Song 222: This week's playlist song is Spanish Caravan by The Doors, who also wrote the song. The Doors being the band that in their prime could rock the reptile brain like no other RnR combo, they got a lot of criticism at the turn of the '70s for being too adolescent, with the implication that their music, and particularly their lyrics, did not deserve the kind of attention that a serious, reflective adult might give to, say, Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and other major rockers. In the early '70s, being a singer/songwriter type, I understood that critique, as ridiculous as it might seem today, but even so, some of their songs stood well above the criticism, and this song qualifies as one of those -- the words still defy any logical interpretation, as do most tracks by the Doors, and they sketch a hazy, dream-like vision that fits in quite well within the landscape of most of the other dark dreams drawn by Doors lyrics, but they don't sound silly, overblown or teeny. On the musical side, I always enjoy the acoustic guitar flourishes that open the recording with a hint of Spanish classical music, and the way the track later hits full-throttle RnR after the electric guitar jumps in on one of the same riffs. I thought this song sounded as good as it gets when I first heard it take off from a friend's turntable, and after all the decades in between, having heard it hundreds of times, it still sounds that good to me.
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