Sixty years ago, the world was at a changing point. The Civil Rights Movement was being led by Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama. U.S. military forces were being sent to Vietnam during the war. A global counter culture was growing with artists like Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, at the forefront. Movies like “The Sound of Music,” “For a Few Dollars More” and “Ship of Fools” were box office bombs, according to IMB.

The year was 1965, and though the world was changing rapidly, it was still screaming for more. Out of the change, stepped a band called The Doors.

The Beginning
In July of 1965, UCLA graduate Ray Manzarek sat on the beach of Venice, California. Another UCLA graduate, Jim Morrison, was walking along the ocean side. Manzarek recalled the following in a later interview: “I’m sitting on the beach in Venice California, wondering what I’m going to do with my life. Morrison then comes walking down the beach and I said ‘what have you been up to? I thought you were going to New York?’ He said, ‘no I decided to stay here.’ And he said, ‘I’ve been writing songs.’ So I said, ‘let me hear some of your songs!’ And he was very shy about it, he said ‘no I don’t have much of a voice.’ And I said, ‘forget it man, Bob Dylan doesn’t have a voice and he’s like the biggest thing going.’ And he says, ‘okay, okay, okay.’ And he closes his eyes, and he starts to bob to himself

and he sings ‘Lets swim to the moon uh huh, lets climb through the tide, penetrate the evening sleeps to hide.’ He said ‘You like that? You like it?’ I said ‘I love it man’ and at that point I said to Jim, ‘Okay man,’ I said ‘we’re getting a Rock’n’roll band together, we’re going all the way with this one.’” And in a few months, The Doors were born.

Origins 
Jim Morrison was the oldest of three. He had a brother and a sister. He was born Dec. 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida. His father, George Stephen Morrison, was a United States upper half Navy rear admiral and naval adviser. Since there was a military man in the house, the Morrisons would move a lot. Perhaps the beginning of his noted spiritual connections, when Jim was younger, he and his family were

traveling near Albuquerque. They noticed an accident on the road involving Pueblo Native Americans. Several were dying on the side of the road. After they left the scene, Morrison claims that one of the dying men’s souls jumped into his body, hinting at how young Morrison hid the the scales of the “Lizard King,” a future nickname,  at this point.
Jim Morrison later graduated high school and went to UCLA to major in film. This is where he would meet keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Ray Manzarek would be the oldest member of The Doors, born February 12, 1939. Ray started with grand piano as a young boy, then surfaced to jazz. Ray met his significant other, Dorothy Fujikawa, in an art class. Ray and Dorothy took a meditation class at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. In that class, sat drummer John Densmore. Densmore recalls in his book “Riders on the Storm” how Manzarek told Densmore that he and his friend are starting a rock band, he heard Densmore was a drummer, and asked him if he’d like to be part of it. Densmore agreed. They had their first band meet in Ray’s garage some time in August of 1965. Ray’s brother, Jim Manzarek, played harmonica. His other brother Rick played guitar. But those two quit after the first couple of meets, resulting with Densmore bringing his best friend, Robby Krieger. When Krieger joined the band, he’d only been playing electric guitar for about six weeks. He spent the majority of his life playing acoustic. By this point of time, Morrison had already come up with the band’s name. He got it from a poem he read by William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”

“If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

-“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” – William Blake

They would play in small clubs on Sunset Strip in L.A. This also included the London Fog, which they played at all the time. Their shy singer Morrison would get so nervous in some of their earlier gigs, he would sing with his back to the crowd; this habit ended quickly. At the end of a one rehearsal, Morrison told everyone to write a song. Only Krieger does his homework. He came the next day with a song he called, “Light my Fire.”

