Riders on a Sleigh
December 24, 2011 5:05 PM Subscribe
I once heard one the radio the most amazing medley of Doors songs redone for christmas. The guy doing the Jim Morrison impression was spot on. It had this bit from The End: "Santa put his boots on and walked on down the hall."
But this makes a grand total of five different Doors christmas songs I have heard.
posted by munchingzombie at 5:37 PM on December 24, 2011
But this makes a grand total of five different Doors christmas songs I have heard.
posted by munchingzombie at 5:37 PM on December 24, 2011
If the doors of perception were cleansed, Jim Morrison would appear as he truly is: the most overrated dead rock star in history.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:38 PM on December 24, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:38 PM on December 24, 2011 [4 favorites]
flapjax: you're not giving Jim enough credit. He's also the most overrated dead poet in history.
posted by milnak at 6:39 PM on December 24, 2011
posted by milnak at 6:39 PM on December 24, 2011
That's the worst Morrison impression I've ever heard. I've heard karaoke singers do it better.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:04 PM on December 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:04 PM on December 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
I once drunkenly tried to do "Break on Through" at a karaoke place. The crowd reaction: Silent Night.
posted by telstar at 7:36 PM on December 24, 2011
posted by telstar at 7:36 PM on December 24, 2011
The Doors were one of my, in not my favorite, band at some point when I was about 16. And because of that, I still love them, though I can't really listen to them for hours on end any longer. I don't think they're actually bad, though. Overrated is probably right.
posted by maxwelton at 8:49 PM on December 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by maxwelton at 8:49 PM on December 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
He's also the most overrated dead poet in history
To be fair, that's almost an achievement worth celebrating.
posted by mannequito at 9:06 PM on December 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
To be fair, that's almost an achievement worth celebrating.
posted by mannequito at 9:06 PM on December 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
If the doors of perception were cleansed, Jim Morrison would appear as he truly is: the most overrated dead rock star in history.
Jimi Hendrix would like a word with you.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:32 PM on December 24, 2011
Jimi Hendrix would like a word with you.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:32 PM on December 24, 2011
Ok, that is just ridiculous. No matter how great people think he is, Jimi is underrated.
posted by saul wright at 10:50 PM on December 24, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by saul wright at 10:50 PM on December 24, 2011 [8 favorites]
Yeah, sorry, Sys Rq, but in this instance, at least, a clue is what you ain't got.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:15 AM on December 25, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:15 AM on December 25, 2011
the history of rock guitar is divided into two eras - before hendrix and after hendrix - this is not opinion, but verifiable fact
posted by pyramid termite at 3:49 AM on December 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by pyramid termite at 3:49 AM on December 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
He's also the most overrated dead poet in history
I keep a copy of The Lords and The New Creatures in my toilet. I rely on the theosophical "law of attraction" for dealing with cases of constipation.
posted by howfar at 5:37 AM on December 25, 2011
I keep a copy of The Lords and The New Creatures in my toilet. I rely on the theosophical "law of attraction" for dealing with cases of constipation.
posted by howfar at 5:37 AM on December 25, 2011
The problem that I have with "overrated" is that it ends up getting conflated with "not that good", and make no mistake, at their best, the Doors were excellent. That having been said, the chronic overrating of J Morrison specifically as this mystic poet/sex god, both by Morrison himself and by generations of impressionable young men, is a real thing. There was an ocean of difference between the Doors doing actual songs and that record of the surviving members noodling away under the old recording of Jim's mumbled recitation of his verses, but to the true fanboy, it's all good.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:11 AM on December 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:11 AM on December 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
the history of rock guitar is divided into two eras - before hendrix and after hendrix - this is not opinion, but verifiable fact
It's ignorance, is what it is.
The same could be said about rock singers and Jim Morrison, and it'd be more accurate.
Did guitar playing change in the mid-sixties? Sure, lots. But that's not because of Hendrix; it's because of the new electronic effects, it's because of multitrack recording, it's because of psychedelic drugs, it's because the first generation to have learned to play guitar on an electric guitar were coming of age. Hendrix was a product of his times, not the other way around.
And he was a much, much, much worse lyricist than Jim Morrison.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:13 AM on December 25, 2011
It's ignorance, is what it is.
