Song “Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind”
posted by on February 25 at 13:38 PM
I should’ve posted this back when some Line Out readers were slagging the hell out of the Doors, but better late than never. “Peace Frog”—which appeared on 1970’s Morrison Hotel—is but one of at least a dozen Doors songs that refute claims that Jimbo only sang about his cock, that the band’s music was bloated, and that Mr. Mojo Risin’ was a self-indulgent poetaster (okay, maybe that last claim is valid).
“Peace Frog” is funky, vital, lean, and exciting; it may be my favorite Doors track. (Trivia: 3rd Bass sampled it on “The Cactus.”) The above video has the added value of giving Josh Feit’s brain an erection with its footage of protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. You’re welcome, Josh. (Correction: I’m wrong; there’s no footage of that convention. The line about “blood in the streets of Chicago” coupled with police subduing the crowd at a Doors concert confused me for a minute. Sorry, Josh.)
Here’s another excellent Doors song: “Not to Touch the Earth.” I particularly like the way it unexpectedly accelerates and gets chaotically psychedelic toward the end. As far as I can tell, its main subject is not Jim Morrison’s reproductive organ.
Great choices! It drives me nuts when people slag the Doors, as they're usually thinking of songs other than these--or they're so caught up in Morrison's antics that they aren't even thinking about the music. Sure, he/they could be irritating, but certainly not always.
Thanks.
I think you nailed it, Kathy. Hatred of Morrison's shamanic persona and his sometimes ill-conceived poetry deafen some people to the more nuanced and adventurous songs in the Doors' canon.
And the organ part mixes really well with Diamanda Galas' 'You Must Be Certain of the Devil'
Actually, it's the lyrical pretension of these kinds of songs that made me hate Jim Morrison and the Doors. It's like listening to a 15-year-old who's read a book or two and now thinks he's deep.
Just do a close analysis of your headline, lifted from the the (silly) middle part of Peace Frog. What does it mean for ghosts to crowd your mind? Isn't "young child" redundant? Why is that child's mind a fragile eggshell? Isn't "fragile eggshell" redundant? (Is there any other kind of eggshell?) I mean, what the fuck is he talking about? Does it actually mean anything, or is it just a bunch of deep-sounding words and two-word phrases strung together?
My favorite college cover band did that song, and simply skipped the cheesy poetry part. I do agree, the rest of the song's pretty tight.
But I always liked his dumb drinkin blues songs better, like Roadhouse Blues and the song that starts off with him yelling "I been down so goddamn long...that it looks like up to me." Now that's a rock song.
Yeah, that line bugs me, as an editor.
Heard in the context of the song, it's more tolerable. I genuinely think Morrison felt that it meant something to him.
"I been down so goddamn long...that it looks like up to me"--that's a paraphrase of a book title by Richard Fariña. I'm not trying to be contrary, but I think the Doors were at their most pedestrian when attempting the blues.
You could pick apart Bob Dylan's lyrics, too, and find all sorts of nonsensical lines. Just sayin'.
I dig your last paragraph, MattyDread. I've always liked "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" myself. Maybe it helps to be a drunkard, but Morrison really nailed that one. As for the pretentiousness, it's so over-the-top it often dissolves into comedy, but Coppola turns it into a virtue in "Apocalypse Now."
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