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This page is about the Rock band. For their self-titled debut album, see The Doors (album); For the Oliver Stone film, see The Doors (film).

The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles by keyboardist Ray Manzarek, vocalist Jim Morrison, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. They were one of the most controversial bands of their time, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona. Since the band's dissolution in the early 1970s - and especially since Morrison's death in 1971 - interest in the Doors' music has remained high, at times even surpassing that which the band enjoyed during its own lifetime.[citation needed] The Doors have sold over 50 million albums worldwide. [1]

History

Origins: 1965 – 1966

The Doors (1967)

The origins of The Doors lay in a chance meeting between acquaintances and UCLA film school students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach, California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs and, at Manzarek's encouragement, sang Moonlight Drive. Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek immediately suggested they form a band.

Vox-Organ-player Ray Manzarek was already in a band called Rick And The Ravens with his brother Rick Manzarek, while Robby Krieger and John Densmore were playing with The Psychedelic Rangers and knew Manzarek from yoga and meditation classes they were both taking. In August, Densmore joined the group and along with members of the Ravens and female bass player Patty Sullivan, recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This was widely bootlegged and appeared in full on the 1997 Doors box set.

That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger and the final lineup - Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore - was complete. The band took their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, which was in turn borrowed from a line in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a poem by the 18th century artist and poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite".

The Doors were unusual among rock groups because they did not use a bass guitar whilst playing live. Instead, Manzarek played the bass lines with his left hand on the newly invented Fender Rhodes bass keyboard, an offshoot of the well-known Fender Rhodes electric piano, and other keyboards with his right hand. However, the group occasionally used bass players such as Jerry Scheff, Doug Lubahn, Harvey Brooks, Kerry Magness, Lonnie Mack, Larry Knechtel, Leroy Vinegar, and Ray Neapolitan on their albums.

Though most Doors' compositions were usually credited only to Morrison and Krieger, many of The Doors' originals were, in fact, group compositions: Morrison or Krieger contributing the lyrics and an initial melody, and the others providing harmonic and rhythmic suggestions, or even entire sections of song (i.e. Manzarek's organ introduction to Light My Fire). Most of the Doors' songwriting efforts during the band's tenure were well-received, but there was a small controversy generated with the release of the Hello, I Love You single in 1968, when the rock press pointed out the song's musical resemblance to The Kinks' 1965 hit All Day and All of the Night. Members of the Kinks have concurred with music critics: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has been known to add snippets of Hello, I Love You during solo live performances of All Day and All of the Night as a sarcastic commentary on the subject.[1]

By 1966 the group was playing The London Fog club and soon graduated to the prestigious Whisky a Go Go. On August 10 they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was on Elektra. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go (the first uneven, but the second mesmerizing) they signed the band to the Elektra Records label on August 18 - the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick. The timing was particularly fortuitous because on August 21 the club fired the band after a profanity-filled performance of The End. In an incident that foreshadowed the controversy that would follow the group, a tripping Morrison raucously recited his own rendition of the Greek drama Oedipus Rex in which the play's protagonist Oedipus kills his father and has sex with his mother. Morrison's version consisted of "Father? Yes son? I want to kill you. Mother? I want to fuck you".

1966 – 1971

1966 – 67: The Doors

The Doors' self-titled debut LP, recorded in August 1966 but not released until 1967, caused a major sensation in music circles. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the 11-minute musical drama, "The End." The band recorded the album in only a few days in late August and early September 1966, almost entirely live in the studio with most songs captured in a single take. Morrison and Manzarek also directed an innovative promotional film for their first single, "Break on Through," a significant advance in the development of the music video genre.

Morrison on The Best of the Doors album cover

Their second single, "Light My Fire", established the group along with The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead as one of the top American counterculture bands. It was released in April but did not hit the top of the charts (with the long middle organ and guitar solos cut out) until July.

In May 1967, the group made their "National" broadcast television debut by recording a dazzling version of "The End" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at their Yorkville Studios in Toronto (Yorkville was Canada's version of Haight-Ashbury). It remained unseen since its original broadcast until the release of The Doors Soundstage Performances DVD in 2002.

