[markl]

OK, here's the drill.

From the ages of 17-21, if you are lucky enough to be exposed to the music of The Doors within this window, they will have their most profound and penetrating impact on you, reaching deep into your psyche and leaving a scar (especially if you are a male). This stuff will literally blow your mind, it's incredible. Especially today in the age of pre-packaged and corporate-owned music and "musicians". It's incredibly dangerous stuff on a certain level, which the FBI and CIA recognized when it was still fresh. Your government wanted desperately to shut the Doors down.

Then you "mature" for a while and start to find Jim Morrison's "poetry" pretty contrived, and somewhat cheesey and of its time. You drop the Doors and move on.

Then again, in your early-mid 30s, you have enough perspective on music and the time in which the Doors stuff was recorded and you go back to it, and almost can't believe it exists and it blows your mind for a second time all over again. You start to see so many connections between this music and the stuff you grew to love along the way like Joy Division; without the Doors, Ian would not exist.

A side-note. The Doors albums were recroded and produced by master craftsmen of their time. The Doors played these songs live in the studio and Jim sang live as they went. These recordings sound as fresh as yesterday, only better. The soundstage is eerie; you will feel just like you are standing there with them while they play. Wow.

Anyway, all the most recognized "classic" Doors albums had already been released years ago on DCC, mastered by the great Steve Hoffman. Those discs are still out there and available for a premium price, and damn well-worth whatever you have to pay to get them. Forget all the main-stream re-masters of these titles; invest in Steve's work, it's definitive.

Anyway, so, there were two Doors albums that escaped the main DCC hey-day, and have now come out on Audio Fidelity many many years later, the successor to DCC. Morrison Hotel and Soft Parade, have just come out on Gold CD, mastered by Steve Hoffman and they are just friggin' sublime.

Go forth and buy up all the original Hoffman DCC Gold CDs for the more "classic" Doors albums and then come back for thse two.

Awesome!

 

[scott_d_m]

You've exactly described my experience with the doors over the years. At the prime age of 36, I'm into the Doors as much now as I was at 22. I can't wait to get my hands on these.

 

[aragornmustdie]

Bands like the Doors, or musicians like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

In order to enjoy them, do I have to be in that particular time or era? How do I initiate the experience again?
This is particularly difficult, being a 20 yr old, SE Asian music fan. I didn't live in the era.

I like the Doors, particularly the hypnotic music- but to let the lyrics of Jim Morrison, or Dylan and Springsteen, breeze past you just like any random lyric is like reading Shakespeare only to enjoy the handwriting and not the content (haha, this is actually somebody's quote).

Maybe because English isn't my first language. Anybody willing to share or shine a light on me about these musicians (particularly the Doors, since we're on topic here) in context of their time and social condition back then? Wikipedia and magazines don't help that much. I want to hear experiences and understandings from eyewitnesses. Markl's post was a good read.