The same could be said about rock singers and Jim Morrison, and it'd be more accurate.
Did guitar playing change in the mid-sixties? Sure, lots. But that's not because of Hendrix; it's because of the new electronic effects, it's because of multitrack recording, it's because of psychedelic drugs, it's because the first generation to have learned to play guitar on an electric guitar were coming of age. Hendrix was a product of his times, not the other way around.
And he was a much, much, much worse lyricist than Jim Morrison.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:13 AM on December 25, 2011
The problem that I have with "overrated" is that it ends up getting conflated with "not that good", and make no mistake, at their best, the Doors were excellent.
This. Like many people, at fifteen I thought The Doors to be visionaries and Morrison an amazing poet. By about age twenty, I had totally stopped listening to them and twenty-plus years later, I have listened to scarcely anything by them from that day to this. If I never hear "L.A. Woman" or "Roadhouse Blues" again, I would not notice the lack. But that being said, I still reckon a few things like "Take It As It Comes" and Maggie M'Gill" to be superb bits of late sixties blues/psychedelia. If they had been recorded by the Yardbirds or Love or someone, you would hear them all the time on oldies radio.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:23 AM on December 25, 2011
This. Like many people, at fifteen I thought The Doors to be visionaries and Morrison an amazing poet. By about age twenty, I had totally stopped listening to them and twenty-plus years later, I have listened to scarcely anything by them from that day to this. If I never hear "L.A. Woman" or "Roadhouse Blues" again, I would not notice the lack. But that being said, I still reckon a few things like "Take It As It Comes" and Maggie M'Gill" to be superb bits of late sixties blues/psychedelia. If they had been recorded by the Yardbirds or Love or someone, you would hear them all the time on oldies radio.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:23 AM on December 25, 2011
Agreed. Overrated is precisely the right word, and an entirely different thing from '"sucked". The way to really appreciate Jim Morrison is if you never worshipped him, smiled indulgently at those who did, and and just flipped past those breathless articles that called him a god. The Doors are really wonderful to listen to if you don't have any baggage. And though I'm not old enough to remember it, I can only imagine, a little jealously, what it would have been like to be listening to them for the first time in the '60s while completely stoned.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:36 PM on December 25, 2011
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:36 PM on December 25, 2011
Sys Rq: there are almost no guitarists who don't believe that Hendrix completely revolutionized the instrument; there are few (Western pop) musicians of any kind who don't believe that.
It's quite likely that Hendrix's performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock was the greatest single moment in the history of the guitar - or if you can think of another such specific moment, lay it on us.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:42 PM on December 25, 2011
It's quite likely that Hendrix's performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock was the greatest single moment in the history of the guitar - or if you can think of another such specific moment, lay it on us.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:42 PM on December 25, 2011
The same could be said about rock singers and Jim Morrison, and it'd be more accurate.
No. Dylan had already changed the game in July 1965. Springsteen correctly identifies the opening snare shot of "Like a Rolling Stone" as being "like somebody had kicked open the doors of your mind". By the time The Doors formed in August, everything was different.
posted by howfar at 3:46 PM on December 25, 2011
No. Dylan had already changed the game in July 1965. Springsteen correctly identifies the opening snare shot of "Like a Rolling Stone" as being "like somebody had kicked open the doors of your mind". By the time The Doors formed in August, everything was different.
posted by howfar at 3:46 PM on December 25, 2011
But that's not because of Hendrix; it's because of the new electronic effects, it's because of multitrack recording, it's because of psychedelic drugs, it's because the first generation to have learned to play guitar on an electric guitar were coming of age.
there was much, much more to his playing than effects, multitrack recording, or drugs - phrasing, note choice, harmonic concepts, feel and tone - he had it all - the way he slid around notes and bent them just so was masterful - i don't think to this day that anyone's ever managed to play with the kind of finesse he had, and he didn't need to play full blast, with effects, to be astonishing
The same could be said about rock singers and Jim Morrison, and it'd be more accurate.
