From: Peter Abusamra <>
Steve McAdams wrote:> E-proggers, > > I would like you opinion on The
Doors. I have never been into The Doors, > but listening to some of their
music from afar I see some similarities with > some progressive bands. Do any
of you like The Doors, and would you > consider them "progressive". If the
Moody Blues are considered on the > fringe of prog, then I wonder why
wouldn't The Doors be?
Steve, Personally-I've always loved them,even the overplayed Light my
Fire which I first heard working at a camp in N.H. in '67.Got to see them
once in a free concert on the Boston Common. Too bad Jim, Jimi, Duane & Janis
all overindulged. They probable would've created a lot more interesting
music.I wouldn't call them prog. but maybe someone else would. Pete
From: "Craig A. Shipley" <> Well, The Doors were the band that turned my 10-year-old ears onto keyboard solos when I heard "Light My Fire" come spilling out of the speaker in Mom's '62 Buick LeSabre while cruising thru the town of Gatlinburg TN in the summer of '66 (how's that for remembering a major turning point? :-)). I never thought of them as being particularly "progressive" as in our current definition, but they did push the boundaries of the times. According to the book "No One Here Gets Out Alive", they were the first band to use a Moog synthesizer on a record (IIRC, it was on "Morrison Hotel"). I'm really pretty shallow when it comes to my taste in Doors tunes, with the full-length versions of "LMF" and "Riders On The Storm" being the only two I really care for. I did go thru a phase in the early '80's where I picked up a few of their LP's, but was never really taken in by them. Anyone know what Ray Manzerak is up to these days? I knew he has done some production work and has released a couple or three solo works (the last one in what, the late '80's?), but I have kinda lost track (kinda not real curious enough to look him up myself...)
From: Jim Allen <> Agreed. Though the doors obviously had arty tendencies, their roots were solidly in '60s garage rock and psychedelia. If you ever hear their earliest demos, which are on their box set, it sounds like the Seeds or the Standells. Using the Farfisa and Vox Continental organ instead of the Hammond (which they admittedly did use later on) is a key here.
From: Psychedelic yes, prog no. But in the strictest sense of "progressive" - than yes the Doors were no doubt that.
[www.e-prog.net]