#9 The Doors (+ Creedence bonus)

1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #9 The Doors

We've made it to the last of the four cards The Doors got in the Legends subset. It features a photo of the band members looking somewhat disinterested whilst standing in front of a brick wall.

I found another photo from the shoot; Must have been snapped just a moment before or after.

The picture used on the back seems to be from the same day as the front photo (same outfits), though in a different setting.

The write-up focuses on Robby Krieger, which is a refreshing change of pace from Jim Morrison getting all the attention, and I suppose sort of makes up for Pro Set mistakenly calling him "Bobby" on the back of one of the previous cards. Krieger is still rocking at 73, recording and performing from time to time. He tossed out the first pitch at a Dodgers game in 2017.

Robby Krieger 2018 Topps First Pitch custom

The Doors - "The End"

"The End" is one of my favorite Doors songs. It kinda blew my mind when I first heard it as a teenager in the mid 90s. Not your typical rock n roll song, clocking in at nearly 12 minutes.

Listening to the song again today while working on this post, it's especially poignant to me having just had to put down our beloved dog Annie earlier this week. Not to harp on it too much, as I've already mentioned it at Baseball Card Breakdown and other social media I'm on, but it's been a tough few days for me and my wife. Annie was such a good girl and such a key part of our lives. Now lines like "I'll never look into your eyes again" can make me tear up a little, but I suppose that's how it goes when you go through a major life event like a big breakup or the loss of a loved one.. songs really seem to speak to you in a personal, intimate way.

Regarding the line "My only friend, the end", Jim Morrison once told an interviewer:

Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate... That doesn't make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend...

Though the pairing didn't come to be until several years after Morrison's death, the song is forever linked with the 1979 film Apocalypse Now, where it features prominently in the score. I generally prefer sticking with comedies or fun adventure flicks, but Apocalypse Now is one of the few "heavy" movies I consider an all-time favorite. I remember back in the late 90s I got ahold of a bootleg 5-hour cut of it on VHS. The quality was terrible, and much of the extra footage was just helicopters flying around for several minutes at a time, but I still thought it was awesome. Then in 2001, Apocalypse Now Redux was released-- an incredible extended re-edit that included the best of what had been cut out of the original version. I own Redux on DVD and pop it in once every few years, revering it as "special occasion" viewing.

CUSTOM CORNER

Believe it or not, there were no MusiCards made for Creedence Clearwater Revival or their frontman John Fogerty. As contemporaries of the Doors, and a band whose music is no stranger to Vietnam War flicks, CCR was the natural choice for the Custom Corner bonus band for today's post.

1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were Creedence Clearwater Revival custom

Creedence Clearwater Revival -"Wrote A Song For Everyone"

I feel like Creedence is a band that everyone can agree on.. one of those special few bands that have something for everyone. Anyone who flat-out doesn't like CCR needs to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask themselves what the hell's wrong with them. LOL

1. I Put A Spell On You
2. Susie Q
3. Born On The Bayou
4. Proud Mary
5. Green River
6. Commotion
7. Wrote A Song For Everyone
8. Bad Moon Rising
9. Lodi
10. Down On The Corner
11. Cotton Fields
12. Fortunate Son
13. The Midnight Special
14. Effigy
15. Ramble Tamble
16. Lookin' Out My Back Door
17. Run Through The Jungle
18. Up Around The Bend
19. Who'll Stop The Rain
20. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
21. Long As I Can See The Light
22. Have You Ever Seen The Rain
23. Hey Tonight
24. Someday Never Comes

I try to keep these "best of" playlists of mine limited to 20 songs, but had to go a little over here. They cranked out so many great tunes! The band infamously dealt with much internal drama and split ways back in 1972, only reuniting for one-offs for Tom Fogerty's wedding in 1980 and a partial reunion at El Cerrito High School's 20th reunion in 1983 (When I read that, I thought it sounded familiar, and turns out it's the same high school that Pumpsie Green attended, and I've coincidentally been reading through his SABR bio lately). John Fogerty went on to a successful solo career, with hits like the baseball-themed "Centerfield", though didn't reach nearly the same levels of hit production as his CCR heyday.

