The Doors sound: “Electric Eclectic”
Ray Manzarek calls the Doors sound: "electric eclectic"
On November 5, 1967, the new Billboard list of top-selling albums had the Doors’ self-titled debut sitting at number three. Their latest release, Strange Days, had climbed to number four. Having two albums in the top five at the same time was Beatles territory and spoke to the band’s widespread appeal. You would find Doors fans among the hippest of hippies, but at the same time Morrison was a heartthrob for teenage girls. 16 magazine had recently named him “one of the up and coming stars.”
Fans snapped up Strange Days faster than Elektra execs had anticipated, totally different from the slow-growth sales of the debut. Two weeks earlier, journalists had reported that the record label received more than 350,000 advance orders. Others thought the preorders had topped half a million.
The jazz influences on rock music, according to Ray Manzarek
What fans around the world were hearing, according to Ray Manzarek, was “electric eclectic,” a mix of jazz, blues, and hard rock — all infused with a mix of American grit and psychedelic vibes that the band brought to life. That combination came from the gifts of each band member, from Ray’s intensity and grace, Robby’s charging guitar, John’s jazzy beat and musical spirit, and Jim’s “literary side.”
Journalist Bob Micklin had figured out the band’s formula for success, calling them “the inheritors, and the advancers, of the brief legacy of contemporary message music established by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Donovan.” What was at the core of this “message music” sweeping the nation? “An uneven mixture of blues, rock ’n roll, existential philosophy, imagistic poetry, and pure electronic sound.”
Jim Morrison addresses the conflict of the age, including war and drugs
In early 1967, Time published a story on the hippies, which they identified as some 300,000 young people between seventeen and twenty-five years old. Most were upper-middle-class and well-educated, but they were antiestablishment and advocated a “subversion of Western society” through nonviolence and the example they hoped to create. The Doors as people may have leaned hippie in thinking and action, but most of their music was from a different perspective and ran counter to what the majority of hippies preached.
Jim and his band mates were also outspoken on issues about culture and politics. Morrison, in particular, provided great sound bites for the media as it honed its need for quick summations. The idea that “war” and “flower children” existed along the same line of thinking was an advanced example of Jim’s critical thinking acumen.
For readers and listeners, the Doors could be a kind of truth serum, bringing issues and topics to light in new and interesting ways. To the establishment, however, they were dangerous. Morrison did not place them in the center of the “conflict,” but they would become symbolic of the gap between those in power and the youth movement.
Roadhouse Blues by cultural historian and biographer Bob Batchelor
In 1967, the world was changing fast and everything was a blur for the Doors. Yet, it was the music that pushed them into a new stratosphere.
Like the Rolling Stones with “Satisfaction,” “Light My Fire” changed everything for the Doors. “For the first half of the year, we were touring in a van as unproven unknowns,” Krieger recalled when thinking about 1967. “For the second half, we were being flown to headlining gigs as number-one artists.”
In less than twelve months, the Doors had become America’s top band.