The Doors - John Tobler and Andrew Doe

 

I suppose I have a compulsion in that I always need to be reading something and while I was waiting for new deliveries (I probably should get to the library more often!) I pulled out this one (along with the Hendrix book) from a storage box. As with the Hendrix book, I think this is - for me - an early bio of the band that I picked up while my musical tastes were moving from garage to psych, at least a little bit. Of course, I've dug this group since "Light My Fire" hit, and I had friends who were true Doors fanatics, so I've been interested in learning more about the guys for decades by the time I found this.

Although not extremely detailed, this seems to be a reasonable overview of the band and their career, even if the authors are fairly opinionated about some of their output - some of which I disagree with, but that's why they're opinions, right? (There is also a strange pronouncement that bands don't like live albums! No idea what they based that notion on.) A lot of the story is told from the member's perspectives via interviews, and while the various viewpoints don't always match exactly, and it would be weird if they did, it seems pretty evenhanded. 

While the book contains a large number of very cool photos, for some odd, apparently artistic reason, there are a number of inserts that are close-ups of the photo on the same page - like, just an eye or a mouth or a leg or just some blank space! Very weird and not particularly interesting even in an arty fashion.

There is a fair amount of space given to conspiracy theories about Morrison's death (which, I suppose, is simply reporting all of the weirdness that surrounded the group at the time) and the post-Morrison Doors, along with Jim's poetry album, An American Prayer. Of course, solo careers are discussed, such as Densmore's acting career (which apparently, never came to very much), and Kreiger's and Manzarek's forays into new wave - Ray's work with LA's premier punk band, X, being the most successful.

Yes, it is more opinionated than objective, but as an capsulization, it does a decent job, as long as you don't take it as the Doors gospel or a definitive treatise on the band.