Re-Enter The Doors Of Perception

Side 2 of a cassette compilation of The Doors, recorded sometime during the spring/summer of 1992.

 

Music is often deeply rooted in memories and life experiences and this mixtape is a particularly good example. When I posted Side 1 last year, I wrote about my introduction to The Doors, the relationship that inspired this compilation, my wardrobe near-miss with a pair of leather trousers and the sad fate that befell this much-loved cassette. 

 

Writing this post has revived those memories once more, though the circumstances prompting it couldn't be more different. This is the first time I've played both sides of the (virtual) cassette in over three decades and I'm right back there, remembering how much I enjoyed putting this selection of songs together. 

 

At first glance, this side looks lazily recorded, as there are three pairs of sequential songs. 

 

Peace Frog and Blue Sunday were inevitable, as they segue together on the original album. I think I particularly wanted to include the former but there was no way of separating the two without creating a jarring end. That said, they go well together and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

 

Much as I like Spanish Caravan, there wasn't enough room on the tape to include all of the songs on my shortlist and I was especially taken by the opening section, which seemed to naturally dovetail into Hello, I Love You. 

 

The Crystal Ship and Break On Through? Well, they just sounded good together and I seemed to have a specific thing about not having the opening song from any of the albums as the first song on either side of the cassette.

 

The live mash up of Moonlight Drive and Horse Latitudes remains for me the best version of either, this alone a good enough reason for buying the odds and sods collection Alive She Cried.

 

The title track of The Soft Parade was another song that didn't make it intact onto my mixtape. Instead, I culled one of Jim Morrison's spoken word passages from the opening sequence, naming it You Cannot Petition The Lord With Prayer after the closing line. I knew little about The Doors back then, beyond what I'd heard via the vinyl albums, one mine, the rest borrowed from my friend Stuart. 

 

In subsequent years, I've read some of the background to the recording of the albums and Jim's variable state in the studio. Living in an era where artists' catalogues are constantly revived, remastered and reissued, often replete with every cough, belch and fart committed to tape, I've also got to hear Jim's multiple attempts to get to what - for this mixtape at least - ended up as a mere 35 seconds on record. 

 

The cassette was always going to end with The End. I mean, what else, really? It's still an astonishing piece of music and a 'long song' that I never tire of listening to. 

 

Today's post is dedicated to my beloved Uncle Mike, who passed away yesterday. To be honest, he might have preferred Dylan to The Doors, but maybe that's a memory for another day.
 
1) Love Her Madly (1971)

2) Touch Me (Album Version) (1969)

3) The Crystal Ship (Album Version) (1967)

4) Break On Through (To The Other Side) (Album Version) (1967)

5) Peace Frog (Album Version) (1970)

6) Blue Sunday (1970)

7) L.A. Woman (Album Version) (1971)

8) Spanish Caravan (Instrumental Intro) (1968)

9) Hello, I Love You (Album Version) (1968)

10) Moonlight Drive / Horse Latitudes (Live @ Felt Forum, New York) (1970)

11) You Cannot Petition The Lord With Prayer (Extract From 'The Soft Parade') (1969)

12) The End (Album Version) (1967)

1967: The Doors: 3, 4, 12

1968: Waiting For The Sun: 8, 9

1969: The Soft Parade: 2, 11

1970: Alive She Cried: 10

1970: Morrison Hotel: 5, 6

1971: L.A. Woman: 1, 7

Side Two (46:00) (KF) (Mega)

Side One is available here

And, for something a little bit different, here's a different take on The Doors that I posted exactly three years ago, on 1st August 2021...

Val Kilmer starred as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 film about The Doors. By sheer coincidence, there's a Val Kilmer reference in tomorrow's post, but you'll never guess what it is...