"The Doors" by The Doors

Ranking: #42

Original Release Date: 4 January 1967

Genre: Psychedelic Rock

"The Doors" was the self-titled debut album by - you guessed it - The Doors. Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek formed the band in 1965, with Manzarek's brothers. After Manzarek's brothers left the band, they brought on Robby Krieger for guitar and John Densmore on drums. Thus, the Doors lineup was finalized. Jim Morrison was inspired by philosophers and poets, and wrote poetry himself when he was younger, which later influenced the lyrics he wrote for The Doors. He was an intense teenager, having moved a lot as a military brat, and he found solace in the beat poets and French existentialist writings of the time. Through these interests, Morrison and the rest of the band got caught up in the 60s drug culture and Eastern philosophy craze that permeated the Western United States. The band's name is taken from Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception," which is about opening the mind's ability to perceive reality through psychedelic drug use (but mostly, it's just Huxley raving about how good the music tastes). Huxley's book title was inspired by a line in William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," which I'm sure Morrison also read because Blake would be very on brand for him. French existentialism, William Blake fan, a penchant for reading Renaissance-era tomes on demonology - the Lizard King sure was an interesting guy. Of course, I have no room to talk - Morrison sounds like me, if I had been born decades earlier as a man. Holy shit. Maybe I'm Jim Morrison reincarnated! Unlikely, but still an exciting prospect. I did do a chart for his death date (because I'm morbid) - 3 July 1971 - which had the Sun in Cancer and Moon in Scorpio. Suspiciously familiar placements - I won't rule out the possibility at this point. Anyway, the first single on this album, "Break On Through (To The Other Side" did not do too well initially. It wasn't until "Light My Fire" was released in April that The Doors really started to get traction.

Let's take a look at January 1967. An eventful month for the United States. The social program, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to low income disabled Americans, went into effect. Operation Cedar Falls takes place, injecting 30,000 American troops into the Vietnam War in an attempt to drive the Viet Cong out of the Iron Triangle. The Human Be-In occurred in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, kicking off the "hippie movement" in America and the precursor to what would be called the "Summer of Love" (much of which was fueled by The Doors' music). The first Superbowl would take place, with the Green Bay Packers beating the Kansas City Chiefs in a landslide victory. The Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, was convicted of numerous crimes and sentenced to life in prison. In general, 1967 was a crazy year and a year of a lot of major beginnings and endings. It would set the stage for a lot of the liberation we associate with the next decade. There would be shift in what the nuclear family looked like and the lives that young people imagined for themselves. Women were seeking more opportunities in the workplace, everyone was looking for a less rigid class hierarchy, and the sentiment was growing steadily more anti-authoritarian. This would snap back in the opposite direction in the early 1980s, when materialism became King once more. But for a brief respite in the late 60s and through the 70s, Americans were trying to imagine a freer, more creative society.

The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire

Try now we can only lose

And our love become a funeral pyre

Come on baby, light my fire

Come on baby, light my fire

Try to set the night on fire

Moving on to the astrological circumstances of this album and the band's enigmatic lead singer. When the album was released, the Sun was in Capricorn and the Moon was in Libra, so already a lot of cardinal energy in the chart. If we work in the ascendant (using noon as the "birth time," which is the standard when you don't have an official birth time), the ascendant was in Aries and almost directly opposite the Moon. To add to that, most of the inner planets and the Midheaven fall in Capricorn. As I said - a lot of Cardinal energy, which is indicative of a lot of forward momentum. As we've seen with previous artists, they often have to release several albums before they get that "big break." That was not the case for the Doors - they basically took off like a rocket once their debut album was released and it didn't stop until Morrison died. That's the power of strong cardinal influence in an election chart, especially when it's Capricorn energy - the energy of hard work, determination, and bringing powerful ideas into the physical. Surprisingly, even though he was born in December, Jim Morrison only has one Capricorn placement - Mercury. As a poet, this brings weight and gravity to his words. When he spoke, there was always a seriousness about him. Combined with his Venus in Scorpio, this added to the intensity of his lyrics and he always had an attraction to dark subjects and art. Also thanks to Venus in Scorpio, he was known as having a very sexual energy to him and he was infamous for bedding the women who came to his shows. He had a magnetic way about him. Scorpio energy, in general, usually has a "faithful" component and although he wasn't sexually faithful to her, he had a strong emotional bond with Pamela Courson, whom people called his "other half." Although he did marry Patricia Kennealy in a somewhat official ceremony, it was Pamela who he went back to in the end and who found him when he died. To be fair, he had Sun in Sagittarius and those placements have a reputation to be kind of commitment-averse in relationships. He had a strong desire for freedom, but it manifested as erratic, hot-and-cold behavior to those who were closest to him. At the time the album was released, the Moon (at 29°50' Libra) was conjunct his Venus (0°22' Scorpio), enhancing the emotional influence of the music he created. Both charts had the Trine aspect as the most common aspect, indicating that fulfilling the potential of those placements came naturally. Finally, Jim Morrison was an Aquarius rising - like a similar musical legend with the same placement (David Bowie), Morrison had a different way of looking at the world. In contract to Bowie, it was darker and more serious, but no less influential.

