The Cavern
Rock & Words
WAITING FOR THE SUN (The Doors, 1968)
Artist: The Doors (B+)
Recording Dates: Feb - May 1968
Release Date: Jul 11, 1968. USA
Record Label: Electra
Producer: Paul Rotchild
Rating: 8
Era: Psychedelia (1966-1969)
Subgenre: Acid Rock
Best Song: Not To Touch The Earth or Five To One
Tracklist: 1) Hello I Love You; 2) Love Street; 3) Not To Touch The Earth; 4) Summer's Almost Gone; 5) Wintertime Love; 6) The Unknown Soldier; 7) Spanish Caravan; 8 ) My Wild Love; 9) We Could Be So Good Together; 10) Yes The River Knows; 11) Five To One.
A terrible disappointment compared to their previous work. Ahhhhhh… (read in a disillusioned, audience-like tone). The band themselves confessed that the failure (musically, ironically, this LP was their biggest commercial success) of this album was due to the “Third Album Syndrome.” I don't know if I've already mentioned this in La Caverna, but I'll explain: Generally, bands play together for a while, write a lot of material that starts to stand out live, get discovered by a producer, sign with a record label, and put all their effort into their first two albums, recording all the good songs from when they had to work their fingers to the bone to survive in dive bars. Eventually, these bands achieve success, the critics recognize them, the fans do too, the first album is a huge surprise and a smash hit, and suddenly they're big celebrities in the middle of exhaustive world tours. To capitalize on their success, they rush into recording a second album as soon as possible. They have a larger budget and usually have plenty of songs left over from their earlier success, and the second LP is also a hit. But by the time they record their third, they're broke. The magic is gone! Between tours and the pressure to match their previous achievement, they release a complete disaster, or at least a significant disappointment compared to what people expected. Sound familiar? Oasis… Coldplay… among others. It must be acknowledged that releasing two good albums is already a great achievement… considering that most bands, if they're lucky, barely reach the level of "One Hit Wonders." And of those who suffer from this "Third Album Syndrome," some recover (Oasis) and others never do (Coldplay). The "Third Factor Album " is a reality; it doesn't always happen, nor is it a rule, but it exists. And it happened to The Doors.
True. Here, the Doors step off the train of perfect psychedelic darkness from their first two albums and pause to savor the blossoms of pop. Perhaps the LP shouldn't be called " Waiting for the Sun" but rather " We Found It !" When I first heard it, I found it incredibly boring. I've definitely grown to like it much more over time, but somehow I haven't quite recovered from that initial impression, and I still consider it the weakest of the six studio albums with Jim alive. I even considered giving it a 7 or 7.5, but despite having some of the weakest melodies in the entire Doors repertoire , there are several mitigating factors. The first is that the album was originally going to contain the suite "The Celebration of the Lizard," an epic suite with takes exceeding 18 minutes, which was originally intended to fill an entire side of the record. The plan was very ambitious, but they were never happy with the result and the idea was eventually discarded, leaving only the fragment "Not To Touch The Earth." This forced them to fill the time with some truly forgettable filler. Secondly, although it's the album with the most filler in The Doors ' entire catalog , it also has some tremendous songs that have become classics and manage to redeem the album, so giving it a 7 would be an understatement. And thirdly, because a weak Doors song would be a good average song in most bands... take, for example, Jefferson Airplane, whose " Surrealistic Pillow" we'll be analyzing soon, a band that could have successfully included those tracks that sound bland by the standards we've developed for Morrison and company. Finally, although it's no excuse, by this point Jim was completely out of control with his addiction to alcohol and drugs, and during the recording of this album there was that episode in which he practically destroyed the recording studio in a drunken early morning and almost got himself sued.
So, Waiting For The Sun is a more accommodating, softer album, in which much of the band's typical dark and wild character fades away, giving way to melancholic ballads, but lacking that darkness. The good thing is that as soon as Jim remembers he's the Lizard King, the songs return to a high level.
The album opens with “Hello I Love You”. This song was included after they decided to leave out “ Celebration of the Lizard” and is one of the band's earliest compositions, recorded on a 1965 demo. It's an excellent track that's somewhat deceptive as the album opener, since it raises expectations but also reveals that this is a more pop-oriented work. In any case, this is an absolute classic for the band, showcasing the freshness of their early songs. The drum intro is very basic, but anyone can identify this song with Densmore's great entrance. Robbie's riff is excellent, loading his guitar with a psychedelic and brilliant fuzz , while Ray provides background arrangements with harpsichord-like effects, slightly more acidic due to the delay . Jim, for his part, sounds magnificent, with that great voice and raw energy that characterize him as one of the best singers in history. At 1:14 the band stops completely and the guitar plays a couple of slides for a fast bridge. The song is tremendous and perfect. The only couple of criticisms I have are that it's insultingly short, barely over 2 minutes. And second, that it's undoubtedly "based" on The Kinks' " All the Day and All of the Night," featuring a practically identical harmony. But then even Black Sabbath would later "base" some Doors songs on their own , haha.
Next comes “Love Street”, which in my opinion is a charming, very simple ballad, featuring a poem Jim wrote around the time he met Pamela. However, the song is slightly inferior to the rest of the Doors ' catalog . Although the melody is weak, Ray's piano arrangements stand out; he always sounds creative and surprising. Kriegger spends the song doing pretty little guitar flourishes without really standing out. Jim doesn't put in much effort either, though the song doesn't really require it. In the middle section, he does a more spoken-word than sung part, and towards the end, he sounds quite funny singing "Lalála Laralalá…" I insist, the song isn't bad, I like it, but it sounds very different from what we're used to from these guys.
