In the early months of the band's live performances, Jim Morrison tended to slink around in the shadows with his back to the crowd, but soon his acid-influenced musings inspired him to strike more heroic poses, such as using the mike stand as a penile extension. The Doors' music was of sufficient quality to impress the LA crowd and Arthur Lee of the band Love recommended that Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, should witness the small-scale performances while he had the chance. Holzman had to fend off Frank Zappa and Columbia Records in his bid to sign the band.
The Doors were somewhat of an anomaly in the Rock pantheon. They weren't part of the peace and love Airplane-Dead-Quicksilver Acid-Rock movement of San Francisco. They had nothing to do with the English invasion, or even conventional Pop music for that matter. Even in their home town of Los Angeles they were considered a world apart from the predominantly Folk-Rock peerage of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas And The Papas. The Doors were never part of any movement. Indeed, during an era of very high fliers, their visionary trajectory sought an orbit positioned well outside of the Rock norm. Their journey was driven by a unique group vision and a determination to push the envelope of poetry, spirituality, intellect and psycho-sexual exploration in popular music as far as possible.
Their first album, "The Doors", was released in January 1967 and did nothing for six months. The debut single, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" peaked at a modest #126 on the Billboard chart. Then, "Light My Fire" was pulled as a single. It broke onto the charts in June of '67 and reached number one in the U.S. in August. It was Elektra's first top-ten record, after ten years of trying. The album it came from also went to number one and remained a best seller for one-hundred and four weeks. "Light My Fire" brought The Doors world wide success and eventual status as a legendary Rock 'n' Roll band. The hit singles continued with "People are Strange" (#12) and "Love Me Two Times" (#25) in 1967, "The Unknown Soldier" (#39) and "Hello, I Love You" (#1) in 1968, "Touch Me" (#3) in 1969 and finally, "Love Her Madly" *#11) and "Riders On The Storm" (#14( in 1971. With Morrison out front, egging on ever-growing crowds, the Doors created the aura of danger, taboo, and uncharted territory, even if the journey was really a little safer than it seemed. Morrison played the roll of pop star to the hilt... taking off his shirt, wearing tight leather pants, and posing for spreads in all the teen magazines. He was busted after one concert, and charged with exposing himself.
After their third album, Morrison seemed to lose enthusiasm for being the lead singer of a Rock 'n' Roll band. He grew increasingly difficult to work with, both on the road and in the studio. His troubles with the law and drugs seemed to have taken their toll. In the end, after conquering America, Morrison and his girlfriend Pamela moved to Paris, in March 1971, with the intention of starting a new life there. The couple were both dogged by drug and alcohol problems, and their stay reached a grievous conclusion on July 3, when the 27-year-old Morrison was found dead in his bathtub. Speculation abounded as to the exact cause of death. No autopsy was performed, but it seems likely that Morrison's body finally gave in to the rigors of his belief in 'delicious ecstasy'.
The Doors continued on for a while, but eventually broke up in 1973 after the remaining trio recorded two albums without Morrison. In 1991, Oliver Stone's film starring Val Kilmer further mythologized Morrison. During 1996, the greatest-hits album and "Absolutely Live" were re-released. Since his death, Morrison's grave in Paris' famed Pere Lachaise cemetery has been dotted with gifts and graffiti from a constant pilgrimage of fans. "I love it," Manzarek has said. "To me, it's a process; every five years there's a new generation of fifteen-year-olds discovering the Doors."
In September, 2002, nearly thirty years to the day after their final concert, a reunited version of Doors returned to the stage with a new singer, Ian Astbury of The Cult. The new Doors line-up also included founding members, guitarist Robbie Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek along with drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police, filling in for John Densmore who was suffering from tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears. Playing bass was Angelo Barbera. "The tragedy and loss of Jim Morrison weighs heavily on all of us, but this ain't no tribute band," said Manzarek backstage at the House of Blues in Los Angeles on September 3rd, after the band's first live appearance.
On February 28th, 2007, The Doors were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek were on hand, along with Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman, who signed the band and worked closely with them in the studio. Drummer John Densmore didn't make it to the event. Since then, there has been a steady flow of Doors' material hitting the market. In July 2007, Rhino Records announced the release of "The Doors Live In Boston", a three-disc, live set recorded on April 10, 1970, as part of the Absolutely Live tour. March 2008 brought "The Doors - Pittsburgh Civic Arena", a live concert LP that was recorded on May 2nd, 1970. Next up, in November 2008, was "The Doors - Live at the Matrix 1967", a double live album compiled and re-sequenced from recordings made on March 7th and 10th, 1967 in San Francisco by club co-owner Peter Abram. The recording is notable because it is one of the earliest live recordings of the band known to exist. The band had recorded only one album by March 1967, "Light My Fire" had yet to be released as a single, and they were still relatively unknown outside Southern California. In November 2009, Rhino announced the release of "The Doors - Live in New York", a six-disc box set of the final four concerts performed by the group on January 17th and 18th, 1970 at the Felt Forum in New York City. About a third of the material on the set was previously unreleased. In April 2010, Rhino issued "The Doors - When You're Strange: Music From The Motion Picture", a single disc of the soundtrack to the 2010 documentary film about The Doors and their music. The collection features fourteen songs from The Doors’ six studio albums, with studio versions mixed with live versions, including performances from The Ed Sullivan Show, Television-Byen in Gladsaxe, Felt Forum in New York and The Isle of Wight Festival. In November of that year came "The Doors _ Live in Vancouver 1970", a two-disc, live album. It was recorded on June 6th, 1970 in Vancouver, Canada. Vince Treanor, The Doors’ tour manager, recorded the show on a Sony reel-to-reel, using two microphones placed on the stage. While not a multi-track high fidelity recording, it is clean and clear. In July 2011, "The Doors - A Collection" was released by Rhino, a six-CD retrospective box set of the first six albums that The Doors recorded from 1966 to 1971. It features re-mastered tracks by Bruce Botnik and original artwork in replicated paper sleeves. In January 2012 came "The Doors L.A. Woman (40th Anniversary)", a two CD re-issue of the original album, re-mastered, with an additional disc of bonus material.
