So why is The Doors’ Morrison Hotel on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I got into The Doors when I was around 13 years old, which is that time in one’s life when you really get into something, it stays with you for life.
And I think there’s something particularly with music where some songs, some bands, some genres just hardwire into your DNA somehow and it becomes part of what defines you as a person in some small but meaningful way.
Here’s a hyper specific memory about a song off of Morrison Hotel – by far the most popular Doors song from the album, I’d expect – that’s reflective of that personal backstory.
By the time I took the SAT exam in high school, I had already completed a full preparatory course and completed an endless number of practice tests. I must have been somewhat nervous on the morning of the real deal SAT, but what I absolutely remember is that I had these lines from “Roadhouse Blues” running through my head over and over and over again.
Well, I woke up this mornin’, I got myself a beer
Well, I woke up this mornin’, I got myself a beer
The future’s uncertain and the end is always near
That verse, of course, rolls and resolves magically into the famous repetitions of let it roll, baby, roll… all night long.
While I still enjoy the rollicking and bluesy “Roadhouse Blues” these days, it’s not nearly my favorite thing about Morrison Hotel. On that note, I’ll begin with another song that I became obsessed with in high school that I’ve more or less stayed obsessed with ever since.
And it’s a song with the oddball name of “Peace Frog.”
Funk is a word rarely associated with The Doors, but “Peace Frog” kind of is, while at the same time being strange and rocking and even surprisingly sunny. And it does all of that while toggling craftily between three different Morrison poems – “Abortion Stories,” “Dawn’s Highway” and “Newborn Awakening.”
“Peace Frog” is also frighteningly catchy. I’ll reveal another super specific memory: I made a workout mixtape during high school consisting solely of “Peace Frog” and its 2:50 running time playing on a loop.
Meanwhile, “The Spy” is slow blues and jazz blended up in a delicate and mysterious mix.
And speaking of jazz: “Queen of the Highway” has grown on me much over the years, an appealing mixture of jazz lounge and rock. And you can feel where “Riders on the Storm” was headed a bit with this one as well.
I adore this rare cut of “Queen of the Highway” as well, which goes full jazz lounge. Just great.
Mostly due to “Roadhouse Blues,” “You Make Me Real,” and “Maggie M’Gill,” Morrison Hotel is remembered as The Doors going deep on the blues after the experimentation and instrumentation of The Soft Parade (an album I deeply love, as you can see from its place at #147 of the best 1,000 albums ever).
For me, I actually enjoy the blues of L.A. Woman quite a bit more, but still think the wild, jumping piano from Ray Manzarek on “You Make Me Real” is pretty great.
Finally, “Waiting for the Sun” would have been the title track on the album of the same name, but didn’t make the cut, so this terrific psychedelic rock track that feels of a piece with a slightly older version of the band landed on Morrison Hotel.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with The Doors’ Morrison Hotel
The iconic album cover shot for Morrison Hotel was taken at a rundown, cheap hotel that indeed bears the last name of the band’s singer, located in downtown Los Angeles. I recall reading somewhere that Jim had to be convinced to shave for the photo shoot, which wasn’t the only time that happened. But of course by the time we get to L.A. Woman, Jim is finally enshrined on a Doors album cover with his beard fully deployed for all the world to see.
Some stats & info about The Doors – Morrison Hotel
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Hard Rock, Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Morrison Hotel released? 1970
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #129 out of 1,000
The Doors’ Morrison Hotel on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Doors’ Morrison Hotel that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Let it roll, all night long.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.