In 1966, The Doors scored a gig at the Whiskey A go-go on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Before their set, Morrison told them that he wanted to start

with their song “The End,” which is a goodbye song to one of Morrison’s old girlfriends. Manzarek disagreed, thinking the song should be played at the end of their set like they usually do. Ultimately, Morrison won that battle. The song was a short three minute song, but the Whiskey is what made the song hit the eleven minute run-time that everyone knows today. Morrison would improv, while the other members would just follow him. But they knew at some point, they would have a fast part. It would build up. At one point of the song, Morrison stopped singing and broke out in poetry that the others have never heard before:

“The killer awoke before dawn…he put his boots on. He took a face from the ancient gallery and he walked on down the hall.”

Morrison kept going and said the famous lines that would get them fired, a phrase with the expletive following “mother.” The audience started moving, so the tempo built up. Morrison started to sing: “Come on baby take a chance with us! Come on baby take a chance with us! Come on baby take a chance with us and meet me on the back of the blue bus tonight… BLUE AHH! COME ON YEAH!!” The song built up, then crashed. They finished out the set, but Morrison’s remark got them fired; however, they were allowed to finish out the week.

Word got out about The Doors, especially about their lead singer. Elektra record producer Paul Rothchild offered them

a record deal. And in a week, they finished their first album simply called, “The Doors.” It was the first album to hit the Billboard. And from there, The Doors became famous. “Light my Fire” became a number one hit, with other songs like “Break on Through,” “Soul Kitchen” and “The End.”
In 1967, The Doors performed “Light my Fire” on the Ed Sullivan Show. The workers on network talked to them before the show with a complaint on one of the lyrics. They told them to change the lyric, “Girl we couldn’t get much…,” due to its drug influence. Morrison agreed, but during their performance, Morrison says the line exactly as it was written. After the show, one of the producers said to Morrison, “You’ll never play Sullivan again!” Morrison turned to him and said,
“We just did.” The Doors then began their second album, “Strange Days.” It was released on Sept. 25, 1967. It would include hit songs like “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times” and “When the Music’s Over.”

By this point in their career, The Doors became more and more popular. They went from playing in clubs to playing in

auditoriums. Though, out of the four members, it was Morrison who got the attention. The other members didn’t get jealous of Morrison’s fame, but if they did, they didn’t show it.

At this point, it was if Morrison’s metamorphosis was complete. In 1965, he couldn’t even face the audience. In 1966, he was just a quiet lead singer. But in 1967, he was a rock star overloaded with psychic energy. Morrison would jump around on stage, dance around like a Native American, and people in the audience would constantly jump on the stage to get a feel of him. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek describes Morrison as a Shaman, due to his ability to connect with deep, mystical states, while performing music.

New Haven, Connecticut
December 5, 1967

The New Haven Arena on Grove street in New Haven, Connecticut hosted shows of music, magic, comedy as well as hockey talents. At approximately around 6 p.m., The Doors arrived at the New Haven arena while Tommy and The Rivieras opened for them. Ray, Robby, and John were in the dressing room getting ready for their show while Tommy

and The Rivieras finished their set. While all of that was going on, a a policeman walked in on Morrison with a young female. Not realizing it was Jim Morrison, the cop asked the two to leave because audience members were not allowed backstage. After a back and forth laced expletives from Morrison, Morrison pushed the officer, and he policeman pulled out a can of mace, spraying it right in Morrison’s eyes. The policeman threw Morrison out of the bathroom, while Morrison screamed in pain. The rest of the band, including The Doors’s manager Bill Siddons, heard the ruckus down the hall and rushed toward the action. Siddons said,  “Whoah! What are you doing?! That’s Jim Morrison, of The Doors!” The policeman apologized and said, “Mr. Morrison will be able to preform, as long as he behaves himself. Though he will be arrested afterwords.” Tommy Janette of Tommy and The Rivieras recalls seeing Morrison backstage while he was doing his closing act, making a stretching gesture with his hands to make the act longer because he was in too much pain to go on stage.
The Doors eventually got on stage and opened with “Backdoor man.” Morrison’s eyes were still blood-shot from the mace. But he got up and sang. All was going well. Mid-song, after the instrumental bit, Morrison didn’t sing. The band continued playing, but Morrison started talking to the audience about what just happened backstage. Jim said looking at the cop who maced him. Morrison went on, and on, and on about the incident, smack talking the New Haven law enforcement, saying the cops were jealous of the fact that he was famous. One audience member recalls seeing the policemen slowly get closer to Morrison, and then the lights turned on and the band stopped playing. One lieutenant came up to Morrison. “Say your thing man!” Morrison said to the lieutenant. The lieutenant said, “Mr. Morrison, you’ve gone to far, the show’s over, you’re under arrest!” The police dragged Jim off the stage, and he spent a night in jail. Jim Morrison would become the first rock ’n’ roller to be arrested on stage during a performance. This incident marked The Doors as a dangerous band.

