Showing posts with label nightmares on wax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nightmares on wax. Show all posts

Sunday 9 September 2018

Log #102 - 4 Doors Albums

Eddy Bamyasi

Were The Doors just a phase one went through when growing up, like the recently discussed Rush? Or did they really have depth and staying power? They aren't a band I return to very often (and in fact this is their first appearance in the log in 2 years and nearly 250 artists!). This is surprising really as the music is actually excellent and the band should really be viewed as much more than a mere Jim Morrison vehicle. But has the cult of their revered and charismatic singer over shadowed their actual music? Read on as I replay four of their (only six *) studio albums.

Aimee Mann - Whatever
Nightmares on Wax - Late Night Tales
The Doors - Morrison Hotel
The Doors - Strange Days
The Doors - The Doors
The Doors - L.A. Woman


* There were six proper original Jim Morrison Doors studio albums plus a live album although a couple of albums were recorded after his death and some previously unreleased recordings and live albums surfaced later.

The complete studio discography is:

The Doors (1967)
Strange Days (1967)
Waiting for the Sun (1968)
The Soft Parade (1969)
Morrison Hotel (1970)
L.A. Woman (1971)
Other Voices (1971)
Full Circle (1972)
An American Prayer (1978)

The Doors

The Doors The Doors arrived in 1967 (the same year as Sgt. Pepper and the Velvet Underground debut). It was quite a debut and very unique. There weren't many bands with such an emphasis on the organ - Ray Manzarek's carnival thrustings on his Vox Continental and Fender Rhodes Bass gave the Doors a 60s vaudeville like sound. They wrote brilliantly catchy pop tunes, but could really rock too - witness the malevolent The End - the debut's brooding menacing 12 minute epic in which Morrison would famously ad-lib the spoken word section during live performance. Quite a shock for both live audiences and bedroom listeners alike. The song was also made famous as the opening credits to Apocalypse Now:




The other big track on the album is, of course, Light My Fire. Possibly a bit spoilt by over exposure these days it is nevertheless objectively a brilliant track with a keyboard and guitar instrumental section which was cut for the single release.

Right down The Doors' alley we have the Brecht and Weill cover Whisky Bar perfectly suited to Manzarek's fairground organ grinding and Morrison's baritone. There is a blues cover (The Doors would return more and more to their blues roots in later albums); Willie Dixon's Back Door Man. Take It As It Comes and Twentieth Century Fox are great rock pieces and the psychedelic End Of The Night is similar to Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd.

It's difficult to argue that this is not the greatest Doors album. Consistent and original. Their subsequent albums largely repeated the formula albeit becoming slightly more blues and rock based. They were never quite as original again.

Strange Days

Perhaps the band's second album Strange Days suffers from comparison as it is pretty much a carbon copy of the first album but by then without the "surprise" of course. So we have an abundance of consummate pop singles like Love Me Two Times and People Are Strange and another 12 minute epic closer When The Music's Over.  Structurally this track it's pretty identical to The End with guitarist Robbie Krieger using some Robert Fripp type distortion, and a slowed down middle section. These extended builders gave the band, and Morrison especially, plenty of scope for live improvisation and extension:


Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection
Send my credentials to the House of Detention
I got some friends inside 

I imagine at many live performances there was a dread of what Morrison was going to sing or say every time he went off script (rather like Donald Trump today!).

One departure on this album which I can safely say is no-one's favourite Doors track is the Horse Latitudes poem set to avant-garde noises. Some recordings of Jim Morrison's poems were later released on American Prayer which I actually think works really well and is an excellent album in it's own right.

My copy comes in a lovely LP style miniature cardboard case with a £3 sticker. What a bargain. See if you can spot the album cover in my Album Cover Challenge. The location was a residential alley in Manhattan, New York.




Rock Trivia Fact Question: Which Doors album cover does not feature a picture of the band or Jim Morrison?

Morrison Hotel

The band's 5th album Morrison Hotel kicks off with the much covered Roadhouse Blues which sets the tone for the album with its honky tonk piano and harmonica (John Sebastian) enhanced Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street vibe.

Woke up this morning, I got myself a beer.

The only shame is this studio version is curtailed in comparison to the extended live versions (one of which appears on the underestimated American Prayer). 

There's more blues on You Make Me Real and the excellent grind of Maggie M'Gill:


I've been singing the blues ever since the world began.

The Spy is an intriguing slow blues. One of the joys of reassessing a band like The Doors is uncovering some hidden gems like this, and Queen of The Highway with it's nice electric wurlitzer.

