‘Morrison Hotel’ is the fifth studio album released by the legendary American classic rock/psychedelic rock/blues rock band The Doors. The LP was released in February 1970 by Elektra Records. It is an overall mix of blues rock and psychedelia and produced only one single, more specifically ‘You Make Me Real’/’Roadhouse Blues’ which was also released in February 1970.
‘Morrison Hotel’ marks the comeback of the band to their well known blues rock style which was discontinued with the release of their previous studio album entitled ‘The Soft Parade’ which came out in 1969. The iconic photograph which represents the album’s frontal cover artwork was taken by American folk musician and photographer Henry Diltz.
The Doors – Morrison Hotel (1970) frontal cover artwork. This iconic frontal cover artwork was taken in front of the actual Morrison Hotel on South Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles, California by American photographer Henry Diltz. Image source: Commons Wikimedia
‘Morrison Hotel’ proved to be a commercial and critical success, ranking well in Billboard 200 chart (on the 4th position, more specifically) and being subsequently very well received by such publications as The Rolling Stone Album Guide (which gave it 5 out 5 stars), AllMusic (which gave it 4 and a half out of 5 stars), Christgau’s Record Guide (which gave it a B+), or Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (which gave it 4 out of 5 stars) . ‘Morrison Hotel’ has a total length of 37 minutes and 5 seconds.
‘Morrison Hotel’ has two sides, namely side 1 which is titled ‘Hard Rock Café’ and side 2 which is titled ‘Morrison Hotel’, the first having 6 tracks on it while the second having 5. There have also been plenty more bonus tracks released on both the 40th and 50th anniversary editions of the album in 2010 and 2020 respectively.
The line-up of the band for the recording sessions of the album which took place at Elektra Sound Records in Los Angeles, California between November 1969 and January 1970 was as follows:
- Jim Morrison – vocals and poetry
- Ray Manzarek – piano, organ, electric piano, tack piano (solely on ‘Roadhouse Blues’)
- Robby Krieger – guitar
- John Densmore – drums
In addition to the standard line-up of the band from above, for the recording sessions of the album, the following three session musicians have also been involved:
- Ray Neapolitan – bass guitar
- Lonnie Mack – bass guitar solely on ‘Roadhouse Blues’ and ‘Maggie M’Gill’
- John Sebastian (credited as ‘G. Puglese’) – harmonica solely on ‘Roadhouse Blues’
‘Morrison Hotel’ has the following full tracklist:
- Roadhouse Blues (written by Jim Morrison, music by The Doors)
- Waiting for the Sun (written by Jim Morrison)
- You Make Me Real (written by Jim Morrison)
- Peace Frog (written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger)
- Blue Sunday (written by Jim Morrison)
- Ship of Fools (written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger)
- Land Ho! (written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger)
- The Spy (written by Jim Morrison)
- Queen of the Highway (written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger)
- Indian Summer (written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger)
- Maggie M’Gill (written by Jim Morrison, music by The Doors)
Down below you can integrally listen to this great blues rock studio album, track by track via Yotube:
- Morrison Hotel on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
- Morrison Hotel on www.allmusic.com
- Morrison Hotel by Lester Bangs on www.rollingstone.com
- Morrison Hotel on Apple Music