The Doors quickly earned a reputation as a challenging, rebellious, and entertaining live act. With his saturnine good looks, magnetic stage presence, and skin-tight leather trousers, Morrison quickly became a major pop sex symbol, although he soon became frustrated with the strictures of stardom. Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) network censors demanded that Morrison change the lyrics to Light My Fire, by altering the line, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" (because of the possible reference to drugs) before the band performed the song live on September 17, 1967, on the Ed Sullivan Show. The line was changed to, "Girl, we couldn't get much better". However, Morrison sang the original line instead, and on live television with no delay, CBS was powerless to stop it. A furious Ed Sullivan refused to shake the band members' hands, and they were never invited back. According to one account, Morrison was told he would never appear on the program again; he replied, "We just did the Ed Sullivan Show "[2]—at the time, an appearance was a hallmark of success. Morrison later insisted that nervousness caused him to forget to change the line. They also performed a new single, "People Are Strange," which they repeated for DJ Murray The K's TV show on September 22.

Morrison further cemented his status as a rebel on December 10 when he was arrested in New Haven, Connecticut, for badmouthing the police to the audience. Morrison said he had been maced by an overzealous police officer after he was caught backstage with a girl. The group finished a successful year. On December 24, the band taped "Light My Fire" and "Moonlight Drive" live for the Jonathan Winters Show. From December 26 to December 28 the group played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. An excerpt taken from Stephen Davis' book on Jim Morrison p.219-220: "The next night at Winterland, a TV set was wheeled onstage during the Doors set so the band could see themselves on the Jonathan Winters Show. They stopped playing Back Door Man when their song came on (there were no home VCRs as yet). The audience watched the Doors watching themselves on TV. They finished the song when their bit was done, and Ray walked over and turned the TV off. The next night was their last ever in Winterland."They played two more dates in Denver on December 30 and December 31, capping off a year of almost constant touring.

1967: Strange Days

The second Doors LP, Strange Days, was more subdued and less spontaneous than their debut, but the album was notable for its evocative lyrics and atmosphere. The closing track, "When the Music's Over", was, like "The End," lengthy and dramatic, and helped establish Morrison's reputation as the wild shaman of rock. Yet the album was also strongly commercial, and featured now-classic Doors songs such as "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times."

As a result of their success, The Doors forfeited their status as underground heroes. They allowed Sixteen magazine to portray them as teen idols and their "spontaneous" stage-show was exposed as not-so-spontaneous. An article by Jerry Hopkins in the February 10, 1968 edition of Rolling Stone typified the fall from grace:

"One shtick, or piece of stage-business, missing at the Shrine performance, was Morrison's carefully-executed 'accidental' fall from the stage into the crowd. For months this had been a part of the act. It got a lot of screams from the teenyboppers. Then a review appeared in a local newspaper which called the fall one of the phoniest things ever. Morrison was asked if he had read the article. 'Yeah,' said Morrison, 'and I guess he's right.' Morrison did not take the fall that night at the Shrine."

1968: Waiting For The Sun

In April, the recording of the third album was marred by tension as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol. Approaching the height of their popularity The Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10.

The Doors on the cover of the Waiting for the Sun album

The band began to branch out from their initial form in their third LP, because they had exhausted their original repertoire and began writing new material. It became their first #1 LP and the single "Hello, I Love You" was their second and last US #1 single. It further isolated them from the underground cognoscenti; for instance Lilian Roxon said of it in her 1969 Rock Encyclopaedia, the album "strengthened dreadful suspicion that the Doors were in it just for the money." It also included the eventually banned (from radio play due to its provocative and controversial lyrics for the time) song "The Unknown Soldier", for which they created another self-directed music video, and "Not to Touch the Earth", excerpted from their legendary 30-minute concept piece Celebration of the Lizard, although they were reportedly unable to record a satisfactory version of the entire piece for the LP. This was eventually released on a greatest hits CD compilation.

A month after riotous scenes at the Singer Bowl in New York, the group flew to Britain for its first dates outside of North America. The group held a press conference at the ICA Gallery in London and played shows at The Roundhouse Theatre. The results of the trip were broadcast on Granada TV's The Doors Are Open which was later released on video. The group then played dates in Europe, including a show in Amsterdam without Morrison after he collapsed from a drug binge. Morrison returned to London on September 20 and stayed for a month.

