Line-up

• Jim Morrison — Lead vocals
• Ray Manzarek — Organ, piano, keyboard, keyboard bass
• Robby Krieger — Guitars
• John Densmore — Drums, percussion

History

Origins: 1965–1966

1967–1970

1967: The Doors

The Doors' self-titled debut LP, released in January 1967, caused a major sensation in music circles. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the 11-minute musical drama, "The End." The band--at peak form and bristling with energy and ambition--recorded the album in only a few days in late August and early September 1966, almost entirely live in the studio with most songs captured in a single take. Morrison and Manzarek also directed an innovative promotional film for their first single, "Break on Through," a significant advance in the development of the music video genre.

1967: Strange Days

The second Doors LP, Strange Days, was more subdued and less spontaneous than their debut, but the album was notable for its evocative lyrics and atmosphere. Closing track "When The Music's Over" was, like "The End," lengthy and dramatic and helped establish Morrison's reputation as the wild shaman of rock. Yet the album was also strongly commercial and featured well-known Doors songs "Love Me Two Times" and "Moonlight Drive."

1968: Waiting For The Sun

Tense recording sessions for the group's third album took place in April as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol. Approaching the height of their popularity The Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10.

1969: The Soft Parade

Their fourth album, The Soft Parade (1969), released in July, further distanced the group from the underground, containing extremely pop-oriented arrangements complete with "Vegas-style" horn sections (their single, "Touch Me," featured saxophonist Curtis Amy). Morrison's excessive drinking made him increasingly difficult and unreliable in the studio, and the recording sessions dragged on for weeks when they had taken days. Studio costs piled up, and the group came close to disintegrating.

1970: Morrison Hotel

The group staged a strong return to form with their excellent 1970 LP "Morrison Hotel." Featuring a consistent, hard rock sound the album contains the memorable opener "Roadhouse Blues," which typified the high-spirited assuredness of the entire album. Morisson Hotel had a buoyancy and optimism that the band had never had before with a host of celebratory songs and a couple of lovely ballads. It hit US #4.

1971: L.A. Woman

During the Doors' last public performance, at the "Warehouse" in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Dec. 12th, 1970, Morrison apparently had a mental breakdown on stage, slamming the microphone numerous times into the stage floor. Nevertheless, the group looked set to regain its crown as a premier act with the superb L.A. Woman in 1971. The Doors conceived it as a "back to basics" album that would explore their blues and R&B roots, although during rehearsals the group had a serious falling-out with Rothchild. Denouncing the new repertoire as "cocktail music," he quit and handed the production reins to Botnick. The result was widely considered a classic, featuring some of the strongest material and performances since their 1967 debut. Some dissenters, however, consider nearly half the album to be lackluster blues material that detracts severely from the album's overall quality. The atmospheric single "Riders On The Storm" became a mainstay of rock radio programming for decades.

Morrison's death and its aftermath: 1971–1989

In 1971, following the recording of L.A. Woman, Morrison decided to take some time off and moved to Paris with girlfriend, Pamela Courson, in March. He had visited the previous summer and, for a time, seemed contented to write and explore the city. But by June he was again drinking heavily and fell from a second story window in May. On June 16 the last known recording of Morrison was made when he befriended two street musicians at a bar and invited them to a recording studio. The results were later released in 1994 on a bootleg CD titled The Lost Paris Tapes.

The 1990s and beyond

In 1991, director Oliver Stone released his film The Doors, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and with cameos by Krieger and Densmore. British vocalist Ian Astbury of The Cult was Stone's preferred choice to play Morrison, but Astbury decided not to enter the acting world. While all were amazed at Kilmer's impersonation, the film had numerous inaccuracies, and members of the group later criticized Stone's portrayal of Morrison, which at times made him look like an out-of-control sociopath.

Recorded output

Samples

• Hip hop artist Jay-Z sampled The Doors' "Five to One" in "The Takeover" on The Blueprint album in 2001.
• Artist Mos Def, in what is considered a parody on "The Takeover," also sampled "Five to One" on his song "The Rape Over" from his 2004 album The New Danger.
• The music from "Peace Frog" (originally titled "Abortion Stories") was sampled by rappers 3rd Bass as the title track from their album "The Cactus"
• DJ Lethal sampled "When The Music's Over" for a track on his upcoming solo album. The song features rapping from Cypress Hill.