no, as a singer jim morrison was pretty limited - come on, he made his debut in a year when janis joplin and aretha franklin became known and he wasn't anywhere near that kind of vocal talent - i still think the first couple of albums stand up well, mostly because morrison doesn't get too pretentious, but it's the band that carries those records, not morrison
ok, this is my introduction to the doors - it's 1967, the local AM radio station is playing "light my fire" in heavy rotation - and the song becomes so popular, that they start playing the FULL version, regularly, on top 40
i don't think you can understand how mind blowing it was to be hearing that kind of music on am radio - a 4-5 minute long instrumental jam - yes, indeed, other groups did that first, but the doors were the first ones to break into the rock mainstream with it - and in spite of the somewhat dated recording and sonics, instrumentally, it still holds up
unfortunately, after strange days, they got a little too commercial and undisciplined - and jim started losing what voice he had and got caught up into thinking that he was some kind of great poet
if morrison had lived, i think that he'd have done much to ruin the doors' reputation
morrison IS overrated - but the rest of the band is underappreciated - i've heard bootlegs from right before their record came out - they could play every note of that live and play it well - at that time, they were probably the tightest live band around - their perfomance abilities seriously upped the ante - bands needed to play a lot better then they had been doing
posted by pyramid termite at 4:14 PM on December 25, 2011
there was much, much more to his playing than effects, multitrack recording, or drugs - phrasing, note choice, harmonic concepts, feel and tone - he had it all - the way he slid around notes and bent them just so was masterful - i don't think to this day that anyone's ever managed to play with the kind of finesse he had, and he didn't need to play full blast, with effects, to be astonishing
The same could be said about rock singers and Jim Morrison, and it'd be more accurate.
no, as a singer jim morrison was pretty limited - come on, he made his debut in a year when janis joplin and aretha franklin became known and he wasn't anywhere near that kind of vocal talent - i still think the first couple of albums stand up well, mostly because morrison doesn't get too pretentious, but it's the band that carries those records, not morrison
ok, this is my introduction to the doors - it's 1967, the local AM radio station is playing "light my fire" in heavy rotation - and the song becomes so popular, that they start playing the FULL version, regularly, on top 40
i don't think you can understand how mind blowing it was to be hearing that kind of music on am radio - a 4-5 minute long instrumental jam - yes, indeed, other groups did that first, but the doors were the first ones to break into the rock mainstream with it - and in spite of the somewhat dated recording and sonics, instrumentally, it still holds up
unfortunately, after strange days, they got a little too commercial and undisciplined - and jim started losing what voice he had and got caught up into thinking that he was some kind of great poet
if morrison had lived, i think that he'd have done much to ruin the doors' reputation
morrison IS overrated - but the rest of the band is underappreciated - i've heard bootlegs from right before their record came out - they could play every note of that live and play it well - at that time, they were probably the tightest live band around - their perfomance abilities seriously upped the ante - bands needed to play a lot better then they had been doing
posted by pyramid termite at 4:14 PM on December 25, 2011
Somewhere along the way in a Morrison discussion you have to factor in
"There's a killer on the road/ His brain is squirming like a toad"
Perhaps the worst rock lyric in history (except for "Hey there fella with the hair colored yella")
Poet? Just a pop singer.
posted by cccorlew at 8:31 AM on December 26, 2011
"There's a killer on the road/ His brain is squirming like a toad"
Perhaps the worst rock lyric in history (except for "Hey there fella with the hair colored yella")
Poet? Just a pop singer.
posted by cccorlew at 8:31 AM on December 26, 2011
And [Jimi Hendrix] was a much, much, much worse lyricist than Jim Morrison.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:13 AM on December 25
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa just a minute here.
Let's not say things we can't take back.
posted by Cookiebastard at 1:55 PM on December 26, 2011
[i"There's a killer on the road/ His brain is squirming like a toad"
Perhaps the worst rock lyric in history...
That's not even the worst lyric in that verse.
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:04 PM on December 26, 2011
Perhaps the worst rock lyric in history...
That's not even the worst lyric in that verse.
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:04 PM on December 26, 2011
I've put The Doors' debut album on my list of all-time favorites, but other than that album there are maybe a half-dozen or so Doors' songs I find worth listening to.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 2:28 AM on December 28, 2011
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 2:28 AM on December 28, 2011
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posted by cjorgensen at 5:27 PM on December 24, 2011