Riders .....

The John Densmore book "Riders on the Storm" is not living up to it's dark first chapter but is still an engaging and interesting read.and is endorsed as "The Real Thing" by Robby Krieger The Doors' guitarist on the back cover.

Jim Morrison could sing and come up with some pretentious but excellent lyrics but as a person could be an absolute arse, but as a band they produced some great music.

Really the most important member of the band is the drummer, they can make or break the sound, they hold the performance together. In our first gig with The Bok we used a pick up drummer. Two songs in we told him to stop because he was ruining the songs. I saw a band supporting the Buzzcocks at Newcastle University, can't remember who it was, but their set was ruined by a bad drummer.

In my opinion The Doors produced four albums worth having , their debut, "Strange Days" (the first of their albums that I bought), "Absolutely Live (my favourite) and "LA Woman" (in my opinion their swansong). There were odd songs from other albums that I liked, particularly  "Five To One", and "LA Woman" has two stand outs, the title song which was seven minutes , one and a half chords, a memorable descending riff , though I suppose  "The End" is twelve minutes based on a couple of notes, eastern style improvisation and stream of consciousness. Then there's the sublime "Riders on the Storm"  deceptively laid back and menacing.

So really that's my opinion of The Doors' music and albums but have another two hundred pages of the book to go, so I'm wondering if I will discover any more interesting facts.

It's a freezing Friday morning, so have a great day, and we'll go with "Riders on the Storm".