By 1968, The Doors were already a global sensation. They were playing gigs left, right and center. Though Morrison’s

behavior was becoming unpredictable. He would constantly show up to the studio  intoxicated. Morrison’s girlfriend, Pamela Courson, told Morrison to forget music and focus on his poetry. Morrison refused. It’s almost as if he had become addicted to fame. The music has taken its toll on him, and it’s almost as if he needs attention to survive. Morrison would show up late to recording sessions, sometimes he wouldn’t even show at all. One night, Densmore was so annoyed at Morrison’s behavior, he said “I quit!” But Densmore didn’t quit. At the time he didn’t know how else to live without music. But “Waiting for the Sun” was on its way, and by July 3, 1968, the album was finished. Exactly three years before Morrison’s untimely death.
On July 5, 1968,  The Doors were about to play arguably their most famous concert, at the Hollywood Bowl. The band was nervous while playing because the Rolling Stones’s front-man, Mick Jagger, was sitting in the front row. They opened the concert with “When the Music’s Over” and closed with “The End.” Mick Jagger would later say about the concert, “They were nice chaps, but they played a bit too long.”

“Riders on the Storm.”

-John Densmore”

The Doors had been working on their forth album, “The Soft Parade.” They began recording it in March of 1968, around the same time “Waiting for the Sun” was being finished. “The Soft Parade” album would take 10 months to

complete. This was due to Morrison’s excessive drinking. He had gone from psychedelics to boo’s. Morrison would trip out during recording sessions, making him very hard to work with. The rest of the band was becoming impatient with Morrison’s behavior. Arguments would happen constantly. Though lots of the arguing was between Morrison and Krieger. Krieger wrote half the songs on “The Soft Parade.” One of the songs, he wrote was called “Tell all the People.” Morrison hated this song, saying “It’s an embarrassment to sing!” Krieger and the others were proud of the song. But “Tell all the People” would continue to raise tension between Krieger and Morrison. “The Soft Parade” was deemed as The Doors’s worst album. They wanted to try something different by adding a orchestra in some of the songs, but fans didn’t like that. They finished recording the album on Jan. 15, 1969, though it wouldn’t be released until July 18 of that same year.

Miami, Florida
March 1, 1969
The Doors arrived at the Dinner Key Auditorium in the Coconut Grove neighborhood in Miami. After an argument with

his girlfriend, Pam,  it was 4 p.m. and Morrison arrived about three hours later , since he missed a plane in New Orleans. The Doors took the stage and played in front of a rowdy crowd of 13,000 people stuffed into an auditorium. They opened with “Back Door Man.” Jim sang a few lines, than abruptly stopped. Densmore said,“We vamped for a while but soon petered out.” Suddenly Morriosn screamed, “You’re all a bunch of idiots! You let people tell you what you’re gonna do! Let people push you around! You love it don’t ya?!…What are you going to do about it?! What are you gonna do?!”
Densmore says again, “I wanted to turn into a liquid and dissolve into the space between my drums.”
Morrison continued. “Hey, I’m not talkin’ about no revolution! I’m not talkin’ about no demonstration! I’m talkin’ about having some fun! I’m talkin’ about dancin’! I’m talkin’ about love your neighbor till it hurts! I’m talkin’ about grab your friend! I’m talkin’ about some love! Love, love, love, love, love, love, love! Grab yer friend… and love him! Come on! Yeah!”
Morrison kept going. Krieger and Densmore jumped off the stage. Manzarek started playing hoping it would bring Morrison back in. It didn’t work. Morrison jumped into the crowd and lead a snake dance with thousands of people following him. The band was disgusted by Morrison’s behavior.