That just about wraps up this post. We haven't quite seen the end of the Doors on the blog, as they'll pop up again down the line with a concert poster card (#255) plus a card in the UK edition of the set, but in the nearer future, up next is the greatest guitarist of all time.

Any thoughts on Creedence or Apocalypse Now? Please sound off in the comments below.

Creedence Clearwater Revival -"Someday Never Comes"

#8 The Doors (+ Misfits bonus)

1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #8 The Doors

Pro Set showed plenty of love to The Doors, and now we're on to the 3rd (of 4) consecutive cards they got in the Legends subset. It's a pretty standard band promo photo. Nice of Ray to hunch down a bit to fit in the SuperStars logo.

The back features another posed band photo and a little write-up on how the guys got together.

Doors - "People Are Strange"

Since I've said pretty much all I've got to say about the Doors over the previous couple posts, I thought I'd take a look at other trading cards that card-collecting Doors fans might have on their radar.

As far as I can tell, there aren't other mainstream Doors cards out there (please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong), but I've found a couple Jim Morrison oddballs:

Jim Morrison 2006 Music Sales Ltd Rock Trumps (pic from TCDB)

Jim Morrison 2012 Aquarius Dean Russo Pop Culture Playing Cards #6H (pic from COMC)

If you go searching for Jim Morrison cards, there are plenty of results that pop up... but they're mostly of other people named Jim Morrison who might seem strange to Doors fans:

In hockey, Jim Morrison (James Stewart Hunter Morrison) played in over 700 NHL games in a career on the ice that stretched from 1952 to 1973.

In baseball, Jim Morrison (James Forrest Morrison) was an infielder who played in the majors from 1977-1988.

Another Jim Morrison (James H. Morrison) played in the minors 1986-1993, though he never made the bigs.

And there are plenty of other prominent Jim/James Morrisons in history who probably don't have trading cards.

I think you'd have to be a majorly obsessed Doors fan to collect cards of other guys named Jim Morrison, but it could be a fun "minicollection" to work on. The hockey Jim Morrison cards can set you back a few bucks (with many of which being vintage hockey cards from the 50s and 60s), though the baseball Jim Morrison cards are plentiful and generally inexpensive.

Other than any Jim Morrison cards in my baseball setbuilds, I've got only one other card in my collection that makes me think of the Doors...

Scored this 2015 Allen & Ginter framed mini autograph in a big trade a few years ago. Val Kilmer of course portrayed Morrison in the 1991 biopic directed by Oliver Stone.

The film received mixed reviews, but I liked it a lot. My buddy Doug owned it on VHS and would pop it in from time to time.


CUSTOM CORNER

Misfits 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were (vers. 1)

The Misfits might not have a direct link to The Doors, but I've always thought Glenn Danzig's voice reminded me of Jim Morrison. Like, if a young Jim Morrison started a punk band, it'd probably sound something like the Misfits. (Ultimately, both probably owed a debt to Elvis Presley for their vocal style.) And plus, this is my Halloween post here on the blog, and as a band in the "horror punk genre", the Misfits felt like a good fit for today.

Here's my first custom take on the "Historic Concerts (Posters)" subset design we'll see later in the set.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was personally never much of a punk rocker, but still enjoyed a handful of punk bands. The Misfits were a band I was aware of-- that creepy logo was frequently seen on patches sewn onto jackets and backpacks of punkers in high school-- but I didn't really check them out for myself until well into my 20s.

Misfits - "Where Eagles Dare"

If you care to dig into the history of the Misfits, I'd point you to their Wikipedia entry, but I'm not the guy to ask for details. But I can tell you they originally formed in New Jersey and were active 1977–1983. Then after a period of inactivity and legal spats, the band was resurrected in 1995 without Danzig (who drifted away from punk and towards metal for his subsequent albums-- I'll have to take a closer look at his solo career in a future post). Misfits fans are generally much less enthusiastic about this later version of the band, but I suppose that's to be expected. In 2016, Danzig reconciled with the other guys and "The Original Misfits" reformed and did some touring. I think they're still doing shows together as of 2019.

Misfits 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were (vers. 2)

Since the first Misfits custom I whipped up features the early incarnation of the band, I figured I'd also do one with a more recent photo.

