A Short History of "The Doors"

The basic idea behind the Doors was to meld jazz and rock. Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison were students at UCLA, both studying cinematography. They met John Densmore and Robbie Krieger at a transcendental meditation session. The four of them quickly came up with the musical formula which would take them through six albums in just four years, albums which set a blueprint for intellectual and cognitive rock. The music was based around the lofty stories of Morrisson. The singer quickly took on the role of shaman to the counter-culture. It was as though he became possessed by the very spirit of rock's darkside and the other three band members were perfectly suited to providing the structure, form and setting for Morrisson's lyrics.

Jim Morrisson was raised in Florida, Manzarek i Chicago. They both had an art background and after graduation they designed their own take on modernist rock via their knowledge of film, mise-en-scene, and the work of von Sternberg and Eisenstein. The music was full of open space. Space which Morrisson could inhabit with his shamanic alter ego, inspired by the poets.

The Doors spent a period as house band at the London Fog and, a little later, at the Whisky-A-Go-Go on Sunset Strip. It was during these shows that Morrisson developed his important musical relationship with Densmore, the drummer. Densmore took charge of the beat and Manzarek and Kriger cleverly slid melody lines in when necessary. The Doors had no bass player when they played live. Manzarek's left hand took care of bass duties on his Vox Continental electric organ.

'The End' is eleven minutes long. It's a song that's based on the myth of Oedipus Rex. There were meandering passages of mesmerizing music which encouraged meditation. The climax being the line 'Father I want to kill you. Mother I want to f*ck you'. These shocking and powerful lyrics ensured the crashing instrumental finale all the more powerful. The track also tied in neatly with the counter-cultural anti-war agenda as a song about the desire for material possessions. It was a genuine rock classic.

Their debut album was finished in the mid-sixties. It was released by Elektra Records in January 1967, a long time before the Beatles put out Sgt Pepper. Manzarek's jazzy chords, bottleneck guitar from Kreiger and Densmore's complex jazz based beats dominate proceedings. It's Densmore's latin rhythm that sets apart 'Light My Fire', a song by Kriger. It was the perfect soundtrack to the summer of love and stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for much of August, finally being toppled from top spot by 'All You Need Is Love' by the Beatles.

The album was mixed in New York and while on the East coast the Doors introduced psychedelia to the city in 1966. They played with Jefferson Airplane in London at the Roundhouse in 1968 and at a Cleveland gig one Iggy Pop stood and watched, later to be inspired to form the Iguanas and the Stooges. There is something of the Morrisson in Iggy Pop's stage persona.

Having recorded their debut album in just a few days, the band recorded their follow up 'Strange Days' in similarly quick fashion. Of course they had been road-testing many of the songs while touring, so many tracks were recorded quickly on the new 8-track mixing desk. The luxury of the new equipment meant that there was plenty of space to overdub. 'When The Music's Over' could be said to be the Doors' masterpiece. It was recorded, amazingly, in just two takes. The first take was recorded without Morrisson present and the band improvised around where they thought the lyrics would go.

The next album was 'Waiting For The Sun' which featured a slurring Morrisson and was followed by 'The Soft Parade' in 1968, which featured strings and horns and contained the certifiable classic 'Touch Me'. For 'Morrisson Hotel' the band went back to a heavier blues rock sound, for example on the song 'Roadhouse Blues', maybe as a kick up the rear for all things hippy-dippy. 'LA Woman', all Californian road trip, the primal 'The Wasp', and the dark and sinister 'Riders Onn The Storm' ended what could be said to be an almost perfect recording career.

Morrisson died on July 3rd 1971, maybe accidentally in a hotel in Paris. The Doors didn't carry on recording. There was a project in 1979 called 'American Prayer' which featured some lost then found poetry and readings which the band set to music . But it is the early recordings which set the Doors apart from other psych-rock wannabees. Their music was drenched in a sophistication which other bands couldn't even dream of. They were the essence of the sixties and as influential and experimental as the overrated heyday of Sgt Pepper. The End.