QUOTE (MeagerFood521 @ Jul 10 2009, 06:10 PM)
When I meet new people I always ask 'What groups do you like?'
Some answers are real decent/Green Day, ColdPlay,R.E.M.,Maroon5,Marshall Mathers, Dr. Dre,(hey,what ever floats your boat).....Sometimes, not often, I bring up the Doors and hear 'Jim was nothing but a drunk and a junkie'....I tell them straight off YOU ARE NOT INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO BE A DOORS FAN. Your facts are wrong....Jim was NOT a junkie, he drank (we all know that)....He was one of the finest lyricists born....his IQ soared above the average Joe's/his music was 'haunting', his girlfriend georgous, and him.....drop dead handsome.....ACCOMPLISHED alot for being a drunk and a junkie, huh??????
Jacky
I had the same experience in England for 40 years now. People said the same thing to me in the 70s as they do in the 00ies. The Doors have never been popular here really. They have attracted an audience but thats not the same thing. The Beatles were popular, Chichory Tip were popular, T Rex were popular, Depeche Mode were popular, Coldplay were popular but The Doors never were.
Doors fans are not better than all the rest at all. I know people from my life who are fans of all sorts of music and they are intelligent and have a love for the music they listen to and they do not like The Doors.
For me The Doors suffer from decades of the negative promotion that goes hand in hand with The Morrison Myth.
Jim made an arce of himself it's true when he was alive but compared to what was done since 1971 it was really small beer. The Myth sells stuff so the Myth rules supreme. Even today we have silly people who believe Jim Morrison died for our sins and is some kinda Messianic figure. I have personally met these crazies.
The Myth has been perpetrated for so long that nobody even looks to find any truth anymore.
Many blame the Stone movie but the Three Amigos are far more to blame than some daft Hollywood director.
It's not lack of intelligence that rubs people up the wrong way when it comes to The Doors. It's lack of information.
Many of us know that The Doors are a multi layered multi faceted entity but which facet gets most attention and sells most product.
I don't need to answer as the most sensible Doors fan knows the answer.
And who has most to gain from the status quo. Again we all know the answer to that.
A perfect example of this came last december on Jim Morrison's 65th birthday.
Instead of talking about the artist and poet we had silly people rambling on about drugs and the crazy Jim whilst selling an album.
Of course these things happened but not every day and not all day. Sometimes creativity must have reared it's head and talk of drama and film and poetry and the aspirations of 4 young men who saw a chance to do someting unique in the field of rock music and thankfully took it.
The Doors suffer from their own self promotion of the worst aspects of thier lead singer.
The 65th a perfect opportunity to sell The Doors as artists and poets but the crazy side sells more units and lets face it nowadays thats all its about.
'Fans' think its cool to wander round in a Doors T Shirt and listen to LMF because the Doors are a kick ass rock band......I have heard them described that way many times.....but The Doors were never a kick ass rock band even if some of their concerts were indeed kick ass. Listen to Danbury High school or Houston 68 or the Matrix and you will see something a bit different to the norm in the 60s/70s.
Thats why I am still a fan not because I think Jim Morrison was kick ass but because I think Jim Morrison was interesting. In a way Mick Jagger never was.
Thats why The Doors never achieved as much as The Stones. They were unique in ways never seen before and I must admit since in rock music.
Plenty of band are influenced by The Doors and plenty of bands sound similar. But no band will ever emulate what they did back in 65/66/67/68
I have listened to and am a fan of thousands of rock bands and artists and still after more than 40 years I still answer Jacky's question in the same way I did in the 70s.
'I am a Doors fan'.To this day I still find a fascination in looking for new information and exploring new avenues about this band even if my love affair with the 3 surviving members of the group is long over.
Nothing much has really changed since the 70s when the three discovered the real goldmine that was their dead lead singer but every now and again something interesting pops its head up just to keep me on my toes.
I do agree with the topic heading to a degree as I have learned so much new stuff in the last 10 years.....not as a result of anything The Doors have done but from those very fans who it was an honour and a pleasure to be a part of thier community.
Sadly new fans can't experience that nowadays as most of them are gone along with the cool Doors websites and the great Doors discussions on the myriad of first class Doors forums and the knowledge they shared lost probably forever as they got sick of what The Doors had become. I know this because plenty have said as much to me over the internet or face to face.
One look at the utterly pathetic Doors official forum of 2009 will tell you all you need to know about the standard of Doors discussion on the internet. But even the LL was not always like that and I have had some great debates there with really intelligent and fascinating Doors fans from all over the world. And the LL was just one facet of a vibrant Doors forum community fed by hundreds of superb fan based Doors websites.
All gone now sadly.
I don't really think my fave band is anymore popular here than it was in the 60s but it certainly has attracted a big audience over the years which is a testament to the sales pitch. I read the magazine articles and listen to the interviews and despair at the one dimensional sales angle which has been rammed down Doors fans throats for so many decades now.
Soon we will have the film to add to the rest ....will it tell a different story?.....I doubt it......but it will draw in new fans who then will learn all the superficial crap the rest of us have been fed for a lifetime.
As Jacky notes, Doors fans and rock fans in general, are more attracted to the controversial image of Jim Morrison that has paid The Doors gas bills for the last 40 years so why bother changing a winning formula.
And that my friends is why a fan like me would cross the road rather than acknowledge John Densmore, Ray Manzarek or Robby Krieger and after nearly a lifetime of telling people 'I am a Doors fan' I find that infinitely sad.
