It Was Fifty Years Ago But Hey...

It was fifty years ago today... but can we please forget it now? Sgt Pepper was an iconoclastic album. But, let's be honest, it wasn't as good as Revolver... or maybe even Rubber Soul... or even the White Album.

Every which way one turns there is Sgt Pepperami. There's an event in Brighton promising to play music from bands influenced by Sgt Pepper.... including Pink Floyd, Cream, the Doors and the Grateful Dead. Pink Floyd? Cream? The Doors? The Grateful Dead? The idea that these bands were influence by Sgt Pepper could only exist in the minds of those who weren't there in the Sixties.

None of these bands showed or needed any influence from Sgt Pepper... unless it was to go way beyond what the Beatles were doing.

Sgt Pepper seems to be being celebrated by people who have no idea what it was like to hear Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds for the first time in 1967. And if they weren't there, they'll never know...

And it's reasonably easy to predict what John Lennon would have said about celebrating Sgt Pepper fifty years on, isn't it?

Storm Trooper

I don't know why it took me so long, but I finally got around to reading 'Riders On The Storm', drummer John Densmore's account of his time with the Doors.

The Doors were an amazing band on so many levels and remain so. As I said in my previous post on the death of Ray Manzarek, they were way out ahead of the Beatles and the Stones.

If ever proof were needed of the skill, intelligence, thoughtfulness and passion of the drummer, Densmore's book is exactly that. And if you want sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, they're all there too.

Densmore's ability to use the drums to respond to other instruments but, above all, to Jim Morrison's words and almost complete unpredictability on stage continue to inspire me, and no doubt countless other players.

Another Door Closes

It's sad to hear of the passing of Ray Manzarek.

I first heard The Doors - performing The End - courtesy of a progressive English teacher who played the final track of their debut album to us in a poetry lesson early in 1967. He had an import copy - and as soon as I could, I went out and bought it.

It remains one of the finest records ever made. Not just for The End... but for every darkly brilliant track. And not just for Jim Morrison's remarkable voice, or Manzarek's trademark keyboards, or Robbie Kreiger's unsettling guitar, or John Densmore's incredibly precise yet emotional drumming.

The Doors were (like the Beatles) the sum of their parts - and then some. But the Doors were hipper and bigger and far more dangerous than the Beatles could ever hope to be.