Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, USA
July 1965 Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek recognize each
other from school and start chatting. The two both went to the same film school at nearby UCLA,
and soon began talking about music. Morrison told Manzarek that he had been writing songs. Manzarek
asked Morrison if he could sing one of them. And so Morrison did, singing the opening words of his
song, “Moonlight Drive.” "Let's swim to the moon, let's climb through the tide, penetrate
the evening that the city sleeps to hide." Manzarek loved it and wanted to create
music with those lyrics. You see, Manzarek sang and played piano in a band
called Rick & the Ravens. He asked them if Morrison could join the band as a singer,
and they were like “sure.” That said, Morrison was hesitant to join, as
he never wanted to be a singer. Morrison added quite a new vibe to
the band, which, up to that point, had mostly just played surf
rock at fraternity parties. On September 2, 1965, the band recorded
a six-song demo at World Pacific Studios. Rick and Jim Manczarek, Ray’s brothers who were
in the band, tried to promote the demo, but uh, it didn’t do that well. Disappointed by the poor
response to the demo, Rick and Jim quit the band, saying it was “going nowhere fast.” Little
did they know. Little did they know. Soon after that, Robby Krieger, who had helped
play guitar on their demo, joined the band, and they changed its name to the Doors, a
reference to Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception. The title of IT actually
came from a line in William Blake’s book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. "If
the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is:
infinite" Well that’s deep now, innit? By December, Pat was no longer in the band, so The
Doors were now a four-piece, with Jim Morrison on vocals, Ray Manzarek on keys, bass, and background
vocals, Robby Kreiger on guitar, and John Densmore on drums. Audiences didn’t automatically love The
Doors. Their first gigs were sparsely attended. From February to May 1966, they got a residency at
a nightclub called London Fog in what’s today West Hollywood. Playing these shows helped Morrison
become much more confident in front of a live audience. They also helped the rest of the band
figure out what their sound would be. Manzarek later said that’s when “the magic began to
happen.” Soon The Doors became the house band at the more popular Whisky a Go Go a few doors down.
Jac Holzman, the president of Elektra Records, was at one of those Whisky a Go Go shows on August 10,
1966. He was impressed. Producer Paul Rothchild joined him for another Doors show soon after that.
He was impressed as well. Elektra signed The Doors on August 18th. Three days after this, Whisky
a Go Go said The Doors could never play there again after Morrison gave a very obscene version
of the story Oedipus while the band played their nearly 12-minute song “The End.” As it turns
out, Morrison had taken LSD earlier that night. No worries. Things were looking up for The Doors,
anyway. Soon they were recording their debut album at Sunset Sound Studios. Rothchild produced.
They recorded most of it live. It sounded like nothing currently in mainstream music.
I mean, I guess, it was kind of psychedelic, but it definitely seemed influenced by
a bunch of different types of music, from blues to R&B to rock to jazz.
Most importantly, it was DARK and MOODY. Elektra released their self-titled debut
album on January 4, 1967. Today it’s a classic, often considered not only one of the greatest
debut albums of all time, but greatest ALBUMS of all time. Period. It’s also sold more than
20 million copies worldwide. Back then, however, success was slow going. Even though it’s a
well-known song today, the first single of the self-titled debut, “Break On Through (To the
Other Side),” barely got played on the radio. That changed in April with the release of the
second single, “Light My Fire.” “Light My Fire” ended up spending three weeks at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart and skyrocketed The Doors into the mainstream. Today, it’s one of the band’s
most recognizable songs, and often is associated with the entire counterculture movements of the
1960s. “Light My Fire” got them on TV, man. For real. On September 17, 1967, they performed it
on The Ed Sullivan Show. CBS executives asked the band not to sing the word “higher” in the
song due to it being perceived as a reference to using drugs. After Morrison sang the word “higher”
anyway, a producer told the band they’d never play on the show again. Morrison reportedly replied,
“Hey man. We just DID the Sullivan show.” The band also guest starred on a show called Malibu
U and made their international TV debut on CBC on October 16, performing another legendary song off
their self-titled debut album, the aforementioned “The End.” On Christmas Eve, they performed
on The Jonathan Winters Show. During one set at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco
a few days later, they stopped performing to watch that Jonathan Winters Show performance
after someone wheeled out a TV set onstage. By then, The Doors had performed shows across
the entire country and Elektra had also already released their second studio album, Strange Days.
