"EASY RIDE" BY THE DOORS: CABARET IN 1968

The Doors' song "Easy Ride" closes the A-side of the group's fourth album, "The Soft Parade" (released in July 1969, it peaked at #6 in the United States but did not enter the UK charts).

Considered by many to be their worst work, this LP suffers from a decline in cohesion among the musicians, a cohesion which had been till then one of the major strengths of their music and creative process.

“Easy Ride" would later be used as the B-side of the single "Tell All The People", which would only reach number 57 in the US a month before the release of the album "The Soft Parade", which contained both songs.

Despite being associated with this record, "Easy Ride" had been recorded a year and four months earlier, in early March 1968.

In fact, during the studio sessions that resulted in the previous album ("Waiting For The Sun"), this composition attributed to Morrison had already been completed in the final version we can hear on "The Soft Parade".

Its exclusion from "Waiting For The Sun" is mainly due to two factors.

The first is the objective weakness of the song, which is not up to the standard of the great songs produced by The Doors up to that point.

The second reason is the similarity, in terms of inspiration and overall musicality, with "We Could Be So Good Together", track number 9 of "Waiting For The Sun".

Like "We Could Be So Good Together", "Easy Ride" draws its sounds from the early 20th century music hall.

This genre, also known as vaudeville or cabaret, represented popular entertainment music in the early part of the last century.

Its popularity was closely associated with live shows that combined theater, dance, comedy, and music in evening and nighttime public venues in the United States and England.

The Doors had already drawn inspiration from cabaret for several songs that appeared on earlier LPs: "Alabama Song" on The Doors; "People Are Strange" on Strange Days; and, as noted above, "We Could Be So Good Together" on Waiting For The Sun.

So, "Easy Ride" is the fourth time that the band has recorded a song musically derived from cabaret.

The atmosphere we can perceive in this composition is relaxed, clearly marked by lightness of spirit and unpretentious execution.

The arrangement is the result of a continuous exchange of tasty cabaret clichés between electric organ and electric guitar (Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger).

Drums and electric bass (the latter played by sessionman Doug Lubahn) keep up a fast and urgent pace, in line with the musical context in which the band is moving here.

Morrison's vocal performance is definitely the highlight of "Easy Ride". Particularly allusive and expressive, his voice is used in a way that breaks away from the rock paradigm more familiar to him.

It should be noted that Morrison's vocals are the factor without which the song would otherwise struggle to remain interesting.

In addition, Morrison demonstrates here that he can master casual and relaxed vocal nuances that are quite different from the dark, deep intensity that made his voice famous.

The singer is also the author of the lyrics. The words we hear, though intentionally cryptic at times, outline a tension toward loving desire expressed through Jim Morrison's signature poetic language.

Particularly inspired, original and incisive are the two metaphors that juxtapose the woman's eyes with black, polished stones and her smile with burning glass.

“Easy Ride" can thus be considered as a filler, used to complete the A-side of the album "The Soft Parade" after the controversial concert in Miami (March 3, 1969) had further estranged Morrison from the other members of The Doors.

Despite this less than positive connotation, the song remains interesting mainly because of its vaudeville musical foundation.

It is faithfully recreated through the suggestive use of electric instruments which are of course outside of the music hall tradition. Moreover, the tune takes the listener into a dreamy, fluid and entertaining interlude.

The cabaret genre of music is so present, recognizable and well used that it tastefully defines an authentically vintage and pleasantly sparkling sound environment.

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