During a Doors concert in March 1969, Jim Morrison performed intoxicated and allegedly exposed himself to a crowd of 12,000 people at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Coconut Grove, Florida. In the relatively conservative environment of the late 60’s, the Doors’ publicity completely tanked. The Doors were forced to cancel their remaining tour dates and were blacklisted from radio. Their next album, the Soft Parade, was critically panned by many as contrived and pretentious and the lead single “Touch Me” did little to repair the Doors’ reputation with mainstream radio. Morrison’s alcoholism was mounting and several paternity suits had appeared. For a second there, it looked as if the Doors had hit the end of the line. Then they returned to the studio to record their penultimate LP, Morrison Hotel. Hailed as a return to form by critics, the Doors used this record to shed their previous skin. Gone were the psychedelic pretensions and ornate sting arrangements of the Soft Parade, replaced instead by a lean, bawdy bar band. Morrison had started moving away from his signature leather-clad shaman image, reasserting himself here as a fatalistic party boy in Morrison Hotel’s rowdier moments (Roadhouse Blues, Peace Frog, You Make Me Real) and a world weary blues crooner in the quieter ones (Blue Sunday, The Spy). The band’s move toward the blues would become much more pronounced on their next and last LP, the excellent L.A. Woman, but notable here is their use of a real life bass player, the accomplished blues guitarist Lonnie Mack who gives the Doors a looser, more swinging feel compared to the more rigid feeling Fender Rhodes piano bass played by Ray Manzarek on previous records. As a result of this, the Doors loose some of their disjointed Brechtian energy but perhaps that is a part of their persona that they were content to leave behind. Morrison Hotel is a leaner, hungrier Doors that have been around the block a couple times. Given Jim Morrison’s preoccupation with death and rebirth, it is fascinating to watch them reinvent themselves.
Pete Whelan 