THE DOORS' "MY WILD LOVE": A MYSTICAL WORK SONG
By April 1968, The
Doors were wrapping up the recording sessions for their third studio album, “Waiting
for the Sun”.
The LP, debuting
that July, eventually topped the U.S. charts to mark the absolute commercial peak
of the band’s career.
The last track to
be recorded for this album was "My Wild Love", an idea conceived by
the lead singer, Jim Morrison.
The difficulty in
framing his intuition within a suitable arrangement led the group to experiment
with a rather unusual song form.
They ultimately
settled on the steady, evocative rhythms of work songs that had spread across America
from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.
In particular,
the structure of “My Wild Love” can be placed within the context of the gloomy,
rhythmic motifs common among prisoners forced into hard labor and chained
together in a long line (the latter known as “chain gang”).
This type of work
song centers on the repetition of a call-and-response vocal pattern, used to
mark and coordinate the rhythm of the physical labor performed by the
prisoners.
Morrison’s solo
voice takes on both roles here (the call and the response), singing the lyrics
with expressive consistency and voluptuous melancholy.
In addition, he
sinuously elongates the vowels within the words that conclude the response
lines, thereby immersing the listener in a somber and intensely evocative
atmosphere.
The band crafts a
minimalist soundscape around the singer’s voice, consisting of handclaps,
finger snaps and wordless backing vocals.
Initially
murmured in a deep, transcendent tone, these captivating vocal harmonies grow
louder in the song’s final section.
This vocal
accompaniment follows and reinforces the composition’s oscillating melody and is
performed by The Doors themselves along with other friends and collaborators of
the band who were present in the recording studio.
Three different
percussion instruments can be heard on the track, compensating for the absence
of the instruments usually played by the group.
The first percussion
is a tambourine, shaken to make its metal discs ring out, while the second is a
drum.
The third type of
percussion consists of the jagged, crackling sound of a rattle rapidly shifting
from the left audio channel to the right. This technique generates a fast-swirling
rustle, further accentuated by a studio-created distortion effect.
The peculiar vibration
produced in this way frequently fills the song with a dense hiss, adding a
touch of dark, bewitching mystery to the composition.
The enigmatic sonic
effect just described blends with the solemn mystical drumbeat and the reverb
applied to the backing vocals. The Doors thus superimpose the primitive and
hypnotic dimension of an ancestral ritual onto the continuous unfolding of this
captivating work song.
The lyrics of 'My
Wild Love' recount the surreal journey of the woman portrayed in the song's
title, as she travels through places that are both real and metaphysical.
The restless and
tireless wandering of this girl, coupled with her unpredictable behavior,
reveals her bold and indomitable nature.
Morrison's choice
of words is notable for incorporating the imaginative allegories typical of
certain 19th-century folk ballads into the American tradition of work songs.
Although this
track was never performed live, it brings an original and unexpected sonic
element to both the album “Waiting for the Sun” and The Doors' discography.
By transporting
sophisticated artistic and cultural references from a distant past into 1968,
the quartet infuses the song with a creativity far removed from any commercial
intent.
Despite falling
short of the band’s usual high standards, “My Wild Love” introduces an
appealing novelty to the late sixties’ music scene.
It does so by skillfully
weaving together a significant part of the American musical heritage with an
ancient spirituality connected to the elements of nature.
Morrison was
fascinated by the result achieved in the three minutes of this tune.
In fact, about a
year later, he replicated the structure of work songs in “Whisky, Mystics and
Men” (a 1969 outtake by The Doors), this time drawing on seafaring motifs
dating back to the second half of the nineteenth century.
Here's the link to the article about "Whiskey, Mystics And Men".
My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .it, .mx, .ca, etc.
Here’s a link:
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