The Doors- Hyacinth House (REACTION & REVIEW)

[@albertobetto522]

Looking back at this song it's almost as if Jim had some kind of premonition of final departure, The last time they jammed together was with the final song of this album riders on the storm.

[@nicholasmark2392]

Hyacinth House and When the Music’s Over are my favorite songs from the doors.

[@shaolin89]

3:26 my exact reaction to that bit, too. The instrumental part of this song is intoxicating. Cheers, bro

[@davidheiser2225]

Jerry Scheff was such a huge part of this album's sound. In a perfect world, he would have been their bass player from the beginning.

[@jupiterinaries6150]

There’s such a melancholy sound to the Doors!

[@jfergs.3302]

A comparatively gentle, lilting tune this, and always my fave on the album. The keys are king here (though it's lifted heavily from Frederic Chopin), with the geet a close second. And as ever, JM's great, and here soft, vocal over the top. I partic love that 'jack of hearts' bit. A classic song.

[@pentagrammaton6793]

I think that Chopin is unfairly ignored when it comes to being ripped off tbh.

[@jfergs.3302]

@@pentagrammaton6793 Ripped off, such a harsh phrase. I like to think of it more as one composers nod/homage, to another 🙂 And I'm sure FC would be chuffed to know his stuffs still out there, and very popular.

[@pentagrammaton6793]

@@jfergs.3302 oh no, I use "ripped off" in the highest possible sense, as I spent decades doing that creatively in my own bands! 😀

[@jfergs.3302]

@@pentagrammaton6793 Borrowing, no greater compliment 🙂

[@spazimdam]

I love Manzarek's organ tones in this song, especially in that break before the end. It almost sounds like a synth, but it's just really good tone setting on the organ. Superb. Classic Doors.

[@dennispope1355]

What a phenomenal album. Not a filler to be found. I love all these Morrison Doors albums and it's sad this would be his last. He ended with wonderful future classic. Recently, I've known a few people who thought this album was a "best of" album instead of the next studio release mainly because most of these songs seem tailor-made for FM play.

[@nickrice7535]

You have a great outlook on this song.

[@JustJP]

Thank you so much Nick

[@a.k.1740]

After the intensity of the previous track, The Doors gives way to a calmer and more melodic piece. During his organ solo, Ray Manzarek makes direct reference to Chopin !

[@KevinRCarr]

8th grade. Older brother had the Doors first album, and the Soft Parade album, so I was already a fan. This album was my first album purchased with my own money. I spent about 3 hours that first day, lying on my bed with the family stereo system's speakers on each side of the bed, pointing toward me, listening to this album over and over and over. I am still nearly as obsessed with it, 50 years later. Every time I hear a song from it, I have to strain hard to keep from dropping whatever I'm doing and listening to the whole album once again.

[@ramonalfaro3252]

Densmore is a master!!! Absolutely under rated!!!

[@maraboo72]

Hyacinth is a person in Greek mythology - a young beautiful man loved by Apollo and accidently killed by Apollo who turned Hyacinth's blood into a flower. A Flower?

[@bobcorbin3294]

From Willow Farm?

[@maraboo72]

​@@bobcorbin3294 In case you look for gutterflies.

[@HippoYnYGlaw]

No no no no no, it’s Bouquet.

[@mishansk2]

I think it was Narcissus :)

[@maraboo72]

@@mishansk2 Narcissus falls in love with his own mirror image, dies from the unanswered love and transforms to a flower.

[@daveking9393]

Enjoyed. Thanks

[@-davidolivares]

A beautiful song that I took for granted on this last hurrah of an album. Thought it a drug use reference song, some paranoia, non bothersome acquaintances to keep low key tabs on each other, the drug also being a brand new friend… glad to see it’s just a possible clingy girlfriend, singing in the toilet, free loving fun song. Love these Beatle, Chopin, stronger than dirt quotes.

[@michaelcapewell4811]

“I see the bathroom is clear…” 👍 Btw, where are you going next with the Doors? Strange Days? Perhaps the Soft Parade? 🤔

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

I really like this one. A bit different and overlooked. Thanks JP.