The group played nine more US dates and began to work, in November, on their fourth LP. 1969 would be a difficult year for the group, but it started well with a sold out show at the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York on January 24 and with a successful new single, "Touch Me", (released in December 1968), which hit US #3.

That month Morrison attended a theatre production that changed the course of his and the group's life. At the University of Southern California's Bovard Auditorium The Living Theatre took to the stage for a highly charged show that urged people to cast aside their inhibitions toward being free.

The show appealed to Morrison's quest for personal freedom, resulting in a studio jam the next evening, February 25, which became the legendary "Rock Is Dead" session, later released on the 1997 Doors box set, and set the stage for the most controversial episode of Morrison's life and one of rock's most notorious anecdotal incidents.

The incident occurred at the March 1, 1969, Dinner Key Auditorium concert in Miami, Florida. Morrison allegedly exposed himself during the performance. Morrison had been drinking since missing his flight to the show. The 6,900 seat auditorium had been oversold by almost double the hall's capacity, and fans were sweltering without air conditioning. From the moment the band walked on stage Morrison began bellowing, drunkenly, into the microphone. In essence, he was trying to suggest that society, like the Living Theatre people said, should "lighten up".

After many minutes of disjointed rambling he shouted "ANYTHING YOU WANT! LET'S DO IT! LET'S DO IT! LET'S DO IT!", and then, allegedly, exposed himself.

The incident remains inconclusive. Morrison said: "I wasted a lot of time with the Miami trial. About a year and a half. But I guess it was a valuable experience because before the trial I had a very unrealistic schoolboy attitude about the American judicial system. My eyes have been opened up a bit".

Although the Miami incident damaged the band's reputation, Morrison was quietly relieved by its results. He later said: "I think I was just fed up with the image that had been created around me...and so I put an end to it in one glorious evening".

Released from the chain of touring Morrison recorded some of his poetry that month and in April began shooting footage for HWY, an experimental film about a hitchhiker, played by Morrison. The Doors set the poetry session to music for the 1978 album An American Prayer. HWY, which contains virtually no dialogue, circulates among collectors and may eventually be officially released.

Although Morrison received the most attention, including getting a far larger image on album covers, he was adamant that all the band members should get recognition. Before one concert when the announcer introduced the group as "Jim Morrison and The Doors", Morrison refused to appear unless he announced the group again as "The Doors". While he never felt close to his real-life family, he was extremely protective of his fellow band-members. Reportedly, he once told Ray Manzarek that he never felt comfortable in a social setting unless Ray or another band member was with him. Many people have concluded that he viewed The Doors as his surrogate family. He repeatedly turned down every solo album opportunity he was offered, and after his death the remaining band members refused to replace him.

In the last two years of his life Morrison curtailed his prodigious intake of psychedelic drugs and began drinking heavily, which soon affected his stage and studio performances. Apparently trying to escape the image of "The Lizard King" that had come to dominate him, Morrison put on weight and grew a thick beard, forcing Elektra to use photos taken earlier in his career for the cover of the Absolutely Live LP, released in 1970. The album features performances recorded on The Doors' 1970 American tour and at the 1969 Aquarius Theatre gig and includes a full-length live performance of "The Celebration of the Lizard".

The group's only public appearance was on a PBS television special recorded late in April and broadcast the following month. The group performed songs from the upcoming Soft Parade album, including a stunning version of the title track.

The group resumed touring at Chicago Auditorium Theater on June 14 and played two dates at Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood on July 21 and July 22, both later released on CD. The shows were typical of a new kind of Doors concert where the emphasis was more on the band and fans having a good time than having a shamanistic experience. The bearded Morrison wore loose fitting clothes and steered the band toward a bluesier direction with songs like "Build Me A Woman." "I Will Never Be Untrue," and "Who Do You Love." Yet his voice had lost none of its power, and the band could still dazzle with performances of "When The Music's Over" and "Celebration of the Lizard".

1969: The Soft Parade

Their fourth album, The Soft Parade (1969), released in July, further distanced the group from the underground, containing extremely pop-oriented arrangements complete with "Vegas-style" horn sections (their single, "Touch Me," featured saxophonist Curtis Amy). Morrison's excessive drinking made him increasingly difficult and unreliable in the studio, and the recording sessions dragged on for weeks when they had previously only taken days. Studio costs piled up, and the group came close to disintegrating.

