Book by Mick Wall
Published by Orion
There can be no doubting the influence of The Doors on our beloved genre of heavy metal. Danzig’s first four albums (i.e The good ones!) are highly influenced by The Doors and thus brilliant (for proof, compare any of these four albums with the vile industrial influenced fifth Danzig album. Incidentally, that fifth Danzig album has to be one of the prime examples of career sabotage). Moreover, no less a metal hero than the late great Peter Steele described The Doors’ “Light My Fire” as ‘probably the greatest song ever written.’
Mick Wall is the right man to write this biography of The Doors. He has himself experienced the highs and lows of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle (the man was Black Sabbath’s PR!). Mick’s biography of Black Sabbath, Symptom of the Universe, is superb, not only because it was well-researched and well-written, but for two other very important reasons.
Firstly, Mick is never afraid to give his own opinions. He separates myth from fact with the precision of a riff on a Carcass album.
Secondly, if he thinks something is not right, again, he’s not afraid to say so, which is very admirable.
In short, Mick humanizes The Doors, separates the fantasy from reality (and truly, if you look at the start of Apocalypse Now, The Doors have transcended reality to an extent), which is a great achievement.
