The Doors were rock's poster children of the psychedelic 1960s. The phenomenal band, composed of angelic-faced frontman Jim Morrison, drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, was artistically fearless. Think of all their smash hits - "Light My Fire," "L.A. Woman," and "Riders on the Storm," just to name a few. In the teeming rock music scene of the time, The Doors stood out as tradition-trashing darlings of the counterculture. Their sound was unique and electrifying. It is as vibrant and relevant today as it was all those intense, boundary-breaking, tie-dyed decades ago.
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Morrison still has a grip on people's imaginations years after his tragic death in Paris allegedly from a drug overdose in 1971. He was only 27 years old. Fierce, rebellious, and utterly brilliant, it seemed as though his soul and intellect were too combustible for his body to contain them. To this day, Morrison has a loyal fan following that reveres him and wonders what might have been.
The Doors were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. An essay about them on the Hall's web site states, "The Doors' fusion of jazz, psychedelic rock and blues was elevated to mythic status by their love of chaos and the darkly volatile Morrison." How starkly true.
'L.A. Woman'
This song has one of the coolest openings ever - the sound of a revving car. It sets the stage for what is to come - plenty of Jim Morrison's seductive growls. The track was from the Doors' sixth studio album of the same name, which dropped shortly before Morrison's death. Per American Songwriter, "John Rechy's novel City of Night inspired the song 'L.A. Woman.' In Rechy's novel, a young gay man travels the country, working as a hustler. Each chapter focuses on specific cities and strange characters." That was not the only instance of literary borrowing in the band's history, Their name was inspired by the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception.
'Light My Fire'
"...[T]he lasting legacy of the song involves getting high, funeral pyres, five-minute keyboard solos, and pure hedonistic wails of lust," per faroutmagazine.co.uk. That description sounds like an encapsulation of Morrison's brief but wild life.
"Light My Fire" will always be nefariously associated with The Ed Sullivan Show, which helped make household names of The Beatles and Elvis Presley. The Doors were slated to appear on the popular variety showcase on September 17, 1967, per edsullivan.com. Sullivan, who was on the strait-laced side, asked the band prior to air time to tone down a controversial line in the song, "Girl. we couldn't get much higher," believing it referred to drug use.
Morrison was allegedly fuming about the request. He declined to make that alteration in the lyric. Then, the band seemed to mellow and agree to the ask. However, when The Doors performed the song, that line was sung as originally written. The producer of The Ed Sullivan Show was reportedly seething. He supposedly informed the band that they had been scheduled for a half dozen more appearances on the show, but that was all off now. Morrison, unperturbed, allegedly retorted, "Hey man, we just did the Sullivan show."
'Riders On The Storm'
Some of The Doors' tracks have a very ominous underside. That is certainly true of the darkly lethal "Riders on the Storm." Per faroutmagazine.co.uk, "...'Riders on the Storm' is a seven-minute journey into the depths of countercultural depravity. Thanks to Morrison's poetic mystique, the lyrics present a plot of murder on the road...." The outlet contends that the phrase "killer on the road" refers to Billy Cook, a serial murderer whose trademark modus operandi involved preying upon hitchhikers.
Morrison himself was a hitchhiker, although he survived the practice. The cavalcade of ragged humanity he encountered along the way seems to have mesmerized him. According to the outlet via the book Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis, "Taking chances on redneck truckers...and predatory cruisers left an indelible psychic scar on Jimmy, whose notebooks began to obsessively feature scrawls and drawings of a lone hitchhiker."
'People Are Strange'
Morrison was apparently fascinated by weirdness, the offbeat and non-mainstream, and the idiosyncratic. That trait crept into The Doors' music. Per Songfacts, "Jim Morrison was depressed. He went to Robby Krieger's house, they went to a canyon to watch a sunset, at which time Jim realized he was depressed because 'if you're strange, people are strange.' He then wrote the rest of the lyrics, which are about feeling alienated." Morrison embraced otherness and those who exhibited it. For many who felt similarly marginalized, it made him a relatable idol.