Critics of the record see the band as struggling to maintain momentum and attempting to expand their sound with a horn section and strings, resulting in a weak, overproduced record.

In its defense, The Soft Parade was a successful experiment in "quasi-prog-pop" despite Morrison's erratic behavior and numerous technical challenges. The more commercially-oriented songs such as "Touch Me" and "Tell All The People" are memorable; tracks such as "Wild Child" and "Shaman's Blues" are as stripped down and imaginative as ever, with excellent guitarwork and lyrics.

During the recording of their next album, in November 1969, Morrison found himself in trouble with the law again after becoming drunk and abusive to airline staff during a flight to Phoenix, Arizona to see The Rolling Stones in concert. He was acquitted the following April after a steward mistakenly identified Morrison as his traveling companion, American actor Tom Baker (not to be confused with the Tom Baker who played Doctor Who).

The group started its year in New York again with two well-received nights at The Felt Forum.

1970: Morrison Hotel

The group staged a strong return to form with their 1970 LP Morrison Hotel. Featuring a consistent, hard rock sound the album contains the memorable opener "Roadhouse Blues," which typified the high-spirited assuredness of the entire album. Morrison Hotel had a buoyancy and optimism that the band had never had before with a host of celebratory songs and a couple of lovely ballads. It hit US #4.

The group continued to perform at arenas throughout the summer. Although Morrison faced trial in Miami in August, the group managed to make it to Isle of Wight Festival on August 29. At the festival, the band performed alongside other legendary artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis and Sly & The Family Stone. Two songs from the show were featured in the 1995 documentary Message To Love .

On September 16, Morrison took to the stand, but the jury returned a guilty verdict for profanity and indecent exposure on September 20. Morrison was sentenced to eight months' custody but was allowed to go free pending an appeal.

On December 8, 1970, his 27th birthday, Morrison recorded another poetry session.

1971: L.A. Woman

During the Doors' last public performance, at the "Warehouse" in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 12, 1970, Morrison apparently had a mental breakdown on stage, slamming the microphone numerous times into the stage floor. Nevertheless, the group looked set to regain its crown as a premier act with L.A. Woman in 1971. The Doors conceived it as a "back to basics" album that would explore their blues and R&B roots, although during rehearsals the group had a serious falling-out with Rothchild. Denouncing the new repertoire as "cocktail music," he quit and handed the production reins to Botnick. The result was widely considered a classic, featuring some of the strongest material and performances since their 1967 debut. The singles "Love Her Madly" & "Riders On The Storm" remain mainstays of rock radio programming. Some dissenters, however, consider much of the album to be lackluster blues material that detracts from the album's overall quality.

1971 – 1972: Other Voices & Full Circle

In 1971, following the recording of L.A. Woman, Morrison decided to take some time off and moved to Paris with girlfriend, Pamela Courson, in March. He had visited the previous summer and, for a time, seemed content to write and explore the city. But by June he was again drinking heavily and fell from a second story window in May. On June 16 the last known recording of Morrison was made when he befriended two street musicians at a bar and invited them to a recording studio. The results were later released in 1994 on a bootleg CD titled The Lost Paris Tapes.

Morrison died under mysterious circumstances on July 3 1971; his body was found in the bathtub of his apartment. It was concluded that he died of a heart attack, although it was later revealed that no autopsy had been performed before Morrison's body was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery on July 7.

Rumors persisted for many years that Morrison had faked his death to escape the spotlight or had died at a Paris nightclub and that his body had been surreptitiously taken to his apartment. However, in his book Wonderland Avenue, Morrison's former associate Danny Sugerman states that during his last meeting with Courson -- which took place shortly before her own death from a heroin overdose -- she confessed that she had introduced Morrison to the drug and because he had a fear of needles, she had injected him with the dose that killed him.

The remaining Doors continued for some time. After initially considering replacing Morrison with a new singer (and it has been reported that Iggy Pop was one of the singers considered as a possible replacement) Krieger and Manzarek took over on vocals, released two more albums, Other Voices and Full Circle, and went on tour.

Both albums sold well but not in the numbers of the Morrison era releases, and The Doors stopped performing and recording at the end of 1972. While the first is unmistakably Doors in sound and style, the last album expanded into jazz territory. While neither album has been reissued on CD in the US, they have been released on 2-on-1 CDs in Germany and Russia; are being heard via Internet P2P networks; and are undergoing fan re-evaluation.

