WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - I've Got Aux: “Back Door Man” by The Doors

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Ally is on Aux this week and chose "Back Door Man" by The Doors. Ally glosses over Lizard King lore and tries to convince the crew this song is awesome despite The Doors' status. Bella and Ally also suggest which kinds of protein sources they'd be. 

Right, well now this is a first. Never done this before, but how exciting is this on the internet? Okay, there you go. You know them, you love them, you hate them. Today's episode is about the Doors. Los Angeles Playboys of the 60s counterculture, the Doors were the first American band to sling eight consecutive gold LPs, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time.

Their self-titled debut is an acclaimed release, which is where today's track, Backdoor Man, comes from. But like lots of great music from this era, the song doesn't necessarily belong to the doors. Written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin Wolf in 1960, the doors released their version of the extramarital affair anthem in 1967. It's a bluesy, sexy song that encapsulates all things great about the doors. Whether you love to hate them or you hate to love them.

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale on 101.7 FM. This is Allie Hall and I've Got Oaks, and you'll be listening to Backdoor Man by the Doors. All right, welcome back to I've Got Ox from Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. just heard Backdoor Man by The Doors. And Bella is our blind listener this week. So Bella, this is your first time hearing the doors? First time hearing this song, where are we at?

First time hearing this song, never purposely listened to the doors. My little sister loves the doors and light my fire, I think. It's in my light songs. Don't remember where that really came from. But it's definitely, like, I've heard, like, I know who they are. And I obviously know who Jim Morrison is. And I loved this song. And I think it's awesome because kind of contrasting our last episode,

it's like the grunge side of this like 60s era. Yeah. And I always end up like tending towards it like, hey, music. And then Ali's like, but wait, look at this. I'm like, oh. Wait, so I love this. What a good description. Is that makes sense?

I'm just here corrupting. I don't know. Beautiful narrative. No, no, it's not corrupting. I love it because I'm not good at like tending towards like other, almost like more grungier sounding music. But every time I hear it, I'm like, this is awesome. And they're like, br, br, burp, burr, it's so good.

I know. But yes, I loved it very much. And I'm, I like the doors. Yeah. Well, Light My Fire is also from this album. And this is an extremely, like, famous pivotal album. And they had many great albums, but like the self-title, 1967. And I did not get the door.

I don't know about Gavin. I did not get the door. Like, there's people who. The doors are you either love them to death or you hate them. Like there are music snobs who this is the hill that they will die on. My mom is one of those people who like hates, like my brother's friend bought a Doors album for him for his birthday as a joke. And my mom was like visibly angry. Well, your mom hates the door?

She hates the doors. Well, here's the thing. Jim Morrison. Jim Morrison? Horrible human being. Like. I can kind of tell. Like 100%.

But here's my thing is like, when did we start casting any sort of morality on? most musicians ever. That's what I'm saying. Like, when are they not? Like if you like... Led Zeppelin? Hey, babe. If you like the music, you're going to find something crazy about them. Do you guys want to talk about the groupies? You guys want to talk about the pedophilia? Like, we... You cannot have that discussion.

If that's your only criticism of the doors. There's plenty of others. My parents love James Brown. Yeah. You know, I love Tupac. That's a can't order. And yet here we are. So, a lot of people don't like the doors because, like, I mean, there are some obviously musical elements, but when it's just I hate Jim Morrison, you're kind of like, Hey, so you can't like any other music,

if you're never listen to music before. Are there other bands that people do that with? I'm trying to, that sounds very familiar. I've heard that people do that with the Smiths a lot. Oh my God, because they hate Morrissey. Oh my gosh, we know, we know, we know. Sorry. I'm going to listen.

Exactly, exactly. Artists are very rarely good people. Like, I hate to say it, but I do think it veered to that. Which is also a topic. They're narcissists, to a degree. I think there's always an element of. And creating things is kind of narcissistic in general. Morse is the perfect example.

Morsey is. Yeah. I feel like people do that with you too as well. Yeah. I don't know if that's more just because of the iTunes thing where they're forced their music on people. But there are some people who are just like, I hate you too. Like, well, that's a strong statement because a lot of the music you probably like sounds like you too. There's a lot of also hatred because like Morrison is known as The Lizard King and there's a lot of lore with that.

And there's some, I guess, satanic influence. Or just like pagan elements of it that I think veer a lot of people. But it's one of those things where it's like so. Hello the Beatles. I was going to say like most, once again, a lot of music at this time. But this is such an awesome album. There was one time where I just, I was on my bed and I was like, okay, I'm going to try to listen to the doors.

And I listened to this album from start to finish and it clicked. All of a sudden I was like, oh, so I get it. So this album is a lot of great ones and it does a lot of blues covers. And that's why I like the door so much is because it's so blue. They're so blues heavy. Yeah. So the original version of the song has a much darker meaning than just extramarital affairs. It involves like he gets the, you know, the guy who's entering a marriage.

