The Doors Revisited

Looking Back at Jim Morrison and the Six Studio Albums

The question came up on a social media discussion board. The Doors: all-time greats, or overrated blah blah blah? Even by the weak standards of the thumbs up/thumbs-down court of public opinion,  it was not a question to be glibly answered. It's complicated, and as the jazz pianist Les McCann asked: "Compared to What?"

You can't compare the Doors to anyone except the Doors: John Densmore, drums; Robbie Krieger, guitar, and Ray Manzarek, keyboards; and Jim Morrison, vocals. The Doors were sui generis, a world onto themselves.

They did not have a bass player; Manzarek would play bass with his organ pedals, or on a Fender Rhodes bass piano with his left hand, which is not the same thing as having a live rhythm section that can swing.

When The Doors album was released in January, 1967, and throughout the spring, the group was still playing clubs such as Ondine's and Steve Paul's The Scene in Manhattan; the Action House in Island Park, Long Island; Gazzarri's on Sunset Strip; and both the …