1978: An American Prayer

The remaining Doors recorded a third post-Morrison album, An American Prayer, released in 1978, which consisted of the band adding a musical track to recently rediscovered spoken-word recordings of Morrison reciting his own poetry. The hybrid album was a considerable commercial success and it was followed by successful releases of a mini-album of previously unreleased live material. The Doors' music was a staple of 1970s and 1980s FM rock radio, earning the group a new generation of fans long after it disbanded in 1972.

In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola, who attended the film school at UCLA with Morrison, released Apocalypse Now with "The End" used prominently in the sound track, leading new fans to discover The Doors.

1983: Alive, She Cried

In 1983, the live album Alive, She Cried was released, which included a cover version of the Them hit "Gloria," adding it officially to the Elektra Records discography.

The 1990s and beyond

In 1991, director Oliver Stone released his film The Doors, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and with cameos by Krieger and Densmore. British vocalist Ian Astbury of The Cult was Stone's preferred choice to play Morrison, but Astbury decided not to enter the acting world. Although many critcs praised Kilmer's impersonation, the film had numerous inaccuracies, and members of the group later criticized Stone's portrayal of Morrison, which at times made him look like an out-of-control sociopath. Singer Billy Idol had a cameo in the film and was inspired to record a cover of "L.A. Woman."

In 2001, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger reunited for the first time in over twenty five years to perform The Doors hits as part of the VH1 Storytellers series. Singing with the band were guest lead vocalists, including Creed's Scott Stapp, Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell, The Cult's Ian Astbury, and Days of the New's Travis Meeks. The show was later released as a DVD as VH1 Storytellers - The Doors (A Celebration).

In 2002 Manzarek and Krieger reunited and created a new version of The Doors, called "The Doors of the 21st Century." The new lineup was fronted by Astbury with Angelo Barbera from Krieger's band on bass. At their first concert the group announced that drummer John Densmore would not perform, and it was later reported that he was unable to play because he suffered from tinnitus. Densmore was initially replaced by Stewart Copeland of The Police, but after Copeland broke his arm falling off a bicycle, the arrangement ended in mutual lawsuits, and he was replaced by Ty Dennis, drummer with Krieger's band.

Densmore subsequently claimed that he had in fact not been invited to take part in the reunion. In February 2003 he filed an injunction against his former bandmates hoping to prevent them from using the name "The Doors of the 21st Century." His motion was denied in court in May that year, although Manzarek publicly stated that the invitation for Densmore to return to the group still stood. It was also reported that both Morrison's family and that of Pamela Courson had joined Densmore in seeking to prevent Manzarek and Krieger from using The Doors' name. In July 2005, Densmore and the Morrison estate won a permanent injunction, causing the new band to switch to the name "D21C." It now plays under the name Riders on the Storm. They are allowed to play under names such as "former Doors" and "members of The Doors." Densmore has also been steadfast in refusing to license The Doors' music for use in television commercials, including an offer of $15 million by Cadillac to lease the song "Break on Through (to the Other Side)," feeling that that would be in violation of the spirit in which the music was created. Densmore wrote about this subject for The Nation, noting,

People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music. I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent. [3]

Manzarek and Krieger maintain that touring as a Doors revival and licensing the music to advertisements are a means to keep The Doors from fading into history. Manzarek was quoted as saying, "We're all getting older. We should, the three of us, be playing these songs because, hey, the end is always near. Morrison was a poet, and above all, a poet wants his words heard." In fact, on several occasions, when asked what he would most like to be remembered for, Morrison responded, "My words, man, my words." [4]

The Doors are remembered for shamanistic live performances. Some members of the "establishment", however, felt that they were merely American rock music rebels. Jim Morrison said: "I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think. I mean if you can get a whole room full of drunk, stoned people to actually wake up and think, you're doing something."

Their enduring popularity is reflected by continuing sales of their early work.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Doors [2] #41 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[3]

A flurry of activity was announced in 2006 for the upcoming 40th anniversary of the group's debut album. This saw another box-set of the studio recordings (see recorded output), a coffee table book "The Doors by The Doors" and the beginning of production of an officially sanctioned documentary about the group.

