writing credits

[Jerry]

>> Take the Doors.  All their early
>> material was credited as being written by the
>> whole band, while obviously Morrison was the
>> key talent there.

> Not necessarily true.  "Light My Fire" was Krieger,
> words and music,
> except the keyboard intro which was written by,
> uh, the keyboard player,
> whatever his name was (M-something).
Ray Manzarek. You've seen the movie, didn't you? :-)

I think The Doors are a difficult example in the case of
writing credits. Morrison could not play any instrument
(he had a go on the harp, but that didn't work out too
well; and he smashes a couple of piano keys once or
twice). He did write the vocal melodies, so actually he
provided the initial ideas for many songs. The rest of
the band had to create the music around it. I don't know
if Morrison had anything to say in this.

Sometimes it was the other way around. Morrison
appears to have written a couple of words from the
second verse of 'Light My Fire'. 'Peace Frog' was an
instrumental for quite a while, before Manzarek,
Densmore and Krieger took one of Morrison's notebooks,
and took out two poems that fit the music.

So, it's hard to say Morrison was the key talent.
Personally, I don't care too much. I listen to the
music, love it. I read the lyrics, love it. (Not all, of
course.)

Now Al, obviously, was a greater talent, instrumentally.
(Songwriting-wise, it's a matter of taste, I think.) He
has knows to tell how the music sounds like, by playing
it. In Al's case, writing credits are easier to
determine.

Jerry