Thought I'd create this topic to see what people's responses and thoughts were. What are you opinions on The Doors frontman Jim Morrison.
The Doors became one of my favourite bands when they burst upon the scene with "Light My Fire" and have stayed as such ever since.
The inception of the Doors came in July of 1965 when two former students from the UCLA film school, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, ran into each other on the beach in Venice, California. Jim had been writing songs which very much impressed keyboardist Ray who had been playing for a band called Rick & the Ravens. The two decided to form a band and recruited drummer John Densmore in August and guitarist Robby Krieger in September. A bass player proved unnecessary since Ray could play the bass lines with his left hand on his Fender Rhodes Piano Bass while playing other keyboards with his right hand.
Jim's rich, lustrous vocals together with Ray's organ work proved ideally suited for the dark flights of fancy that the band undertook to lay down in song form. The lyrics were steeped in mysticism while the arrangements were an imaginative blend of classical and blues influences into contemporary rock. The Doors were playing psychedelic rock before the term had been coined - but a very accessible, commercially viable form of psychedelia. Robby proved to be a capable songsmith as well and the Doors were well on their way to stardom.
"The Doors of Perception", a book by Aldous Huxley, provided them with the inspiration for their name.
Their unique sound proved popular enough to land them a gig as the house band at the prestigious Whisky-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles. There they opened for such bands as Them who were riding high with hits such as "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night". It was also at the Whisky that they developed their closing number, "The End", in which Jim would improvise vocals while the other three fellows laid down a steady, compelling and almost hypnotic, backing track.
At the recommendation of Arthur Lee the lead singer of Love, Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and his producer Paul A. Rothchild took in their show one evening in August 1966. Holzman offered them a contract and the Doors signed with Electra just over a week later on August 18th.
It's a good thing too that the Doors had landed a recording contract on that date. Just three days later they managed to get themselves fired from the Whisky. You see Jim had been drinking and partaking in hallucinogens and managed to pass out in his apartment. When he failed to join his bandmates at the Whisky prior to the show that evening, his bandmates came and dragged him from his apartment and propped him up on stage at the Whisky. It was during "The End" which the Doors had been using as their closing number that Jim embarked on the "Oedipus Rex" inspired flight of fancy that culminated in the words "Mother, I want to...!" The crowd went wild as the band exploded into a climactic frenzy behind Jim. The Doors knew they had killed that day!
Jim's father, an admiral in the U.S. Navy, just would not have approved. Neither did the manager of the Whiskey. He fired them in disgust as soon as they got off the stage.
The Doors recorded their self-titled debut album with the aid of engineer Bruce Botnick and producer Paul Rothchild in the closing months of 1966 and it hit the shelves of record stores in January 1967. "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" was chosen as the lead single. It flopped immediately.
It was the release of their second single, "Light My Fire", in June of 1967 that vaulted the Doors to superstardom. It sold a million copies and reached number one on the Billboard Charts on July 29th staying there for three weeks in a row. When I heard the dark melodic strains on the kitchen radio for the first time I was fascinated. I loved it! It was like nothing I'd heard on the radio up to that time. I knew that the boundaries encompassing rock had just been dramatically expanded and that rock had left its period of youthful innocence behind.
It was the Doors' performance of "Light My Fire" on the Ed Sullivan Show that established them as the cultural icons they remain today. Jim appeared wearing tight black leather pants which must have caused appalled parents' jaws to drop across every single living room in North America. I certainly expected expressions of horrified disgust in as many as two languages from my very old school father. He must have been too shocked though, or maybe he too was hypnotized by the seductive organ riff behind Jim's throaty vocals. Much to my surprise he just sat there in silence. All I know is that I watched the performance intently in almost rapt disbelief. These fellows made the Beatles look like innocent choirboys! They were a step above and beyond whatever else was happening in rock at the time.
Interesting too is that Ed Sullivan had demanded that the Doors change the words of the song from "Girl we coudn't get much higher" to "Girl we coudn't get much better" as a condition of performing. You see it was actually illegal to use the word "higher" as a drug reference on American TV at the time. The Doors had agreed but when it came time to sing the line, Jim clearly enunciated the word "higher". Ed Sullivan was understandably furious and banned the Doors from any further appearances on his show. When told that the rest of the band's five scheduled appearances on the show had been cancelled, Jim reportedly said "Hey man, so what? We just did the Ed Sullivan Show!"
Here's the video:
THE DOORS "Light My Fire" on The Ed Sullivan Show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2euBN3gbKc8#)
I just love that type of insolence. Stick it to the straights I still say! I may be a stockbroker and a "respectable" member of society these days, but I still take delight in offending those more straightlaced than myself. And woe to any bureaucrat or corporate suit who annoys me and finds himself in my company!
