THE DOORS
1967
One of the best first-time outings in rock history, introducing the band’s fusion of acid rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry, often seething with subversive menace. “Light My Fire” was the cut that topped the charts and established the group as stars, but the rest of the album is even more impressive. Morrison was a fan of Bertolt Brecht, and pulled “Alabama Song” from the Brecht/Weill opera “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”, an unusual gesture from low to hi at the time. The 11-minute Oedipal drama “The End” was a haunting cap to an album whose nonstop dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered.