[@donedwards2030]

L.A. Woman, Aqualung, Selling England By The Pound and Meddle. Always in my top 10 which somehow consists of around 25 albums, if you know what l mean!! 😃

[@maruad7577]

It's been about 50 years since this was released. The owning bobcats thing still hasn't caught on so I would assume it didn't go quite as smoothly as could be wished. I was surprised to recognize this song. A great forgotten gem.

[@jameswarner5809]

I interpret the 'jack of hearts' and 'I need someone who doesn't need me' lines to mean he didn't want a serious relationship, but the girlfriend was pressuring him for something more committed.

[@jerkedevries]

The instruments and singing is really great. Especially the subtle guitar in the end with the organ. Great topic too: need someone that doesn’t need me.

[@EmmanuelPehau]

The song that got me hooked to the Doors and me pick up L.A. Woman, an album who blew me away and is still dear to my heart. (Though, with time, "Waiting for the Sun" has become my favorite album of theirs.)

[@TheMWCmusic]

I can NOT just skip through this album. Have always listened to it START TO FINISH. The photo of them is so simple yet has a such a powerful look to it. ( to me anyways) This is my favorite photo of these great men!!

[@rdumontdebeque]

This is one of the few songs that I can along with and sound good. It’s a gem.💎

[@gaiaeternal5131]

Afternoon, Justin. Dave from across The Wide Open Sea. I really like this softer, more reflective side of the band. Plenty of this on their early albums, such as my favourite Waiting for the Sun. Yes, I agree it's warm and comforting, and for me Ray's the star here. Others have mentioned his Chopin quote in the solo, but in his runs you can hear how Dave Greenfield of The Stranglers was influenced. P.S. my song ref The Wide Open Sea is by Big Big Train.

[@a.k.1740]

In think we can feel the influence of the Doors on the Stranglers on quite a few tracks, as much on this one as on the dark "L'America", as well as on the track "Waiting for the Sun" (on Morrison Hotel) or "Wintertime Love" (on the album Waiting for the Sun).

[@hiacyntsimon1399]

Yeah, what are they doing in my house, I would love to know

[@lankylankster7148]

"I see the bathroom is clear." Sounds funny, but I get it. Empty bathrooms were probably a refuge to folks like Morrison (alone, in a locked room, no one bothering you), who may have had people constantly clawing at him, wanting something, in every waking hour, in the form of groupies, hangers-on, phonies & so forth. Anyways, great singer/great talent. LL

[@kelvinkloud]

you have a good ear for composition & arrangement. & the doors were masters at using transition bridges in songs. its more subtle here but powerful & you picked up on it.... lyrically & thematically, I think I finally figured it out. morrison was very into symbolist poetry & he uses it very deftly here.... hyancinth represent the flower that grew from the blood of the ancient greek God youth's death from the discus. Thus its rebirth from sorrow but also from someone sacrificed (the blood of a past star: --> jim). House, used by morrison in other songs (he also uses room) is a metaphor for a particular group w/in culture. This was referenced symbolically also in the bible in the same way.... for Jim this isnt about a relationship w/ a girl imo, rather his relationship to his career & fame. its a good-bye song to his role as rock star & is a view towards transition. its also melachony to a degree b/c hes partly doing it b/c hes exhausted himself from his supporters... when he says, what are they doing in the hyacinth house this day, hes pointing to the music indust & what type of new hero (like a robert plant for ex) are they marketing to please the lions (fans who lustfully seek rock and roll) this day.... the jack of hearts taken away is a reference to the miami trial. his role as the jack of rock has been destroyed & hes being exiled by the media out of rock.... the brand new friend he is seeking is honesty in relationship as opposed to having to live up to fans expectation who became addicted to his image & needed him for that.... its a haunting sombre look at the price of fame. but it holds hope out that he sees it for what it is & he is ready to move on (paris) to find refuge & refresh.... the haunting foreshadowing though that is in the lyrics, is the reference to someone following him into the bathrm. That someone, may be death. The really haunting thing, is he found his demise 6 mo later in paris laid out dead in a bathtub.... its a very underrated & mature old wisdom song. morrison is writing & singing here w/ the Eye of someone 30 years older.