In January, 2013, John Densmore revealed that he was writing a tell all"book about his longtime feud with band mates Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek. The drummer would detail the legal spats between the existing band members in new book The Doors: Unhinged - Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial.
Doors fans were saddened to learn that Ray Manzarek passed away on May 20th, 2013 at the age of 74 after a long battle with bile duct cancer. That sad event prompted John Densmore to bury the hatchet with Robby Krieger and schedule a show at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles in Manzarek's honor on February 12th, 2016, which would have been Manzarek's 77th birthday. This reconciliation seemed to indicate that all legal issues could be water under the bridge. Later in the year the band released a new limited-edition box set, "London Fog 1966", which collected their earliest known recordings. In late December, Densmore and Krieger announced that they would mark the 50th anniversary of the release of their debut album, "The Doors" with a special ceremony in Los Angeles on January 4th, 2017. That was to be followed by the release of the album, "The Doors: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" later in the year. September, 2017 saw the release of a 50th anniversary edition of the LP "Strange Days", which spawned two hit singles, "People Are Strange" (#12) and "Love Me Two Times" (#25) in 1967. The bands' performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, which is believed to be the final filmed concert of their career, was scheduled for release on DVD and CD in February, 2018. Also on tap for re-issue was their third album, "Waiting For The Sun", slated for September 14th. That two-CD, one LP set features 14 previously unreleased tracks.
In mid-April, 2019 Robby Krieger announced that he had written and recorded a new song for an upcoming Prince documentary, Mr. Nelson: On The North Side. The song, called "Music Speaks Louder Than Words", was recorded at Krieger's own Horse Latitudes studio along with Grammy-winning vocalist Macy Gray. Also on tap for that year was a 50th anniversary deluxe edition of The Doors' 1969 album, "The Soft Parade, due out October 18th. On a sad note, The Doors' studio bassist Doug Lubahn died on November 20th at the age of 71. He worked on 1967's "Strange Days", 1968's "Waiting for the Sun" and 1969's "Soft Parade". Although he was offered a chance to join the band full-time, he turned it down.
Densmore and Krieger were scheduled to play a 30-minute, semi-acoustic set at a Los Angeles charity event focusing on homelessness on January 23rd, 2020. February of that year brought the news that Robby Krieger would release his first solo album in ten years, "The Ritual Begins at Sundown", on April 24th. In August of that year, the band announced that a Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of "Morrison Hotel" would be issued on October 9th. In addition to the album, a new line of official merchandise, an array of items that inclued hoodies, sweats, socks, a T-shirt, a jean jacket and a Morrison Hotel key chain, would be available from the band's website, thedoors.com.
In February, 2021, publishers HarperCollins announced a book titled The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts and Lyrics would be issued on June 8th. The nearly 600 page book was compiled with the co-operation of Morrison's estate, and brings together most of his previously published work, including song lyrics and poetry. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Doors' legendary album, "L.A. Woman", the film The Doors: Live At The Bowl '68 Special Edition was scheduled to open in theatres worldwide on November 4th.
Robby Krieger's memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying and Playing Guitar With the Doors was set for release on October 12th, 2021. In that book he debunked the longstanding myth that when The Doors appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 17th, 1967, a producer told Jim Morrison not to sing the word "higher." The story goes that Morrison sang it anyway and the band was told after the show that they would never appear on the program again. Krieger says that is not true. "(Doors Manager) Bill Siddons might've gotten scolded by the show's staff when we weren't around, but I don't remember anyone yelling at us or telling us we'd never play Sullivan again, and I definitely don't remember Jim's perfectly scripted bad ass response to the frazzled, square producer."
The Door's last known, unreleased studio recording, "Paris Blues", was slated to be issued on an album of the same name on November 25th, 2022. The song has a long and interesting history. Recorded during sessions for either 1969's "Soft Parade" or 1971's "L.A. Woman", the master tape went missing and the only known copy was in the possession of keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Unfortunately his infant son accidentally recorded over some sections of the song. Through what was described as "creative editing", the tape was rescued and could now be included on the limited edition album that also features two previously unreleased live recordings, "I Will Never Be Untrue" and "Me and the Devil Blues".
In mid-January, 2023, The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and the estate of late keyboardist Ray Manzarek sold their rights to the band's publishing catalogue, master recordings, trademarks, and merchandising rights to Primary Wave Music, a private music publishing and talent management company. Rights owed to late frontman Jim Morrison and drummer John Densmore were not factored into the sale.
Robbie Krieger remained active in the music business when his band Robbie Krieger And The Soul Savages announced a January 19th, 2024 release date of a new, self-titled album. "Once people hear this music, they get really into it," Robby said. "When the record comes out, the connection with the audience will be even stronger."
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