Posted on 07/31/2017 11:34:18 AM PDT by Twotone
Exactly half a century ago - July 29th 1967 - this song hit Number One on the Billboard Hot One Hundred. This essay is adapted from Mark's book A Song For The Season:
It was 50 years ago today-ish that Sgt Pepper was going on about how it was 20 years ago today. That's to say, the "Summer of Love" is half a century old: It's longer ago today than the summer of flappers and charlestons and bootleg gin was back in 1967. But, boomers being the most self-absorbed generation in history, we're going to be living with boomer pop culture until the very last one keels over at the age of 130 singing "Give Peace A Chance". So we might as well get used to it. And, to be honest, there's one aspect of the Summer of Love I'm quite partial to. What was America's Number One song in that bright new hazy psychedelic dawn? Oh, come on, baby...
Come on, baby, Light My Fire Come on, baby, Light My Fire Try to set the night on fire...
It set the summer on fire five decades back. The single was edited down to under three minutes, but the disk jockeys played the original seven-minute album track anyway, from the Doors' eponymous album The Doors.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Morrison also had a beautiful baritone voice.
Which was pretty much shot by "LA Woman."
That story was made up for the Stone movie. Morrison always claimed that he was going to censor himself, but got nervous and simply forgot.
Jim didn’t write the song; he wasn’t married to the lyrics.
The story of adding the “Mother, I want to.......” to The End and getting fired at the Whiskey was true, however.
But those were Jim’s lyrics.
I think the Doors in retrospect were a really pretentious art rock band that somehow made two incredible straight rock albums (the first one and the last one).
“We need a two and a half hour movie about the Doors? Folks, no we don’t. I can sum it up for you in five seconds, ok. “I’m drunk. I’m nobody. I’m drunk. I’m famous. I’m drunk. I’m ____ing dead.” There’s the whole movie, ok!? ‘Big Fat Dead Guy in a Bath Tub’, there’s your title for you.” - Dennis Leary
You might as well ask what would have happened if Brian Wilson was not deeply mentally ill and what would have happened if Mike Love was not completely excited about hitting the oldies circuit and making a great living singing the same 20 songs for the next 50 years?
If you’ve ever read an interview with Mike Love, you know that he inspired part of “Back in the USSR,” because he tells that story in EVERY interview. You also know that his happiest points in the band where the early 80s during their “America’s Band” hokey nostalgia period where they were playing to huge crowds with him in complete control through “Kokomo” because he can now say that he wrote a number song without Brian, and Brian never wrote a number one song without him.
The Beach Boys story was never going to end harmoniously (that’s a double pun, folks).
I watched that movie on Amazon Prime a few weeks ago.
The music has aged better than the film. Wow, is that Stone at his worst.....
Good grief.....your comment lacks any modicum of intelligence.
I think Manzarek’s organ sound was a bit cheesy. But on LA Woman, they pretty much ditched it, and it still sounds fresh today, although Jim’s voice by that time was a shadow of what it was.
“Kokomo” was primarily written by John Philips, the creative force and songwriter of the Mamas/Papas.
IIRC, Scott McKenzie contributed to the song, too.
“In my estimation, Sinatra is one of the most over-rated vocalists ever, “
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Nope,he was absolutely wonderful.
.
They do realize that Kokomo is in Indiana, not the Caribbean?
To quote Cracker, “What the world needs now, is another Frank Sinatra....”
““What the world needs now, is another Frank Sinatra....”
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You’re not kidding. One of my big regrets is that I never saw him perform.
.
WHAAAAAAAT?
Does that mean Tom Cruise did not sing the original track in the studio while juggling whiskey bottles?
:-)
Mike Love got a songwriting credit.
And he throws that fact out all the time in order to get one over on Cousin Brian.
The psychodrama of the Wilson/Love clans is a hobby of mine.
You could do a fabulous movie on Dennis Wilson - the third most talented of the brothers.
At one time, Dennis Wilson was hangin’ with Charlie Manson.
I was living in Hollywood during the Manson slaughters.
I told a young co-worker a while back that Ozzy Osbourne was the original lead singer for Black Sabbath. He didn’t believe me until I played some original Sabbath for him.
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