521

Somewhere in the last century, I was wasting time in Ruang Santai when Mbah Singo came in and started playing one of his Cihapit-treasure-hunt tapes. The oldies sound didn't catch my attention at first. It sounded, uhm, old. What do you expect from mbah-mbah, eh ;)

But as the song went, I started to wonder. I didn't really pay attention to the lyric, but it sounded like all the players talk to each other via their respective instrument. Almost like a friendly chat. It was amazing!

And it was, as I had realized, The Doors.

I think it was also last century when I watched Oliver Stone's The Doors (of course, Mbah Singo brought the movie), and all I can remember is the movie was, uhm, chaotic (or if you prefer, controversial). He liked the movie a lot. So when I watched the Manzarek-approved doco When You're Strange, I thought of him a little.

When You're Strange probably doesn't really offer anything new. After all, we know the story. Or not :P I'm not a huge fan, but Tom DiCillo clearly is. And I sort of think that the narration (courtesy of Johnny Depp!) was kind of out of place. Maybe that's attributed to the Leonard school credo, as much as the over the top adoring praises, but still...

But it was nice. Although no one can argue that The Doors was Jim Morrison, this movie gives balance to Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore as well (in all of their four albums but one, if I'm not mistaken, the writing credits were given to The Doors instead of individual personnel). The three of them objected to Stone's version not because of their lack of portrayal, but to Jim's as merely a drunk rock star. I like this movie describing Jim's warm relationships with them, and how they were broken by Jim's drinking habit.

I think I finally understand why their songs sound like chats. Because no one knew what Jim would do, what he would turn a song to, that the songs were alive. They did talk to each other through their music.

And is it another sign of my geekiness that I though Ray Manzarek was cute? Or maybe just genius-genic :P