The following essay about songs by The Doors was written by Bob Lefsetz, and is reprinted with his permission.

Because of the length of some of the individual song stories, this essay will be broken into sections.

Here are the eighth & ninth songs he wrote about ........

THE DOORS  TOP 16


 8.  Back Door Man
 

This has got the sexiness of "Stray Cat Blues" a year BEFORE!

Back in the day, we thought Morrison was the poser and Jagger was the real thing. 

Now that Mick is a bread head and Jim is dead, the roles are reversed.

Sure, it's easy to die.  Then again, wasn't Jim Morrison SUPPOSED TO DIE??

Jagger was all fake revolutionary.  Talking about the "Street Fighting Man", so dumb as to allow Hell's Angels to provide security at Altamont, not realizing they weren't just PLAYING bad, but WERE bad. 

Whereas Morrison might have whipped his dick out on stage and in hindsight was truly chronicling the underside of L.A. life.  The world of Venice before the bohos took it over.

Straight blues, but everybody's firing on all cylinders.  And, unlike Aerosmith's and Eric Clapton's recent blues work, IT'S NOT OVER THE TOP!!!
 


 

 9.   Twentieth Century Fox

Yes, yes, YES, I KNOW I'm focusing on the first album.  But really, can you name a better DEBUT??  Do you think you'll be listening to "Jagged Little Pill" in thirty five years?  The first Boston album?

And so many early works of the Doors' contemporaries are amateurish, or outright SUCK!

Sure, "Are You Experienced" is great.  (Then again, is it really Jimi's first?)

But that first Dead album?  Either the subsequently released early first, or the WB first...BOTH are FAR from "Workingman's Dead".

Even the early Stones.

The first record built the band's reputation.  It SUSTAINED the band's reputation.  You might hear "Roadhouse Blues" and "Riders On The Storm" on the radio, but people PLAY the first album.

This is another killer track.


 

Copyright Bob Lefsetz 2004

e-mail address: lefsetz@aol.com

 

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