Sunny side up. (Waiting For The Sun: Remastered & Expanded - Doors)

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	Waiting For The Sun: Remastered & Expanded - Doors
Date:	27/01/01 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: ‘Yes, The River Knows’, ‘Love Street’, ‘Unknown Soldier’

Disadvantages: Somewhat disjointed and forgettable

“I am the Lizard King
I can do anything
I can make the earth stop in its tracks”

The full libretto of Jim Morrison’s ‘Celebration Of The Lizard King’ was included in the sleevenotes of WAITING FOR THE SUN, imprinting his powerful charisma even deeper onto the Doors and their music, and his presence again dominates every second. With two critically and popularly acclaimed albums behind them, the Doors were embracing west coast American pop to make their most melodic, if also least effective record thus far.

WAITING FOR THE SUN opens with ‘Hello, I Love You’, which was a number one single in the States, but now seems deeply derivative of the Kinks. ‘Love Street’ (“There’s a place where the creatures meet…”) exemplifies the more relaxed tone, and the catchy ‘Wintertime Love’ even shows Morrison in the romantic, optimistic frame of mind characteristic of 1968 America, if certainly not characteristic of many Doors songs.

Virtuoso musicianship is in evidence on many tracks such as ‘The Unknown Soldier’, ‘Spanish Caravan’, and ‘We Could Be So Good Together’, whilst the beautiful, piano-led ‘Yes, The River Knows’ is one of the very finest tracks the Doors ever recorded. The band belatedly return to more familiar territory on the final track with the snarling blues of ‘Five to One’, the lyrics to which (“Five to one / One in five / No one here gets out alive…”) would become ever associated with the road to destruction undertaken by Jim Morrison and so many other casualties of ‘sixties excess.

The flowery, sun-drenched pop of WAITING FOR THE SUN makes for exceedingly pleasant listening, and several of the tracks are brilliantly executed. However it does not compare favourably to the best work of better exponents of the genre (say, the Byrds), or to the bleaker
but more exuberant sound prevalent on the Doors own best material. Like all Doors albums it is well worth owning, but whereas most of their music is best played loud at two in the morning, WAITING FOR THE SUN is better suited to lazy bank holiday afternoons.

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