The Doors
Biography
The Doors, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the 1960s, were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by UCLA film students Ray Manzarek, keyboards, and Jim Morrison, vocals; with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The group never added a bass player, and their sound was dominated by Manzarek's electric organ work and Morrison's deep, sonorous voice, with which he sang and intoned his highly poetic lyrics. The group signed to Elektra Records in 1966 and released its first album, The Doors, featuring the hit "Light My Fire," in 1967.
Like "Light My Fire," the debut album was a massive hit, and endures as one of the most exciting, groundbreaking recordings of the psychedelic era. Blending blues, classical, Eastern music, and pop into sinister but beguiling melodies, the band sounded like no other. With his rich, chilling vocals and somber poetic visions, Morrison explored the depths of the darkest and most thrilling aspects of the psychedelic experience. Their first effort was so stellar, in fact, that the Doors were hard-pressed to match it, and although their next few albums contained a wealth of first-rate material, the group also began running up against the limitations of their recklessly disturbing visions. By their third album, they had exhausted their initial reservoir of compositions, and some of the tracks they hurriedly devised to meet public demand were clearly inferior to, and imitative of, their best early work.
On The Soft Parade, the group experimented with brass sections, with mixed results. Accused (without much merit) by much of the rock underground as pop sellouts, the group charged back hard with the final two albums they recorded with Morrison, on which they drew upon stone-cold blues for much of their inspiration, especially on 1971's L.A. Woman.
From the start, the Doors' focus was the charismatic Morrison, who proved increasingly unstable over the group's brief career. In 1969, Morrison was arrested for indecent exposure during a concert in Miami, an incident that nearly derailed the band. Nevertheless, the Doors managed to turn out a series of successful albums and singles through 1971, when, upon the completion of L.A. Woman, Morrison decamped for Paris. He died there, apparently of a drug overdose. The three surviving Doors tried to carry on without him, but ultimately disbanded. Yet the Doors' music and Morrison's legend continued to fascinate succeeding generations of rock fans: In the mid-'80s, Morrison was as big a star as he'd been in the mid-'60s, and Elektra has sold numerous quantities of the Doors' original albums plus reissues and releases of live material over the years, while publishers have flooded bookstores with Doors and Morrison biographies. In 1991, director Oliver Stone made The Doors, a feature film about the group starring Val Kilmer as Morrison. ~ William Ruhlmann & Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Selected Discography

