The Doors

The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, comprising vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most influential and controversial rock acts of the 1960s, primarily due to Morrison's lyrics and voice, along with his erratic stage persona and legal issues. The group is widely regarded as an important figure of the era's counterculture.

The band took its name from the title of the English writer Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, itself a reference to a quote by the English poet William Blake. After signing with Elektra Records in 1966, the Doors with Morrison recorded and released six studio albums in five years, some of which are generally considered among the greatest of all time, including their debut The Doors (1967), Strange Days (1967), and L.A. Woman (1971). Dubbed the "Kings of Acid Rock" by Life, they were one of the most successful bands of their time and by 1972, the Doors had sold over 4 million albums domestically and nearly 8 million singles.

Morrison died in uncertain circumstances in 1971. The band continued as a trio, releasing two more albums until disbanding in 1973. In 1978, they reformed for the album An American Prayer, which combined new music with Morrison's recitings of his poetry recorded in 1969 and 1970. They reunited again briefly in 1993 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for several one-off projects in the 21st century. In 2002, Manzarek, Krieger, and Ian Astbury of the Cult on vocals started performing as "The Doors of the 21st Century". Densmore and the Morrison estate successfully sued them over the use of the band's name. After a short time as Riders on the Storm, they settled on the name Manzarek–Krieger and toured until Manzarek's death in 2013.

The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified Gold LPs. According to the RIAA, they have sold 34 million albums in the United States and over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The Doors have been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines including Rolling Stone, which ranked them 41st on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

The Doors began with a chance meeting between acquaintances Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach in July 1965. They recognized each other as they had both attended the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Morrison confided in Manzarek that he had been writing songs. As Morrison would later relate to Jerry Hopkins in Rolling Stone, "Those first five or six songs I wrote, I was just taking notes at a fantastic rock concert that was going on inside my head. And once I'd written the songs, I had to sing them." With Manzarek's encouragement, Morrison sang the opening words of "Moonlight Drive": "Let's swim to the moon, let's climb through the tide, penetrate the evening that the city sleeps to hide." Manzarek was inspired, thinking of the music he could play to accompany these "cool and spooky" lyrics.

Manzarek was then in an unsuccessful band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim, while drummer John Densmore was playing with the Psychedelic Rangers and knew Manzarek from meditation classes. Densmore joined the group later in August 1965. Together, they combined varied musical backgrounds, from jazz, rock, blues, and folk music idioms. The five, along with bass player Patty Sullivan, and now christened the Doors, recorded a six-song demo on September 2, 1965, at World Pacific Studios in Los Angeles. The band took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, itself derived from a line in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite". In late 1965, after Manzarek's two brothers left, guitarist Robby Krieger joined.

From February to May 1966, the group had a residency at the "rundown" and "sleazy" Los Angeles club London Fog, appearing on the bill with "Rhonda Lane Exotic Dancer". The experience gave Morrison confidence to perform in front of a live audience, and the band as a whole to develop and, in some cases, lengthen their songs and work "The End" and "Light My Fire" into the pieces that would appear on their debut album. Manzarek later said that at the London Fog the band "became this collective entity, this unit of oneness ... that is where the magic began to happen." The group soon graduated to the more esteemed Whisky a Go Go after being booked by Ronnie Haran, where they were the house band (starting from May 1966), supporting acts, including Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of "Gloria".

On August 10, 1966, they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman, who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was with Elektra Records. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18 — the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and sound engineer Bruce Botnick. The Doors were fired from the Whisky on August 21, 1966, when Morrison added an explicit retelling and profanity-laden version of the Greek myth of Oedipus during "The End".

The Doors recorded their self-titled debut album around August 1966, at Sunset Sound Studios. The record was officially released in the first week of January 1967. It included the nearly 12-minute musical drama "The End". In November 1966, Mark Abramson directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)". The group also made several television appearances, such as on Shebang, a Los Angeles television show, miming to a playback of "Break On Through". In early 1967, the group appeared on The Clay Cole Show (which aired on Saturday evenings at 6 p.m. on WPIX Channel 11 out of New York City) where they performed their single "Break On Through". Since the single acquired only minor recognition, the band turned to "Light My Fire"; it became the first single from Elektra Records to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, selling over one million copies.

From March 7 to 11, 1967, the Doors performed at the Matrix Club in San Francisco. The March 7 and 10 shows were recorded by Peter Abram, co-owner of the Matrix. These recordings are notable as they are among the earliest live recordings of the band to circulate. On November 18, 2008, the Doors published a compilation of these recordings, Live at the Matrix 1967, on the band's boutique Bright Midnight Archives label.

On August 25, 1967, they appeared on American television, guest-starring on the variety TV series Malibu U, performing "Light My Fire", though they did not appear live. The band is seen on a beach and Morrison is lip-synching the song in playback. The music video did not gain any commercial success and the performance fell into relative obscurity. It was not until they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show that they gained attention on television.

The Doors made their international television debut on October 16, 1967, performing a live version of "The End" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at their Parliament Street Colour Studio in Toronto. It was recorded in September when they were in Toronto and transmitted on the show O'Keefe Centre Presents. The misconception that it was at the O'Keefe Centre stems mostly from the title, as the venue shown in the video has a dance floor, which the Centre didn't have. But after its initial broadcasts, the performance remained unreleased except in bootleg form until the release of The Doors Soundstage Performances DVD in 2002.

On September 17, 1967, the Doors gave a memorable performance of "Light My Fire" on The Ed Sullivan Show. According to Manzarek, network executives asked that the word "higher" be removed, due to a possible reference to drug use. The group appeared to acquiesce, but performed the song in its original form, because either they had never intended to comply with the request or Jim Morrison was nervous and forgot to make the change (the group has given conflicting accounts). Either way, "higher" was sung out on national television, and the show's host, Ed Sullivan, canceled another six shows that had been planned. After the program's producer told the band they would never perform on the show again, Morrison reportedly replied: "Hey man. We just did the Sullivan Show."

On December 24, the Doors performed "Light My Fire" and "Moonlight Drive" live for The Jonathan Winters Show. Their performance was taped for later broadcast. From December 26 to 28, the group played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco; during one set, in the middle of "Back Door Man", the band stopped performing to watch themselves on The Jonathan Winters Show on a television set wheeled onto the stage.

The Doors spent several weeks in Sunset Studios in Los Angeles recording their second album, Strange Days, experimenting with the new technology, notably the Moog synthesizer they now had available. The commercial success of Strange Days was middling, peaking at number three on the Billboard album chart but quickly dropping, along with a series of underperforming singles. The chorus from the album's single "People Are Strange" inspired the name of the 2009 documentary of the Doors, When You're Strange.

Although session musician Larry Knechtel had occasionally contributed bass on the band's debut album, Strange Days was the first Doors album recorded with a studio musician, playing bass on the majority of the record, and this continued on all subsequent studio albums. Manzarek explained that his keyboard bass was well-suited for live situations but that it lacked the "articulation" needed for studio recording. Douglas Lubahn played on Strange Days and the next two albums; but the band used several other musicians for this role, often using more than one bassist on the same album. Kerry Magness, Leroy Vinnegar, Harvey Brooks, Ray Neopolitan, Lonnie Mack, Jerry Scheff, Jack Conrad (who played a major role in the post Morrison years touring with the group in 1971 and 1972), Chris Ethridge, Charles Larkey and Leland Sklar are credited as bassists who worked with the band.