Then there's "Not To Touch The Earth", another fantastic track from this album. This was the fragment that remained from the suite " Celebration of the Lizard," which, by the way, appears on the album " Absolutely Live." This is the best moment of that suite, a mystical march with a hypnotic guitar and bittersweet keyboards that create a sense of chaos throughout the verses. The choirs provide a certain sense of sanity, and I love that moment at 2:05 when, after a chorus, everyone falls silent for several seconds, and then, when you least expect it, they all return in unison in a spectacular way. The song accelerates towards the end, becoming an assault on the senses and one of the Doors ' greatest rarities . And, of course, it's the song from which Jim took the nickname "Lizard King," as he proclaims himself at the end.
Then there's "Summer's Almost Gone", a very strange, psychedelic ballad, features excellent wah -wah work by Robbie, which lends a ghostly and very nostalgic feel to the whole song. Otherwise, Jim sings somewhat listlessly, without effort and without ever raising his voice. The piano this time is somewhat jazzy, sad, and understated, but Ray also plays an organ part that provides the psychedelic notes and adds a contrasting color to the rest of the instrumental sound. Just okay.
“Wintertime Love”, a completely unnecessary ballad, where even Ray sounds repetitive, pulling out tricks that don't surprise us. Jim's half-asleep voice is contagious, radiating his laziness. And the melody is very poppy, without a trace of that psychedelic darkness we love… Filler, utter filler. But after all, these guys were human too. The good news is that it lasts less than two minutes. Why didn't they extend “ Hello , Love You” instead? WHY????
The sixth song is “The Unknown Soldier”, with which they regain their form and our interest. It’s a very well-crafted anti-war anthem, somewhat impressionistic, even including an imitation of a firing squad in the middle section. The song steadily builds, increasing in intensity with that delicious way in which the Doors became the best creators of musical tension in the universe. In the end, Jim goes wild, screaming at the top of his lungs, “ It’s All Over, War it's "oveeeeeer " in an almost infectious way, and of course it's a joke, but it sounds damn good. Another idea that Lennon would later use as the basis for one of his songs. Incidentally, Jim was absolutely anti-war , and this was one of his first musical stances on the issue. I don't remember exactly what he did to avoid military service; I think he pretended to be crazy, which shouldn't have been too difficult for him…
Then comes “Spanish Caravan”. I always thought a different guitarist played at the beginning, but no, it's Robbie himself, showcasing his growth as a guitarist. Here he uses a myriad of tricks, from flamenco arpeggios and brilliant circular scales to psychedelic distortion pedals… Perhaps the melody isn't spectacular and Jim's vocal delivery is somewhat lackluster, but the sheer guitar work makes this a spectacular song.
Next up is “My Wild Love”, which I'm not sure can even be called a song. It's more of a shamanic mantra that reveals Jim's obsession with Native Americans stemming from a car accident he witnessed as a child. But again, I don't understand how this chant, which seems to serve no purpose other than to fill space, can last a minute longer than “ Hello , Love You.”
“We Could Be So Good Together” has The melody and effects are just okay . I particularly like the drums and the somewhat circus-like atmosphere at times, plus a decent guitar solo. The problem is the lyrics. They're incredibly repetitive and idiotic. What happened to the Jim who wrote dark and cryptic poetry? In the end, one can't help but cynically wonder… What was the song called again?
Then there's "Yes The River Knows". When I read Jerry Hopkins' book "Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive" (which, by the way, takes its title from a line in Five To One), I couldn't even remember the song when he described the meaning of the lyrics, which aren't very memorable either. The piano arrangements are cute, very baroque, but honestly, these cheesy ballads aren't the band's strong suit. And I assure you that 10 minutes after listening to it, you'll be unable to hum along.
The album closes with the superb “Five To One”, which recaptures the power that seemed lost in this band. A riff as simple as it gets, barely two notes, but what a way to combine them, with enormous ferocity. Perhaps the most menacing song the band ever made, with Robbie carrying the track with that majestic riff and a solo towards the end where the rest of the instruments fall completely silent, achieving a brutal emotional impact. The lyrics were debated as to whether they were a reference to Nietzsche, but the truth is that it's a statistic Jim read about the Vietnam War, in which for every 5 Vietnamese soldiers there was 1 American. So, in a more veiled way, this is another political manifesto, and with this statistic comes the phrase “No One here. ” gets out " Alive " takes on a deeper, more raw meaning. A dark ending, where they remember how to rock and where Jim spectacularly exhausts his voice towards the end.
As I said, it's perhaps the band's weakest and most commercial release, but it still has its good moments. Many critics tear it apart, and they're partly right. However, it's an album with highs and lows, where the highs are very high for any average band and the lows are actually mediocre songs for any other C or D -tier band , so there's no reason to exaggerate by giving it a 6 or 7 or tear our hair out over it. The problem is that the Doors had accustomed us to otherworldly albums , and this isn't one of them. You can enjoy it without any problem, or you can skip the blue tracks and that's that.
Finally… have you noticed that the album is titled “ Waiting For The Sun” and that song doesn't appear here but in the Morrison Hotel? Funny how things work out .
By Corvan
Jul/15/2009