Misfits - Desert Island Disc

1. Last Caress
2. Angelfuck
3. All Hell Breaks Loose
4. Attitude
5. Where Eagles Dare
6. Come Back
7. Children in Heat
8. Halloween
9. Teenagers From Mars
10. I Turned Into a Martian
11. Hatebreeders
12. Violent World
13. Astro Zombies
14. Dig Up Her Bones
15. Fiend Without a Face
16. The Forbidden Zone
17. Dust to Dust
18. Descending Angel
19. Fiend Club
20. Helena

Tracks 1-13 are from the classic-lineup run, while this hypothetical compilation is rounded out by a few later (non-Danzig) tracks, 14-20. These are just my personal picks, likely to upset any diehard Misfits fan, but hey, it's my blog. lol

Misfits - "Helena"

Any of you readers into the Misfits?
In any case, hope you have a Happy Halloween.

#7 The Doors (+ The Germs and X bonus)

The Doors - 1991 MusiCards #7

We're up to lucky card #7. It's the second of 4 cards the Doors get in the Legends subset.

Looks like the picture might be from the same shadowy photoshoot as their first album cover, but hard to say.

Photographer Joel Brodsky

And possibly from the same shoot as the Best of the Doors album cover...

Same necklace.



Back focuses on Jim Morrison. Typo alert here: Robby Krieger called "Bobby".

"Break On Through (To the Other Side)" was the group's first single

Growing up for me, the Doors were respected as top tier "all-time greats" right there with the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Zeppelin, and The Who.

Today? I don't know.

I hear Jim Morrison being called an overrated hack poet and not much of a singer by the younger generation. Personally, I think that's bullshit. Jim Morrison is a rock god, period. The Doors cranked out a bunch of songs over a short period of just 5-6 years, and while not all of them were winners, there were more than enough awesome songs to be considered among the elite acts to come out of the 60s. Brilliant band with the balls to shake things up. Sadly, Jim passed away at 27 and didn't get the chance to further build his legacy.

As a kid, my mom bought the Best of The Doors double disc album from Columbia House, and I enjoyed the hell out of that. Not a bad song on either disc. Later, my bud Doug got a big cd box set of the Doors and I got to check that out and hear some deeper cuts, though ultimately I found myself sticking with the hits.

My favorite song of theirs would probably be "L.A. Woman", followed closely by "The End".

The Doors - "L.A. Woman"

I also really like the "L.A. Woman" cover Billy Idol did. I heard that version around the same time I first heard the original, maybe even before. Doors fans might take it as blasphemy, but honestly I've always considered the two versions to be different sides of the same coin.

Doors - desert island disc
1. Break On Through
2. Light My Fire
3. The Crystal Ship
4. People Are Strange
5. Strange Days
6. Love Me Two Times
7. Alabama Song
8. Five To One
9. Waiting For The Sun
10. Spanish Caravan
11. When The Music's Over
12. Hello, I Love You
13. L.A. Woman
14. Riders On The Storm
15. Touch Me
16. Love Her Madly
17. Roadhouse Blues
18. Soul Kitchen
19. The Unknown Soldier
20. The End

Nearly all of these are from the Best Of double album I grew up on. I should probably try spending more time with their catalog to see if I can find some lesser-known gems that strike a chord with me. But for now, those are the 20 songs I'm taking with me for my desert island isolation. Speak up in the comments with your Doors favs, please.

Got a couple customs for ya today. The Doors were the first band to really break out of the LA underground. Thought I'd feature a pair of other LA luminaries.

Germs - 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were

The Germs were a seminal punk band from the late 70s, though they don't get mentioned as often in conversation of classic punk forefathers like the Sex Pistols and Ramones. But they're giants of West Coast punk.

Germs - "Lexicon Devil"

Most of the Germs' studio output was collected on a CD called (MIA): The Complete Anthology (1993). I bought that as a teenager and loved it. It was raw and ugly and awesome.

I was never much of a punk. No piercings or tattoos for me. I sorta dyed my hair green in high school once, but I have dark hair so it was barely noticeable. And I had a Germs t-shirt that I wore once in a while. Becoming a punk was a romantic notion for me (saying "fuck it" and just giving the finger to the world), but at the end of the day, that just wasn't me. But I could still rock out to some punk music from time to time. And the Germs were (and still are) a favorite in that genre for me. Their frontman, Darby Crash, died at 22 in 1980, though they later did some reunion shows with the actor who played him in a biopic. I just recently got around to watching What We Do Is Secret (currently streaming on Amazon Prime, btw), and thought it was pretty good.

