10 Even More Perfect 1970s Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
7. An American Prayer - The Doors
Released seven years after the death of Jim Morrison, An American Prayer is arguably Morrison at his most poignant, poetic best.
With the legendary Doors frontman spiralling out of control, 1969 saw Morrison overweight, dishevelled and usually with a whiskey bottle nearby. It was over the next year that he'd do several studio sessions where he'd deliver his poetry while getting drunk. Intending for this to be released as a spoken word album, Jim died before this could come to pass.
By 1978, Morrisons' Doors bandmates Raz Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore reunited to record music to accompany Jim's words. The end result was a perfect mixture of what made The Doors so great in the first place, just with a renewed depth brought to the table from Morrison's words.
Krieger shines throughout, serving up tight, precise jazzy licks, and Densmore is forever in tune with Robby in an almost symbiotic jazz way - all made all the more trippy by Manzarek's ever-excellent keyboard work.
It's tough to pick a standout track here, but A Feast of Friends is likely the one that steals the show, with a sense of grandeur and almost European arthouse cinema brought to the words of Morrison by his former bandmates. Then, of course, there's also a phenomenal live rendition of the group's legendary Roadhouse Blues.