in the above post, but honestly, there’s an anti-rockist thread running through a lot of your coverage. It’s getting to be a bit wearying.)
P.S. All that said, I think you’re 100 percent right about The Doors, Miccio.
Is that the same Dan Gibson who works for Radio Disney?
@drjimmy11: This might be news, but not everybody loves Radiohead either.
RE: organ based bands:
? and the Mysterians > the Doors
Yeah and Love is some overrated shit too. I got a 7″ with 7 and 7 is and that’s literally all the Love any sane person needs.
@SteveHy: The poptamists won the rockcrit wars
You might be surprised there. (I agree that substituting one uber-alles ideology for another is pointless when taking to a cartoonish degree — and I’ve seen it happen — but you are stretching big time.)
It seems clear to me that the tide is with the poptamists. For what other reason are we subjected to blanket “American Idol” coverage from papers of record to indie-championing blogs?
Or am I mistaking the implied definition?
@SteveHy: I really don’t get where the “Everything Sucks” idea comes from. I follow the posts on days when I’m not posting and I’ve never got that impression at all. Sure, there’s plenty of bad news in the music biz, but I think there’s plenty of enthusiastic posts mixed in as well.
The poptimists haven’t won if people aren’t even spelling their name right yet.
I like the Doors a little bit more since I heard “Five to One.”
We’re not forced to hear that nothing will ever beat the ’60s anymore
Maybe it’s because I’m not American or I don’t religiously read Rolling Stone in some misguided attempt to prove I dislike it more than anybody else, but I’ve never really suffered this misfortune.
Also I like the Doors but not too much. A lot of gold mixed in with the boring trippy shit.
@Nicolars: Man, everyone dogs my spelling. And I’m an editor! I am ashamed.
While I could never get into “Soft Parade”, the Doors do have their moments. And to second Anthony on their hilarity, you really can’t beat Morrison’s live banter on some of those authorized concert releases. There’s no way he DIDN’T know how funny some of that shit is.
The Doors are easily one of the 10 best American rock bands ever.
@TheContrarian: well, i’d imagine that for most sites the american idol coverage gets the pageviews that subsidize the more, shall we say, “boutique” items. (they are to idolator what gratutious galleries-posing-as-stories are to time.com and other online outlets.)
plus in this era of niched-out everything, it’s kind of fun to get this glimpse into way-mainstream-american culture. it’s like visiting the carousel of progress at disneyworld!
Well done Anthony - there’s hope for you whelps yet.
One more thing - Morrision’s goofball “Bozo Dionysus” shtick, provided the template for Patti Smith’s goofball “Bozo Dionysus” shtick, which is also fucking hillarious in retrospect…
@Mike P.: Neil Hannon is God:
and the original:
man i love neil hannon. so much.
The Doors are worse than end-stage cancer.
Arthur Lee? The guy who lived in bottles and pretended they were cans?
This is beautiful.
Excellent post. At this juncture, I find the Doors funny, ridiculous, mostly harmless, and a pretty great singles band. Picking on them is kinda shooting fish in the barrel, and while I realize that sites like Idolator need to shoot fish in the barrel once in a while, or there’s no content, posts like this are nice too.
And, hey, check out this great version of “Touch Me” by The Divine Comedy. See, Neil Hannon gets it!
Oh for the love of…
[idolator.com]
If you said Scott Walker instead of Arthur Lee, you totally woulda had me.
Also… watching that performance video in the original post, all I’m seeing is Will Ferrell.
@Mike P.: At this juncture, I find the Doors funny, ridiculous, mostly harmless, and a pretty great singles band.
Second.
And nice job, Anthony. I love my man Dan (and half-agree with him) but still don’t get where that post yesterday came from.
I can’t be bothered to read the clusterfuck of comments on the other thread and see if it was brought up already, but the Kids In The Hall “Doors fan” sketch justifies the band’s existence whether or not you hate them.
@Al Shipley: You know, I am honestly surprised nobody mentioned that sketch until now.
defending the doors after ragging on pink floyd?! c’mon now.
“Pretty good Jim Morrison impersonation there. I hope those guys have a good sense of humor and don’t take us into court.”
@pjohn: I might be able to defend post-Barrett Pink Floyd if I ever found myself getting through an entire song on the radio.
“Pop quiz: who’s playing bass? Nobody. The Doors had now bass. Just like the Gypsies have no homes. ‘Cause when you’re free flyin’ with The Doors, man, you don’t need no safety net!”
Thanks, Anthony. Yes, they ARE funny, And I think even drunk, narcissistic Jimbo knew that. I mean, the dude sang “the human race is dyin’ out,” over the most upbeat supper jazz in the world. if that’s not deviant humor, I dunno what is.
When Lennon makes a pun, the world rejoices. When Jimbo cracks wise, people call him out as a buffon. Just sayin’.
@exposition: Yes! ‘Crystal Shit’!