On the down tempo Blue Sunday and Indian Summer Morrison sounds like a Ratpack crooner; the modern day equivalent would be Nick Cave or Stuart Staples. Then on Ship of Fools the circus organ recalls the debut album sound.

Peace Frog is my favourite Doors track. I heard this recently in a pub and felt sure it must have been a remix with it being so funky. But it's not, it is the original. Great guitar chops, driving bass and honky organ, slapping drums and fills and a superb guitar break. The lyrics are n't bad either:

Blood in the streets in the town of Newhaven. 

This always means something extra to me as we have a 'town of Newhaven' just a few miles from us in Brighton!




Morrison Hotel is a strong coherent album with only one or two weak tunes - maybe Land Ho! was lucky to make the cut - a fairly lacklustre sea shanty where the vocals even sound like someone else at the end of the song (I've never heard the post Morrison Doors albums - apparently they aren't much cop apart from, ironically, American Prayer which uses Morrison's vocal posthumously).  Although the album lacks the hit singles of earlier releases the overall cohesion demonstrates a work which is greater than the sum of it's parts and as such presents a good case for being the second best Doors album.




The album shoot was taken in and around an old long gone hotel in downtown L.A. The band were refused entry to the hotel to take the photo but apparently jumped in quickly when no one was looking.

L.A. Woman

L.A. Woman was The Doors' last Jim Morrison album, released in April 1971 three months before Morrison's death.

The band had moved further from their original vaudeville type roots (although perfect pop singles like Love Her Madly would have been entirely at home on the debut album). The guitar (and bass) is more prominent and there is less organ generally although the extended keyboard instrumental on the classic Riders On The Storm is possibly Ray Manzarek's finest moment.

The album is more basic rock and blues based as best displayed on the slow crawling blues of Cars Hiss By My Window and Crawling King Snake, but did this demonstrate the band were running dry of original ideas?

L'America is a bit naff but Hyacinth House is a pleasant enough tune:

I need a brand new friend who does n't bother me.

 ... and The Wasp rocks.

What About The Bass?

Did The Doors have a bass player? Well, yes and no. They didn't have one, but also had a lot. The unusual thing about The Doors was that they did employ some session bass players for the studio albums but never, as far as I have discovered, used one for live performances. I'm sure this is the opposite to many bands who have a core group of musicians who may double up their tracked instruments on record, but unable to do so live, employ extra touring musicians to reproduce the records on stage.

So live it was only keyboard guru Ray Manzarek (left) playing bass on the organ which is incredible when you think about it and listen to the fullness of the sound (there is a surprising amount of excellent live footage of The Doors on youtube) (the other musician I'm aware of who does this live is Steve Winwood). However in the studio the tracks were laid down with Manzarek's bass playing but some (not all) were enhanced with electric bass guitar. None of the following bass players were part of the band and most went uncredited.

So on the debut record, you have Manzarek's organ bass, but underneath it you also have Larry Knechtel on bass mirroring his lines.

On the second album Doug Lubahn played electric bass particularly on the more bouncy driving tracks. Lubahn is also the bassist on the next album Waiting for the Sun although a couple of other session players were also used. He went on to play on three tracks from The Soft Parade although the majority of bass was played by Harvey Brooks. 

Main bass stay for the more rock orientated Morrison Hotel was Ray Neopolitan although two of the most bluesy tracks Roadhouse Blues and Maggie M'Gill were handled by Lonnie Mack.

Finally on L.A.Woman bass duties were passed to Elvis bass player Jerry Scheff who remained post Morrison appearing on Other Voices and American Prayer.



Rock Trivia Answer: Many would answer Strange Days but the actual answer is Full Circle. On the Strange Days cover there is a poster of the band on the wall.




Wednesday 11 January 2017

Log #15 - Enofield - The Differing Paths of Two Iconic Soloists from the 1970s

Eddy Bamyasi

Hey And Away We Go
Through The Grass Cross The Snow
Big Brown Beastie
Big Brown Face
I'd Rather Be With You
Than Flying Through Space

Some groove and beats this week with three compilations (two from the excellent Ninja Tunes label), world beats from the brilliantly named Up Bustle and Out (also from the Ninja label), and a DJ set of funk groove from Nightmares on Wax.

