People are strange...

- The Doors’ music is strange.
It is music for the different, the uninvited.

It carries the listener into the shadowy realm of dreams. Part of their strangeness comes from the lack of a bass player. This leaves drummer John Densmore to keep the beat. His jazz sensibility keeps it tight, and unpredictable. Robby Krieger’s flamenco influence brings another layer of mystery. He never uses a pick, playing rhythm and lead with his fingernails. What the sound needs to work is brought in by Ray Manzarek. He discovers and electric piano bass and plays the bass line with his left hand, using his right for chords. The organ carries a hint of the carnival: both childlike and darkly disturbing. It’s no accident that the band’s second album features circus performers on its cover.

But if the band has a surreal fairground air, it is Morrison who is the frenzied trapeze artist. To Ray, he’s like an ancient shaman, leading his followers into world they never dare enter alone. Morrison is both innocent and profane. He’s a rock ‘n’ roll poet. Dangerous, and highly intelligent. No one has had this exact combination before. No matter how high he flies, his band mates are always there to catch him, and guide him back to work.

- "Jim relishes the attention," Depp says during When You're Strange. "He seems to have been born instantly ready for fame. Everything he does seems either brilliant or brilliantly calculated for effect." Or maybe he was just a narcissistic drunk with stage presence and a singular voice.

- I am the lizard king, I can do anything...

Morrison click here
The Doors click here