Customer Reviews

The Doors: When the Music's Over: The Stories Behind Every Song

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"When The Music's Over" is a great book dealing with the stories behind The Doors' songs. It is very well written with a deep insight into the music and legacy of Jim Morrison. Part of this is due to the fact that the book's consultant, Dave MiMartino is a big fan (he was even present at the infamous 1969 Miami concert where Morrison was accused of exposing himself in a pre-Marilyn Manson age). But those who look inside the book itself will be surprised that it is not just about the songs, it compiles comments by critics, poets, rockers and is a neat visual history of the band and its music. We get in detail stories behind the rise of the band, the impact they had on the L.A. scene even before they became famous. It closely looks at the influences Morrison had in life like poets in the tradition of Rimbaud and ancient shamanistic religions. "When The Music's Over" is a testament of the The Doors' importance in popular music, the book also goes into the period when the band still tried to release albums even after Morrison died (there is an interesting piece on how Iggy Pop sang "L.A. Woman" at a Morrison death anniversary event at the Whiskey A Go-Go in 1974). Visually this is an awesome read, there are photos for every subject and name, great shots of The Doors performing and of Morrison acting-out the theatrical touches so common today in rock music. And the writing done about each song is really good, with deep insight into the lyrics and inspirations. Immediately you feel like listening to each and every song. This is worth the price, there have been cases where the book has great pictures but bad writing as was the case with "Dark Star," which had some valuable photos but the author seemed more resentful towards Morrison and his art than someone who would actually wanna write a book about it. Doors music is timeless and never loses it's power, on any given year, month or day you will find a rock band weather popular or underground, play one of their songs. They have spawned many styles, theatrics, ideas and imitators. "When The Music's Over" is must for any Doors fan, rock fanatic or someone looking for a history behind a music that changed them, it proves that the music is indeed, not over.

Anyone interested in the Doors will love this book. As the title says, it has stories about each song-- how they developed, who wrote them, who they're about, etc. Plenty of good pictures as well. Plus a chronology and discography of the Doors.

It took a while to get this book but I am glad that I did. It's an excellent study of the inspiration behind some of the greatest songs ever heard. The writing is rather simple and is a little bland but there is no denyting the excitement one gets from reading this informative account on one of the greatest bands Rock and Roll has ever seen! If you are interested in The Doors' music than this book is a good place to start.

When The Music's Over: The Stories Behind Every Doors' Song is a repackaging of the earlier Moonlight Drive with the same subtitle. It does attempt to give you the story or the genesis of every Doors song from the first album all the way through An American Prayer. It succeeds very well in this especially for the first two Doors albums for which Jim Morrison wrote most of the songs as poems on the rooftop of a building on Venice Beach, and most of the influences of those songs are fairly well known. The book loses some of it's focus as the music is more and more created in the studio and instead relies more on biographical material about what was going on in Morrison's life at the time and trying to tie in the events or the general tenor of Morrison's life to the songs to varying degrees of success. It does offer original sources and interviews for the stories behind the songs, something unusual for a compendium like this. It also offers rare photos of the band and interesting sidebar information that you probably won't find anywhere else.

When The Music's Over also ventures where rarely do other Doors books, into the post Morrison albums Other Voices and Full Circle in some depth. While other books do touch on these albums it's very tangential and almost as a postscript in a hurry to tie up The Doors canon, which tends to only acknowledge The Doors Albums with Morrison.

The compendium format you can read either chronologically or you can jump in and read the stories at your whim and you'll find yourself engrossed and lose yourself or find yourself caught up in The Doors stories, as I did in reading through it again for this review.

Nice easy reading, like short stories on each song. You can just pick it up and open it anywhere and get some good 411 on the how and why of the songs, and the Doors. Well worth it. No need to have to read it cover to cover. Well written too and lots of photos of other artists that influenced them.

Excellent! This book is full of facts and insightful information from the get go. I highly recommend it to any Doors fan! The book also included some pictures of Jim Morrison that I'd never seen before!

I have not read this book. But it seems to be same as a 1995 book called "Moonlight Drive (The Stories behind Every Door's Song" by Chuck Crisafulli and Dave DiMartine as consultant editor.

The music of the Doors lives on, and writers and publishes continue to make money from the fans of the Doors.