THE DOORS' "TEXAS RADIO AND THE BIG BEAT": A POEM ON THE RADIO

 

The Doors recorded “The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)” in December 1970. The song was then released in April 1971 on the band's sixth LP: “L.A. Woman”.

To understand the nature of this song, we need to go back to its origins, which can be traced back almost two and a half years before its official recording, namely to the summer of 1968.

Since their live performances in the summer of 1967, The Doors had often deviated from the music that fans could hear on vinyl.

Guided by the words of the singer, Jim Morrison, the quartet incorporated exciting poetic and musical improvisations into their songs. In this way, the four musicians intensely manifested their innovative energy, grafting poetry onto the fertile ground of the Rock genre.

A famous example of this is the sequence “Wake Up” - “Light My Fire”, performed by the group on American stages from the summer of 1967 onwards. It is a fiery poem recited by Morrison against an abstract soundscape created by the other band members. It suddenly and dramatically flows into the introduction of their most famous composition.

1968 brought further commercial success for The Doors. The LP “Waiting For The Sun” and the single “Hello, I Love You” both reached number one in the US in July.

The success of “Hello, I Love You” prompted Morrison to select another of his poems, aiming to create a similar combination to that of “Wake Up” and “Light My Fire.”

So, from the July 1968 concerts onwards, The Doors began to experiment with the verses entitled “Texas Radio and the Big Beat”, followed immediately by the explosion of “Hello, I Love You”.

The first occasion to put this new musical and poetic succession into practice was the famous Hollywood Bowl concert held in Los Angeles (July 5, 1968) in front of twenty thousand people, including Mick Jagger in the front row.

Approximately halfway through the performance, Morrison sang an early version of “Texas Radio And The Big Beat”. At this stage, the poem was shorter than it would eventually become and was accompanied by two instruments: John Densmore’s drums and the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass played by Ray Manzarek with his left hand.

The drummer's contribution was limited to a few sparse (but meaningful) percussive comments, fleetingly alternating between the cymbals and the various drums. Meanwhile, the small keyboard, which reproduces the frequencies of the electric bass, repeated a light, cautious and consistent pattern made of dark and inquiring notes.

This expressive, minimalist discontinuity supports the poem’s cryptic, multi-layered meanings. Its stylized appearance allows us to envisage the unfolding of a surreal radio broadcast. This broadcast, brought to the Hollywood Bowl stage in poetic form, provides a framework for exciting flights of verbal fancy and sharp considerations hidden within hallucinatory allegories.

Here, we also encounter one of the most significant, poignant and courageous verses ever written by Morrison: “No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn”.

The combination of poetry and music comprising “Texas Radio and the Big Beat” - “Hello, I Love You” will be repeated quite often in the thirteen live shows that The Doors will play from 6 July to 1 September 1968.

The tour that took the band to Northern Europe during the first half of September '68 represented the last opportunity to witness this unusual, enthralling, and effective sequence.

The poem “Texas Radio And The Big Beat” then sank into a long silence that lasted two years. It reappeared at the end of 1970, during the recording sessions for the group's final album featuring Jim Morrison alive: “L.A. Woman”.

The resulting track, titled “THE WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)”, is over four minutes long. Its lyrics have been expanded and partially reordered compared to the 1968 composition.

The following fascinating and unforgettable line was also added: “Out here on the perimeter, there are no stars / Out here we are stoned, immaculate”.

This is certainly not the first time that the quartet's skillful collective elaboration has turned Morrison's poetic writing into a song. However, in this case, The Doors created a particularly daring musical setting.

In "The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)", the listener is invited to follow a radio broadcast through its various stages.

The show is divided into three recurring and alternating parts, chosen specifically because they are typical of the radio context.

The first part (which corresponds to the verses of the song) features the program’s unconventional host (Morrison), who recites evocative lines over a relentless and resolute rhythmic-melodic accompaniment (for example, from min. 0:00 to min. 0:52 or from min. 1:09 to min.1:32).

The assertive pace of the accompaniment is reminiscent of the verse of "Tobacco Road" by the Nashville Teens (released in 1964 and reinterpreted by the Blues Magoos in 1966).

The second part of the radio broadcast (which corresponds to the choruses in the song) features a lively and playful jingle that briefly interrupts the show (for example, from min. 0:52 to min. 1:08 or from min. 1:33 to min. 1:49).

The third and final section consists of two enjoyable, dynamic solos by Robby Krieger on electric guitar and Ray Manzarek on Hammond C3 organ. These serve as musical interludes that pop up during the program.

Throughout the tune, the singer's voice creates a vivid "radio" effect thanks to two vocal lines that are deliberately slightly offset from each other rather than perfectly synchronized (using the "delay" effect). The foreground voice is immersed in a deep, wide reverb, while the background voice is heard at a lower volume.

The final result is more than successful, representing the most convincing sonic factor of the entire song together with session musician Jerry Scheff’s penetrating and rough electric bass.

Finally, it is worth noting Densmore's only drum solo in the band's entire repertoire (listen from min. 3.46 to min. 3.53). Although rather concise, it stands out for containing a synthetizer effect, which creates undulating and fleeting distortions on some of the drummer's beats.

From a purely musical point of view, it could be argued that "THE WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)" is one of the least engaging moments in The Doors' wonderful discography.

Nevertheless, setting an extravagant and surreal radio broadcast to music adds remarkable creative flair to the tune.

Furthermore, the brilliant lyrics, balancing imaginative poetic abstraction with sociological inquiry, considerably enhance the artistic value of this original composition.

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