Live In Boston 1970 : Second Show
2007

Perception Of 6 (L.A. Woman)
2006

Legacy: The Absolute Best
2003

Greatest Hits
1996

The Best Of The Doors
1985

L.A. Woman
1971

Morrison Hotel (Hard Rock Cafe)
1970

The Soft Parade
1969

Waiting For The Sun
1968

Strange Days
1967

The Doors
1967
I think Jim Morrison was a great poet and artist,and that is what most people will remember him by.
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jim was babbling brook of acid and alcohol gobbling demons but what an artist!!
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Ride the snake, I Love JIM! and I'm gonna get my kicks before the whole s**t house goes up in flames!
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the doors are awesome!!
i found out i loved them two days ago when i first actually listened to them |
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just kidding appleseed... i m a huge fan...i just wanted to see if you would get pissed if i said that...but u kept your cool haha i wouldnt have been able to
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READ HUXLEY, THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION ..OLIVER STONE HASNT HAD A CHANCE TO BASTARDIZE THAT YET.
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the movie is just that a movie .which is stones view on the life of jim..have you listened to the other band members talk of him.. they revere and love him..he was much more than a wasted mess..though he did imbibe to excess...if you are under the age of 40 i can understand that you dont get it...val kilmer was playing jim and thats who you thought was weird...he was a poet..a sage for his generation.. i
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the doors kinda suck and jim is weird...ive seen the movie abunch of times so im familier..he did too many drugs...the only good thing is that jim invented the aviator shape sunglasses
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if a doctor one could remove a tumor ,and do very precise surgeries..r i g h t ? now put the same knife in the hands of an untrained person ,or perhaps a psychopath then what do you have? nothing nice ...these people had no knowledge ,true knowledge of the things they were toying with ...so please lay off them for being naieve and human...lets celebrate what JIM left us with ...brillianc e ....as well as frailty..all facets of the human condition..E M P A T H Y is the word we need to ponder.
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if you are one who subscribes to the idea that what we see w our eyes is our only perspective ..try closing your eyes and opening your minds eye...hendri x , m o r r i s o n , m o o n , j o p l i n , a n d all the many other casualties of rock ..died from lack of understandin g their tools..when one does not respect those forms ,those same forms that create ,can also destroy...pl e a s e enough drug talk ..drugs are not bad ,nor are they good,they just are..is a knife bad ?or good? all depends how trained the weilder is
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has anyone ever heard of a shaman that didnt use perception altering substances to induce the effect they wanted.. jim was not a wasted bafoon ..he knew what he was doing but like so many of the others he wasnt prepared for what that kind of power can do, and if not properly tempered will take your life..that doesnt change the fact that the man was a genius..when attempting to use tools to create one must master them ..jim unfortunatel y let the tools corrupt him ,at least he left us w brilliance
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I never said he was a painter. I said, he was only popular after his death, much like a painter. Moron And it is Ms Fran Demers for your info. He was so f+++ up during his shows he had to lean on his mike to keep him standing.
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Jim was always popular!Just about everybody back in the days loved him!I wasnt born yesterday nor' the year Jim was alive but he made classic rock possible!and BTW Mr.Frank Demers he wasnt a painter,he was a poet!You guys need to get your stories straight!Lov e you Mr.Mojo Risin'!
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This is my generation. The Doors were not good or popular until Jim died. Like a painter, he was only good after his death. I was there and no one cared about the Doors until he died. It is sad, but true. And to Mcmurry, that was always the way he way - all messed up on drugs. It wasn't anything to be proud of - kids jumping to their death from the balcony. Not cool at all.
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jim morrison and the doors had their own way of expressing their way of inpreting this world. you may understand their music and love it because it was pure genius or hate it because you dont understand the meaning behind thier music which is cool man whatever floats your boat but personally the doors are genius and will always be genius
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those who have really taken the time to know jim ..would most likely consider a similar line of questioning .. true believers i know are in agreement ..AGAIN THANKS JIM YOU KICKED OPEN MY DOORS OF PERCEPTION !! ! the shaman RIP....
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or better yet have a discussion w him on philosophy and the effect of myth on music ....thats what i think about ... that would be cool ...ill pass on wasted jim ...bring em sober ...;)
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mauirob69 thats crazy your dad was there i was just thinking the other day how cool it would of been to see jim all messed up on drugs and alcohol.
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The discography misses "Other Voices", again showing the Morrison-cen t r i c view of the Doors. "Ships with Sails" lack his voice but is a haunting song nonetheless.
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I was initially put off of the Doors by the Morrison superstar cult. Later I started listening more to the instrumental work - the call-and-rep o n s e interplay of Manzarek and Krieger, the jazz influences in Densmores drumming. The reviewer gives too little credit to the band for Waiting for the Sun, Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel. Hes listening for the wrong things.
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thank you for sharing man .and take notice everyone else reading .this story is just the reason that we all must NEVER .lose touch w the reality of what music is ..its one of mans ways to relate to each other and to all beings ..and for brief and perhaps more than brief moments put us in touch with that which transcends all thought and words ..mauriob69 YOUR BROTHER IAM...PEACE.
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My brother(13yr s old) and my dad went(separat e l y , of course) to the infamous show at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium(C o c o n u t Grove,FL) where Jim was said to have whipped out his organ and flashed the crowd. My dad found out my brother went 5 years later when he was 18 yrs old and said, "what in the hell were you doing there, you were only 13!"
It was funny because he seemed more pissed that "the band only played about 4 songs and Jim did his thing and then left, ripping off those poor kids!" |
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DEAR JIM, THANK YOU FOR EVRYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME THROUGH YOUR MUSIC. YOUR MUSIC HAS BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO ME THROUGHOUT MY LIFE ...AND THOUGH YOUR PHYSICAL PRESCENCE IS NO LONGER WITH US ...YOUR ESSENCE HAS NEVER LEFT US ...YOU TRUELY RECOGNIZED THE TRUE POTENTIAL OF YOUR PURPOSE ..BEHOLD TRUE BELIEVERS '"THE SHAMAN "...FOREVER "ALIVE SHE CRIED "IN OUR HEARTS AND SOULS... THANK YOU FOR LEAVING THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE..AND MAKING MINE A BETTER PLACE.. WE LOVE YOU JIM!.PERPETU A T E THE MYTH
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