It’s safe to say that when Jim Morrison died he took The Doors with him, the rest of the band should have stopped immediately.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: The Doors
ALBUM: Other Voices
LABEL: Elektra
SERIAL: EKS-75017
YEAR: 1971
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Ray Manzarek – vocals, keyboards * Robby Krieger – vocals, guitar *John Densmore – drums
Additional Musicians: Jack Conrad, Jerry Scheff, Wolfgang Melz, Ray Neapolitan – bass * Willie Ruff – acoustic bass * Francisco Aquabella – percussion * Emil Richards – marimba
TRACK LISTING: 01 In The Eye Of The Sun * 02 Variety Is The Spice Of Life * 03 Ships W- Sails * 04 Tightrope Ride * 05 Down On The Farm * 06 I’m Horny, I’m Stoned * 07 Wandering Musician * 08 Hang On To Your Life
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
It’s safe to say The Doors died with Jim Morrison. Now I’ve never really been a big fan of the band although I do own their debut and the rather good compilation ‘Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine’ as well as the recently released 2 CD set from Rhino which pairs their two post- Morrison albums, including ‘Other Voices’.
I’m not sure why I run hot and cold with these guys since they were great musicians, but I think calling Morrison ‘a poet’ is a stretch and while his onstage charisma was obvious, the man’s personal life was a messy and bizarre whirlwind that came to a tragic but inevitable end. With that said, the albums recorded without the Lizard King are another matter and I really can’t understand why they bothered.
The Songs
Writing for ‘Other Voices’ started before Morrison left for Paris where he later died but apparently a genius at Elektra thought it was a good idea for The Doors to finish what they started. There was a shortlist of possible replacements for the vocalist position including Free‘s Paul Rodgers (!) but they decided against it and there lies the problem. Someone should have stepped in and told both guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek they couldn’t sing, but here they are croaking away on a mixture of decent to godawful material.
The album starts out promising with ‘In The Eye Of The Sun’ which sounds similar to their early work but the ridiculous ode to adultery ‘Variety Is The Spice Of Life’ should have been left in the can and forgotten. ‘Ships w- Sails’ is very good and again touching on The Doors of old and the blues driven ‘Tightrope Ride’ picked as the record’s only single rocks at a pretty good clip.
‘Down On The Farm’ was written for 1969’s ‘The Soft Parade’ sessions but Morrison didn’t care to sing it although it’s an interesting tune that alternates between classic 60’s pop to hokey country-rock while ‘I’m Horny, I’m Stoned’ is as stupid as the unfortunate title suggests. A little countrified soul on ‘Wandering Musician’ works its magic and the Latin jazz closer ‘Hang On To Your Life’ moves into progressive Santana territory and successfully I might add. But not even the good stuff on this album comes close to the charismatic and mysterious Morrison years.
In Summary
The trio had enough balls to take the ‘Other Voices’ show on the road to shockingly good reviews. Their follow-up ‘Full Circle’ released in 1972 with one of the ugliest album sleeves to come out of the 70’s was an even poorer set musically. Their three album deal with Elektra was mercifully cut short.
Jim Morrison’s father was in the U.S Military deployed to Vietnam. He had a part to play in the whole Gulf of Tonkin incident, which preceded the U.S’s entrance into the war during the early 60’s. The things you find out..