“The single most powerful band,” according to Jim Morrison
Hanging on the coattails of the Beat Generation, Jim Morrison surged to worldwide fame in the late 1960s as the enigmatic frontman of The Doors. The band fit snugly into the West Coast psychedelic rock scene, bringing healthy instrumental and poetic nuances to the fore. Joined by Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, Morrison led an armoury of instrumental talent apt to back his abstract, often subversive lyricism.
Morrison named the band after Aldous Huxley’s 1954 essay The Doors of Perception, one of the first and most famous literary analyses of the psychedelic experience. Like Aldous Huxley, Morrison’s curiosity knew few bounds, and his appetite for consciousness expansion was voracious. However, inconsistent with the peace movement and the loss of ego associated with LSD use was Morrison’s messiah complex. This was presumably a result of the star’s whiplash entry to fame, which he sadly struggled to handle.
Early in his career, Morrison dreamt of singing like Elvis Presley, the ‘King of Rock’ n’ Roll’, but over time, he grew to appreciate Frank Sinatra’s crooning approach. Both influences could be equally powerful in The Doors catalogue, with Presley’s intensity brought to Morrison’s wailing in ‘Break on Through (To The Other Side)’ and Sinatra’s seductive croon employed in ‘Indian Summer’.
As far as Mr Mojo Risin’ was concerned, powerful music could take on many forms, but a melancholic or macabre edge seemed crucial. Though generally dutifully sparse in his endorsement of contemporary bands, one band in the San Francisco psych-rock scene held Morrison in a trance.
The band’s name was Blue Cheer, and Morrison deemed them “the single most powerful band I’ve ever seen.” Undoubtedly, the Doors frontman was a fan, but the power he referred to in this statement was that of the loud rock ‘n’ roll type, as opposed to the silky croons of 1950s jazz-pop.
Blue Cheer was a psychedelic rock trio formed in 1966 by Dickie Peterson, Leigh Stephens and Eric Albronda. Adhering to a tough image, the group prospered under the management of Allen “Gut” Terk, a former Hells Angel. They led a sonic revolution through the late ’60s, with a heavy rock sound prescient of the imminent metal wave.
After watching Jimi Hendrix perform at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, Blue Cheer opted for a heavy psychedelic sound that, over time, evolved towards metal and proto-punk persuasions. The band’s first hit single was a cover of Eddie Cochran’s ‘Summertime Blues’, which featured on the 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum and is considered by some as the first metal song ever recorded. However, others will trace the genre back to The Who’s 1966 song ‘Boris the Spider’.
