Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party
ULTRA PAYLOADED

When Perry Farrell throws a party, everyone is welcome to join in and have a good time. His latest venture finds him offering up a variety of tunes created with friends to tell a story about artists and visionaries, called The Solutionists, coming together to make the world a better place through creativity and spreading love. It sounds corny in these cynical times, and will be easily dismissed and scoffed at by moody, modern hipsters, but for anyone who has followed Farrell’s career, he sincerely believe it’s the way forward. Hell, the idea is so crazy it just might even work if people give it a chance.

The album opens begins “Wish Upon A Dog Star” co-written by Joy Division/New Order’s Peter Hook, a perfect last name for a musician as evidenced by this song with its captivating bass line, certain to “get your groove on” out on the dance floor. “Only Love, Let’s Celebrate” lays the plan out pretty clearly. The song’s chorus takes from Rare Earth’s “I Just Wanna Celebrate” and repeats its message like a mantra. There’s good guitar work by Nuno Bettencourt, which unfortunately gets buried in the mix at times, but gets to periodically shine through.

If you are curious what the Red Hot Chili Peppers would sound like with Farrell on vocals, “Hard Life Easy” finds him joined by guitarist John Frusciante and bassist Flea, the latter of whom collaborates with Farrell every ten years. In the late ‘80s, he played trumpet on Jane’s Addiction “Idiot’s Rule” and in the late ‘90s he played bass on a couple of Porno for Pyros tracks. The song narrows the scope of love from humanity to the one person who makes “my hard life easy.”

“The Solutionists” is a remake of “Revolution Solution,” a previous collaboration between Farrell and Thievery Corporation off their 2005 The Cosmic Game. The lyrics are the same but the music is different, like an audio fraternal twin. It’s an exotic-sounding, dreamy trip, like nothing else on the album, yet it fits.

“Awesome” is a song to Farrell’s newborn son. Backed by a big, sweeping orchestra, he exudes the love of a father and repeats the title throughout. I understand the sentiment and have no doubt holding that new life in your arms is overwhelming and mind-boggling, as the line “I can’t believe that you exist” signifies, making “awesome” the perfect word. If the listener can’t put himself into a parent’s mindset, the song might not work. With each play, the song grew more on me.

The album closes out with songs that take from Farrell’s musical past. “Insanity Rains” has the charging energy of Jane’s Addiction, “Milky Ave.” has the moody atmospherics of Porno for Pyros, and “Ultra Payloaded Satellite Party” is a synthesis of the two, alternating from verse to chorus. Close to the end of the song, Farrell sings “Come on and touch me, babe/Can’t you see that I am not afraid” from The Doors’ “Touch Me.” It’s a perfect segue into the final track, which will get a lot of attention because “Women In The Window” is a song Farrell created with vocals from an unreleased Jim Morrison track. The chorus finds Morrison singing what Farrell has turned into The Solutionists’ anthem, “Just try and stop us/ We're going to love.” It’s one of the most positive and uplifting lines of Morrison’s poetry. There’s a great bit of organ work on the bridge that sounds exactly like Ray Manzarek’s work.

I don’t know if Farrell’s story holds up throughout the piece, and I don’t know if The Solutionists will become a reality and make real, positive change, but Ultra Payloaded is a good collection of songs to listen to and have a good time. If one person makes the world a better place, that’s a bonus.

The Doors
MORRISON HOTEL

After unsuccessfully experimenting with their sound on The Soft Parade, The Doors stripped down to the basics. The music was tighter and had more focus, as did Morrison’s lyrics, many of which dealt with his relationship with girlfriend Pamela Courson. The album has not only been remastered, but remixed as well, noticeably affecting some of the tracks.

Morrison Hotel starts with “Roadhouse Blues,” a stellar blues rocker, and one of the most exhilarating songs to open an album. The harmonica at the beginning, played by an uncredited John Sebastian from The Lovin’ Spoonful, is much more in the forefront. Lonnie Mack plays bass. While singing to the “Ashen lady,” there’s a delayed quiet echo on Morrison’s voice. You can hear the ethos he lived by as he screams, “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.” Truer words were never spoken.

“Waiting For The Sun” is the title track from a previous album. Manzarek’s shimmering organ and Krieger’s lilting guitar work bring to mind “Moonlight Drive.” Although worked on during a prior recording session, the line “this is the strangest life I’ve/ ever known” was surely apropos after Morrison’s legal dealings in Miami.

Every eight beats a new instrument joins in on “Peace Frog.” Robbie’s starts, his guitar has a jangly sound, bringing a hint of funk. Densmore plays the cymbals and kicks the bass drum. A groovy bass line comes in. Ray’s organ follows. Morrison joins in, juxtaposing the up-tempo beat singing about “blood in the streets.” His lyrics are taken from an unfinished poem titled “Abortion Stories,” but they also deal with unrest in the country. The “Blood on the streets of the/ town of Chicago” references the riots at the ‘68 Democratic Convention and “Blood on the streets in the town/ of New Haven” his onstage arrest in Connecticut.

Some of Morrison’s mythology is on display during an interlude. He sings about a car accident he saw when he was a kid in which he believes an Indian’s soul passed into him. “Indians scattered on dawn’s/highway bleeding/Ghosts crows the young child’s/ fragile, eggshell mind.” Whether it’s true or not, there’s no denying the vividness of the imagery. Oliver Stone opened The Doors with a recreation of this scene.

