Three Huge Sixties Bands I Didn’t Like, and Then I Liked a Lot
And what changed my mind
Three of the biggest bands of the sixties, The Doors, The Who, and The Doobie Brothers*, I unfortunately never saw in concert. I never went to see them because they just didn’t grab me enough. Sadly, I later came to a great appreciation of them and their music, and I regret that I never caught a live performance.
Here’s why.
* The Doobie Brothers band was founded in 1970, but everyone knows that The Sixties lasted until 1973, when the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and the U.S. military draft ended.
The Doors — Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger, and John Densmore
The Doors were — and still are — the ultimate L.A. rock band. I grew up in L.A. They should have been my favorite band ever. In fact, I bought their first three studio albums. Their first album remains one of the best overall rock albums of all time.
I played keyboards (badly) in a (bad) high school rock band. I loved Ray Manzarek’s creative playing of the Farfisa elecric organ — just like the one I owned. I loved what he did with its cheapo sound, compared to the mighty Hammond B3 organ with twin Leslie speakers that other bands favored. I loved how often the keyboards shaped if not dominated their sound. Who can forget that riding, rolling organ lick that opens their mega-hit Light My Fire?
Maybe my problem with The Doors was that, after two years of college at Cal Tech in Pasadena, I transferred to U. C. Berkeley and became a northern California person. I was laid back, mellow yellow, man. I became a Dead Head. The Doors were always sharp, aggressive. They harshed my mellow!
Or maybe it was because Morrison was such a bad boy, and I was a good boy.
The thing that changed it all for me was The Doors. Not The Doors the band, but The Doors the 1991 Oliver Stone movie. It gave me a context for the band I didn’t have before. And a context for Jim Morrison. For me, Jim Morrison is Val Kilmer. He gave such a remarkable performance!
Suddenly, my eyes were opened and I had new understanding of Jim and the band. Today I have nothing but admiration for their artistry.
Fun Doors Fact: The only rock’n’roll band I know of that had no bass player! Manzarek played a keyboard bass with his left hand, stacked on top of the Farfisa (or maybe Vox?) organ he played with this right hand.
The Who — Roger Daltrey, Pete Townsend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon
The truth is, I always liked The Who’s music. Tommy was the first album I ever bought. (I went in halvsies with my 8th-grade best buddy Jeff Popp.) I liked all those great singles: I Can’t Explain, Substitute, I Can See For Miles, Happy Jack, Magic Bus, Boris the Spider, and the immortal My G-G-Generation.
The thing that didn’t vibe with me was that The Who was sheer chaos! They didn’t have a lead guitar, they had lead drums! That totally insane Keith Moon was just all over the place. He actually exploded on live TV (see video above)! Pete windmill-stumming his guitar, Roger twirling his microphone like a lasso. Pure chaos!
I was a mild-mannered young person. I respected the rules, I liked order. I thought Keith’s drumming was childish. Sloppy, as Tommy Smothers put it (see video above). I admired the precision drumming of Cream’s Ginger Baker. (Unbeknownst to me at the time, Ginger Baker was every bit as crazy as Moon. But his drumming was disciplined.) I liked the songs, but I wasn’t comfortable with the band.
Mistal tells a Who chaos story: They say that Paul McCartney was inspired to write “Helter Skelter” after reading an interview with Pete Townshend, where Townshend described “I Can See for Miles” as the loudest, rawest, and dirtiest song The Who had ever recorded. McCartney, always competitive, took this as a challenge and set out to create a song that would outdo “I Can See for Miles” in terms of raw power and aggression. The result was “Helter Skelter,” featuring distorted guitars, screaming vocals, and a chaotic energy that was unprecedented for The Beatles.
Another thing I didn’t like about them was that it seemed to me that they were always trotting out a Tommy medley at their concerts. Lame! Do the whole opera, dudes, if you’re going to do it at all. Respect your own work! I thought.
And yet another thing that bugged me is that The Who played more Farewell Tours than any other band. It seems the must have played their final concert at least a dozen times.
I think what changed my mind about The Who was this: My first job after college was with a mostly young crew at Intel. (Intel liked to hire ’em young and train ’em their way.)
After work, a certain group of ex-frat boys would often meet a local bar to drink Happy Hour beers, munch free chicken wings, and play video games. (Defender and Caterpillar were big at the time.) Always trying to fit in (and never succeeding), I would sometimes join them.
These guys were nuts about The Who. I think that led to me reevaluating my opinion of the band.
In addition, I had been through some chaos at college. Maybe that helped, too. I could deal with some chaos — even enjoy it.
Recently I’ve been catching up on a lot of The Who concert footage on YouTube. And you know what? It’s great that they always finish with the Tommy medley. That finale is such a grand anthem…
Listenin’ to you, I get the music,
Gazing at you, I feel the heat,
Following you, I climb the mountain,
I get excitement at your feet…
The Doobie Brothers — A bunch of dudes from San Jose
The Doobie Brothers, what joke! They named themselves after a marijuana joint! Think they might be stoners, maybe? LOL
Yeah, Listen to the Music was a catchy tune. A Top 10 hit I could respect. Jesus Is Just Alright With Me … a good rocker, but what’s with the Jesus stuff? Were they a Christian Rock band? China Grove, another solid rocker, but who cares about China Grove? What is that, some little podunk Texas town?
I lived in San Jose for many years right after college, so I’m sure there must have been plenty of opportunities catch Doobie concerts. But you know, they were not my thing. I liked the hit tunes, but I was no stoner. I preferred a more substantial band like The Grateful Dead. (I wasn’t a stoner, but I did enjoy the occasional acid trip.)
Then one day in 1978, I heard a band playing in an apartment in my building. It was a cheap cinder-block building so the sound was muffled, so I strolled around the corner to see what was up. The door to the apartment was open and I wandered in. There was a little band playing Doobie Bros music and a bunch of folks hanging out, smoking and enjoying the vibes.
Suddenly I grokked it. The Doobs were a great fucking party band! Nothing heavy, just enjoying the good times with like-minded folks. I could dig it! Now I understood The Doobie Brothers, and have loved their music and what they stand for ever since.
Hell, this was in San Jose. Maybe that band was the actual Doobie Brothers! LOL No, the Doobs had already had some mega hits. No way were they hanging out in our shitty little apartment building.
And that’s my story for this week. I love hearing the stories you’ve responded back with to my little nostalgia music series. Please share more!
