THE "WALL OF SOUND" EFFECT IN THE DOORS’ “MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU”

 

"My Eyes Have Seen You" is not one of the best-known songs in The Doors' catalog. This fact is confirmed by the scarcity of live versions of the tune that the Los Angeles band performed throughout their career.

The "Strange Days" LP, released on September 25, 1967, on which "My Eyes Have Seen You" appears, features ten attractive shades of psychedelic rock, corresponding to the ten tracks that comprise it.

Nevertheless, this song stands out inside the album because it is less imbued than the others with the effects and sounds that make the album a masterpiece of psychedelia.

Throughout the notes of this composition, rock emerges powerfully, overwhelming the psychedelic component and confining it to the background.

In this way, the song gives a glimpse of the group's original musical matrix, which was already clearly established in their previous debut LP.

"My Eyes Have Seen You" also possesses another little-noticed and little-known peculiarity: its chorus projects toward the listener, through electric and distorted surges, the saturation of sound typical of the arrangements made famous by Phil Spector under the name "Wall of Sound".

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the American producer assembled the musical environments of some of the most famous songs by U.S. female vocal groups.

In these hit singles, the powerful and melodic voices of singers such as The Crystals or The Ronnettes were silhouetted against layers of instruments to create a powerful result with a strong impact on the listener.

The meeting of Rhythm and Blues and Pop, which is one of the main elements of the Soul genre, made these songs little entertainment gems that remain in the collective imagination to this day.

These tunes developed and arranged by Phil Spector were supported by several instruments (in addition to lead vocals and background vocals), ranging from horns to strings, electric guitars, piano, electric bass, drums and percussions.

Phil Spector used these instruments to stretch out various musical surfaces and form that “Wall of sound” that was so characteristic of his style as an arranger and that was capable of catalyzing the listener's attention from the very first second.

This technique, which aimed to fill every available space with sounds and instruments, did not allow the parts entrusted to each musician to be easily distinguished.

In fact, the sound impact overwhelmed and drowned everything else, even challenging the role of the lead singer.

The "Wall of sound" technique obtained in this way can be easily traced, among the many examples available, in the 1962 hit "Do Do Ron Ron Ron" or in 1963's "Be My Baby", which belong to the repertoire of The Crystals and The Ronnettes respectively.

In these songs, Phil Spector stretched out various musical surfaces to form that “Wall of sound” that was so characteristic of his style as an arranger and that was capable of catalyzing the listener's attention from the very first second.

This technique, which aims to fill every available space with sounds and instruments, does not allow the parts entrusted to each musician to be easily distinguished.

In fact, the sound impact overwhelms and drown everything else, even challenging the role of the lead singer.

In The Doors’ “My Eyes Have Seen You”, a kind  of "Wall of sound" effect manifests itself in the choruses, although it does not seem to have been consciously applied by the band or their producer.

In the refrains, there are six different sound sources overlapping. They are: vocals, drums, electric bass, two keyboards and the electric guitar played with two types of distortion.

In particular, the electric bass and the two distortions of Krieger's guitar fill the air with a pervasive and compact vibration, like a wall shaken by the electric exuberance that runs through the tune’s choruses.

These three instruments play the role that Phil Spector assigned to the woodwinds (especially the baritone and tenor saxophones) in the songs he arranged during the early sixties.

The last chorus, which leads to the conclusion of "My Eyes Have Seen You", is also the one where the "Wall of sound" effect is best recognizable (listen from min. 1.24 at the end of the track).

We tried to highlight an analogy, almost certainly unintentional, but suggestive and able to show how the history of music has cyclically inspired successive generations of musicians.