An American Prayer is the ninth and final studio album by the American rock band the Doors. Following the death of Jim Morrison and the band's break-up, the surviving members of the Doors reconvened to set several of Morrison's spoken word recordings to music.[3] It was the only album by the Doors to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Spoken Word" category.[4]
The Doors formed in 1965 and released six studio albums before singer/lyricist Jim Morrison's death in July 1971. The surviving band members (keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore) recorded two additional albums as a trio, but broke up in 1973.[3]
Morrison had originally recorded some of his poetry between 1969 and 1970,[5] in either Elektra's recording studios or Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California.[6] These drafts were completed in two stints, first in the spring of 1969, and the other in December 1970.[7] The first session included poems like "Bird of Prey", "Under Waterfall" and "Orange County",[6] sang a cappella by Morrison with the latter featuring piano played by him.[8] By January 1971, after the completion of these recordings, Morrison had developed some concepts for the album cover art, and was in correspondence with artist T. E. Breitenbach to design this cover in the form of a triptych.[9] Prior to leaving for Paris in March 1971, Morrison had also approached composer Lalo Schifrin as a possible collaborator on the music to accompany the poetry, instead of the other members of the Doors.[10]
In 1978, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore reunited to record the music for An American Prayer.[5] On November 19, 1978, in the Los Angeles Times, Ray Manzarek explained, "We did this album to show the side of Jim which has been underrated all these years."[4] Other pieces of music and spoken word recorded by the Doors and Morrison were also used in the audio collage, such as dialogue from Morrison's film HWY: An American Pastoral, snippets from jam sessions, and featuring sections from "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)".[6] John Densmore devised an early use of synthesized drums for this take.[11]
An American Prayer was released on November 17, 1978, as "a Jim Morrison Album" with "Music by the Doors".[4] It initially sold approximately 250,000 copies, making it the best-selling spoken word album at the time.[4] The album included a composite live version of "Roadhouse Blues", which received some radio airplay on rock radio stations.[16] The album peaked at number 54 on the US charts.[4] It was also nominated for the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.[17]
Despite receiving a RIAAplatinum certification in the US, the album received mixed reviews and still divides critics. When the album was originally released, longtime Doors' producer Paul A. Rothchild castigated the album as a "RAPE of Jim Morrison."[18] Rothchild claimed that he had heard all of the reels of master tapes from both the 1969 and the 1970 poetry sessions, and insisted that the three remaining Doors failed to realize Morrison's original intent for an audio presentation of the poetry.[18]John Haeny (who recorded the original session tapes with Morrison in 1970) has written, "I want people to understand that this album was made by those people who were closest to Jim, both personally and artistically. Everyone had the best intentions" and that, "I believe Jim would be pleased. Jim would have understood our motivation and appreciated our dedication and heartfelt handling of his work."[19]
In his 1981 review, Robert Christgau rated An American Prayer "C" (which is about average on his scale). He praised the music accompaniment by the surviving members, but criticized Morrison as "a bad poet".[13]Rolling Stone described the record as "intriguing" but "suitable mainly for Morrison fanatics."[15] More recently, Vik Iyengar of AllMusic found the album "interesting", but concluded that it's "not for everyone, but is a must-own for Doors completists and fans of Jim Morrison's poetry."[12]
^Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 358. ISBN1-57859-061-2. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
^Kurtz, Warren (February 21, 2020) [February 12, 1979]. "Ray Manzarek Interview". Goldmine. Retrieved November 8, 2021. Now a live version of 'Roadhouse Blues' from An American Prayer is back on the radio as a single...