The featured song is "Light My Fire," the song that catapulted The Doors to the height of American Rock Glory. From the lyrics, it's clear what that phrase means. The singer is trying to convince the listener to have sex. We only have the present moment - resistance is futile and we're already feeling it, so why not? That is my loose interpretation of the lyrics. I believe it is fairly accurate. I chose the official music video/performance. The sound isn't as clean as the album version but watching Jim Morrison perform is an experience. The way he moves is uniquely awkward, but it's still mysterious and sexy.

"Light My Fire" Video

"Elvis Presley" by Elvis Presley

Ranking: #56

Original Release Date: 23 March 1956

Genre: Rock and Roll

"Elvis Presley" was the inaugural album by - you guessed it - Elvis Presley (affectionately known as the King of Rock and Roll). This album is notable, not only because it is the first album of possibly one of the most prolific musicians in contemporary pop culture, but because it also marked rock & rolls entry into the domination of the airwaves. Elvis' self-titled album spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts, the first rock & roll album ever to do so. His music would define the genre and he is still well loved by fans (like myself) today.

Let's take a look at what was happening in 1956. At this point, it's no secret that Elvis was heavily influenced by the blues music being created by African-American artists of the time. Not so coincidentally, 1956 also marked a critical year in the Civil Rights Movement. In November 1956, the Supreme Court would rule that the Alabama bus segregation laws were unconstitutional in the landmark Browder v. Gayle case. From the end of 1955 until this ruling, anti-segregationists held the Montgomery bus boycott, the initial act of social protest that would evolve into the Civil Rights Movement. This protest would spark other bus boycotts in the South and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s involvement would elevate him as a leader for social justice. Unfortunately, this would put him in danger and in January of 1956, Dr. King's home was bombed - just one of many attempts that would be made on his life until his assassination in 1968. He was far from the only public figure targeted - Nat Cole was attacked in April while he was performing onstage in Birmingham in a racially charged incident. And the first attempts to integrate public schools are met with venomous opposition throughout the South.

Blue Moon (moon, moon, moon, Blue Moon)

You saw me standing alone (moon, moon, moon, Blue Moon)

Without a dream in my heart (moon, moon, moon, Blue Moon)

Without a love of my own

In other news (and perhaps as a distraction from the events of the day), the first soap opera, "As the World Turns," premiers on network television. Cecil B. DeMille's masterpiece, "The Ten Commandments" is released in the United States. And the Suez Canal crisis leads to war between Israel and Egypt. Other than that, it was a big year in the world of sports and it was an especially big year for Elvis Presley. Throughout 1956, practically every single he released became a hit both domestically and internationally. He was making the rounds on the talk show circuit, to include his famous performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." And he also made his film debut in "Love Me Tender." Nope, not a bad year at all for a 21-year-old from Memphis, Tennessee.

I wanted to take a look at both Elvis' natal chart as well as the chart for the album release. In this day and age, we don't blink twice at a 21-year-old being famous in an instant - between Disney Channel stars and the glut of celebrity children, it's bound to happen. But in 1956, Elvis meteoric rise was almost unheard of. Elvis' birthday is 8 January (he shares this birthday with our last featured artist, David Bowie), which makes him a Capricorn. When his debut album was released, the ascendant and Uranus were directly opposite his Sun, indicating a major shift in how he would perceived. Uranus was also square his natal Uranus - squares are known for being rough, but they can also be a sign that events happen suddenly, without warning. Another interesting thing to note is that when this album was released, the North Node was conjunct his ascendant in Sagittarius, an indication that he was just following his destined path. Speaking of Destiny, his North Node, his Moon, and his Saturn were all in Aquarius. Revolutionizing the music scene wasn't just his Destiny, he may have felt it was his duty as well. Elvis' midheaven is in Virgo, which isn't much of a surprise. A Virgo MC, being ruled by Mercury, usually points to a person who is detail-oriented and highly skilled at self-learning. Elvis didn't have formal musical training, and mostly learned and played music by ear. Ironically, he said music was the only class he ever failed. But he loved music as a child and he'd seek out ways to listen to it, frequenting shows at local blues venues (something good boys didn't do in the segregated South) and spending time at record stores to hear the new releases.

This was a fun album to listen to, mostly because I grew up an Elvis fan. My dad would always remind me that he was in the 10th Mountain Division when he served in the Army, which is one of the units my dad was in when I was a kid. It's not a long album and it doesn't even have most of the hits people can point to as being Elvis. But it was an important album - there isn't a pop or rock musician today that can say they weren't influenced by Elvis. If they say they aren't, they're lying because they probably wouldn't exist without this album. I can't even imagine what music would sound like today if this album was never released. We'd probably be listening to elevator music or untuned violins or something like that. Oh wait....

"Blue Moon" Video