The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 729

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Number 729 - The Doors

Number 729

The Doors

"The End"

(1967)

Genre:Rock

Apocalyspe Now the film, had only three actual songs, each memorable in their own light, appear on the soundtrack: "The End" by The Doors, which captures the film's doors of perception theme, "Susie Q" and Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries." (Musta been a party fave huh?)

A tremendous debut album, and indeed one of the best first-time outings in rock history, introducing the band's fusion of rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry with a knockout punch. The lean, spidery guitar and organ riffs interweave with a hypnotic menace, providing a seductive backdrop for Jim Morrison's captivating vocals and probing prose. "Light My Fire" was the cut that topped the charts and established the group as stars, but most of the rest of the album is just as impressive, including some of their best songs: the propulsive "Break On Through" (their first single), the beguiling Oriental mystery of "The Crystal Ship," the mysterious "End of the Night," "Take It as It Comes" (one of several tunes besides "Light My Fire" that also had hit potential), and the stomping rock of "Soul Kitchen" and "Twentieth Century Fox." The 11-minute Oedipal drama "The End" was the group at its most daring and, some would contend, overambitious. It was nonetheless a haunting cap to an album whose nonstop melodicism and dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered. ~ [Richie Unterberger]

For more Doors see Number 746 & #851

What does Rolling Stone think about the Doors?

Sex, death, reptiles, charisma, and a unique variant of the electric blues gave the Doors an aura of profundity that not only survived but has grown during the 30 years since Jim Morrison's death. By themselves, Morrison's lyrics read like adolescent posturings, but with his sexually charged delivery, Ray Manzarek's dry organ, and Robby Krieger's jazzy guitar, they became eerie, powerful, almost shamanistic invocations that hinted at a familiarity with darker forces, and, in Morrison’s case, an obsession with excess and death. At its best, the Doors’ music — “Light My Fire,” “L.A. Woman” — has come to evoke a noirish view of ’60s California that contrasts sharply with the era’s prevailing folky, trippy style. ~ [Source: RS - Updated from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001]

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number 328 and the album ranked 42

This song has a crowbarred rating of 67 out of 108