Morrison and Courson had a passionate, volatile relationship. We hear different facets through Morrison’s lyrics. “You Make Me Real” is a joyful love song augmented by Manzarek’s barrelhouse piano. The narrator wants and needs his lover because he’s “not real enough without” her. Densmore takes command of the music with his driving percussion. Fans will be thrown by Morrison’s whistling at the opening and it sounds like there is extra echo on his voice.
As “The Spy,” whose main lyric is taken from an Anais Nin novel, he reveals the intimacy partners have. He knows “the dreams that you’re/ dreamin’ of/…the words that you long to hear/ your deepest secret fear.” In “Queen of the Highway” Morrison obviously makes an appearance as “a monster, black dressed in leather.” Everything sounds good for them as “They are wedded/…Soon to have offspring,” but the song closes with the last line, “hope it can continue a little while longer.” Why only a little while rather than forever? Could this domesticity not be to his liking?

“Maggie M’Gill” arose from an aborted concert where Densmore and Krieger walked off the stage due to one of Morrison’s many drunken stupors. Manzarek had tried to continue the show by picking up Krieger’s guitar, playing a blues lick for Morrison who sang about “Miss Maggie M’Gill, she lives on a hill,” but they couldn’t keep it going. During these sessions, Densmore remembered it and they worked on it. Lonnie Mack bookends the album by playing bass on this track.

There’s more bonus material than original, but you better be a fan of “Roadhouse Blues” since over 30 minutes is working on that track over a couple of days. A cover of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” starts already in progress. “Peace Frog (False Starts & Dialogue)” finds Morrison castigating the band, which is funny considering how many problems he presented during recording sessions. Densmore’s shuffling drums, Kreiger’s high-pitched guitar twang, and Mazarek’s tinkling piano give “The Spy (Version 2)” an easygoing country vibe. “Queen Of The Highway (Jazz Version)” certainly is that. I can’t hear Krieger’s guitar, but the bass is very prominent alongside Densmore’s brushwork. It’s what Morrison might have been doing if he had to play lounges in his later days.

Morrison Hotel saw the band return to form. Diehard fans will want to get this version for the extras, although some might not care for the remixing choices. “Roadhouse Blues” sounds too pristine and is better with the raggedness it had in previous releases. For no apparent reason “Ship of Fools” begins with someone announcing “16,” most likely the number of the take. “The Spy” begins with Jim in the middle of saying something and an unintelligible response. It adds nothing, coming across like the engineer screwed up the edit. However, don’t let that deter you if Morrison Hotel is not in your collection.

The Doors
STRANGE DAYS

Released nine months after their debut, The Doors’ Strange Days finds the band expanding their sound while retaining their strengths. According to original engineer Bruce Botnick in the liner notes, he and the band listened to a monaural acetate reference disc of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s before it was released and were awestruck by it. That album opened up the possibilities of what a studio can do, and inspired them.

The music and ideas of The Doors run counter to the peace and love that was flowing out of the ‘60s counterculture. The band, Morrison’s lyrics especially embraced the darkness, the fear, the pain of life, knowing you can’t have one without the other. The yin and the yang are the price of admission.

The album begins with the title track, a moody psychedelic number with Jim’s voice’s augmented by passing through a synthesizer. “[Strange days] are going to destroy our casual joys” is realization of the price to be paid for riding so high, for himself and the world. The music is a nightmarish swirling kaleidoscopic with Manzarek’s keyboards leading the procession.

The evocative moodiness of some Doors’ songs would surely be an influence on the Goth scene, which began a decade later. The lyrics from “You’re Lost Little Girl,” “Unhappy Girl,” and “I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind” could just as easily have come out of the mouths of Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy or The Cure’s Robert Smith. The latter contributed a Doors song for a tribute to Elektra Records, but chose to cover “Hello, I Love You.”

The two hits from Strange Days are still played frequently on classic rock stations: “Love Me Two Times” and “People Are Strange”. Krieger wrote the former; his pop sensibilities creating another hit. It begins with a very familiar guitar riff. Manzarek’s keyboards sound like a harpsichord. Morrison vocals and Densmore’s hard drum strokes capture the narrator’s passion.

The sound collage “Horse Latitudes” is a poem of Morrison’s inspired by a drawing of the Spanish throwing horses overboard as they approached the New World. It is augmented by sound effects and is most likely what he would rather have been creating instead of rock music. It is a precursor to the brilliant An American Prayer.

It segues into “Moonlight Drive, ” one of the first songs Morrison wrote. Krieger plays a great bottleneck, very dreamy sound, a perfect match to the sexy lyrics about enjoying the evening and swimming to the moon. The song grows quietly to a close and Morrison softly sings, “Baby gonna drown tonight,” but is it a metaphor of the lovers drowning into each other, or is the narrator planning something sinister?

The other hit from the album and what began side two is “People Are Strange,” a song about paranoia and vulnerability, especially when on drugs as Morrison was well aware. “My Eyes Have Seen You” is an interesting song to follow because it starts with a Peeping Tom watching a woman.

Similar to their debut the album closes out with an aptly titled epic, “When The Music’s Over.” They had been playing it since their earliest gigs, making it possible for the rest of the guys to record without Morrison when he didn’t show up. It’s a strong piece with the music providing a great accompaniment to the journey of Morrison’s lyrics. A great way to end the album and the night.

Strange Days is a great showcase of the many facets of what The Doors are. Don’t just take my word for it. In Chick Crisafuli’s Moonlight Drive, he quotes Patricia Kennealy Morrison quoting Jim. “He always thought [Strange Days] was their best album. It was his favorite of all of them.”

Rhino is remastering all the doors studio albums and including bonus tracks. Strange Days only has two, the least amount of any, and they aren’t much to speak of. “People Are Strange (False Starts & Studio Dialogue)” is two minutes of talking and the guys warming up. On “Love Me Two Times (Take3)” the music is slightly different, but a different take on one song doesn’t equate to emptying of the vaults. These tracks aren’t worth listening to.