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The Doors

• formed in 1965 by Jim Morrison (vocals) & Ray Manzarek (keyboard), acquaintences at UCLA's Graduate School of Film
  • orginally, incorporated Manzarek's brothers (Rick & Jim), but they were soon replaced by John Densmore (drums) and Robby Krieger (guitar)
• named after Aldous Huxley's book on mescaline (The Doors of Perception)

• 1966 - became the house band at L.A.'s Whiskey-A-Go-Go
  • fired after 4 months for performing the explicitly Oedipal "The End" and its dramatic recitation (beginning about 11'40" into the song)

The End

• their eponymous debut album scored a #1 hit ("Light My Fire") and gained a great deal of "progressive" radio airplay

Light My Fire
(#1, 1967)

• "When the Music's Over" from the band's second album, Strange Days (1967)

• by 1969, Morrison's self-destructive nature became apparent
  • he had a serious problem with alcoholism

• 3/69 (concert in Miami)
• song fell apart in the middle
• Morrison just stood there, too drunk to know what to do
• asked the audience if they wanted him to expose himself, which he did
• he was arrested for indecent exposure & public drunkenness

• 4^th album (The Soft Parade, 1969)

• acid-rock band doing soft rock, complete with brass, strings, and backup vocals

Touch Me

(#3, 1970)

• … with Morrison Hotel (1970), the Doors returned to their mainstream rock sound
• Following the release of L.A. Woman (1971—his last album)
  • physically & emotionally drained, Morrison took an extended leave of absence from the band
  • he moved to Paris with his wife (Pamela Courson Morrison), hoping to write while living in seclusion
• 7/3/71 - Morrison died of heart failure at 27
  • Pam died of heroin overdose in the spring of 1974
• The Doors continued to record as a trio through 1973 with little success
• sales of Doors recordings reached their highest level ever with the 1980 release of the the Sugerman/Hopkins biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive
• 1991 - Oliver Stone released The Doors, starring Val Kilmer
  • introducing a new generation of cult followers to the Doors
• 1995 - reissue of An American Prayer (originally issued in 1978)
  • the surviving members of the Doors provided a musical background to Morrison's poem
  • the reissue contained a new track ("The Ghost Song") on which the band provided musical backing to an old recording of Morrison reading from his work

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