[@HippoYnYGlaw]

Do The Icicle Works & The Triffids play second fiddle to these vocals and this song? GULP. A paradigm shiftin statement right there though! I’m a relative younglin’ - i wasn’t there to experience these Doors- but this was “inspiring”, Doh Scott W wants a word...

[@christinajensen8058]

Why did you throw the Jack of heats away..it was the only card in the deck i had left to play...going on plus 40 years..listening to the Doors.. have the lyric books

[@pentagrammaton6793]

I love the Doors, gotta be fair. Yes it is still I, with a name change for increased anonymity due to getting some real subscribers on my channel instead of just a few mates. 😁

[@altair8598]

I have been more obsessed by this track than any other on the album, partly because the lyrics are opaque until a Morrison expert (e.g. below) can put it into biographical context. Musically it may be calmer than the preceeding track but for me the narrator is really on edge. The whole album is great and the others in the band at the height of their powers.

[@michaeldavis6116]

This song is kind of Morrison talking about how sick and tired he is of life in the spotlight. The "I need a brand new friend" line has a couple meanings. One is that he is sick of entertaining the hangers on that come in the industry and that he doesn't trust some of the people in his orbit. Another might be his longing to just write poetry and publish books and just moreso live a quieter life than the one he'd been living with the Doors, after all, he did go to Paris after this album. The Hyacinth house has many references in Greek mythology but I decide to go with the meaning that Robbie Krueger himself stated which is that Morrison would call his house the Hyacinth House because it had Hyacinths all over it. Basically asking what they're doing in his house to please "the lions" - the fans, the media, record labels, friends. This is my favorite Doors' song but it also breaks my heart because of how raw it is and how real it feels when you know where he was in his life at that time.

[@20thanasi]

Cool reactor

[@gmgroucho77]

That organ run clearly stuck in Dave Greenfield's mind.

[@gmgroucho77]

@@Katehowe3010 Of course not.

[@a.k.1740]

@@gmgroucho77 What Christian writes is absolutely true! Hugh Cornwell said that when Dave Greenfield joined The Stranglers in the mid-'70s, the keyboard player had only heard The Doors' "Light My Fire" at that time. He was more into progressive rock and hard rock, his two early influences being Rick Wakeman and Jon Lord. It wasn't until he joined The Stranglers and his bandmates told him that his keyboard playing reminded them of Ray Manzarek that he began to listen seriously to The Doors.

[@a.k.1740]

@@Katehowe3010 You're welcome!

[@gmgroucho77]

@@Katehowe3010 Would he say he had heard it if he actually had? Perhaps I have a more cynical streak than you. All speculation and you may be right. I don't believe everything rock musicians say or write ...they are notoriously unreliable for a myriad of reasons. Funnily enough a music journalist friend interviewed Cornwell a few years back. Obviously the topic didn't come up. But this has encouraged me to listen to the two tracks and assess whether the organ parts are exactly the same, note for note.

[@gaiaeternal5131]

@@Katehowe3010 Since you're asking, Hanging Around and No More Heroes have some similar runs (not saying the same though). And Walk On By has a similarly structured instrumental break as Light My Fire, although I think it's Hugh's guitar solo that sounds similar to Robby Krieger's.

[@frugalseverin2282]

The melody during the verses sounds like I've heard it somewhere before but I can't place it.

[@mishansk2]

It’s a Chopin Polonaise

[@sicko_the_ew]

