Jeff’s Playlist: The Doors

I watched Apocalypse Now a while back and fig­ured this album belongs on my playlist. Themes from “The End” were used through­out the film, and you have to admit that “The End,” clock­ing in at over 11 min­utes, can be a sur­re­al expe­ri­ence. I always loved this album and have col­lect­ed all of The Doors’ CDs through the mag­ic of box sets.

This is The Doors’ first album, and my favorite, and is anoth­er rock debut album that set a band on a path to suc­cess. Jim Morrison’s charis­ma was the band’s great asset, but his drug and alco­hol use was its downfall.

“Light My Fire” was the first sin­gle to make them stars. But the stay­ing pow­er of sev­er­al of these songs has made this album a clas­sic over many decades. One thing I real­ly love about this and oth­er Doors record­ings is the crisp­ness and sep­a­ra­tion of the stereo sound.

This pre­sen­ta­tion con­tains three added tracks not on the orig­i­nal album, includ­ing two ver­sions of “Moonlight Drive” from Strange Days and a ver­sion of “Indian Summer” from Morrison Hotel, all of which are beau­ti­ful songs.

Album Information

All tracks are writ­ten by the Doors (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore), except where noted.

1.         “Break On Through (To the Other Side)”            2:25
2.         “Soul Kitchen”                                                          3:30
3.         “The Crystal Ship”                                                  2:30
4.         “Twentieth Century Fox”                                        2:30
5.         “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” Brecht-Weill        3:15
6.         “Light My Fire”                                                         6:50
7.         “Back Door Man” Willie Dixon Chester Burnett   3:30
8.         “I Looked at You”                                                    2:18
9.         “End of the Night”                                                   2:49
10.       “Take It as It Comes”                                             2:13
11.       “The End”                                                              11:35
12.       “Moonlight Drive” (August ’66 ver­sion 1)              2:43
13.       “Moonlight Drive” (August ’66 ver­sion 2)              2:31
14.       “Indian Summer” (8÷19÷66 vocal)                           2:37

Jim Morrison – vocals
Ray Manzarek – organ, piano, key­board bass; back­ing vocals[86] and marx­o­phone on “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)“
Robby Krieger – gui­tar; bass on “Back Door Man”, back­ing vocals on “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)“
John Densmore – drums, per­cus­sion, back­ing vocals on “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)“
Larry Knechtel – bass on “Soul Kitchen”, “Twentieth Century Fox” and “Light My Fire“
Paul A. Rothchild – pro­duc­er; back­ing vocals on “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)“
Bruce Botnick – engineer

Released   January 4, 1967
Recorded   August 14–29, 1966
Studio        Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California
Length       51:39
Label         Elektra
Producer   Paul A. Rothchild