Other than that film, the Germs are probably best known these days as being an early band of guitarist Pat Smear, who went on to be a touring member of Nirvana (1993–1994) and then Foo Fighters (1994–1997, 2005–present). It's also worth noting that Belinda Carlisle, who we'll see on her own MusiCards further on in this blog, was kinda-sorta in the Germs for a moment in 1977.


Another LA band from around that time with a ton of street cred is X.

X - 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were

X formed in 1977 with singer Exene Cervenka, singer-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer D. J. Bonebrake. They put out seven studio albums from 1980 to 1993, and after a hiatus for a few years, reunited in the early 2000s, and have continued to tour since.

X -  "Los Angeles" (live)

My favorite song of theirs is "Los Angeles", though I like a bunch of their stuff. "Nausea", "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss" and "4th Of July" are others near the top of the list. John Doe has some great solo stuff too, with Forever Hasn't Happened Yet and A Year In The Wilderness being albums I'd recommend.


COVER TIME

Jane's Addiction - "L.A. Medley" (live 1991)

Fitting all 3 of this post's featured bands into one cover! Jane's Addiction (a favorite band of mine who I'll have to feature here in depth another time) worked up a cover medley of The Doors' "L.A. Woman", The Germs' "Lexicon Devil", and X's "Nausea" into one song called "L.A. Medley" which they performed live occasionally around 1987-1991. It was essentially their ode to the Los Angeles bands they loved that came before them.

Want some more incestuous connections for these bands I've mentioned in this post?
- The Doors' keyboard player Ray Manzarek produced (and played on) the first X album.
- X covered the Doors song "Soul Kitchen" on that album.
- X drummer D.J. Bonebrake was briefly drummer for the Germs.
- Germs drummer Don Bolles would sometimes play with the band Flower Quartet in the mid 80s, whose bassist Eric Avery later went on to form Jane's Addiction with Perry Farrell.
- Jane's Addiction opened for X a few times circa 1987.
- Perry Farrell sang on the song "Children of Night" along with Exene Cervenka of X for the Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors (2000).
- Perry Farrell performed live with the surviving Doors members at least once or twice in the late 90s/early 00s.
- Perry Farrell sang the Doors' "People Are Strange" in 2006 (with Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on acoustic guitar) during a radio appearance.
- The unreleased Jim Morrison spoken word piece "Woman in the Window" was put to music and released by Perry Farrell's project Satelite Party on their 2007 album. 
- Perry Farrell has guested with Pat Smear and Foo Fighters doing Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song".
- Flea guested with Nirvana on stage (on trumpet), played bass for Jane's Addiction (1997 tour), and covered the Germs for a tribute album.
- Dave Navarro also appeared on that Germs tribute album (with his side project Ruined Eye), plus was the guitarist for Jane's Addiction, and was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Flea for a few years in the mid 90s.
- Flea's band the Red Hot Chili Peppers used a clip of the X song "White Girl" in their song "Good Time Boys" on their 1989 album Mother's Milk, with additional lyrics mentioning X's John Doe "whose voice is made of gold".

So yeah, lots of love being spread around among these L.A. bands.

That's all for today. The Doors cards keep coming with MusiCard #8 up next, and we'll likely work some Halloween spookiness into the post.

#6 The Doors (+ Van Morrison bonus)

1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #6 The Doors

Card #6 is The Doors. It's their first of 4 consecutive cards in the Legends subset, plus they've got a Historic Concerts card (#255) and a card in the UK edition, giving them a total of 6 MusiCards.

This photo is clearly from the same shoot as the Morrison Hotel album cover. The pic that graced the cover was a straight-on shot, while this one from the left was likely nixed thanks to the glare obscuring Robby and John for the most part. Per Wikipedia:

The cover photo was taken by Henry Diltz at the Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The band weren't given permission to photograph, so did so while the clerk was called away from the desk. The band jumped right behind the windows and hit their places without shuffling as Diltz took the shot.