My brother and his wife had a Lynx for a while (African Lynx - closest thing we have to a Bobcat). You never "own" an animal like that. They raised it and then released it. Their dog and the Lynx were best of friends. They have always had all sorts of animals in the house. (She worked in animal rehabilitation when young, and now everyone just knows she's the one who "knows how to look after birds", etc.) I never met the Lynx (or the Bushpig who shared the bed with them for a while). I think they even had a little Porcupine there for while. Of the animals I can remember, there were several little antelope whose legs were still too skinny to support them on slippery floors. "Frogs". In places where the animals were just released into the bush outside (when there was bush outside, and not a busy urban stroad), you'd arrive there and have Bushbuck come running up to greet you, hoping for some nice milk. One of their Jack Russells worked out that there was a bum chocolate factory on the back end of any baby antelope. (They don't defecate. Mom will come a few times a day, give the bum a lick, and eat what comes out. That way there are less signs left around for predators while the baby lies hidden as Mom goes out browsing.) They had a Sunbird (a bigger version of a Hummingbird, basically - more or less the same ecological niche) who would fly in from the bush near sunset, and go and perch on the lampshade by the bed, transforming from Sunbird into little pompom, all spherical and fluffy. And then right at the crack of dawn, out the window he'd fly, to go and be a wild animal again. For years, they never killed snakes. Had a Green Mamba who would come into the house (it was more like a more fancy version of a hut - lots of holes and places for critters to set up their homes in). It was after the Geckos. And there were enough Geckos for it to be necessary to have a lace curtain hanging down from the roof, over the bed, to catch all the Gecko droppings. So what would inevitably happen is that the Mamba would end up trapped in that "net", which was too slippery for it to be able to escape. My brother would catch it, bag it, and then take it far, far away when there was time. In less than a week, it would be back. Same story over and over again. Then the same Jack Russell who figured out how to get bum chocolates out of young antelope decided he wanted to become the World Champion Snake Hunter. He did (career stats 15 - 2 - survived the first medical emergency due to snake venom, almost survived the second, but escaped before he was ready to go hunting again, overdid it, and his liver decided to give up on him. Those are known kills. Once he had a snake, the safest was to just leave well enough alone, and not distract him. Nobody knows what he managed to kill while he was a away all day down in the wetlands.) Their dog got obsessed with killing dangerous snakes, so they started killing the ones they found round the house to prevent incidents. Hmm ... he flushed a Black Mamba I had a close call with, once. I'd just come through a gate you had to fight to open and close, and had closed it. That led into a tight spot. Look up, and there's a Mamba riding on its tail straight toward me. Somehow got that gate open impossibly quickly and dodged it. ("Vicious snake" went to hide in a hole from a tiny little dog. Snakes get a really bad rap. Even those with legends about their aggression are gentle creatures who almost always rather run than fight.) But that's way off topic. Do people "own" Bobcats? Some people keep them, yes, just like some people keep lions and tigers. And some people even keep them with good intentions. However as with any dangerous animal, you get "ego pets". Can't say I like the idea. Too many tales of abuse, neglect, and so on. For instance, in South Africa, avoid offers to go "lion cub petting". They get the cubs because the mother is dead, for starters. How? Some swine do "canned lion hunting" (And some incomprehensible pratts pay to shoot an essentially caged lion - I mean For What??) Ask anyone who's in wildlife rehabilitation for details if interested. They're the ones who get to pick up the pieces afterwards. From people who can't think right through to people who should not be allowed to just die without suffering, there aren't many who manage to keep wild animals without doing some harm, ultimately. Oops, blog post. Had a blog for a while. Seemed like too much effort. Maybe I should do one again, just to be able to keep comments down to a reasonable length and put everything unreasonable on the blog. (But it just seems like too much work ... go figure.)

[@sicko_the_ew]

I was meant to just tell you about Hyacinth Bucket, and the correct pronunciation of that name. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJPSiKeAnrOMqNE

[@sicko_the_ew]

I'd better not politely bury this one. *Bjork - Ovule* . Brand new. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYHVkHdjl5qpaLM (I suppose the proper way to start any such comment would be to first cast my comment-votes (all two of them) for The Doors. Anything by the Doors. Any number of times, too. You can keep reacting to the same song over and over again, and I'd want to hear the song again, as well as your revised opinion. (Maybe you should find excuses to revise your opinion of all the songs you love best, and then just keep revising. It's possible to form many opinions. Might be interesting to see where such a project might go.)

[@garyarnett1220]

Owning Bobcats now? Mmmm. probably no. Then? there've been weirder things.

[@AriadneJC]

An okay Doors track, not outstanding, but it does feature Morrison's vocals so it's already well ahead of a lot of other tracks I would listen to again.

[@samsfries6548]

L, great doors track