The Doors along with the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez, received a lifetime achievement award at the 2007 Grammy Awards.

On February 16, 2007 Ian Astbury quit Riders On The Storm, as he wants to relaunch his old band The Cult.

On February 28, 2007, The Doors received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On March 14, 2007 Brett Scallions, former lead singer of the band Fuel, was announced as the new lead singer of Riders On The Storm.

A documentry by producer Dick Wolf will be coming out soon about The Doors and will have interviews with Jim Morrisons parents.

Musical style

In 2007, Manzarek described the band's sound as "Bauhaus music. It's clean, it's pure - there is a keyboard on one side, a guitar on the other, drums in the middle, a bassline underneath that and the singer up front -and you can hear the words. That's one of the reasons why The Doors sound is still important today. It's perfectly modern. That's what we wanted."[4]

Recorded output

The first, self-titled album is a regular sight in greatest 100 album lists.[citation needed] Strange Days, Morrison Hotel, and L.A Woman incorporate different styles, including psychedelic pop, hard rock, blues.

Three non-album tracks have been released, the b-sides "Who Scared You," "Tree Trunk," and a cover of Willie Dixon's "(You Need Meat) Don't Go Further" sung by Ray. "Who Scared You" and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go Further" appeared on the 1972 compilation Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine. "Who Scared You" was also released on CD in the 1997 box set and "You Need Meat" was included on the new "Perception" boxset. "Tree Trunk" has seen no other official release. Additional songs have been only performed live.

In 1978 the surviving Doors re-united to add music to poetry recorded by Morrison in 1969 and 1970. The resulting album was An American Prayer. The album was re-issued on CD in 1995 with bonus tracks "Hour For Magic", "Freedom Exists", "A Feast Of Friends", "Babylon Fading", "Bird Of Prey" and "The Ghost Song (extended version)".

In 1997 the first archive material was included on the release of The Doors box set. Some of the material had been previously released on bootlegs, the 4CD set, one of which was a "greatest hits" type CD. A notable inclusion on the compilation was a CD of highlights from the 1970 Felt Forum concert and a cleaned-up recording of the (edited) 1969 "Rock Is Dead" session. The surviving members again re-united to add new musical backing to the solo Morrison song "Orange County Suite".

In November 2000 came the announcement many fans had dreamed of when The Doors announced the creation of Bright Midnight Records, a label through which 36 albums and 90 hours of previously unreleased Morrison-era Doors material would be made available on CD. This was launched with a sampler of forthcoming material, mostly from live concerts. The first full release was a 2 CD set of the May 1970 show at Detroit's Cobo Arena, notable for being, according to Doors manager Danny Sugerman in its liner notes, "easily... the longest Doors' set ever performed." It was followed by two CDs of interviews, mostly with Morrison, and the two 1969 Aquarius shows and one of the rehearsals. A 4CD set "Boot Yer Butt" included bootleg quality material but sold out nevertheless.[citation needed] It was notable for the inclusion of the only known performances of songs from L.A Woman including the title track and "The Changeling" from The Doors' final show in December 1970, Dallas, Texas. In 2005 a 2 CD concert from Philadelphia in 1970 was released.

Many illegal bootleg recordings are available of the group. Most impressive is a wealth of shows from March 1967 at the legendary Matrix Club in San Francisco. Many shows are available from 1968 when the band reached the height of its popularity, notably two shows in Stockholm, Sweden. The infamous Miami show has become widely available while many 1970 shows, notably a radio broadcast of the June 6 Vancouver show, make the rounds. The complete 1969 Rock Is Dead studio jam was discovered in the mid 1990s.

While the 1999 Complete Studio Recordings box set only included the first six studio albums (omitting "Other Voices & Full Circle), the Perception box set was released on November 21, 2006, and contained those albums plus about two hours of mostly unheard studio outtakes. Each album was represented by two discs: a CD of the album and the bonus tracks, and a DVD-Audio with both stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes (produced and mixed by Bruce Botnick) in 96kHz/24-bit LPCM, Dolby Digital, and DTS as well as mostly previously released video footage. The discs were accompanied by new liner notes by Botnick and articles from several music critics and historians for each album. Demand was so high for the Perception box set that, according to the Doors management, Rhino sold all of their stock (20,000 copies) in three weeks.[5]

In 2007, was published by Rhino the CD The Very Best of The Doors, celebrating the 40 years of the band.