He kind of ends up committing murder and he gets away with murder and there's a lot of commentary on cops. And certain people getting away with things while others don't. This one is a little frutier and lighter and just kind of about. Lighter. And like what I like about the song and what Bella immediately brought up, is like, first of all, he enters growling. So there's just like, the libido in this song is high. Jim Morrison comes in.

Perfect way to say that. And that's what it is. And like, you can look at something and just be like, oh, okay, this is an extremely sexual song. That, are you kidding me? Imagine being a 16-year-old girl in the 60s in hearing that. And you're on so many drugs. You're in like a dark room.

And Jim Morrison looks like that and he wears leather pants. I would be intolerable. I am intolerable now. Oh my gosh. All right, we're on air. I know. I don't care. I stand by it.

I think that's why we're the realest show on the radio. Jim Morrison is cute. Gee whiz, guys. Oh, man. I wonder if that's why my mom hates him. Yeah, I mean, there's so, like, a lot of their music is extremely sexually charged. I have to ask her. But once again, so is most music.

That's also not a discussion that people won't have. But, Gavin, you said that you didn't really pick up on the meaning of the song the first time. What did you mean by that? because he was talking about, and you mentioned this before we started, the men don't know, but the little girls understand. Yeah. And I just like, what? What? We're going in the back door for, for what?

Girls? But then, like, you men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans. I'll eat more chicken than any man has ever seen. Wait, I can explain this. And I was like, I don't know. I'm not even going to try. But then I read the explanation and it all makes sense. It's like a metaphor for women.

Chicks? Well, yeah. Well, no, no. It's like pork and beans. It's like, okay, you can get your average. women but I eat chicken. Like it's that kind of thing. It's like you can get anyone, but I can get the highest, hottest women.

Even the ones in- Like chickens the highest? It's just like a better quality meat other than pork and cheap beans. Women are just meat. Essentially what we're doing is we're putting women. Categizing women on a hierarchy of meat. Guys, if I were meat, no, I think I'd be a chickpea. A chickpe.

If I had to be a source of protein. Pork and beans. Yeah, I'd be cheap. What meat would you be? What poultry are? No, if I, protein or just me? Well, I'm a bean, so. Yeah, I feel like I'd be like peanut butter.

Like, I don't know. Well, I think you're chicken, so I don't know. Okay. I just, okay, whatever. Don't say that, Ellie. That's not cute. That's funny. That's funny.

That's creepy. That's creepy. You're a higher quality protein, babe. Oh. You're not like those other proteins, babe. Maybe I'd be like ground sausage. Okay, I don't know. Let's continue.

A haggis. But back to what Gavin was saying, four years when I heard this song, I definitely thought it was talking about pedophilia just as far as the little girls thing. It's like, because... Like coming through the back door and stealing your kids? No, more so like the people

who know when something is going awry are, first of all, children. Secondly, girls. Girls are tuned into that stuff before grown men ever become conscious of it. So when I was hearing the tones of this song, I was like, something creepy is happening and the only people who know it are the little girls.

That is what I thought the song meant for a long time. And I could write a thesis statement supporting that. Honestly, Ellie, that's almost creepier. Living in that ambiguity of not knowing what the song's about. I know. But knowing that there's something creepy going on. That's like a horror movie that you never

see the monster. Well, I think also like this, once again, not exclusive to this era, not exclusive to the doors is a wider cultural problem, especially in music, is the infantic... The infantic... Okay, well, now I can't say it. Infantilization. Thank you, Bella. Fantatization of women.

I think it's the it's the little girls It's the women are me It's the in this story It's not about the woman It's about the conquest of this guy Can cheat with another man's wife That's what it's about you know So it's like everything else

Even the the topic of his conquest Is kind of secondary to his desire And it sounds like that too Like his voice the growling There's all these elements where that's very clearly the focus It also feels like I don't know if it's just because it's American that probably has a big part in it,

but it feels more adult. It's more predatory. Because it's like, it's not like we're dealing with the Beatles talking about, you know, she was just 17, you know, and just like the little lady love. It's like, I'm dealing with a person's family.

Yeah. And I'm like, I'm a creepy 30-year-old man in your home. Yeah. Like that's way more creepy than just like she's my little girl fine, you know? Right. And the music does that so well.

Like the, it's like, I'm scared. It's like he's tiptoe. Yeah, it's like Footstep Yeah, and it's a weird thing Because it's like And I know it Like, you know, like

And he talks about Like That I think Gavin brings up a good point With the home element Like the setting of it Like he's coming in the back door Everyone's trying to sleep And he's this midnight dream

Like that even But that was very much Morrison's allure Like he was not the type of guy You bring home for Thanksgiving He's a bad boy He's the one you don't tell your parents about Under any condition

You couldn't waterboard that information out of me. That was his allure. And I think that's what makes a lot of the doors music interesting is that separation between like, this is music that really embodies my soul and just being like, this is an interesting piece of work that is fun to negotiate with, you know? Yeah, to like poke with a stick.