Check out a few other photos from this shoot (The first is closest to the one used for the album cover, though on the selected shot, they aren't smiling.):

Seems like the photographer was able to get several different shots even though supposedly they were rushing as they didn't have permission from the hotel.

The back of the card features a photo of the band in a cemetery and lists their albums. Let's examine some of the curiosities in this list:

I wasn't aware of the "Hard Rock Cafe" co-title of Morrison Hotel, but turns out, yes, technically speaking Side A of that album is entitled Hard Rock Café, while Side B is Morrison Hotel. But damned if I've ever heard that record referred to as anything other than just Morrison Hotel before this.

There's a minor typo here in that "Absolutely Alive" is actually called Absolutely Live, their first live album (recorded July 21, 1969–May 8, 1970).

I wasn't familiar with 13, but turns out that was a "greatest hits" compilation their record label put out while they were still active. It was never released on CD, so it's no surprise that it's not well remembered today.

Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine is another one I wasn't familiar with. Looks like it's just another "best of" compilation with a couple rare b-sides thrown in.

It's odd that Pro Set listed the live album and the two "hits" compilations, yet Other Voices (1971), Full Circle (1972), An American Prayer (1978)-- three original albums released by the Doors after Jim Morrison's death-- don't get mentioned. I guess they were limiting it to albums released during Jim's lifetime. Several additional live albums and "best of" compilations were released between then and when this card was made that could have easily been thrown on the list had they wanted to be more exhaustive.

The Doors - "Waiting for the Sun"

Morrison Hotel (1970), the album alluded to by this card's photo, was the penultimate record before Jim's death. The only single was "You Make Me Real"/"Roadhouse Blues" which reached #50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. My personal favorite track from the album is "Waiting for the Sun". Funny that the song didn't appear on their earlier album that shared that name (Waiting For the Sun [1968]), but I guess it wasn't finished in time.


We've still got a few more posts on the horizon to cover the Doors, so let's put a pin in it for now and transition over to the custom for today.

I figured with the whole "Morrison Hotel" focus on this post, I'd make a card for the other best known Morrison in the history of popular music: Van Morrison. Van is a heavy hitter who doesn't have a real card in the set.

Van Morrison - 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were

Jim and Van weren't related (Van is from Belfast, Ireland), though Van's early band Them was an influence on the Doors. When Them toured the US in 1966, The Doors were the opening band for a handful of shows in LA. Said author Brian Hinton: "Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near namesake's stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching down by the bass drum during instrumental breaks."

Them - "Gloria"

"Brown Eyed Girl" and "Gloria" are Van Morrison's biggest songs, both staples of 60s rock. He's been making music since 1958 and is still active today. His immense catalog is richly varied, encompassed by his distinctive voice.

I forget how I heard about Astral Weeks, but at some point in my 20s I caught wind it was an under-the-radar album that was beloved by those who've heard it. (Not necessarily obscure, but never got much radio play.) Sure enough, I feel in love with it shortly after picking up the CD. I listened to it a lot, usually late at night, as it's definitely a "wee hours" type of record in my eyes.. one of those albums that would just feel wrong to listen to while the sun was out.

Van Morrison - Desert Island Disc
1. Brown Eyed Girl
2. Domino
3. Gloria
4. Moondance
5. Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)
6. Gypsy Queen
7. Everyone
8. Tupelo Honey
9. Back on Top
10. Glad Tidings
11. Dweller on the Threshold
12. Wild Night
13. Saint Dominic's Preview
14. Into the Mystic
15. Astral Weeks
16. Beside You
17. Sweet Thing
18. Cyprus Avenue
19. The Way Young Lovers Do
20. Madame George

This mix starts with some of his better-known earlier stuff, and closes with the majority of the Astral Weeks album (15-20). He's another artist where I could pick another 20 songs I like without much trouble, but I'll call it good with these picks. Did I leave off any of your favorite Van Morrison songs? Please accept my apology, and feel free to mention your favorites in the comments.

Van Morrison - "Gypsy Queen"

Since Van Morrison has a song called "Gypsy Queen", I thought it'd be fun to make him a bonus custom in a design of the card line with that name.

Van Morrison 2015 Gypsy Queen custom

That's it for today. Up next, we'll try to set the night on fire with more of The Doors.

Hey, did you win my big contest? Still some unclaimed prizes, so be sure to check the previous post.