Second side of Doors debut album full of filler?

Brecht wrote that song from the perspective of a group of girls who have lost everything and whose only future prospect is to sell themselves to the men in Mahagonny. So they bid farewell to the moon which works as metaphor for a sheltered, secure life and romantic love. This was 1927 after all and times weren't exactly easy.

Now if a man sings it.... they can either keep it as it was or change the gender. Pick your poison.

 

I do not really like side 2 .
I must say, The End is not such a great song as many people think. It is 6 minutes too long.

 

I agree it's filler, not a massive disappointment though. It was 1967 after all. Love The End.

 

I get where your coming from. It’s that Content/Context thing. It’s worth remembering that Apocalypse Now was an adaptation of the Book Heart of Darkness so from that angle the context could be pretty sound, but the Content of the movie could be a little less interesting now, or the other way around lol.

 

THIS!!! ^^^

 

This gets big like from me!

That hypnotic guitar and athmosphere. The End is my favourite Doors song.

 

When children are no longer taught history in school, all cultural context disappears into confusion.

 

My thoughts exactly...

 

Of those songs the OP mention as "filler", I think End Of The Night is fantastic for its atmosphere, and both I Looked At You and Take It As It Comes work just fine where they are as breathers in between the heavier stuff. They're mid-60s California with a touch of the darkness looming, and they work very well for me in that juxtaposition.

What's "filler" anyway? I don't hear any "filler" on that album. All songs range from good to great, and nothing seems thrown in there just for the hell of adding to the running time. As an album and representation of The Doors in 1966 it couldn't be more perfect. It's an album that seems to say, "this is where we come from, and this is where we're going." One would be hard-pressed not to be all in for that trip.

 

Good job you're here to show us the light.

 

The next album had a similar concept like the debut with many short songs and a longtrack at the end, that is similar to The End.

Which of both longplayers is better?

 

I could live without “Back Door Man” but otherwise your proposition is preposterous IMO.

 

Maybe I'm just biased, but I grew up with the debut album and I think it's perfect in every which way.

I've been a fan ever since and it looks like it's gonna be that way forever.

 

Very few albums have 10 songs in which 8 are all killer. Or 12 that have 10, whichever.

I have a different take on what lesser songs on an album should do.

First The Doors album and many albums were beginning to become an "album experience". Yes, there are the hits. Go buy a single for those or greatest hits package if that is only what one wants to hear. But as an album experience the lesser songs job, imo, at their best are to support the hits in a way that keeps the album flowing and the hits are able to also live within that space of the total feel of the album.

At its best, filler has a purpose greater than its individual merit. That is the way I think about it anyway.

 

I had assumed that was how everyone thought of non-single/hit album tracks, until I started seeing criticisms on this forum that seemed to revolve around how many hits there are, or “weakest link” threads where the biggest hit is predictably the winner even though it’s not even close to being the best track on the album.

And I agree. If you don’t have time for “Back Door Man” in your life, buy a greatest hits collection. Albums may not be your thing.

 

Get the monaural.

 

Filler galore. Much prefer their latter-day albums.

 

If you don’t like Side 2 or The End, perhaps you simply don’t get The Doors.

 

I think this is me. I’ve tried many times. But just no spark

 

It’s hard to know why a piece of music strikes a chord in some people but not others. When I was a kid, I used to listen to The End every night with the lights out. For whatever reason, it captured my imagination.

 

I'm honestly getting a bit tired of these P.C. Police commentary lately. You have to interpret lyrics, poetry, novels, music, movies - art in general - not through your view of the present tense, but rather through the time period when they were made. Especially for Alabama Song: Don't forget that the lyrics were not written by Morrison or the Doors, but taken from the German writer Bertold Brecht and his classic "3 Groschen Oper" theatre play, which was written in the 1920s.
In the 60s, it was a big scandal that the Doors would perform Light My Fire on national TV and Morrison used the original lyrics "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" - which was considered as a drug reference and thus highly controversial. Today, nobody would care about a song that has some slight drug references in it. Back then this was a scandal, but singing about wanting to make love to young "little girls" was considered ok and normal. Times and politics change. I hate the current movement of rewriting history by adjusting the language classic literature - see Mark Twain and the use of the n-word. Art is timeless, but perceptions on cultural and social behaviour change. But once we start changing art to match with our current social-political landscape, we are reaching a dangerous spot of rewriting history.

 

Aaa

I think it’s just one thing about music that’s fascinating. As you say, what might be enthralling to some, will leave others cold. Just the way we are made up.
Re The Doors, not knocking them or anyone who loves their music. It’s great that it arouses passion. Great image too of you listening in the dark and getting that connection. Maybe that will work for me!

 

People do realise "Take It As It Comes" was Jim's response to the Maharishi?

 

Like my old faculty advisor used to say: "You can't change history...but you sure as hell can lie about it...shamelessly."

 

"The Threepenny Opera" also contains "Mack The Knife" which also has very disturbing, chilling lyrics but if your local lounge singer covers it, few people complain!

"Alabama Song" is one of my favorite songs on the album. It's sonically one of the most psychedelic tracks on the album IMHO. The lyrics are supposed to be creepy, those are not good dudes. Some people seem to not realize that singing a song isn't endorsing behavior, it's often acting a part.

Re: the Doors debut and filler: Yeah, "I Looked At You" and "Take It As It Comes" are not my favorite tracks, but I never skip them. They sound great, and I detect a little bit of satire in Jim's performance of "I Looked At You."