Yeah, to keep a far. But I'm going to prod a little bit. Yeah. I know Mr. Bertram doesn't like the doors. That, okay. You heard it here. Ask him why. It asked bertram.

Not easy you. And he'll still. Why don't you like the doors? Mr. Bertram? I think I'd probably know why. Probably for all the reasons we're talking about. All of the reasons we're talking about.

Which are completely legitimate. Yeah. Other than, and there's like the doors, Morrison died like really horrifically. I want to say horrifically. But I think his, it wasn't a soft nice. No.

No. I think it. I don't know if it was suicide or he OD'd, but I know his grave is, like, in Paris or something. And they tried to go on as a trio, and I think they were mildly successful for a while because, like, everyone else in the doors was, like, an incredibly talented musician.

I think that's, once again, it's like that Smith's thing, where it's like you have Johnny Marr, you have really talented musicians, but you have this one lynchpin that everybody and only everybody pays attention to him. He's the band. It's like if, I hate to say this,

but it's like if Maddie Healy left. Yeah. Like, they all have, like, producing things I do on the side, but it would cease to be that entity. You have to, I mean, you have to have, like, the sex. The front of the man. Also, the controversial from it. Matt Healy is, like, a great example.

Yeah. These are all great. But he's like, he's like a joke compared to this guy, I feel like. Yeah, true. That he's like, Mattie Healy's like playing with fire. This guy is like literally the campfire. Exactly. Exactly.

There's a little bit of that kind of like, uh, because Mattie Healy's like trying to be something, you know? I mean, I'm sure he does actually suck, but, you know. He feels like he's like he's. actually like talking about real life experiences. I'm juror. I'm literally like and I don't even care and I love it. And I'm the worst. I'm going to break your heart. Ruin your whole family and I'm going to write a song.

So dream. And make millions of dollars. I find it it's also just so interesting to like take like a white artist to take the song from a black blues artist who by like the three like wrote most of all blues music that then got popularized by other people. But it's very interesting to then like strip the song. of a lot of its other elements. Like, I didn't know that when I started researching it.

That's interesting. I didn't realize that there were these other elements, and then Jim Morrison came in and was just kind of like, man, but I was just like sleeping with women. I don't want all that. So does the original song, like, how, like, close to this? I should have listened to me. It's got the same, like, lyricism, it's different.

It's much more simplified and, like, sexy, lyrically. Gotcha. But it sounds kind of, it's got the same gutteral. It's got the same, like, chord progression. that's very similar. Also, I think the Doors version is much shorter. Oh, it's so good. Howl and Wolf, right?

Yeah, this is Howlin Wolf. Oh, it's slower. Yeah, that's crazy. Right? You hear that and you're like, Jim Morrison, I mean, he tried. He gave it a shot. Yeah, I mean, that's awesome. Yeah, geez, that's a...

That's the original. He sounds like that's... like he's smoked all of his life. And that's why he's good. That's blues. Yeah, that man sounds like an adult. I read something too that like back to my point about the little girl's understanding is like maybe the kid and the family in the house is aware of something that's going on.

But like the husband still doesn't know. It's kind of like a shh. Yeah, there's like this spectator. Which is also part of the creepiness. Which also adds a layer of weirdness to it. That was always like a joke and like my grandparents used to send me like their comics from the paper. and that was like a common thread in all of them

and be like, kids being aware of affairs. Oh, dad, like, you know, the milk man did something and he's like, the kid has no clue

like that's a bad thing but he's like, the milk man did what? Yeah. Where was the milkman? Where was the book? What did he do? Uh,

which is kind of sad, but I guess so. No, it's sad. Yeah, I mean, depending on where you look at it. Kind of sad. It's all subjective.

I'm joking. Yeah. Jeez. My advice is to go listen to this album. In order. in its entirety what got me

into my doors phase when I was like 17 and it was all I listened to for like a solid year so wow yeah this has been good good stuff

well if you just tune in we're rounding up the episode of Backdoor Man by the Doors and we're talking about affairs so if that piques your interest find us on Spotify

you can listen to it all over again you can also you can also follow us on Instagram And I've got Oxin' Instagram that we're trying to post more on. Yeah. Might be going live in the coming weeks. Yes. Going live.

On our way to Ann Arbor, or Lansing, remember we're going? Wait, going live in the car? In the car? I'm driving. Gavin's hosting. We'll make it work. Yeah. But, yeah, we'll see.

Thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you guys next week. Bye.