Light My Fire

Steyn On-line ^ | July 30, 2017 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

Lots of interesting tidbits from Steyn...although I can't imagine this song being done well by anyone other than The Doors.

[dainbramaged]

Great song, great band. Morrison should have been more careful with his various recreational activities.

[dfwgator]

Morrison hated that song.

[dfwgator]

Certainly better than the Jose Feliciano version.

[Chainmail]

I remember first hearing Light my Fire when I came home on my Extension Leave from Vietnam in March ‘67. I liked it just fine and told everyone about it when I got back “in country” later in the month.

[ifinnegan]

Doors would hands down be worst band of all time if there weren’t myriad worse bands.

[HLPhat]

"The fire is in the minds of men, not on the roofs of houses"

--Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Possessed"

"METROPOLIS", 1927
https://youtu.be/Q0NzALRJifI?t=1h24m12s

 

[Gigantor]

“Doors would hands down be worst band of all time if there weren’t myriad worse bands.”

Darn it. I wish you had told me this before I spent money on buying The Doors records. I could have saved money.

[Publius]

What sold the long version were Densmore's and Manzarek's rock/jazz riffs in the middle. The rest of the song wasn't up to their musical gifts.

The Doors: "Light My Fire" (album version)

[ifinnegan]

Yep.

Live and learn.

[newfreep]

When the Doors first went into the studio, the engineer (Bruce Botnick) showed Morrison the microphone he would be using - a Telefunken U47.

Morrison was starstruck as he recognized it as the same mike used by Frank Sinatra - Jim was a HUGE fan of Frank.

[dfwgator]

When they performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show, they were told not to say the word “Higher”.....Of course, Jim made a point of emphasizing the word “Higher” when they performed it.

[dfwgator]

I always thought “Touch Me” was Jim trying to do his best Sinatra imitation.

[truth_seeker]

Jose Feliciano did the song, very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx0meyQf62w

The youth culture was what it was, but the music is timeless.

That is why it is still played, and talked about.

[newfreep]

I’m very blessed to have CDRs of “The Doors” first album and “LA Woman” - both burned from the original studio master tapes.

When Morrison’s voice comes in at the beginning of “Break on Through”, it explodes into the listening room as if he was “right there”.

Kudos to Bruce Botnick’s superb engineering and especially his miking of Morrison by not using a normal “shield” on the Telefunken U47 mikes.

[sparklite2]

The Boomer cultural juggernaut has come to my mind, too. I remember thinking at the time that having the Rolling Stones play the half-time a few years ago at the Super Bowl was the equivalent in years passed of having the Clicquot Club Eskimos of 1922 play at the 1967 Super Bowl.

[Fiji Hill]

Not everyone was listening to the "Light My Fire" and "Sgt. Pepper" in the summer of 1967. "All the Time" by Jack Greene spent a few weeks atop the country/western charts that summer.

[PGR88]

As Mitteleuropean groovers like to say, "Gekommen auf Baby, mein Feuer beleuchten!"

When in doubt about a song-lyric, always translate it into German for fun.

[newfreep]

Morrison was definitely channelling Sinatra on parts of “Touch Me”.

The Doors used Curtis Amy on saxophone.

[crazy scenario]

" Great song, great band. Morrison should have been more careful with his various recreational activities."

Still have the "DOORS" 8-track & the 69 Chevelle I played it in.