Doesn’t this carry any weight?
The first poem was nice. I really liked the response, though!
Well, I won’t argue the point very seriously, since my point was that it’s not an entirely serious song. It’s a sound effects song ya know?
I’ve got nothing against the “memories” option, it’s certainly the most “poetic.” What “Emily” has in her favor is that it matches the feel of “squirming like a toad” and “like a dog without bone.” It’s a careless lyric snatched from the ether with a smooth samauri motion.
It also has the power of the specific. It moves the song from archtypes and pure mood to the literal with one silly word. That’s nice trick, and equal in effect to the okay poetics of “sweet memories will die.”
That’s all.
Oh, and the rock critic I was trying to remember was Richard “R.” Meltzer.
That was R. Meltzer in Rolling Stone. “Besides being heavy in their early days the Doors were funny too. Funnier than a fish. … There isn’t one serious cut on the entire album.”
ETA: Too slow again! Oh, BTW, the sheet music (The Doors/Complete, 1972 edition) also has “family.” That’s the word, people.
Thanks for dredging that out Mr. Shrew. I still use the phrase “funny as a fish” but had forgotten where it came from.
What I meant was that when I listen to AC/DC I still think “These guys kick ass.” When I listen to the Doors I just feel mildly embarassed that I used to like them. And while AC/DC’s lyrics aren’t profound poetry, they are simple honest rock lyrics and can be enjoyed as such. They aren’t self-absorbed drivel.
Yeah, it does with me. I hear it as “family,” anyway. But in cases of doubt, I’d go with the lyricist’s intent, even if I’d heard it differently.
Plus, Backdoor Man is one of the baddest songs of all time…
I always think of riding a horse down the beach along the shoreline when I hear this song. And it’s my all time favorite nookie background song. No opinion good or bad on the words, but the music puts me instantly in another place and time (in my head, alas).
The Doors rule! Woot!
Ohh, and does anyone have a better rhyming line to follow
“There’s a killer on the road,” than the one featuring the toad simile?
After all, it can be easier to criticize than to coupletize.
However, since “Back Door Man” was written by Willie Dixon for blues singer Howlin Wolf, it doesn’t say anything about Jim Morrison’s songwriting/poetic abilities.
The Doors also recorded “Crawlin’ Kingsnake”, but I don’t know if Wolf wrote it or also covered it.
Pick one:
a. “He is wrathful like Tom Joad”
b. “He got banned for saying FOAD” *
c. “He might make your head asplode”
- Pit joke.
AMEN to that. But she was a Bona Fide Poetess:rolleyes:
IMHO, **sweet family will die **doesn’t make much sense. No?
Ahhhhhhhhh… The light bulb just went on!
From wikipedia:
*The song’s lyrics allude in part to the notorious spree killer Billy Cook, who posed as a hitchhiker and murdered an entire family. *
I stand corrected.
My bad.
Carry on.
I am imagining a crazed psycopath clutching a bloody chicken gizzard, flailing it wildly about.
Morrison was a genius, compared to most other 1970’s rock music lyrics-how about Steve Miller? ( “Abracadaba…I wanna reach out an grab ya”)-profound thoughts-no?
“Theres a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah”
Deep man, deep. It’s like you don’t actually have to say anything and you say everything, yeah man, I get it, I do. No, it’s far out.
Say, have you ever thought maybe like on a beach, the sand, like the sand, what if that was an entire universe and our universe is a piece of sand somewhere on a much larger beach.
Drug induced hallucinations may make for interesting art, but that doesn’t mean it can’t suck also.
d. “Eats his buckeyes a la mode”*