The eponymous album by The Doors as a masterpiece. It’s not perfect. There are some ordinary songs in there, (“I Looked At You”, “Take It As It Comes” and “Twentieth Century Fox”) but, with those few exceptions, each track is truly great with at least three that are genuine classics by any measure.
The album was published when the order of tracks was relevant. Playing a vinyl album began by taking the disc carefully out of its sleeve, placing it on the turntable and delicately dropping the stylus onto track 1, side 1. The warm crackle, like the sound of a gently fire, introduced the first track. A Bossa Nova beat kicks in followed quickly by the bass notes from Ray's left hand then full stereo as Robbie's guitar joins the intro to "Break on Through (To The Other Side)".
This is the best 5 seconds of noise I know. It’s a superb opening to a debut album and to the song that became an anthem.
And side one continues through Soul Kitchen and Crystal Ship. A bizarre diversion via Alabama Song to end the side with Light My Fire. What a journey and what a performance for a debut album – and that’s only side one – and, it gets better.
There’s no shuffle on vinyl. You daren’t pick the stylus up for fear of scratching your prized possession so it’s important that the flow of the album works. The production of this LP is impeccable. Side two delivers a similarly well structured set of tracks with the ultimate climax to an album, “The End”.
When I first listened to The Doors, I was unaware of the censored lyrics in Break On Through. It made no difference. The sleeve notes on another compilation album had explained something of the oedipal nature of The End but I didn’t know what had been removed from the original track. Again, it didn’t make a difference. It just made it that much more enjoyable when, over 20 years later, we got to hear what was really going on.
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