The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The band took its name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, which itself was a reference to a William Blake quote: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." They were among the most controversial, influential and unique rock acts of the 1960s and beyond, mostly because of Morrison's wild, poetic lyrics and charismatic but unpredictable stage persona. After Morrison's death on 3rd July 1971, aged 27, the remaining members continued as a trio until disbanding in 1973.
Signing with Elektra Records in 1966, the Doors released eight albums between 1967 and 1971. All but one hit the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 and went platinum or better. The 1967 release of The Doors was the first in a series of top ten albums in the United States, followed by Strange Days (1967), Waiting for the Sun (1968), The Soft Parade (1969), Morrison Hotel (1970), Absolutely Live (1970) and L.A. Woman (1971), with 21 Gold, 14 Platinum and 5 Multi-Platinum album awards in the United States alone. The band's biggest hits are "Light My Fire" (US, number 1), "People Are Strange" (US, number 12), "Love Me Two Times" (US, number 25), "Hello, I Love You" (US, number 1), "The Unknown Soldier", (US, number 39), "Touch Me" (US, number 3), "Love Her Madly" (US, number 11), and "Riders On The Storm" (US, number 14). After Morrison's death in 1971, the surviving trio released two albums Other Voices and Full Circle with Manzarek and Krieger sharing lead vocals. The three members also collaborated on the spoken-word recording of Morrison's An American Prayer in 1978 and on the "Orange County Suite" for a 1997 boxed set. Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore reunited in 2000 for an episode of VH1's "Storytellers" and subsequently recorded Stoned Immaculate:
Although the Doors' active career ended in 1973, their popularity has persisted. According to the RIAA, they have sold 36.6 million certified units in the US and over 105 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The Doors has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone, which ranked them 41st on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold and platinum LPs.
In 2002 Manzarek and Krieger started playing together again, branding themselves as the Doors of the 21st Century, with Ian Astbury of the The Cult on vocals. Densmore opted to sit out and, along with the Morrison estate, sued the duo over proper use of the band name and won. After a short time as Riders On the Storm, they settled on the name Manzarek-Krieger and continued to tour until Manzarek's death in 2013, at the age of 74. Three of the band's studio albums, The Doors (1967), L.A. Woman (1971), and Strange Days (1967), were featured in the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at positions 42, 362 and 407 respectively. The band, their work, and Morrison's celebrity continue to be considered inexorably embedded within the larger counterculture of the 1960s. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
History 1965–68: The origins of The Doors began with a meeting between acquaintances Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, both alumni of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock'n'roll concert going on in my head") and with Manzarek's encouragement sang "Moonlight Drive". The members came from a varied musical background from jazz, rock, blues, and folk idioms.
Keyboardist Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim Manzarek, while drummer John Densmore was playing with The Psychedelic Rangers and knew Manzarek from meditation classes. In August, Densmore joined the group, renamed The Doors, and the five, along with bass player Patty Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release) recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This has circulated widely since then as a bootleg recording. The band took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, itself derived from a line in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite".
In mid-1965, after Ray Manzarek's two brothers left, the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger and the final lineup — Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore — was complete. By 1966, the group was playing the Los Angeles club London Fog. The club was not as prestigious as the Whisky a Go Go and did not attract many customers. The Doors used the nearly empty club as an opportunity to hone and, in some cases, lengthen their songs and work out the musical intricacies of "The End", "When the Music's Over" and "Light My Fire", becoming the epic pieces the world would soon come to know. (In 2011 a 30-minute tape was discovered of The Doors performing at the London Fog.) The Doors soon graduated to the more prestigious Whisky a Go Go, where they were the house band, supporting acts including Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of Them's "Gloria". Prior to graduating to Whisky a Go Go, Morrison went to many record labels trying to land a deal. He did score one at Columbia Records but it did not pan out. 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 with Elektra Records. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18 — the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick. The Doors were fired from the Whisky on August 21, 1966 when Morrison added an explicit retelling and profanity-laden version of the Greek myth of Oedipus during "The End".
Debut album: The band recorded their first album from August 24 to 31, 1966, at Sunset Sound Recording Studios. The Doors' self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the nearly 12-minute musical drama "The End". The Doors performing at Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in 1967. In November 1966, Mark Abramson directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)". To promote the single, the Doors made their television debut on a Los Angeles TV show called Boss City circa 1966, possibly early 1967, and then on a Los Angeles TV show called Shebang, miming to "Break On Through", on New Year's Day 1967. This clip has never been officially released by the Doors.
In early 1967 the Doors appeared on The Clay Cole Show (which aired on Saturday evenings at 6 pm on WPIX Channel 11 out of NYC) where they performed their single "Break On Through". Research has determined that the tapes were all wiped. The only shows that still exist are the final ones copied by an employee of the station; unfortunately this was long after The Doors' appearance. The Doors returned to The Clay Cole Show a second time on June 24 where they most likely performed "Light My Fire".
Since "Break on Through" was not very successful on the radio, the band turned to "Light My Fire". The problem with this song was that it was seven minutes long, so producer Paul Rothchild cut it down to three minutes by radically cutting the lengthy keyboard and guitar solos in the center section. "Light My Fire" became the first single from Elektra Records to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, selling over a million copies. "Light My Fire" was the first song ever written by Robby Krieger and was the beginning of the band's success.
Jim Morrison's death :
Morrison died on July 3, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by his girlfriend Pamela Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy and the death certificate's having no reason of death besides heart failure, have left many questions regarding the cause of death. Morrison was buried in the "Poets Corner" of Père Lachaise Cemetery on July 7. The epitaph on his headstone bears a Greek inscription meaning "According to his own daimon" and usually interpreted as "True to his own spirit". Morrison died at age 27, the same age as several other famous rock stars in the 27 Club. In 1974, Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson also died at the age of 27.
The surviving Doors continued for some time, initially considering replacing Morrison with a new singer. Instead, Krieger and Manzarek took over on vocals and The Doors released two more albums before disbanding. The recording of Other Voices took place from June to August 1971, and the album was released in October 1971. The LP featured the single "Tightrope Ride", which received some airplay.
The trio began performing again with additional supporting members on Friday, November 12, 1971 at Pershing Municipal Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, followed by shows in Carnegie Hall on November 23, 1971, and the Hollywood Palladium on November 26, 1971.
Full Circle : The recordings for Full Circle took place during the spring of 1972, and the album was released in August 1972. The last album expanded into jazz territory. While neither album has been reissued on CD in the United States, they have been released on 2-on-1 CDs in Germany and Russia.For the tours during this period, The Doors enlisted Jack Conrad on bass (who had played on several tracks on both "Other Voices" and "Full Circle") as well as Bobby Ray Henson on rhythm guitar. They began a European tour covering France, Germany, Holland, Amsterdam, and England beginning in May. The fruit of this effort can be seen in their appearance on the German show Beat-Club of which many high quality sources can be found online.
Break-up : The group disbanded in 1973 and Krieger and Densmore would go on to form The Butts Band from 1973 to 1975. Krieger, Manzarek and Densmore reunited in 1978 for An American Prayer, 1993 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1997 in the studio to complete the Morrison penned "Orange County Suite" and 2000 for VH1's Storytellers: A Celebration and on the tribute album Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors, which featured band members playing alongside guest performers as well as recording new music