The band had recorded it again with producer Paul Rothchild, mostly over the summer, and Elektra
introduced it to the world on September 25, 1967. Fueled by the success of “Light My Fire,”
Strange Days debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart. It featured two hits:
“Love Me Two Times,” which peaked at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and “People Are
Strange,” which peaked at number 12 on that chart. Hey speaking of “People Are Strange,” this video
just so happens to be a collaboration with the terrific music theory channel 12tone. They
just released an entire video at the same time as this one analyzing why people are strange.
Er, I mean, they just released an entire video analyzing the SONG “People Are Strange.” Go check
it out when you’re done watching this video, eh? Anyway, “People Are Strange '' is currently
the second-most streamed song by The Doors on Spotify. While Strange Days didn’t sell nearly
as many copies as their self-titled debut, critics still adored it, and it sure didn’t
hurt the band’s momentum. They continued to get more and more popular, soon playing
arenas and coliseums instead of rock clubs. That said, their frontman was a controversial
dude. On December 9, 1967, Morrison got into an argument with a police officer before a show at
New Haven Arena in New Haven, Connecticut. The police officer took out a can of mace and sprayed
it at Morrison. Despite this, after Morrison recovered, the band took the stage anyway.
Halfway through their set, Morrison improvised some obscene lyrics talking trash about the police
officer who sprayed him. Police then ended the concert and arrested Morrison onstage, dragging
him out as fans became rowdy. They charged him with inciting a riot, indecency, and public
obscenity, although those charges were later dropped. There’s the mugshot. It wasn’t the first
time Morrison had been arrested. Here’s a mugshot from when he got arrested in college back in
Florida for “drunken behavior” at a football game. It WAS, however, the first time a rock artist
got arrested on stage during a live performance. By the early months of 1968, Morrison was drinking
more and more alcohol, and the band was starting to have creative differences with Paul Rothchild
as they recorded a third album. Regardless, the band wrapped up recording in May, and
Elektra released their third studio album, Waiting for the Sun, on July 3, 1968. Waiting
for the Sun did just as well commercially as Strange Days and had two hits: “The Unknown
Soldier” and “Hello, I Love You.” That said, critics were more mixed on this one,
with some calling the album pretentious. By the summer of 1968, The Doors were arguably
at their peak of popularity. Their fans often got rowdy, though, leading the police to also
gravitate toward their shows. On August 2, the band played the Singer Bowl in New York City
with the who? Yes, The Who. Fans repeatedly kept trying to jump on stage. After The Doors
performance, around 200 fans threw chairs, causing several injuries. On September 6, the
band played their first show outside of the United States at the Roundhouse in London. They played
16 more gigs across Europe. At one of those gigs, in Amsterdam on September 15, Morrison passed
out on stage after taking a bunch of narcotics. He was rushed to a local hospital and did
eventually recover. Meanwhile, Densmore, Krieger, and Manzarek went ahead and finished
the show without him, with Manzarek singing Morrison’s parts. Some foreshadowing there. The
band flew back to the United States to play nine more huge shows before once again returning
to the studio, this time deciding to be much more experimental, adding more instruments
like horns to have a much richer sound. In December, fans got a taste of
this new sound with the hit single “Touch Me.” Featuring one of the most
recognizable intros in pop song history, “Touch Me” got all the way up to
number three on the Billboard Hot 100. On March 1, 1969, The Doors performed their
perhaps most infamous show at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami. First of all, Morrison
arrived at the show late and heavily intoxicated. The crowd was rowdier than most Doors shows.
