|
Formed in 1965 in Los Angeles,The Doors comprised of Jim Morrison (vocals), Ray Manzarek(keyboards), drummer John Densmore, and
guitarist Robby Krieger. The group released its first album, "The
Doors", featuring the hit "Light My Fire," in 1967.
The album was a roaring success and continues to be the
one of the most popular albums of that era. A blend of blues, classical and
eastern music coupled with Jim Morrison’s poetic lyrics, The Doors caused quite
a rage amongst the 60’s generation.
Jim Morrison’s commitment to poetry and doggedness
for perfection led to the group’s soaring popularity and probably also to its
downfall. To achieve that level of super-consciousness, explode the limits of
reality and delve into a world that was otherwise blocked, Morrison took to
drugs, opium, sex and alcohol. Few poets have succeeded in capturing the
feelings of isolation, dread, and disconnectedness as concisely as Jim
Morrison. "If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people
from the limited ways in which they see and feel," is how Jim described
his poetry.
When asked at a press conference how he would describe the Doors' music, a
drunk and jet-lagged Jim described it like this: "The feeling I get is a
kind of heavy, sort of gloomy feeling, like of someone not quite sure about
anything...I'd like to do one just...um...of being totally at home."
However, the Doors were unable to match the massive
success of their debut album in their successive compositions. Though their
later albums contained some outstanding material, their brash and reckless
lifestyles failed to create the magic of "Light My Fire" as it was
largely imitative of their early best work.
Through 1971, the Doors managed to turn out a series
of successful albums and singles. The group experimented with brass sections,
with mixed results. 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
Controversy seemed to go hand
in hand with The Doors. Jim Morrison’s increasingly erratic and bizarre
behaviour landed the band in trouble more than once. His performances were
always outrageously provocative, lewd and violent. In 1969, Morrison was
arrested for indecent exposure during a concert in Miami, an incident that
nearly derailed the band.
Following this incident, The Doors retreated to the
studio, where they sounded musically rejuvenated on the hard-rocking Morrison
Hotel (1970) and L.A.
Woman (1971). Supporting tours were marked by continued police
harassment, and afterwards, a depressed Morrison left the country with his wife
Pamela, eventually settling in Paris to unwind and write poetry (he had had his
first collection of poems, "The
Lord and the Creatures" (published in 1970).
But Morrison was unable to break free from his
hedonistic lifestyle. On July 3, 1971, he was found dead in his bathtub,
apparently of a drug overdose. He was only 27 years old.
He was buried in the Poets' Corner of Pere Lachaise
Cemetery in Paris, an area shared by Balzac, Moliere, and Oscar Wilde.
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. Till date, books
and biographies of The Doors and Morrison sell like hot cakes.
In 1991, director Oliver Stone made The
Doors, a feature film about the group starring Val Kilmer as Morrison.
Though Morrison may have had a very short span on stage, his iconic figure
still looms large in the annals of rock n’ roll history and his music continues
to thrill and fascinate rock fans even today.
|
