10 Classic Rock Bands Never Better Than Their First Album
1. The Doors
As the hippie generation started to blossom, no one had heard anything quite like The Doors. With their mix of rock, jazz, blues, and avant garde, these four transplants from Los Angeles made some of the most menacing rock music of the late '60s that showed the dark side of Flower Power.
To say that the band's debut was great would be greatly underselling it. Not only did this album show the possibilities of what rock could do, but its left turns on songs like "The End" and "Alabama Song" were so unique that they seemed to create genres unto themselves. As the band went on though, the shadow of their debut proved to be a bit larger than anyone had anticipated.
Whereas other bands try to feed off the success of their debut, most of The Doors' later output is just the same kind of twisted take on rock and roll but through different lenses. While albums like Strange Days and LA Woman are certainly interesting for what they are, they tend to feel like they're building off of the debut rather than going in a different direction. The Doors are one of the greatest classic rock bands of all time, but in terms of their entire catalog, their debut is their greatest front-to-back album experience.