When You’re Strange

I just watched the Doors documentary “When You’re Strange”.

If you know nothing of the Doors you must see this movie. If you know a little about them but don’t get what the fuss is/was about, you must see this movie. If you like them, love them or hate them you must see this movie.

I was not even a twinkle in Mr. Morrison’s eye when the Doors were born, but I was a kid when they had their first resurgence of popularity spurned by the bestselling book “No One Here Gets Out Alive” and a reissue of their greatest hits. They were everywhere in the eighties. Jim Morrison had been dead for years but stoner kids talked about Jim being in hiding and waiting for the right time for his mojo to rise. “No One Here Gets Out Alive” was a must read for any good stoner and rock fan. The largely horrific music of the eighties (Police, U2 and a few others aside, of course) and god forsaken trends like break dancing caused lonely rock lovers to retreat to the past and yearn for a new musical/cultural explosion.

That explosion never happened –not in the 80’s anyway -but we felt it was about to when we tapped into the music of the Doors.  We was all ready to be Breakin’ on Through. Wasn’t long before Hollywood hopped on that bandwagon and made a movie about it.

But “When You’re Strange” doesn’t have a Val Kilmer trying to convince you of his Jim-ness; this has the real Jim Morrison. The whole time. (Except for this eerie opening sequence with a Morrison look-alike so realistic it’s downright creepy; you’d swear it’s real*).

And it doesn’t keep cutting away to present day interviews with the aging and creaky Doors and their managers/roommates/lovers all yakking about their take on what was and how it was all so ‘groovy’ man.  It just throws your trippin’ Alice right down that 60’s rabbit hole and never takes you out of it. The archival footage is stunning. The pacing is great and even narrator Johnny Depp doesn’t get in the way, he just tells you what happened while the footage and music actually takes you there in a way Oliver Stone couldn’t. Nothing like the real thing baby.

It is amazing how many songs these guys wrote that were just, well, good. I mean really, really good.  “Hello I Love You”, “Soul Kitchen”, “Love Me Two Times”, “Love Her Madly” to name a few. The biggest kicker is their epic hit ‘Light My Fire’ was written by then 22 year-old guitarist Robby Krieger and it was the first song he ever wrote.

Shut. Up.

Yep. Really. Yes, I’m creatively discouraged too. But that’s part of what this movie shows you; it wasn’t just about these guys being soooo talented or soooo creative, it’s that they were so much a part of that time which is a time that will doubt ever be repeated. It was cultural upheaval but also cultural explosion. And the Doors tapped into the darker side of it all. The side that pushed the boundaries, pushed them to the edge and pushed them right on over to that other side.  Or at least in the case of dead-at-27 Morrison anyway.

If the Beatles were like distant British gods raining heavenly music down on the masses, The Doors were like, “What if ‘the gods’ lived down the street and were just like you and me?” They were American, so instead of the quaint and fluffy “Penny Lane” you got “L.A. Woman”. Dirty, abused and uncomfortably familiar.

People often talk about the music of the 60’s and 70’s and ask why artists don’t write music like they did back then. It’s because they can’t; it’s impossible, the times were so much a part of the music and the music so much a part of the times. And you simply can’t repeat what happened at that point in western culture.

And the Doors found a unique voice to echo the spirit of that time as well as drive it.

There will never be another Doors because there never can be another Doors.  The 60’s were a time of such extreme musical and cultural innovation and exploration that even a novice musician like Krieger could tap in and come out with something that echoed the vibe of an entire sub-culture. Music and culture then were like waves; if you were in the right place at the right time, had just a bit of talent and made the effort to kick, you could end up on the ride of your life that people would talk about for decades.

Today, music and culture is more like a Jacuzzi; everything is everywhere coming from all directions and the mash-up is the norm. Jump in, get wet and see what happens. And then text me about it.

Careful though, you might drown. Like Jim. That much hasn’t changed.

*Update: Ah, no wonder it seemed so real. It was. It was from a short experimental film Morrison did in 1969. No wonder I was trippin’.