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[Publius note: All text in this weekend’s Canteen contribution was written by John Kruth for his article in The Observer.]
One glance at the cover of the Doors’ debut album and you knew the summer of love was over, and the flower children were headed straight for the sanitarium. These Doors, as drummer John Densmore later quipped, were clearly “unhinged.”
Ray Manzarek carried the stern countenance of a Protestant preacher, hunched over the keyboard driving Jim Morrison into new, uncharted realms as he delivered psychedelic sermons. Manzarek’s studied glare behind his rimless glasses and stiff, formal appearance (preferring suits to the colorful ad-hoc hippie esthetic) gave him the air of a tidy yet maniacal schoolmaster while guitarist Robby Kreiger resembled a frazzled Venice Beach ragamuffin. And Densmore just seemed like that guy in high school you knew you had to keep away from your little sister. Well, they all did, but none more so than the self-proclaimed “Lizard King,” Jim Morrison.
True rock ‘n’ roll seethes with danger, bordering at times on madness, whether Jerry Lee Lewis pounding his piano like a man possessed by the devil he feared, or Jimi Hendrix’ feedback melting your face as he nonchalantly asked, “Are you experienced?”
Released on January 4, 1967, the Doors’ self-titled debut presented the peace and love crowd with a strange invitation. Like some crazy stranger you just met, Jim stands on a precarious precipice, arm stretched out beckoning you to leap with him into the great unknown.
In honor of the album’s 50th anniversary, we present you with a song-by-song synopsis of one of rock’s most enduring debut albums.
“Break On Through” kicks off with Densmore’s hard-grooving Latin beat and an electric piano vamp reminiscent of Ray Charles’ “What I Say.” If one song sums up the Doors’ take-no-prisoners philosophy, it’s “Break On Through.”
Like Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ metaphorical manifesto “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” or James Dean’s tortured teenager in “Rebel Without a Cause,” the song stands as a testament against societal complacency, challenging you to forge your own individual path through life, no matter the risk or how emotionally messy it may get. “I’m interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos,” Jim Morrison once proclaimed, apparently even at the price of his own self-preservation.
