Since moving to Asbury Park a little over a year ago, I have amassed quite a large record collection, and so I've decided to go through my stacks of wax and discuss some of the items in my collection - the good, the bad and the weird included. This is Alex's Record Collection.When I interviewed Ray Manzarek of the Doors for my day job a little while back, I was faced with a bit of a predicament: I hadn't really listened to the Doors in years. When I was in middle school and into my early high school years, they were my band, they got it, man.
But as I grew older, my tastes expanded, I put away my Morrison-wannabe leather pants and headed into other areas. Going back through the Doors to get ready for my interview with Ray, I realized something: as a 20-something musician/writer, I was straining to listen past Jim Morrison, trying to sonically see through him. Yeah, he's an American poet. Yeah, he's an icon. And yeah, he's a fine singer.
But lately I found myself getting more into what Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore were doing behind him, underneath him. Truth be told, I was bored with Morrison's shtick, and I was more into the acidy blues rock that his fellow Doors were churning out. So, what do you do when you want to listen to the Doors but you're not interested in the Lizard King (other than listening to Love's "Forever Changes")? Enter "Other Voices."
When Morrison shuffled off this mortal coil in July of 1971, the Doors were just beginning to hit their musical second wind. From January of 1967 to April of 1971, the band put out six studio LPs - one of them was great (the first one) and the rest were varying degrees of OK but all featured a handful of great tracks. But the last album with the original lineup, "LA Woman," found the band embracing jazz, jam and lounge elements in a fresh, exciting way that got the buying public interested - it was their most commercially successful album since their first one, and their most interesting sounding one since then, too.
The Jim went to Paris and died.
That's where "Other Voices" comes in. The band had started recording the music before Morrison headed to Paris, and when he died in July, they kept going. They released the album in October. And you know what? It's really damn good. And not just "good enough for a Doors album without Jim" good. No, it's really good.
Sure, there are a couple of duds, specifically the first two tracks on Side Two ("Down on the Farm" is just stupid and "I'm Horny, I'm Stoned" is a little too on the nose.) But the playing on this record from the three instrumentally-inclined Doors is amazing. This is the most free they ever sounded on wax. It's as if after years of being a solid trippy blues rock band who had to be the foundation for Morrison's antics, they're finally allowed to play to the best of their abilities.
You know what this is? It's a jam band album. Seriously, you can keep this record on the shelf right next to "Blues for Allah" and "Terrapin Station" and it will hold its own. Don't believe me? Check this out:
Holy shit, how awesome is that? This album is so, so damn good, and I'm so happy to have it in my record collection. It's the sound of three free men playing exactly what they want, how they want and having fun doing it. Morrison was gone, but the genius wasn't. As far as vinyl goes, I only have two Doors albums, this one and the first one, and I'm fine with that. In fact, I listen to this one more, so sue me.
I kinda wish Ray, John and Robbie had kept this lineup of the band going, either as the Doors or as something else, because they were on the cusp of a whole new greatness here.
Oh well, at least I've got my record collection.