"The gig was a bizarre, circus-like thing, there was this guy carrying a sheep and the
wildest people that I'd ever seen,” the band’s manager, Bill Siddons, later said. At one point,
many audience members began taking their clothes off. Morrison, whose shirt was off because a fan
poured champagne on him, at one time made hand movements behind his wet shirt in front of his
groin. Long story short, a few days later police arrested Morrison for supposedly exposing
his genitals on stage, simulating oral sex, shouting obscenities, and being drunk while
performing. Another arrest, another Jim Morrison mug shot, although that one was taken much later.
Morrison would eventually be convicted this time, but never ended up serving any prison time. It’s
worth noting that lots of people, including his own bandmates, said afterward that Morrison
never exposed himself on stage that night. Regardless, this incident definitely hurt
the band’s momentum. The Miami incident sparked protests and caused some radio
stations to stop playing their records. The Doors ultimately canceled 25
shows due to the whole fiasco, or “a million dollars in gigs”
as John Densmore later said. Not only that, by this time Morrison’s alcoholism
was making it just plain difficult to work with him. He actually had grown unhappy in the
band, requesting to leave to focus on just writing poetry. His bandmates convinced him to
stay, though, and they wrapped up recording what would become their fourth studio album, The Soft
Parade. Elektra released it on July 18, 1969. In addition to the aforementioned “Touch Me,” The
Soft Parade featured three other singles: “Wishful Sinful,” “Tell All the People,” and “Runnin’
Blue,” a song Robby Krieger sang lead vocals on. It was the only album to feature brass and
string arrangements. Though critics were fairly harsh of The Soft Parade when it first came out,
today it is generally viewed much more favorably. The Doors played fewer shows in 1969
due to, ya know, being banned so much, but they did keep recording new stuff. Recording
went well despite Morrison’s drinking habits. It was around this time, by the way, when Morrison
got arrested again for drunken shenanigans on a plane that nearly caused the pilot to turn
the plane around and go home. Still, the band wrapped up recording soon after that incident
and Elektra released their fifth studio album, Morrison Hotel, on February 9, 1970. Morrison
Hotel was their most critically-acclaimed album since their debut. Indeed, despite
the chaos behind the scenes recording it, Morrison Hotel demonstrated The Doors
at their most ambitious and arguably at their peak in terms of harmonious creation.
Multiple critics called it a comeback album, and it got all the way up to number four on
the Billboard 200. While it only had one big radio hit- really the two-song combo of “You
Make Me Real” and “Roadhouse Blues,” Morrison Hotel also features the classic songs “Waiting
for the Sun,” “Peace Frog,” and “Land Ho!” The Doors played a few shows, pretty much
all of them heavily monitored by local police departments, to promote Morrison Hotel
across the United States for a few months after its release. Elektra released the band’s first
live album, Absolutely Live, on July 20, 1970, which is notable as it’s the first time the song
“Celebration of the Lizard” appeared on an album, a song which Paul Rothchild wouldn’t let
them release on a studio album. By that time, Morrison had become increasingly isolated from
the rest of the band. He had gained a lot of weight and was drinking even more. He also still
had legal troubles from his previous arrests he had to deal with. As the band recorded their
sixth studio album, he was in and out of court. During recording sessions, Rothchild and
the band had different creative visions, as had often been the case in PREVIOUS
recording sessions, but this time, Rothchild was more frustrated than ever. The
tipping point came when the band was trying to record their song “Love Her Madly.” Rothchild
hated the song. One day he stormed out and never worked with the band again. The Doors brought in
Bruce Botnick to produce the rest of the album. Meanwhile, Elektra released The Doors’
first compilation album, 13, on November 30, 1970. It featured many of their biggest hits.
On December 12, The Doors played a set at The Warehouse in New Orleans. Morrison was so
drunk that he forgot many of the words to the songs. After nearly passing out halfway
through the set, he smashed his mic stand, slammed his microphone into the stage floor
before finally throwing it, and sat down, refusing to sing for the rest of the show. Those
in attendance didn’t know it at the time, but that would be Jim Morrison’s last performance with The
Doors. The band canceled all their upcoming shows, but did wrap up recording their new album, L.A.
