This post is in defense of The Soft Parade, the most controversial doors album.   Thanks to my father, i've been listening to the doors since before birth.  i digest the entire collection in almost bi-yearly intervals for months at a time.  I have come to cherish the soft parade.

it starts and is mainly built around robbie krieger's pop vision.  tell all the people was the first song where the doors named names.  jim didn't want to think that the message came from him, so the soft parade became the first album where "lyrics and music by the doors" was replaced by individual credentials.  Separation of image and character, recognizing that all music is a facade; it was followed by touch me, a song primed for cliche popness.    while it contained a boisterous horn section, a sax solo at least 10 years ahead of its time (in pop) and the finale ending in the "mr. clean" slogan "stronger than dirt", it did it's best to infiltrate, satirize, and pose as friendly AM radio at that time in the late 60s.

Shaman's blues is brilliant. true doors.             "Do It" is simply anthemic, but well orchestrated, and contains one of densmore's best drum riffs.  side two is straight up the doors at their best posing as a pop group, tongue-in-cheek.  easy ride is another 'friendly' pop song taking the piss out of folk. and then...

except for "running blues" which was a total krieger stab and homage to bob dylan.  side 2 is epic.  "wild child" captures the frustration established on 'waiting for the sun',  "wishful sinful"  is a symphony that could rival burt bacharach.  it's melodies conjure up images of dramatic events in romantic equatorial ocean colored journeys.  i don't think that i even need to discuss "the soft parade" itself.  it's undeniably brialliant. 

"yeah.  he bought a little."

just keep in mind, the soft parade was an album intended as a joke, presented like a farce, laden with pop; in order to reflect pop mockingly while at the same time orchestrating inventive pop melodies better than anybody else at the time.  it took me years to appreciate this album.

after all that time, and all that reflection, there are ways in which it is my favorite.

-Cat

The Doors is one my favorite bands. I saw them live in L.A. in 1969. When "Break on Through" came out in 1966 I thought "Great song, it doesn't sound like the Beatles". My favorites are "When the Music's Over", "Break on Through", "Road House Blues", "Riders on the Storm" and "Gloria".

Hey hessian warrior!  i was just reading about you hearing "touch me"  before it's release.  the closest i've ever come is seeing travis meeks (Days of the New) perform Doors hits with the Robbie Krieger Band.

I love "Not to Touch the Earth" (and the whole celebration of the lizard), "Shaman's Blues," "Crystal Ship," "Love Me Two Times," "Peace Frog," "Love Her Madly," and all of the songs that you've mentioned. I was listening to the Doors before i was born, and ever since.

After all, they were (and still are) an embodiment of the doors of perception.

the door huh? never heard of that band before

Then you must be Klingon from planet Qo'nos where music does not exist. 

The End

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
Ill never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...strangers hand
In a...desperate land

Lost in a roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

Theres danger on the edge of town
Ride the kings highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...hes old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and well do the rest

The blue bus is callin us
The blue bus is callin us
Driver, where you taken us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother...i want to...fuck you

Cmon baby, take a chance with us
Cmon baby, take a chance with us
Cmon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin a blue rock
On a blue bus
Doin a blue rock
Cmon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free
But youll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die

also Light my fire, People Are Strange, When the Music's Over, Hello I love you, Touch me, Riders on the storm...

Beach boys do it for me. "I wish they all could be Californian girls" is as deep as it needs to be for me.

small amendment to those lyrics

Mother...i want to...  fuck you all night baby!! c'mon girl

Bit sexist you think? My other Beach Boys favourite is "She's real fine my 409". I hope this doesn't mean the poor old car is going to be molested as well!

not sexist persay, oedipal in nature, based around two-parent male-female familial archtypes.  btw, pet sounds is one of the best albums of melodic harmonies ever produced by the mainstream.  and brian wilson was and is totally dark. maybe even darker than jim morrison was, because he kept on living.  

the end is about childhood becoming adulthood, and the dark dramatic steps that are necessary for a lone bastardised son to overcome a fascist patriarch in order to establish dominance, or "masculinity" 

so i guess it is sexist.  but only to reflect society's sexism, as a means of social commentary satirising a flawed system.

I thought the song was all about uncomplicated innocent fun and the celebration of the "American Way". Bit like the Aussie carefree way of life.

Brian Wilson is a genius and certainly has an interestingly dark family background but I think he produced the music and the lyrics were penned by others less depressive.

that's true more and more in the early days, but as the 60s progressed into the 70s the band relied more and more on brian's unstoppable songwriting force.  thus, i consider that when in their desperate hour they turned to brian for fortitude, he became defined as the backbone of the group.  then and always.  he is also responsible for some of the most vapid of beach boys lyrics, as well as the deepest.

The weirdest thing about the beach boys is that none of them ever went to the beach let alone surfed or got into the hotrod car culture. Brian spent most of his time as a recluse in his bed. He definitely wrote the song "In my room".

BTW on the TV at the moment is an ad jingle using the "Good Vibrations" music selling electronic goods. You know you've been immortalised when your music keeps appearing in ads.

immortalised or completely prostituted.  but at least it's not in the public domain, if i hear beethoven's 5th or the nutcracker or the 1812 overture in one more commercial, i swear to god i'm going to kidnap every advertising executive responsible and force music appreciation upon them until they are rehabilitated.

and someone please tell all of bob marley's kids to stop selling his songs to anyone and everyone!