I bought their debut album a couple of months later - and let me tell you I was well and truly hooked on the Doors within one or two plays on my little mono fliptop record player. The music just drew me in. When I played it for one of my buddies, he stayed uncharacteristically silent - but bought his own copy a few weeks later. He later confessed to me that the Doors sounded so moody and Satanic to him the first time I played the record that he never thought he'd be able to like them! He's remained every bit as much of a Doors fan as I am to this very day.
The tumultuous career of the Doors as a quartet was unfortunately cut short after six groundbreaking studio albums by Jim Morrison's untimely death in 1971 at the age of 27.
(http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/153/994837.jpg)
8)
...and Riders of the Storm was their best song! 8)
Big fan of Morrison and The Doors. I read "No One Here Gets Out Alive" multiple times in high school. I love their music, especially the bluesy later sound. The way he broke on through was captivating to a high school kid.
When we went to Paris, we stopped at Pere LaChaise Cemetery to see his gravesite. It was a serene experience. There must have been 6-8 other people there. One person was playing "When the Music's Over" from a portable. Here was Morrison buried with other artists and writers.
I've posted these before, but for a Jim Morrison thread, they can go back up.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2511/4023671600_e8d3fa9c0a_b.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4022912659_66bb2afffc_b.jpg)
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5025/5582590194_3a12ca7db4_z.jpg)
Not sure why I'm so serious, this was when someone was playing "When the Music's Over"...
In.my.top.3.or.4!--The.songs.of.my.youthful.days.
Indians scattered on dawn's highway, bleeding.
Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.
Well I've never seen those photos before, Baron! And I am jealous. What a wonderful trip that must have been for you and Mrs. Baron. And how romantic! (I would say it in French, but I only studied Spanish). I have read about Jim Morrison's grave and seen photos, but it means so much more when someone has a story like yours to go along with the photo. Thanks for sharing this special memory. And I have to add- You are such a beautiful couple. If I saw you two walking around in Paris, I would think you were movie stars! :)
Thanks for the kind words charp...my wife would love hearing that. She has that charisma, I usually play the background.
We were fortunate to be able to go. We visited her sister and brother in law when they were living in London. It was a 2.5 hour train ride to Paris. We figured it was now or never, so we escaped for 3 days, 2 nights. It was a delayed honeymoon of sorts (we never did go on one after the wedding).
It was romantic indeed.
One final thing about Pere LaChaise...it was a beautiful Gothic visual display. We went in October, so the Halloween mood was just right. There's a thread around here showing various cemetery pictures.
Here is the Doors' famous appearance on the Smothers Brothers Show:
The Doors - Wild Child (1968 Smothers Brothers) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQMgMHJNnrM#)
Check out Robby Krieger's shiner. He got it in an altercation with some renecks in a bar a few days earlier. He refused to let the makeup people disguise it!
;D
Jim Morrison's Grave by Steve Taylor:
Am I a pilgrim?
Or another souvenir hound?
In the city of lights I set my sights
On a king's domain.
It was a manhole
Dug over at the edge of town
And a spray can scrawl
on a cemetary wall
says "You'd better behave"
Jim Morrison's Grave
It's getting cold here
And there ain't a lizard in sight
Did the end begin
When you shed your skin
In the home of the brave?
Somebody shake him
From the land of larger than life
Where the remnant warn
of a legend born
In a dead man's cave.
Jim Morrison's Grave
I stay driven 'cause there's nowhere to park
I can't shut my eyes, I'm afraid of the Dark
I lie awake
That stone left me chilled to the bone
Sound the alarm before it's done
Find Jim Morrision
Come away to Paris
Let him see another day
Let him fade out slowly
Only fools burn away
Let a true love show him what a heart can become
Somebody find Jim Morrison
Find Jim Morrison's Grave
Ohhhh......
I get weary, Lord I don't understand
How a seed get strangled in the heart of a man
While the music covers like an evening mist
Like a watch still ticking on a dead man's wrist
Tick away
Baron- Great pix! For some reason I always thought Jim's grave had a but of him on it. Is it obscured in the pic or is it not there?
Here's the video to that song I posted the lyrics to. You can see that bust Gillfan mentions. Not sure where it is in relation to JM's grave...
Steve Taylor - Jim Morrison's Grave (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLW-Pr-y8qA#)
Quote from: Gillfan on April 03, 2011, 12:41:22 PM
Baron- Great pix! For some reason I always thought Jim's grave had a but of him on it. Is it obscured in the pic or is it not there?
It's not there and they had a fence up. The results of the constant vandalism and attempted thefts in the past.
I was hoping to see a bust as well.
