10 albums a day #16

The Doors
- The Doors (1967, CD)
- Strange Days (1967, CD)
- Waiting for the Sun (1968, CD)
- The Soft Parade (1969, CD)
- Absolutely Live (1970, CD)
- Morrison Hotel (1970, CD)
- L.A. Woman (1971, CD)
- An American Prayer (1978, LP)
- The Doors Box Set (1997, 4 CD set)

The Doors remain something of an enigma to me, that is, I've never figured out exactly why I like them. I was never a Jim Morrison fanboy, so it's not that. At least, I don't think I was. There's something about their music that appeals to me, probably the darkness of the music and the mysteriousness (some might say nonsensicalness) of Morrison's lyrics. However, most of my favorites from The Doors were songs written by Robby Krieger, which tend to be less...uh...strange, shall we say, than Morrison's songs. Although I now have all their albums on CD, I originally bought all of them on LP and I still have all those records. I originally bought An American Prayer on cassette but later purchased the LP because it has much more extensive liner notes than the cassette. I also have some records that are now out of print and which, to my knowledge, were not released on CD, such as Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, for example (and which I have not yet ripped).

The first one I ever bought was the LP The Doors, which I think I picked up when I was in Abilene and is just a little curious because it's a Spanish pressing (that is, made in Spain) with certain parts of the label in Spanish. The Morrison Hotel LP is another strange one, because it was made wrong. Side 2 of that record is really side 2 from The Soft Parade. So I didn't hear the actual side 2 of Morrison Hotel until I bought the CD.

The last four thumbnails pictured are from The Doors Box Set that was released in 1997. There is some redundancy with previous albums, but it also includes many songs that were never before released, as well as a couple of demo tracks and some alt takes of some of their songs that are interesting to hear. I may have to write up a post just about this album someday, because I still find it an interesting glimpse into their methods and the way they made their music. It comes with a book of very extensive liner notes and comments from the three surviving members.

I also have one record that the three survivors produced after Morrison's death (Other Voices), but it's mostly more of a curiosity to me and it's another one I haven't yet ripped.

Addendum: You may notice something out-of-place about Strange Days. It's the only album that doesn't have a picture of the group (or at least Morrison) on the cover. This is because it was leftover stuff from the original sessions and the record company released it against the group's will. They refused to appear on the cover.

Album count: 156.