Most Poetic Band example essay topic

"When the music's over... ". : The Story Behind the Most Eloquent Band In History, The Doors by Jesse World Literature, Period 512/9/98 "There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception". -William Blake, author If you ask anyone with good taste in music, who the most unique and influential band of the late '60's and early 70's is, they " re bound to say The Doors. In a time of flourishing culture and heavy exploration of "mind-expanding" drugs, The Doors "broke on through" to create their own musical category: a mix of blues, acid-rock, and keyboards (which, in itself was unusual being that almost all bands of the time based their melodies around heavy-driven guitar). Laid over this cacophony of ethereal guitar and sharp, beat-keeping keyboards was lead singer Jim Morrison's own special brand of poetry amplified through his crooning, sometimes gravely, voice.

And very evident in every song The Doors ever wrote was Jim's knowledge of historical philosophies and classical literature which enabled him to create lyrics filled with so many poetic devices that they reached the point of purely figurative paragraphs. From the classics ("The End"", Not to Touch the Earth", "Five to One", etc.) to the "not-so-classics" ("Touch Me") the reis no doubt that poetry and eloquence were always his two main goals. Jim Morrison " 's vast knowledge of poetry and philosophers, paired with his tremendous vocabulary and creativity, make him a key contribution to, in my opinion, the most poetic band of all time. On December 8, 1943, James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida.

His father, Steve Morrison, was a naval commander and his mother, Clara, was a housewife. Because of his dad's position, Jim's family was frequently moving from base to base across the country, not allowing him, or his younger brother, Andy, to make many friends This isolation turned Jim on to reading at a young age. But instead of typical teenage reading material, he liked to read more mature books, thus further isolating him from most kids his age. As Jim grew up, he took more and more interest in the great philosophers and thinkers of the past.

Frederick Neitzsche, Antonin Art aud, Vincent Van Gogh, and Edgar Allen Poe are just a few of his many influences. While attending UCLA, Jim was enrolled in a film class, hoping to major in cinematography. Also enrolled in this class was a man by the name of Ray Manzarek, an organist who was in band with his two brothers called Rick and the Ravens. Ray took an interest in Jim " 's work and introduced himself when he spotted him strolling Venice Beach one day. They talked and Jim had mentioned that he had been writing some songs over the summer. Ray asked him to sing a few lines.

So, Jim gave him the first verse of "Moonlight Drive " and Ray was amazed. He took Jim into his band as the new lead singer and over time, revisions were made with the rest of the band, as well. Drummer, John Densmore, and guitarist, Robby Krieger, were acquired from a local meditation center that Ray attended and after playing together, they all knew that it was meant to be. But, they needed a name. The aforementioned William Blake quote was a personal favorite of Jim's, so, after discussing it with the rest of the band, they all agreed on The Doors.

After spreading demos to what seemed like every agent in town with no avail, they finally got a break. After bringing in their tape to Billy James, an agent for Columbia Records, they got a call-back two days later telling them they had been signed. Later, through a connection, they were hired as the house band at a local L.A. club called The London Fog, but they were fired. After a lull in gigs or production of original material, Columbia decided to drop them and the band went through a legal termination of contract. On their final night at the London Fog, Ronnie Haran, the talent booker for the Whiskey a Go Go, a bigger club down the strip, saw their performance and liked it. "I've really talked you up, plus, we " ve really been kinda looking for a house band", she said (Hopkins 84).

She also said that if it worked into a regular job, it would mean two sets a night at union scale ($499.50 for the four of them). Their "fill-in" gig at the Whiskey ended up lasting months and Ronnie ended up informally becoming their manager. She urged some connections at Elektra Records to come see The Doors which led to a contract. Their first album, The Doors, came out in January of 1967, followed by five other studio albums and three live albums. Jim was on a continuous downward spiral of drugs mixed with severe alcoholism that finally caught up to him in his apartment on July 3, 1971, in Paris, France. While taking a bath, he reportedly died of a heart attack.

