The Doors (Part 1)
When you think of huge 60’s bands, you have the Beatles, The Stones, and… honestly, the Doors fit pretty comfortably in that #3 spot, and were probably the biggest US band of the 60’s. And Jim Morrison is easily one of the most iconic rock stars of all time.
They were before my time. I discovered them as a late teenager (83/84 or so), ironically right around the same time I discovered weed.
Note to parents: if your kid is into The Doors, they are definitely smoking weed.
Anyway, I became a major fan, have all the albums, read all the books, and I still dig them to this day, although I wish there was “more” to dive into. But their career was very short - they released their first album in January 1967, and Jim died in July 1971. In those four and a half years they released six studio albums and one live album. A few later posthumous releases have merit and we’ll hear some stuff from them, but there’s just not a huge vault of stuff like some other artists have.
The other three Doors released two albums after Jim died with Ray taking the vocals. While interesting for fans, there’s nothing on these albums that will crack my 31 – it’s going to be all Jim.
I’ll give the real quick backstory here.
The Doors formed in Venice, California in 1965. Jim and Ray were classmates in UCLA film school. Ray played keyboards in a band with his brothers. The summer after graduation, Ray was on the beach and who does he run into but Jim. After catching up, Jim mentions he was writing songs. Ray asked to hear one. Jim sings a few verses of Moonlight Drive, which floor Ray. Right away, he's like “let’s form a band and make a million bucks”.
So he brings Jim into the band with his brothers (called Rick and the Ravens). His brothers are not that serious about it, and also think Jim is weird, so they sort of disband. But Ray knows a drummer named John Densmore from a mediation class he was attending. John is friends with a guitarist named Robbie Krieger, and just like that, you have the four Doors. They tried to find a bassist but never succeeded, and Ray solved that problem by playing a keyboard bass with his left hand.
Success came pretty quick for them. They spent a year or so constantly practicing and taking whatever gigs they could get, and finally landed a series of gigs at a dive bar called the London Fog. The booker for the famous Whisky a Go Go saw them there, was enamored with Jim (like all the girls were then), and booked them to be the Whisky’s house band, where they opened for bands like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Turtles, Love, Them (Van Morrison), etc.
It was here that they really developed their repertoire and two albums worth of songs, and almost got signed by some big labels, but it never quite happened. Until they caught the eye of Jac Holzman, president of Elektra Records. He signed them right away, and their self-titled first album was recorded about a week later. Break on Through gets noticed, and then Light My Fire becomes a #1 hit, and off we go.
I’m going to end this part here – I mean, I could write a book on this, and indeed, there is plenty written about the Doors. They packed an awful lot into that short time – Jim getting arrested on stage, Jim allegedly exposing himself in Miami and bringing on a heap of trouble, etc. Most of the stories are well known, and I’d encourage reading a bit about them if interested. I would say the Doors movie is not that accurate, except Val Kilmer’s performance as Jim, which the other Doors have said is so spot on that it’s almost creepy.
Over the next few days I’ll try and write a quick post about their music, and of course, the four Doors.