The Doors

• Genre: Classic Rock
• Hometown: Los Angeles
• The Doors Website

About

The mania Jim Morrison elicits decades after his death is just one of the many fascinating and seemingly eternal aspects of the Doors. Lest it be forgotten, the band also recorded some of the darkest and most challenging music of their time. What is so distinctive about the Los Angeles group is how it successfully melded rock, jazz-inspired improvisation and Weill-esque angularity into dramatic settings for Morrison's haunting baritone and acid-damaged poetry. Their amazing range set them apart from their psychedelic brethren, as they moved seamlessly from the propelling rock of "Break on Through" to the breathy beauty of "Indian Summer," the manic blues of "Five to One" and the Coltrane-flavored "Light My Fire." Whether you feel that Morrison was a brilliant and complex modern-day shaman or a second-rate poet who lost it to alcohol and pills, it's impossible to deny the long-lasting impact the Doors have had on rock 'n' roll. In 2002, following a 20 year hiatus in the wake of Morrison's death, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek reunited, enlisting ex-Cult singer Ian Astbury on lead vocals and shamanistic behavior duties. The band now calls itself Riders On the Storm.

- Will Lerner