2017 - September 19 - Riders On The Storm

I think I will stay in 1971 for a little bit. The Doors released their final album with Jim Morrison in April that year, only months before he died in Paris. The album was LA Woman, and both side A and side B of the LP ends with an extended song. Side A has the title track, which is a rollicking romp about the city of lights. However, for me, the true gem is the final track, Riders On The Storm. The driving bass riff played by Jerry Scheff (this is one of the time Ray Manzarek didn't play the bass on his keyboard), and laid back drumming by John Densmore with almost a jazz sensitivity holds the center of the mix and starts us off. Ray Manzarek's electric piano is placed to the left in the mix with cascading notes over the backdrop of a rainstorm. Jim Morrison performs one of his most haunted lyrics, placed centrally in the mix, with Robbie Krieger joining in the right channel just after Morrison starts singing - and his singing voice is double tracked with a whisper of the lyrics, creating a haunting effect. It is glued together better than the extreme left/right mixing The Beatles did at the same period - but much of the reason for that is that the keys and the guitar play similar figures when they are backing the vocals, while they help accentuate and augment one another as they solo. This is just about as jazz as The Doors ever got with Jim Morrison - and I absolutely love it!

August 1 - Break On Through

So earlier this year, I did album closers as a theme for a week. This week, the theme is opening tracks on albums. That in itself would be too easy of a task - there are tons of albums with great opening tracks - so I am limiting it to opening tracks on debut albums. In other words, the first song the bands and artists ever put on an album.

The first song is really a no-brainer. While I don't know how and where I listened to The Doors for the first time, I can tell you without doubt that I first heard their 1967 debut album simply called The Doors at Vegard's house. He is one of my old friends whose record collection has had an immense impact on me and my musical taste. I loved just browsing his collection, finding new music all the time.

When it comes to The Doors, they were one of his favorite bands. Jim Morrison's poetry was something he really could relate to - and the mix of music and poetry was second to none. As for debut albums, I don't know that it can be done much better, and there is no doubt about them being a true musical force from the first note of Break On Through. The groove they start out with is infectious, but when they get to the chorus, "tried to run, tried to hide, break on through to the other side" the song explodes. They would keep on experimenting with dynamics throughout their career, but it all started with this song.

June 3 - When The Music's Over

While I can't say that I was introduced to The Doors through the book Beatles by Lars Saabye Christensen, it isn't far from the truth. The part about Strange Days isn't long, but it is very expressive, and it has stuck with me ever since I first read this great novel. Lars Saabye Christensen is a master of Oslo in the 1960s - that's when and where he came of age, and he has visited that time period over and over again - but I don't think he ever did it as well as he did in Beatles, which is a novel I encourage everyone to read.

His description of When The Music's Over culminates with the following statement: "The silence afterwards was overwhelming, even in the sitting room they had taken a break." When I heard When The Music's Over for the first time, I felt the same way.

March 17 - The End

I can't tell you what year it was, but I can tell you what impact it had on me. I was a member of Trondheim Filmklubb (TFK) for a good number of years. I believe I started in high school, as I had two good friends, Vegard Nørstebø and Rune Sandnes, who both were members of TFK, and I was curious enough to join as well. Vegard and Rune didn't know one another, but both of them had a huge influence on my taste in movies because they inspired me to join - and I did.

A film club, at least the way they operate in Norway, is a club that books a wide range of movies for screenings - in Norway they are also part of a network, so the import and screening costs are kept down a little - and they tend to specialize in what in the US is considered Arthouse films; movies that fall outside of the mainstream. When I first joined TFK, they had matinees at 1 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and a 11 pm screening Wednesday night - and I tried to go to all of them. Membership was inexpensive, and so were the tickets for the individual screenings.

Anyway, I really remember sinking into the chair in the movie theater to watch Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now! This was before the resurgence of the movie through Apocalypse Now! Redux and Heart of Darkness - and I really didn't quite know what to expect. However, from the first few seconds I was sucked into an experience that not only was visually spectacular, but that blended music and picture in a way that completely changed the way I looked at music in movies.

While the very first image of palm trees that suddenly catch fire is powerful enough, the part that really sticks with me is the transition from helicopter blades to a ceiling fan - and Martin Sheen's tormented Captain Willard in a hot and sticky room. And while all this is going on, The Doors are gradually building the music behind Jim Morrison's very disturbing words... "This is the end, my only friend, the end..." If I hadn't been turned on to The Doors before watching Apocalypse Now!, I certainly was after that opening scene... And all this came back to me on Tuesday, as I was sitting waiting for my breaks to get fixed and The Doors came over the sound system at the shop. The End still does it for me!

The opening scene doesn't have the same impact when it's not on the big screen, but I have included it here to show you what I am talking about.