The Miami incident would lead to a downfall in The Doors’s career. Morrison was put on trial in Miami and was charged with a felony, lewd and sexual behavior, three misdemeanors, indecent exposure, as well as profanity and drunkenness. The trials would last from six to 10 weeks. Jim was innocent on the lewd behavior as well as his drunkenness, but guilty for profanity. He was free from prison on a $50,000 bond.
“Riders on the Storm. John Densmore”

1969 was not the year for The Doors. Their tours canceled, their albums were taken off the market, and radio stations

stopped playing them. To prepare for the new decade, and to not give their career up entirely, The Doors went to Elektra records to record a new album. It would be deemed as, “The Doors come back album.” The album would be called, “Morrison Hotel.” The album was released on Feb. 9, 1970, and included hits like “Roadhouse Blues,” “Peace Frog,” “The Spy,” “Queen of the Highway” and “Maggie M’Gill.”
With the albums released, everything changed. They were touring again, their albums were back in the market, and radio stations were playing them. The Doors were now deemed as “America’s Rolling Stones.” But Jim was still the same. He would show up late to recording sessions under the influence. The band still broke through all the struggles, and in December of 1970, they recorded their final album, “L.A. Woman.” “Riders on the Storm. John Densmore”

The L.A. Woman recording sessions were tough.  Instead of the album being recorded in Elektra records studios, it was recorded in a place called, The Doors Workshop. Producer Paul Rothchild helped as he usually did, but eventually couldn’t take it. His farewell message to The Doors was, “The only way you’ll get the album done, is if you finish it on your own.” Record producer Bruce Botnick came in to produce the album. They would hire Elvis Presley’s bass player Jerry Obern Scheff to keep Morrison occupied. The album was released on April, 19, 1971 and included hits like “L.A. Woman,” “Riders on the Storm,” and “Love her Madly.” “Riders on the Storm. John Densmore”

Morrison was overwhelmed by his fame. And as a result, he and Pam moved to Paris to start a new life. Pam would

start a clothing business, while Morrison would focus on his poetry. They stayed in an apartment on 17 rue Beautreillis. On a hot summer night, on July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison went in the tub to take a bath and cool down, after coughing up blood. Pam was in the bedroom trying to get some rest. He slowly passes away afterwards at 27 years old. Jim Morrison is said to have died of heart failure. There were no autopsies in Paris at that time, so to this day, it’s still kind of a mystery. He was buried in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris, France. Pam joined him three years later.
“Riders on the Storm. John Densmore”

Jim Morrison was very different from his time period.

The Beatles sang about life going on, while Morrison sang about the end.

Some people view Morrison as a poet. Some others viewed him as a Shaman. And to others, he was just another rockstar.

His lyrics and his poetry tell us about the chaos and disorder that humanity contains.

High school teacher Chris Newland is a fan.

“Jim Morrison was a very talented musician,” Newland said. “Obviously, he had died way, way too early. I think he had some demons he was fighting with himself…within himself. And that’s what came out in a lot of his lyrics. The Doors really came on the scene and really made an impact in the sixties … [they] really hammered home a lot of–a much more heavier side than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, so it was an interesting take on music in the sixties.”

He showed that humanity’s biggest problem is perhaps itself. His leather pants, his words, his energy on stage, made him a symbol at such a young age, giving him too much power to hold.

The Doors introduced a new style of sound in the sixties. They inspired many musicians like Pearl Jam and Iggy Pop. The Doors created a legacy that will never be forgotten and one that continues to live on. Morrison’s father, who was perpetually disappointed by his son’s choices would later say, “My son had a unique genius, which he expressed without compromise,” as noted in “When You’re Strange” directed by Tom DiCillo in  2009.

All lyrics are owned and copyrighted by The Doors.