Line-up

(1965-1971)
  • Jim Morrison - lead vocals
  • Robby Krieger - guitar, backing vocals
  • Ray Manzarek - keyboards, bass, backing vocals
  • John Densmore - drums, percussion
(1971-1973)
  • Robby Krieger - guitar, lead vocals
  • Ray Manzarek - keyboards, lead vocals
  • John Densmore - drums, percussion

Discography

Further Information: The Doors discography

  • Jim Morrison (played by Michael A. Nickles) 'appears' in the 1993 movie Wayne's World 2 to tell Wayne to put on a rock concert.
  • In 2004 the video game Need for Speed Underground 2 contained a remix of "Riders on the Storm" featuring rapper Snoop Dogg, remixed by Fredwreck.
  • The song "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" is included on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube game Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and its PSP counterpart, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix, along with hats and shirts with The Doors' logo.
  • In the 2005 EA game Burnout Revenge contained a remix of "Break on Through (To the Other Side)".
  • The song "Peace Frog" is featured on the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and was played in an episode of My Name Is Earl. It was also featured in the Adam Sandler comedy The Waterboy.
  • Several songs, including Peace Frog,I Looked at You, When The Musics Over, and Love Street, have been featured on the series Entourage.
  • The film Forrest Gump featured several Doors' songs during a montage of Forrest's recovery from his wound he received in Vietnam.
  • In the film Apocalypse Now the song "The End" is also featured.
  • Strange Days (1995) the film's title comes from the song (and album) of the same name by The Doors. Metal band Prong performs a cover version of the song on the movie soundtrack, accompanied by original Doors member Ray Manzarek.
  • In the 1987 movie The Lost Boys the soundtrack features a cover version of The Doors' song "People are Strange" by Echo & the Bunnymen, featuring Ray Manzarek on piano. There is also a picture of Jim Morrison in the vampires lair.
  • In the 2005 war movie, Jarhead, Break On Through was played in a helicopter with one of the marines referring to it as Vietnam music.
  • In Stephen King's book, The Stand: Complete and Un-cut, one of the main characters, Stuart Redmen, relates a tale of meeting Jim Morrison in a small town gas station after his death. Although whether or not it was actually Jim Morrison is never revealed.
  • In the skateboard movie 'PJ Ladd's Wonderful Horrible Life' (in the appearance part of Ryan Gallant) the song 'Touch Me' is featured.
  • On Dream Theater's album Octavarium on the song of the same name there is a reference to "Light My Fire" in a stanza that is a play on words of their influences. Furthermore, that section of that song is titled "Full Circle."
  • On The Naked Trucker and T-Bones show on Comedy Central, "T-Bones" says "The ceremony is about to begin." After hearing Dax Sheppard say "Is everybody in?"
  • In the song "Bitchin' Camero" by the band Dead Milkmen, the lead singer parodies "Love Me Two Times".
  • The Dead Milkmen again parodied the Doors with the lyrics "You know that it would be untrue. You know that I would be a liar, if I was to say to you, 'I didn't set your dad on fire'" in their song "If You Love Somebody Set Them On Fire" from the album "Metaphysical Graffiti".
  • The Southern California punk band Guttermouth's Musical Monkey CD contains a track portraying a fictious event in which The B-52's vocalist, Fred Schneider auditions to fill the lead vocal spot in The Doors after Jim Morrison's death.
  • In 2007, "Roadhouse Blues" was featured in the commercial advertisements for the Fox t.v. series Drive.


Parodies

Bruce McCulloch of Canadian sketch troupe Kids In The Hall recorded the song "Doors" on his 1995 album "Shame-Based Man".

The track "Stinky Pants" on Mitch Benn and The Distractions' 2004 album Too Late To Cancel is a Doors parody.

See also

Tribute Bands

Sources

Notes

  1. ^ Penguingroup.com Jim Morrison - Life, Death, Legend, Stephen Davis
  2. ^ "The Doors". Marilyn Manson. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
  3. ^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
  4. ^ Thomas, Graeme. "After Death do us Part". The Word Magazine, February 2007
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