Happy 45th: The Doors, Morrison Hotel
45 years ago today, The Doors released their fifth album, an endeavor that found the quartet taking a step back with their sound and finding a much more creatively successful collection of songs in the process.
After earning their first #1 album with 1968’s Waiting for the Sun, The Doors apparently decided that they were free to experiment a bit with their sound. Unfortunately, the end result of that attempt at experimentation – 1969’s The Soft Parade, which featured brass, strings, and a heavier-than-usual Robby Krieger presence (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing) – failed to match the commercial success of its predecessor, stalling at #6, and only produced one hit single. Granted, it was a pretty big one, but even with “Touch Me” making it to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was clear that The Doors had made a creative misstep, at least as far as their fans were concerned, and something needed to change.
Much of the material on Morrison Hotel has a bluesy feel, which is as one might reasonably expect from an album that kicks off with a song called “Roadhouse Blues,” but what excited listeners most when they gave the record a spin was simply the fact that the band had returned to straightforward rock ‘n’ roll. Better yet, the critics tended to agree: Circus argued that it was “possibly the best album yet from The Doors,” while in Creem, Dave Marsh called it “the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard,” which seems to have been intended as high praise.
Even the late, great Lester Bangs, who freely acknowledged that he didn’t love the album as a whole, couldn’t resist the charms of “Roadhouse Blues,” describing the song in his Rolling Stone review as “a powerful blast of raw funk” which “features jagged barrelhouse piano, fierce guitar, and one of the most convincing raunchy vocals Jim Morrison has ever recorded,” ultimately declaring, “This track is one of their very best ever.” Other key tracks included “Peace Frog,” “Ship of Fools,” and – arriving two years after the album which bore its title – “Waiting for the Sun.” Oh, and lest we forget, the subtitle given to the album’s A-side provided inspiration for Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett when they started their restaurant chain in 1971. (Perhaps you’re familiar with the Hard Rock Café?)
Morrison Hotel was a bigger commercial success than its predecessor, hitting #4 on the Billboard Top 200, and although it took the better part of two years for them to release another album, 1971’s L.A. Woman found them fully embracing the blues. Unfortunately, that was the last chance the band had to embrace anything as a four-piece, but that’s a sad story that everyone already knows, so there’s no need to rehash it here. Today, if we’re gonna have the blues, let’s just let them be of the roadhouse variety, shall we?