Here's a good clip of the Doors on Canadian TV in 1967:
The Doors - The End (Live '67 Canadian TV) PART 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-QTdggWOOY#)
8)
I understand leaving flowers and whatnot at a grave, but I don't understand vandalism. Bizarre.
Quote from: Gillfan on April 05, 2011, 06:21:46 AM
I understand leaving flowers and whatnot at a grave, but I don't understand vandalism. Bizarre.
I hear you. From what I read, the bust was always being painted or attempted to be stolen, people were leaving bottles of wine and whiskey, joints, condoms, hanging out on the site and leaving the party behind.
Paris wasn't having that.
Were I to create a Doors 13 album for my own listening pleasure, it would be as follows (with the tracks in rough chronological order):
Light My Fire
Soul Kitchen
Take It as It Comes
You're Lost Little Girl
People Are Strange
When the Music's Over
Wintertime Love
Five to One
Wild Child
Roadhouse Blues
Waiting for the Sun
L.A. Woman
Hyacinth House
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416h0P5jZyL._SS500_.jpg)
Which thirteen tracks would you pick?
8)
Here are my top ten Doors tunes ...
Light My Fire
Hello I Love You
You're Lost Little Girl
When the Music's Over
The Unknown Soldier
Runnin' Blue
Waiting for the Sun
Roadhouse Blues
The Crystal Ship
People Are Strange
Have you ever heard Mae West's cover of Light My Fire? its rather intriguing.
I've often wondered how she would have fared if alive today, she would certainly be a plastic surgery advocate.
I just found it on youtube and agree about Mae being pro surgery.
Mae West - Light My Fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNOwCzpq3E#ws)
Quote from: BaronLatos35 on April 02, 2011, 11:33:25 AM
Big fan of Morrison and The Doors. I read "No One Here Gets Out Alive" multiple times in high school. I love their music, especially the bluesy later sound. The way he broke on through was captivating to a high school kid.
When we went to Paris, we stopped at Pere LaChaise Cemetery to see his gravesite. It was a serene experience. There must have been 6-8 other people there. One person was playing "When the Music's Over" from a portable. Here was Morrison buried with other artists and writers.
I've posted these before, but for a Jim Morrison thread, they can go back up.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2511/4023671600_e8d3fa9c0a_b.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2622/4022912659_66bb2afffc_b.jpg)
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5025/5582590194_3a12ca7db4_z.jpg)
Not sure why I'm so serious, this was when someone was playing "When the Music's Over"...
Wow! great pics Baron, wish I could visit his grave.
Thanks gruesome! We were fortunate to be able to visit.
By the way, has anybody seen or read the new book on Morrison's life? I saw it in passing when I was browsing the closing sale at my Border's.
Here's another one of the underrated ballads by the Doors:
The Doors - Hyacinth House (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4n0y8vmAfM#)
8)
LOVE the Doors........."No One Here Gets Out Alive" is essential reading.
The Doors are my favorite band.Just read No One Here Gets Out Alive. Jim is my idol!!!
Here's one of my very favourite tracks by the Doors:
The Doors - Waiting for the sun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0kypyGSKsE#)
8)
This may be my very favourite track by the Doors:
The Doors - When the Music's Over (with Lyrics) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKRU1ajKFA#ws)
:)
Very hard to pick out just 13,but here are mine:
(In roughly chronological order)
1.Break On Through (To the Other Side)
2.The End
3.The Crystal Ship
4.Twentieth Century Fox
5.Take It as It Comes
6.Light My Fire
7.People Are Strange
8.Moonlight Drive
9.Love Me Two Times
10.You're Lost Little Girl
11.Spanish Caravan
12.Waiting for the Sun
13.Riders on the Storm
Interesting! Ten of the thirteen tracks you picked are from the first two albums of the six the Doors released.
:)
Quote from: Hepcat on January 30, 2014, 11:12:49 PM
Interesting! Ten of the thirteen tracks you picked are from the first two albums of the six the Doors released.
:)
Yes though not planned that way.Actually I find in a lot of cases a bands first couple of albums are usually they're best/most original.Of course this doesn't apply to say the Stones or Beatles but in my opinion it does to Sabbath/Zeppelin >:D
Quote from: Dr.Cyclops on January 31, 2014, 04:19:29 PMActually I find in a lot of cases a bands first couple of albums are usually they're best/most original.
Well they say you have your whole life to work on your first album, and then barely six months to work on your second.
;)
Quote from: Hepcat on January 31, 2014, 04:55:07 PM
Well they say you have your whole life to work on your first album, and then barely six months to work on your second.
;)
This should tell us how great the Doors were,because the second album was amazing too.
