On February 9, 1970, "The Doors" fifth studio album, "Morrison Hotel", was released.
So, "Morrison Hotel" is a real hotel in downtown Los-Angeles, where the front cover of "The Doors" fifth album was also shot. The album is also known as "Hard Rock Café" - as the name of the first side of the vinyl record, where the back cover was also shot - in the "Hard Rock Café" chain located on East 5th Street Los Angeles.
after being criticized following their previous album "The Soft Parade" released in 1969, the band left the psychedelia influences almost completely and returned to its roots, back to the blues. This sound change of the band really paid off, since "The Doors" got both critical and commercial success, when the album reached the top 5 in the US album chart and also became the band's highest charting album in the UK.
However, these impressive results were not reflected from the creative process. It can be said that on this album the band began it's "disintegration" process. Jim Morrison was involved in composing all the songs on the album and actually wrote about half of the album's songs on his own. However, the rest of the band could no longer bear him at that time. Rehearsals and recordings were not easy. Jim Morrison and guitarist Robby Krieger even got into a fight because Morrison insisted on giving writing credit for one of the songs to his friend from his film school days, since he helped him write it.
No singles or big hits were released from this album. However, although the album did not include any "hits", it had some good songs, in particular the amazing opening song, "Roadhouse Blues", which is undoubtedly holds a very high score in the band's rich repertoire. The song opens with the rough, sweeping and catchy guitar riff, accompanied by session bass player Lonnie Mack, playing over Ray Manzarek's piano bass. John Sebastian's from the band "Lovin 'Spoonful" plays harmonica on this song that undoubtedly sets the tone for the blues-rock style that dominates the rest of the album.
True, "Roadhouse Blues" is probably the highlight of this album, which only gets weaker as it progress, but still this is one of the band's classic albums.
The album also includes two songs recorded during the sessions for band's previous albums: the first, "Indian Summer" which is one of the first songs the band recorded back in 1966 - while recording their debut album. The song was influenced by a car accident that Jim Morrison witness as a four-year-old, when he was on his way to Mexico with his family. A number of Indians were killed in the accident and Morrison was quoted as saying that their souls left their bodies and jumped into his soul. The second song, "Waiting for the Sun" was recorded while recording the album "Waiting For The Sun", which was released in 1968, only the band did not like the way it sounded at the time and this time returned to work on it with more vigor and desire.
Other interesting songs:
The fourth track "Peace Frog" with Robbie Kreiger's funky guitar riff, written in the studio and includes the words "Blood in the streets of the town of New Haven" referring to Morrison's arrest on stage in New Haven in 1967.
The fifth track is "Blue Sunday", which is a pure ballad with the light organ by Ray Manzarek and the beautiful guitar sentences emanate from Robby Krieger's guitar.
The eighth song "The Spy" that takes the band as far as possible in terms of style, straight to the jazz nightclub scene. This song is just great. It's different from anything else "the Doors" have ever recorded. Jim Morrison's singing is beutiful and powerful, while the lyriucs walk the fine line between love and manipulation.
For Listening to the album: Spotify, Apple Music