Woman, which Elektra released on April 19, 1971. L.A. Woman was another commercial and
critical success. Despite many radio stations still banning their music,
L.A. Woman had two major radio hits: “Riders on the Storm,” which got up to number 14
on the Billboard Hot 100, and the aforementioned “Love Her Madly,” which got up to number 11
on the chart. Oh, and today the title track is also one of their most popular songs. L.A.
Woman was also a big international success, and was their best-selling album since their
debut, selling nearly five million copies. By the time of the album’s release,
though, Morrison had left the band, moving to Paris with his good friend Pamela
Courson to pursue a literary career. On July 3, 1971, Courson found Morrison dead in the bathtub.
The official cause of death was listed as heart failure. Because there was no official autopsy,
to this day we don’t know exactly what killed him, but many suspect it was probably a heroin
overdose. He was just 27 years old, making him a member of the “27 Club,” a group of famous
musicians who have all died since the 1960s at the age of 27 that also includes Janis Joplin, Jimi
Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. Courson died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27 as well, by the way.
Despite Morrison’s untimely death, the rest of the band decided to continue on without him as a
trio. They recorded new stuff with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger sharing lead vocals. Elektra
released The Doors’ seventh studio album, Other Voices, on October 18, 1971. Without Morrison,
though, the band just didn’t have the same appeal. Other Voices was a commercial and critical flop,
at least compared to their previous releases. Still, The Doors began performing shows again,
eventually adding Jack Conrad on bass and Bobby Ray Henson on guitar. They also recorded
even more new stuff in 1972. Most of this ended up on their eighth studio album, Full
Circle, released by Elektra on August 15, 1972. Yep, that is the amazing album cover.
Full Circle did even worse than Other Voices. Shortly after Elektra didn’t renew their
contract, the band decided to call it quits. However, five years later they reunited to record
new stuff after they decided they wanted to put Morrison’s spoken word poetry recordings to
music. Manzarek later said, “We did this album to show the side of Jim which has been underrated
all these years.” What resulted was The Doors’ ninth and final studio album, An American
Prayer, released by both Elektra Records and Asylum Records on November 17, 1978. An American
Prayer was a fitting tribute to Morrison's legacy. In the years after the breakup of The
Doors, Manzarek stayed active with music, releasing solo albums, playing with and producing
various bands, including producing the first four albums of the band X. He died from bile duct
cancer on May 20, 2013. Krieger also stayed active with music, playing guitar in various
bands. Densmore left music to pursue acting and writing in the 1980s. Both Krieger and
Densmore are still alive…living legends. The Doors reunited multiple times over the
years, notably after they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on
January 12, 1993. Speaking of the 1990s, that’s when there was a resurgence in their
popularity, partially in part because of a big Oliver Stone film about them that came out. Most
of their compilation albums, in fact, have come out since then. To date, the band has sold more
than 100 million copies of their albums worldwide. Today, The Doors are considered one of the most
influential bands of all time. In particular, several music historians have called them
influential in the development of both progressive rock and even gothic rock. More than most bands,
The Doors continue to be iconic, often due to their close association with the rebellious
counterculture movements of the late 1960s. And, as good as each member of the band was
at what they did, the ghost of Morrison still overshadows the band. He was and even today is
a larger than life figure who represents both youth disillusionment and the stereotypical
rock frontman. The most important part of his legacy was his determination to do things and see
things differently than anyone else. And The Doors were his vehicle to do that. It’s easy to fall
for saying that there is no The Doors without Jim Morrison, but I think it’s more accurate to
say there is no Jim Morrison without The Doors. So what’s your favorite Doors song? What’s
your favorite Doors album? In case a couple of you cared, my favorite Doors song is “Waiting
for the Sun” and my favorite album is Morrison Hotel. Don’t forget to check out 12tone’s new
video about songs about how people are strange. I mean! Their new video about the SONG, “People
Are Strange.” Yeah there it is. And subscribe to 12tone by golly. It’s one of the best
channels on the Web. Thanks for watching!
