A SOUTH AMERICAN BREEZE: THE DOORS’ "I CAN'T SEE YOUR FACE IN MY MIND"

The Doors were very receptive to the musical influences that surrounded them, especially early in their career.

From Rhythm and Blues to Blues, from Hard Bop Jazz to Modal Jazz, they used to reach out for artistic cues that would complement their music and creativity.

Within their second album, "Strange Days" (September 1967), there are several examples of The Doors’ ability to listen to and integrate other musical genres.

One of these examples is represented by the influence of Bossa Nova music in the chorus of "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind", track number nine on aforementioned LP.

This style of music, which originated in Brazil in the second half of the 1950s, combined Brazilian traditional sounds with North American Jazz.

By the early 1960s, this languid and meandering music was beginning to be imported into the United States by jazz performers such as Cannonball Adderley and Ike Quebec.

Among the first to experiment with it was one of the most important musicians in international Jazz history: Coleman Hawkins.

In September 1962, the tenor saxophonist was already in the twilight of his career, which had reached its peak in the 1940s and in the first half of the 1950s (within three different Jazz styles: Swing, Be Bop and Hard Bop).

It was exactly in 1962 that he recorded "Desafinado”, an album entirely devoted to Bossa Nova and played with American instrumentalists. This was an important step ahead, considering that other artists often chose Brazilian accompanists for this kind of recording.

On this album, Hawkins' prowess is highlighted by the ease and confidence with which he masters a musical language that was not his own.

Here his improvisations are at once articulate and immediate and are propelled by the assertive, yet sensitive, tone of his saxophone.

From this and other jazz albums, bossa nova slowly seeped into the pop sphere, eventually climbing the US charts with some tracks such as 1964's "The Girl From Ipanema".

Even in Pop-Rock, this exotic influence can soon be detected, as it happens in The Beatles' song "And I Love Her”, included in their third LP "A Hard Day's Night" (July 1964).

Written by Paul McCartney, the song is characterized by Ringo Starr's percussion, which includes claves (typical of Latin America). In addition, both Lennon's rhythmic acoustic guitar and the nostalgic tone of McCartney's voice suggest a close relationship with Bossa Nova.

So, we can see how this musical context was able to captivate both the audience and the musicians of the time. The Doors too were not indifferent to it, drawing some Bossa Nova elements and using them to build some passages in their early compositions.

An example of this trend is the drum pattern that opens their first single. We’re talking about "Break On Trough (To TheOther Side)", an electrifying Rock song that appeared on the band's first LP ("The Doors," January 1967).

At the beginning of each chorus of this great composition, drummer John Densmore leads the tune down the syncopated path of a distinctly Bossa Nova beat played on the edge of the snare drum.

The chorus of "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" (included on the band’s second album "Strange Days") is another, even more explicit step in the same direction.

By integrating Bossa Nova into the Psychedelic Rock that characterized “Strange Days”, The Doors demonstrated their eclectic ability to absorb and make their own what was going around them on the music scene.