In the three years after their break up, it became obvious that none of the Beatles were going anywhere. John got over his weirdness and got back to rock music. Paul responded to the backlash of the homespun McCartney with the incredible Ram, then form Wings. Ringo released a country record (?!?). And after the releasing the sprawling deluge of All Things Must Pass and organizing and recording the massive humanitarian Concert for Bangladesh at the Behest of his mentor Ravi Shankar, George Harrison no longer had anything to prove.
psychedelic rock
Record #191: George Harrison – All Things Must Pass (1970)
The Beatles were over. McCartney had made a press release announcing it, followed a week later by his first solo record, which was derided as a disappointing, half-baked affair. The magic was over. The good days were all behind us. And while the Fab Four may all still be releasing music, nothing they made could have topped what they did together.
But for George Harrison, the dam had burst.
Record #140: The Doors – L.A. Woman (1971)
The Doors never returned to the jammy, poetic, psychedelic jazz rock of their first two albums, which is a true shame (this is said with complete ignorance to their post-Morrison catalogue).
Record #138: The Doors – Strange Days (1967)
When a debut album is as lauded and as scattered as The Doors’, there’s usually a couple of misfires before they find their niche and release another great record. The Doors not only managed to release a sophomore record that overshadowed its predecessor, but they did so within the same calendar year. And to tell the truth, Strange Days has always been my favorite Doors record.
Record #137: The Doors – The Doors (1967)
For whatever reason, the Doors have a pretty soiled reputation among music aficionados. I do not understand this. Maybe it has something to do with the late Jim Morrison, a charismatic, controversy-stricken frontman obsessed with drugs, obscenity, and Greek literature who was the only (really) good looking member of the band, who’s death at 27 (which now at 25 I realize is even younger than I thought) exalted him to the same heights as Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, and Janis Joplin. His face has been put on t-shirts and posters and (in more than one case) blankets with the heading “American Poet,” which is a difficult case to make in the face of people like Walt Whitman, e. e. cummings, Alan Ginsberg, and even fellow musician Bob Dylan (the fact that these t-shirts are worn by teenagers who have never read a poem outside of English class only exacerbates the resentment).
Record #36: The Beatles – Abbey Road, 1969
A few posts back, I said that the best Beatles record had yet to come.
And here it is.
And here it is.