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No love for the Doors

Wow, that was some thunder and rain that just swamped my little apartment off The Ave! A weird, cool, dark day that brings me to think about music I once liked -- that I knew I'd regret.

That's right: Did you ever encounter some music you couldn't help but enjoy, but dammit if all your defenses told you was going to hurt you later on?

When I was a teenager, I remember my writing mentor quoting Iggy Pop about how much Jim Morrison meant to him. You could tell it in his lyrics and vocals, even. Same thing with Patti Smith, and then Joy Division just as I discovered them on "Closer."

So I went and got The Doors' first album. And really enjoyed it, but like playing "Get The Knack," I felt terribly wrong about it. It might have just been what other people said -- "Dirty stupid pretentious hippie band!" (Not The Knack, BTW, skinny tie misogynists are a whole other subject.) Eventually I put it away, kind of creeped out I ever liked them so much. But hey, never bought stuff like "American Prayer" or whatever -- I would guess that the people who own Morrisson's spoken word albums are serial killers.

Years later, a crazy guy who lived down the hall from me drove me out of my rent controlled apartment by blasting "Love Me Two Times" at "10" on his old school amped stereo at random intervals day and night. I would often just march into his apartment (he kept his door propped open, part of the problem) and yell at him to turn it down. The building was becoming deleterious to my psyche anyways so I moved (and kissed goodbye $350 rent, not cool at all). That's real music criticism -- when you move.

Anyways, strangely enough, I later went on to do publicity for a Texas band ... aw, never mind.

What music could you tell was going to be bad news? And why?

 

 

 

 

Monday, April 14, 2008
by Chris Estey

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    1   michael said on April 14, 2008

    I definitely went through a Doors phase. But worse yet, I was totally into one of the "best of" albums. To quote a Kids In The Hall skit, "Greatest Hits albums are for housewives and little girls".

    I was trying to think of something else I was shamefully into just today in relation to a Youtube video with a kitty in it that I liked. The best I could come up with is They Might Be Giants. But you know what, I'm proud (okay, not ashamed) to be into TMBG. So there!

    2   jan-i-licious said on April 14, 2008

    I'm more embarrassed about the things I couldn't go through a phase with: Led Zep, Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Beatles, Velvet Underground. For some reason they seem a bit boring. Perhaps because I'll never get to see them perform live?

    I dig on the folks they influenced, but could never get into them.

    Also, while I'm admitting things. I used to like TMBG too (although these days it's like saying I read "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test").

    And for some reason I used to listen to "Black Cat" by Janet Jackson a lot.

    3   Deborah Barnard said on April 14, 2008

    Savage Garden. I loved them with all my teenage girly heart until I head them play live, then I realized that they were nothing more than a sappy boy band. Sometimes it takes a live show to pummel the truth into your head. The worst part? My boyfriend at the time whispered to me (as I was secretly hating one of my favorite bands the more they played), "Don't tell anyone, but I really like them." We broke up a week later.

    4   Andrew Boe said on April 15, 2008

    I completely disagree with this blog. I absolutely love The Doors. They are one of my favorite groups from that era. This said, I am not sure why, but they are very much a band that people either love or loathe and I think that they were brilliant.

    Led Zepplin, on the other hand, I can only handle in very small doses.

    5   Chris Estey said on April 15, 2008

    Can I love AND loathe them?

    6   Jon Harthun said on June 12, 2008

    I quote Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous: "Jim Morrison is a drunken buffoon posing as a poet."

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