The Doors were extraordinary. They started out not so much as a band but as a philosophy. Their aim was to push all the boundaries at a time when everyone was trying to do the same outdo each other.
They came together when the magnificent keyboardman Ray Manzarek met up with Jim Morrison on a Venice beach in Los Angeles. Jim had the Dionysian looks and Ray dug his poetry so much that they decided to form a band and put the words to music.
Robbie Krieger was the ideal guitarist. He screwed a new acid drenched sound out his guitar with great slide work that could either sound bluesy or psychedelic and usually managed both. John Densmore was also expert and his drumming did a lot more than hold it together, his fills and runs beefed it out and filled the gaps.
They did not go for a bass player so Ray had to also somehow fill that role from the organ.
The band were tight but they were also able to improvise which proved a perfect foil for Jim’s poetry and extemporations.
Jim was the driving force and wanted the band to be something more than a mere Rock outfit. He saw them as a band of explorers out on a challenge on a spiritual level; to break through the chimera of the world’s reality into a greater reality beyond. He craved the sort of experience that the shamen of old experienced.
The mainstay of their early act was the epic ‘The End’. Jim would often extend it for over a half hour. It went down well with the crowds but caused no end of problems with management at the venues and then with the record company. Not only was in concerned with the taboo of death but the climax had the oedipal act of murdering his father and raping his mother. For some reason managers wanted to censor it!!
They also courted controversy with their first single ‘Light my Fire’ with its notorious drug reference to not getting any higher. The single stormed up the charts prompting an appearance on Ed Sullivan. He demanded they modified the lyric like other bands had been forced to do. Jim was not having that. He did not consider himself part of that establishment and was not one to compromise. The counter-culture was very much based around the use of marijuana and LSD and he was singing directly to them. He gleefully sang the words on the live broadcast and they got banned.
It didn’t worry them.
Jim was the archetypal Rock Star in his leather trousers with big belt, bare chest, Greek God looks framed with long dark wavy hair. He looked the part and lived the life. There were no limits. It was excess all areas. Sex, drugs, booze and Rock ‘n’ Roll. He lived fast and burnt out quick.
At interviews and gigs he was often found slurred, heavy lidded and unable to respond. Yet when he was on form he was the best. His voice was the epitome of a Rock instrument as much as his body screamed sex. He could growl, soar, croon and scream. He had great timing, the ability to improvise and a sense for dramatic effect. Visually and audibly he was the consummate Rock God.
Live he drew you in and used all that drama training to good effect. He would drape himself around the microphone, croon and moan, throw himself to the floor and writhe around like a demented soul, then rise all slinky and pace the stage berating the audience. All the band had to do was play, try to follow his lead and leave it to Jim to deliver.
On listening to a large number of live tapes of concert shows it is obvious that despite his excesses the quality of the performance rarely suffered. Jim had charisma enough to fill stadia; the quality of his voice could produce convincing Blues that competed with the originals as well as their own epic songs.
The Los Angeles scene was harder and more Bluesy than the softer folkier San Franciscan scene. The Doors reflected this. Their stance was extreme and overtly political. They were opposed to the Vietnam War and made that quite apparent through theatrical numbers like ‘Unknown Soldier’ with its mock execution as well as the film and promos they made. They showed their anti-establishment credentials with numbers like ‘5 to 1’ but there was little of the peace and love about them There’s was more a world of teargas, bullets and police truncheons.
Their debut album was followed with the even better ‘Strange Days’. They never made a dud throughout their short career even though Jim was accused of selling out on ‘Soft Parade’ because he added a horn section which was considered too commercial.
After a few short years Jim, bloated, bearded, addled and disillusioned with stardom and the music machine, headed for Paris. He wanted out. The Doors were over.
His parting gift was to record his spoken word poetry that the band was to put some music to.
Who knows whether Jim would have got himself back together and rediscovered his mojo. He may have formed a new band. The Doors might have reformed. They might have gone on to even greater heights with their second wind.
It was not to be. Jim joined the twenty seven club and was mysteriously found dead by his girlfriend in the bath. Was it an overdose? Suicide? Murder? Or simply the heart-failure recorded on his death certificate? We shall never know. There was no autopsy and Jim was hurriedly buried in the Parisian graveyard in a tomb that has become a shrine to fans. It all happened with undue haste.
The legend was dead but even in death it all added to his mystique.
The Doors were one of the biggest Rock Bands ever to grace a stage. They shone with the force of a supernova, burnt up and exploded. The material they blasted out coalesced into the planetary systems of sounds. They still shine through the ages.