It was indeed! Here are another couple of great songs from that album:
THE DOORS - You're Lost Little Girl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptA39Awo0FE#ws)
The Doors - Love Me Two Times (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsP6EKAzEjI#)
8)
Here's an interesting interview with Paul Rothschild:
http://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/Interviews/OtherInterviews/rothchild_bam.html (http://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/Interviews/OtherInterviews/rothchild_bam.html)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTgzWcLB00w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTgzWcLB00w)
Quote from: Pauspy on April 02, 2011, 11:32:25 AM
...and Riders of the Storm was their best song! 8)
That's
"Riders On The Storm" ...and their best song...? That's debatable. Though, let me point out that it is my own favorite!!
Quote from: Dr.Cyclops on February 10, 2014, 08:48:07 PM
This should tell us how great the Doors were,because the second album was amazing too.
I like all their albums, even
The Soft Parade, but I still kind of think
THE DOORS (typically) broke the model by making their best album
last... (an album which
"Riders On The Storm" closes).
As an artist, a talent.
As a person, a mess.
Quote from: Wich2 on March 18, 2014, 07:30:20 PM
As an artist, a talent.
As a person, a mess.
Indeed. It looks like he basically killed himself like so many of the "27 Club". I still come across
AMAZING JIM MORRISON stories (including one that's stunning in a
JIMI HENDRIX biography).
I read that
No One Here Gets Out Alive biography too, and still remember it vividly. I was just ahead of the curve buying all the
DOORS albums on vinyl in the late 1970s maybe a year or two before everybody was buying
DOORS albums...now of course we know
THE DOORS were having a resurgence.
I subscribed to
Rolling Stone magazine (to my amazement) in the late 1970s, early 1980s, and there was a color photograph cover of
JIM MORRISON and the story was something like
"He's Cool, He's Hot, He's Dead..." I was too young for
THE DOORS (originally) but by the time I was buying records,
THE DOORS were a favorite and I had them all on vinyl... even some sought after weird sh!t. ;)
Quote from: Allhallowsday on March 18, 2014, 08:53:40 PMI was just ahead of the curve buying all the DOORS albums on vinyl in the late 1970s maybe a year or two before everybody was buying DOORS albums...now of course we know THE DOORS were having a resurgence.
I bought their first three LPs within months of their initial release, and then the last three plus their first compilation,
Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, within days of their release. And I really liked them all!
:)
Quote from: Hepcat on March 18, 2014, 09:39:57 PM
I bought their first three LPs within months of their initial release, and then the last three plus their first compilation, Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine, within days of their release. And I really liked them all!
:)
Wasn't their first compilation
13? I think it may have been released before
MORRISON's death.
Yes, you are correct. Doors' 13 was the Doors' first compilation and it was released 30 November 1970. Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine wasn't released until January 1972. The latter is a double record album with a couple of previously unreleased tracks which makes it more interesting than 13.
:)
Quote from: Hepcat on April 08, 2014, 11:04:37 AM
Yes, you are correct. Doors' 13 was the Doors' first compilation and it was released 30 November 1970. Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine wasn't released until January 1972. The latter is a double record album with a couple of previously unreleased tracks which makes it more interesting than 13.
:)
Oh yeh, I know them
DOORS albums, had a lot on vinyl and wanted more than I had like
Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine... I have another
DOORS vinyl compilation on Elektra:
The Best of DOORS (1973 probably the only
DOORS I still have on vinyl, unfortunately). I'm holding it now (oh, my
DOORS records)!!
The Doors are one of my favorite bands! Had all the LPs. Long gone, now.
I have this box set with the mini album cover replicas.
(http://eil.com/images/main/The+Doors+-+The+Complete+Studio+Recordings+-+CD+ALBUM+BOX+SET-148082.jpg)
And this box with lots of rare tracks and live stuff.
http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=18921 (http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=18921)
(http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/2772/cover_1215142272009.jpg)
Nice, I love those mini-album covers! Here's my DOORS records...
(http://eil.com/images/main/The+Doors+-+The+Best+Of+The+Doors+-+Sealed+-+LP+RECORD-537719.jpg)
Quote from: Mike Scott on April 08, 2014, 10:26:56 PM
You need more DOORS! :)
I have most of them on CD... I meant vinyl LPs, that's the only one I have left. I had most of them on vinyl.
Quote from: Allhallowsday on April 09, 2014, 10:47:30 AM
I have most of them on CD... I meant vinyl LPs.
Oh, that's very different! Never mind! ;D
I still have my vinyl LPs of the Doors' six studio albums plus three vinyl compilations including Doors' 13 and Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine. And yes, they all still sound great since I've always taken care of my records. I have a CD of L.A. Woman as well.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/Doors4_zps52c05e2a.jpg)
:)
http://youtu.be/eBRYsAfchkY (http://youtu.be/eBRYsAfchkY)
Interesting! Ray Manzarek in particular looked surprisingly well preserved at the time of that performance.
:)