The story of The Doors album (1967)

"The Doors" is the first album by the Americans who united to form the band of the same name. It was released by Elektra in early 1967. It was recognised as the best album of the group, and indeed collected a number of compositions that are rightly considered masterpieces. The initial release of the record bears the Elektra label with the image of a butterfly. Further reissues of the album by this studio with the same catalogue number EKS-47007 in the 1970s were issued with red labels.

The creation of the group and the birth of its name

The band was formed after the sudden meeting of Jim Morrison and Ray on Los Angeles' Venice Beach in the summer of 1965. Morrison, having received a university education, lived as a representative of the "golden youth" and almost never left that beach. He had known Manzarek before - they had studied at the UCLA film school, and Morrison had confided in a former classmate that he was writing songs.

"It's like the music from an unreal rock concert is playing in my head."

Manzarek was curious, whereupon Morrison sang him "Moonlight Drive" (this song would become a staple on the band's next album). A shocked Manzarek inspired Morrison to form the band.

He already had a similar musical experience - in Rick & the Ravens - where his two brothers Rick and Jim played. Drummer John Densmore of The Psychedelic Rangers, whom Manzarek knew from meditation training, joined the band, and later bassist Pat Sullivan was added. On 2 September 1965, they made a test recording of 6 songs on acetate vinyl at World Pacific Studios. Among them were "Moonlight Drive", "My Eyes Have Seen You", "Hello, I Love You", "Go Insane" (later known as "A Little Game" from the suite "Celebration of the Lizard"), "End of the Night" and "Summer's Almost Gone". Only three hours were recorded, but Morrison was impressed with his own voice in the recording. Only five copies were issued, and one of them belonging to Morrison was preserved by Manzarek. For a long time the recording was bootlegged, and then the studio decided to include it on The Doors' box set CD in 1997.

There were many attempts to promote this record, but to no avail. After some time, disappointed with the result, the Manzarek brothers - Rick and Jim - left the band, predicting its imminent death. The new line-up included guitarist Robbie Krieger from the same band as Densmore. And already after Manzarek started playing the bass part with Fender Rhodes keyboards, Sullivan also left the band.

It was then that the band started calling themselves "The Doors", which referred to Aldous Huxley's novel "The Doors of Perception" (1954). And the author himself borrowed it from the lines of the English-speaking poet and artist William Blake. The idea is that when the "doors of perception" are clear, all objects appear to the consciousness in their original form: infinity.

A special sound and a first good fortune

The band had its own distinctive character and was quite prominent among rock bands: they had no bass guitar at their live shows. Manzarek played bass parts with his left hand on the newly created "Fender Rhodes Piano Bass", a module for the Fender Rhodes electric piano, while playing all other parts with his right hand. The debut album was recorded without a bassist despite the fact that they subsequently began to invite outside musicians. A number of The Doors' hits turned out to be the result of co-writing. Morrison or Krieger wrote the lyrics and the original melody, then adjustments were made after a general discussion, the rhythm and melody were changed, and sometimes even some fragments of the composition: in particular, Manzarek with the organ prelude to "Light My Fire" is remembered.

By 1966 the band finally became "their own", popular and recognised in the nightclub "Whisky a Go Go" in West Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard. It was famous throughout California, with The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Buffalo Springfield and Love periodically performing there. Then Frank Zappa and his "Mothers of Invention" made a deal - exactly after one of these club concerts. This famous club made Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding famous, and the Kinks, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music and Oasis have all been there.

This is where The Doors were noticed by the head of Elektra, Jac Holtzman, who attended the concert on the advice of Arthur Lee from the band Love, who was collaborating with Elektra. Together with Elektra producer Paul A. Rothschild, he was pleasantly surprised by the level of The Doors, and a contract was signed on 18 August 1966. Admittedly, it was a good time for the musicians: a couple of days later they were scandalously fired from the nightclub. During the last concert, while they were playing the long song "The End", Morrison, under the influence of drugs, hoarsely read his own version of the familiar Greek myth of Oedipus, talking about the subtleties of the famous "Oedipus complex", and then swore loudly and foully in public.

The birth of The Doors (1967).

Less than a week later, the musicians recorded their first record in the studio. The record was recorded virtually live, some of the songs were recorded literally from the initial take. The first song "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" and the final song "The End" were initially released in abbreviated versions for censorship reasons. In the opening track, Morrison endlessly and monotonously uttered: "She gets high She gets high She gets high She gets high" (which means: "She gets high..."), and in the finale of the last song of the album the same tedious and monotonously repeated "fuck". In further editions these moments were exactly reproduced as they were intended. And earlier the band had to accept the censorship requirements, although in a famous TV show with Ed Sullivan the musicians still performed "Girl we couldn't get much higher".

"Alabama Song" is a composition created by renowned playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill for their collaborative opera "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". "Back Door Man" is a cover of a composition by Howlin Wolfe.

To sell the album, a film clip was made of the opening song, released as the single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)". At this point, a serious groundwork was laid for the finalisation of a video shot specifically for the music. The next single "Light My Fire" broke records: it was released in the summer of 1967 and sold millions of copies, staying at the top of Billboard for three weeks! After this precedent the band started to be compared with the most popular American counterculture representatives - The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane.

"Light My Fire" was shortened for radio broadcast in those days: while the original length of the song was 6:50, this version is 2:52.

The dusky mood of the album, the dark sexuality of leader Jim Morrison, and his bohemian lifestyle impressed the Californian public. This rock album is recognised as one of the main albums that was at the origin of the active protest movement of young people and the development of the counterculture. In 1998 "Q" magazine ranked this album 93rd on the list of the best albums in music history. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it at number 42 on its Top 500 list.