References and appearances in popular culture

• Jim Morrison (played by Michael A. Nickles) 'appears' in the 1993 movie Wayne's World 2 to tell Wayne to put on a rock concert.
• In 2004 the video game Need for Speed Underground 2 contained a remix of "Riders on the Storm" featuring rapper Snoop Dogg, remixed by Fredwreck.
• The song "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" is included on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube game Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and its PSP counterpart, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix.
• In the 2005 EA game Burnout Revenge contained a remix of "Break on Through (To the Other Side)".
• The song "Peace Frog" is featured on the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and was played in an episode of My Name is Earl. It was also featured in the Adam Sandler comedy The Waterboy.
• The film Forrest Gump featured several Doors' songs during a montage of Forrest's recovery from his wound he received in Vietnam.
• In the film Apocalypse Now the song "The End" is also featured.
• Strange Days (1995) the film's title comes from the song (and album) of the same name by The Doors. Metal band Prong performs a cover version of the song on the movie soundtrack, accompanied by original Doors member Ray Manzarek.
• In the 1987 movie The Lost Boys the soundtrack features a cover version of The Doors' song "People are Strange" by Echo & the Bunnymen. There is also a picture of Jim Morrison in the vampires lair.

The Lizard King

• There is a character resembling Jim Morrison and the Lizard King in George R. R. Martin's short story collection Wild Cards. The collection is written by various authors, and set in a world where a genetically engineered virus has been released upon Earth, killing many but also transforming some characters, granting them superhuman powers. One of these characters, in the short story Transfigurations by Victor Milan, is referred to as "Tom Douglas" and "The Lizard King," but he obviously represents Jim Morrison:

His voice soared in a sudden shriek, and the lights and the band boomed suddenly about him like storm surf breaking against the rocks, and they were launched on an odyssey to the furthest reaches of the night.

At last he took on an aspect of the Lizard King. A black aura beat from him like furnace heat and washed across the audience. Its effect was elusive, illusive, like some strange new drug: some onlookers it lifted to pinnacles of ecstasy, others it crammed down deep into hard-packed despair...

Douglas' powers as a superhero/supervillain include super-strength, super-speed, and an ability to disorient people.

At the end of the story, the Lizard King fights alongside the "Radical" against a Captain America-like "Hardhat."

• 'The Lizard King' is the alias of a fictional serial killer in the video game, Shadowman.

• In an episode of The Simpsons, "Selma's Choice", Lisa Simpson is dared by her brother to drink the water of an amusement park ride at Duff Gardens. Lisa then begins hallucinating and, completely intoxicated, shouts "I am the Lizard Queen!".

• In an episode of Spongebob Squarepants called "The Idiot Box," Patrick exclaims that he is the Lizard King.

• In the early 1990's, an anarchistic computer hacker nicknamed "The Lizard King" played havoc with computer systems from a suspected base in Gonic, New Hampshire, USA. The individual in question was never aprehended.

• In the Web Comic, Loserz, while the character Eric is at a party [3], he pretends to be drunk by running around with a lampshade on his head, and declares, 'I AM the Lizard Queen!'. He then demands Spam.

• In Aztek: The Ultimate Man #4 by DC Comics is introduced Aztek's nemesis, the Lizard King, and in #5 he shouts "I'm the Lizard King! I can do anything!"

• In the popular role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, Lizard Kings (or, if female, Lizard Queens) are the halfbreed offspring of lizardfolk and demons.

• In the popular online computer role playing game World of Warcraft there is monster by the name of Lord Serpentis inside the instance dungeon Wailing Caverns. He proclaims "I am the Serpent King! I can do anything!"

• In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, on one mission The Truth tells Carl "I took some fellow travellers deep into the desert on a peyote safari a few nights back. We faced the inner light and communed with the lizard king."
• In the controversial video game Postal², the Postal Dude says "I am the Lizard King!" when taking cat nip and going in slow motion.
• In the 2005 war movie, Jarhead, Break On Through was played in a helicopter and one of the marines referred it to vietnam music.
• In the arcade game Dragon's Lair, one of the monsters is a humanoid lizard wearing a crown and wielding a sceptre. The game's introduction sequence identifies him as "The Lizard King."

Tribute Bands

• [4] The OtherSide
• [5]The Soft Parade
• [6]The American Night
• [7]Wild Child
• [8]PURPLE LEGION
• [9]Peace Frog

• Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors, by Ray Manzarek, Berkeley Publishing Group, ISBN 0-425-17045-4
• No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-60228-0
• Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and The Doors]], by John Densmore, Delta Books, ISBN 0-385-30447-1