DOORS, THE BAND PAGE
 DOORS, THE
|
CURRENT NAME
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Doors, The |
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FORMER NAMES
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- |
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ORIGIN
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USA |
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STATUS
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Disbanded |
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FORMED IN
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- |
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GENRE
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Rock |
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STYLE
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- |
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LYRICAL THEME
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- |
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BAND ADDED
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2004-07-17, 00:00 |
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LAST UPDATE
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2004-07-17, 00:00 |
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.
Written by William Ruhlmann for Allmusic.com.
| Session musicians Add - Fetch |
| Unknown / none |
