The Doors, the #67 Artist of the Rock Era, Part One

"All of the Doors songs are great."

"Legends never die."

"Combine one of the greatest poets ever with great musicianship and you have a tremendous product."

"The Doors are timelessly incredible!"

"One of the greatest groups ever."

"Pure talent."

The Doors were ahead of their time.  They made music that was great and would last forever."

"This is great music that never dies."

"The Doors were awesome!"

"The Doors were one of America's greatest, most influential Rock groups."

"Absolutely one of the best bands ever."

Lead singer Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore formed the Doors in 1965 in Los Angeles.  Morrison and Manzrek were students at UCLA and shared an interest in forming a band.  

Manzarek was already in a group called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim, while Densmore, an acquaintance of Ray's from a meditation class, played with the Psychedelic Rangers.  Along with Morrison and bassist Patty Sullivan, those six started out as the Doors.  Sullivan and Manzarek's two brothers soon left the group and Krieger joined them to complete the lineup.  The remaining quartet recorded a six-song demo later in the year.  

Morrison went to record labels in the area to try to secure a deal.  He thought he had a deal with Columbia Records but it fizzled.  Meanwhile, the group played at the London Fog, a club in Los Angeles.  

Soon, the Doors became the house band at the famous Whisky a Go Go.  On August 10, 1966, Elektra Records president Jac Holzman came to the Whisky at the request of Arthur Lee of the group Love, who was under contract with Elektra.  Holzman and producer Paul Rothchild saw the Doors perform two sets that night and signed the group to a recording contract on August 18.  

It was a good thing, for three days later, the Doors were fired from the Whisky after Morrison included an explicit version of the Greek myth of Oedipus laced with profanity during a performance of "The End".

Six days after signing their contract, the Doors recorded their debut album over an eight-day period at Sunset Sound Studios.  Session bass guitar wizard Larry Knechtel, who would soon co-found the group Bread, played on the album.  The Doors released the album in January of 1967.  They released "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" as the lead single.  But when it proved unsuccessful, they pushed the seven-minute song "Light My Fire".  

 

But in those days, radio didn't want to play songs longer than three minutes, and Rothchild was forced to cut the classic song by eliminating the legendary keyboard and guitar solos in the middle.  Several stations nevertheless played the full version and the song went to #1 for three weeks in one of the most competitive times in music history.

The huge success of one of the all-time classics quickly catapulted the Doors into the limelight.  The album rose to #2 in the United States, #3 in France and #4 in Norway and sales have now topped four million.

"Light My Fire" sold over one million copies and in 1998 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Doors' incredible debut album was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.  The Doors, kicked out of the Whisky, performed at the Matrix Club in San Francisco.  The group also made several appearances on television, including a performance on September 17 The Ed Sullivan Show and toured extensively.

 

Even though the first choice for a single was at first ignored, it has continued to receive massive airplay and is one of the highlights of the album.  Morrison use some of his lyrics from the book City of Night by John Rechy, in which Rechy wrote about Hollywood being "the other side".  As the group did not have a bassist, Manzarek created the lower notes on keyboard.

 

This special fairly ranks every artist based on their entire catalog, regardless of how many hits they had.  And this album, one of the best debuts in history, is loaded with great tracks which piled up points for the group.  In fact, without these album tracks, they would not have made it on the list.  "Crystal Ship" resulted from poetry Morrison had written after breaking up with his girlfriend in 1965.  The title was taken from The Book of the Dun Cow, which includes stories written by hundreds of Irish monks around the ninth century.

 

"Back Door Man" is a song originally done by Willie Dixon.  The Doors, whose roots run deep in blues, both in their early days playing in clubs and on their albums, made it their own.

 

That a new artist could accumulate 11 tracks reaching deep into the intellectual library and evoking emotive and primal listening experiences is unprecedented in our history.  Morrison wrote "Take It As It Comes" after attending a lecture by the Maharishi.

"Twentieth Century Fox" is a play on the movie studio of the same name, which also spawned the TV network Fox, infamous for spewing 24 hours of lies.  Morrison weaves the studio into the song by revealing that the subject is beautiful but artificial.

 

The group got the idea for this song from an album of German songs that Manzarek owned.  The song was originally written by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht and used in the 1930 German operetta The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahogany and renamed "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)".

 

"Soul Kitchen" is a tribute to the Venice Beach, California restaurant Olivia's, which Morrison dined at and often was told to leave so they could close; hence the reference "Let me stay all night in your soul kitchen."

 

The Doors released the album Strange Days in 1968, with Douglass Lubahn playing bass on most of the tracks, as he would do on the next two Doors albums.  Many other bassists would fill this role in the future, including Lonnie Mack, Kerry Magness, Ray Neopolitan, Jerry Scheff and others.  The single "People Are Strange" reached #6 in Canada, #9 in New Zealand and #12 in the United States.

 

The album reached #3 and has sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone.  "Love Me Two Times" hit #7 in Canada but stalled at #25 in the United States, making it one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.  U.S. charts have never factored in album sales, a fatal flaw in their methodology.

 

The group honed most of these songs in their early club days, and although their best material was featured on their debut, there are still plenty of good tunes left for their second album.  Legend goes that the lyrics played a key role in the formation of the Doors.  Morrison and Manzarek had gone to UCLA film school together and later Morrison saw Manzarek on a California beach and recited the lyrics of his poetry for the song.  Manzarek loved it and suggested that they form a group.  Featuring an incredible guitar solo from Krieger, this is "Moonlight Drive".

 

The Doors were fortunate to have one of the Rock Era's great keyboardists in Manzarek and his intro and riffs are highlighted on the epic "When The Music's Over".  

Morrison's onstage performances began to detract from the group, beginning on December 9 when the Doors played a concert in New Haven, Connecticut.  The concert was cut short when Morrison became the first Rock artist to be arrested onstage.  The group's lead singer was whisked to the police station, photographed and charged with inciting a riot, indecency and public obscenity.

Morrison increasingly became dependent on alcohol and drugs.  Future Doors shows often were marred by clashes between fans and the police, coming to a head at the Chicago Coliseum on May 10, 1968.

But they weren't done.  Hear the rest of the group's story in Part Two!