After Jim's saddening death, The Doors as the world knew them were nomo re. The three remaining members of the now defunct band, released two more albums after Jim's death: Other Voices, and Full Circle. These albums didn't do much and by 1973, The Doors were gone forever. American Prayer, an album of Jim's spoken-word poetry dubbed over The Doors playing in the background, was released in 1978, finally giving fans of Morrison's poetry something tangible to whet their palette. Regardless ofThe Doors's low, painful decline, they will always live on as one of the greatest, most energetic live bands that the world has ever seen. When it comes to poetic devices, The Doors' lyrics utilized every one of the mand probably incorporated a few new ones, as well.

Jim was truly a natural poet and could create a lengthy, hypnotic ballad at the snap of a finger. What some people thought of as drug-induced ranting and a lewd imagination was looked upon by many others as the finest poetry ever created. There was no happy medium to be met. It was a love-hate issue. One of Jim's two favorite devices to use was personification of ideas or emotions and natural objects. "What have they done to the Earth / What have they done to our fair sister / Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her / Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn."The music is your special friend...

". The two quotes above are excerpts from "When the Music's Over... ". the big finale on Strange Days. This method of identifying an object or idea as an identity were abundant in Jim's work. He liked to make many references to nature, usually incorporating the preceding form. Another common device in Doors' lyrics were metaphors. Practically every line was a metaphor of some sort.

Without translation or understanding of their true meaning, one could think that these words were just nonsensical rambling. But, if you dig down and really examine what is being said, it becomes clear that every line is laced with a hidden meaning. For example, he uses the symbolism of a reptile to represent rebelliousness combined with a darker evil side. Hence his self-proclaimed title, "The Lizard King". He also makes reference to "The snake" quite often. This is most likely just representative of a general evil character or something along those lines.

In a famous Morrison poem, The Celebration of the Lizard, he uses these metaphors abundantly: "Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake / The minister's daughter " sin love with the snake / Who lives in a well by the side of the road / Wake up, Girl! We " re almost home."I am the Lizard King / I can do anything / I can make the Earth stop in it's tracks / I made the blue cars go away". Half of the time, I don't think even the most die-hard Doors' fans are capable of translating these seemingly meaningless lines. Jim was known to start spouting out random sentence fragments during live performances. But even in a hypnotic, psychedelic trance that he was often known to be in up on stage, the words that flowed from his mouth were still filled with deep meanings and poetic devices.

That, along withal l of the evidence presented above, is, in my opinion, enough to show that Jim Morrison was one of the greatest poets ever to inhabit the Earth. The story of The Doors is not an uncommon one. Many bands rose and fell inthe same fashion, just with different people in a different town. Starting out from varied backgrounds, four men come together through mutual friends, start as a bar band, an agent spots them, they get signed, put out some records, and drugs and alcohol eventually tear the band apart. This could be a fill in the blank essay for many bands in The Doors " era, just change the names and the dates. Though, what makes The Doors stand out fromthe rest of the pack is the individuality of their music.

They didn't just have the same old guitar music that everyone else was producing. They added a whole new sound to the music scene of the late '60's that is still appreciated and borrowed from to this day. Though, not one band in the last 30 years has been able to duplicate or better their sound. Everything I have presented in the preceding paragraphs has hopefully been educational to you, the reader, and I hope I was able to present enough convincing evidence to show that The Doors were definitely the most revolutionary, controversial, and, at the sametime, the most poetic band the world has ever seen. 52d Crisafulli, Chuck. Moonlight Drive: The Stories Behind Every Doors's ong.

Carlton Books Limited, 1995. Doors, The. The Doors. LP. 1967. Elektra Records.

-. Strange Days. LP. 1967. Elektra / Asylum Records. 1985-.

Waiting for the Sun. LP. 1968. Elektra / Asylum Records Hopkins, Jerry, and Danny Superman. No One Here Gets Out Alive. Warner Books, 1995 (revised).

Morrison, Jim. An American Prayer. LP. 1978.