The Doors
Essay Preview: The Doors
Report this essay
Ray Mansarek and Jim Morrison are responsible for putting the Doors together. After going through many changes, it was finalised that John Densmore would play drums and Robby Krieger would play guitar. Ray playing the keyboard gave the band a very original sound. Their first gigs were at the club Whiskey-a-Go-Go. Jim was shy for the first shows and would only face the band members while singing.
Jims father was a high-ranking officer in the army. He was in Vietnam in the very beginning of the war. When some of the band members had been drafted to go, they all claimed to be homosexuals and did not got to war. The song Unknown Soldier is a Vietnam protest song.
The Doors were known to be “poster-boys” for the “Psychedelic Movement” and were very influential in bringing drugs into mainstream culture. They also had a large impact on the sexual revolution. Jim was one of the first “hippy” sex symbols.
Jim was known to be an alcoholic. A bartender, who had been working one night at a bar where Jim had been drinking, claimed that Jim had drunk more than anyone else hed seen.
Jim was arrested in 1970 for indecent exposure during one of the bands shows. The trial lasted two months.
The band itself was only around for 4 years, making their first and second albums in 1967 (The Doors and Strange Days), their third in 1968 (Waiting for the Sun), their fourth in 1969 (The Soft Parade), their fifth in 1970 (Morrison Hotel), and their sixth album was made in 1971 (L.A. Woman). The Soft Parade had a jazzier feel to it which many fans feel did not work for them. By the end they were leaning more towards blues, which is shown in the song Roadhouse Blues.