Michael C. Ford – Look Each Other In the Ears
Posted by Steve Rosen on May 21, 2014 at 3:48pm
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On this very unique and engaging CD, hipster poet Michael C. Ford is backed by the Doors – keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger – while the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-nominated wordsmith recites his strange, beautiful, bebop poetry. Ford was a longtime friend of the Los Angeles band – and was even considered for the position of bass player until the decision was made for keyboardist Manzarek to tackle the bottom end – and now that they’ve finally gotten together for this spoken word symphony, the only question is, “Why did it take so long?”

The 11 recordings here represent the last time the three remaining Doors ever recorded together. The music is variously jazzy, bluesy, funky and smoky depending on the type of rap Ford is laying down. Geggy Tah‘s Tommy Jordan and Fishbone‘s Angelo Moore also participated in the project and you can hear their vocal contributions on many of the tracks.

Ford is a beautiful poet in the beat tradition and you can hear traces of Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski in his words. His voice is low and mellifluous and tracks rhythmically over the grooves laid down by Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger. He talks about amphibians and clubs long gone, about Desert Storm, advertising and orange groves.

Here is the tracklist:
“For Openers (Lost Jazz Bars in Four-Time)”

“A Simple Ode (To Frank O’Hara)”

“Waterfalls (Look Each Other in the Ears)”

“I Don’t Wanna Go (Said the Suicide)”

“Mars Is America (Anytime at All)”

“Sleeping Underwater”

“Making Out (with Westwood Village)”

“(Autobiography of) An American Bomb”

“Wartime Carol (Bringing the War Back Home)”

“Whatever Happened to the Orangegroves, Grandma”

“Float of Drive (Triple Bypass)”