But the no. 1 album this week is Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn and it's cover showing Oldfield as a rather Christ like figure graces the head of this blog post. Of course it is mostly instrumental with Oldfield playing nearly all instruments himself, as he famously did on his breakthrough album Tubular Bells - an album that apparently launched the Virgin company (and one of those classics present in every household, although strangely not mine).

The album, his third, was another attempt to follow the template and success of Tubular Bells, after the previous Hergest Ridge. Each side long piece contains folk themes and Irish reel flavours. The lyrics above are from a short chant like folk song at the end of side two, also known as On Horseback. At a point during the second track comes some lovely bubbling keyboard sounding just like contemporary Genesis. Like Tubular Bells which was the subject of two sequels I have learnt that Oldfield's latest album is a sequel to Ommadawn and will be released this month with the title Return to Ommadawn. Like classic films it's rarely a good plan to revisit but who knows.  Apart from a hit in the early 80s with Moonlight Shadow and an appearance at the monumental 2012 Olympics opening ceremony Mike Oldfield seems to be one of those artists forever associated with the early 70s and specifically a debut album he recorded in 1973 when he was only 20. I often think how strange it must feel for an artist with a 40 year career to have achieved his peak with only his first or second album (a fate common to many).


1. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
2. Brian Eno - Apollo
3. Xen Ninja Cuts Compilation - CD. 1
4. Up Bustle and Out - Light 'em Up Blow 'em Out
5. Nightmares on Wax - Late Night Tales
6. Sounds of the New West Compilation

On the other hand Brian Eno seems to have maintained ample contemporary relevance and street cred throughout his career which also began in the early 70s, with Roxy Music. He quickly tired of his role as a glam rock icon relaunching himself as a solo writer (he never refers to himself as a musician), ambient music pioneer, music producer and digital artist (like many pop stars of the time including Roxy bandmate Bryan Ferry he did go to Art School).

Brian Eno's beautiful 77 Million Paintings
Here in Brighton we were treated to a Brian Eno residency during the 2010 Brighton Festival and were able to sample his artwork, installations, music promotions, talks, and a rare live performance of his Apollo album.
Every astronaut was allowed to take one cassette of their favourite music. All but one took country and western. They were cowboys exploring a new frontier, this one just happened to be in space. We worked the piece around the idea of zero-gravity country music.
Apollo is a beautiful album of stillness and relaxation, and includes the gorgeous Ascent theme. Accompanied by footage of the Apollo missions the live experience was transcendental.  The original recording featured Daniel Lanois on pedal steel guitar (BJ Cole in the live performance) giving some of the tracks a country twinge. It sounds a bit of an unusual marriage but the guitar blends magnificently with the otherworldly synthesizers.

The Earthrise shot from Apollo 11
For a "non-musician" Eno certainly has an amazing ear for melody. Did you know he is also responsible for the original Windows start up jingle? Imagine the commission rights on that!:
The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3.25 seconds long."
Up Bustle and Out are a "collective" from Bristol. I think a collective in this context means a bunch of session musicians who come together in various formats around a central core of regulars (rather like my social cricket team that has a mailing list near a hundred but only requires eleven at a time). Their remit is definitely world music with an infectious dance beat edge demonstrated through forays into flamenco, cuban (get their magnificent Master Sessions volumes), and reggae music, with heavy doses of hip hop (or trip hop, not sure of the difference). Certainly the energetic drummer(s) earn their keep. They are pretty underground - the blurry photo below being the only one I could find of the wider group!

Some of the Up Bustle and Out crowd
The Nightmares on Wax compilation is from the Late Night Tales series. The songs including some well known classics from Dusty Springfield, Tony Allen and Quincy Jones, are down tempo and blended nicely.

The Ninja CDs (x3) showcases the best of the label with tracks from the aforementioned Up Bustle and Out, Mr Scruff, Coldcut, Luke Vibert, Kid Koala, DJ Vadim, The Herbaliser, Funki Porcini, DJ Food, The Cinematic Orchestra and Hexstatic.  I used to live with a DJ - practically his whole collection was Ninja label so I had a comprehensive introduction to these sounds.

I find these sorts of compilations strangely double equally well as party music or dinner party music. Maybe its to do with their carefully sequenced balance of tempo, dynamics and mood.

Lastly a revisit to an excellent free CD I received on the cover of Uncut magazine which I've mentioned before. The original compilation appeared in 1998 and was obviously a success as subsequent volumes have followed. This CD introduced me to many excellent Americana bands such as The Handsome Family, Lambchop, Calexico and Willard Grant Conspiracy.









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