The Doors is the debut studio album by the American rock bandthe Doors, released on January 4, 1967, byElektra Records. Recorded in August 1966 atSunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California, the album was produced byPaul A. Rothchild. It contains the full-length version of the group's breakthrough single "Light My Fire" and concludes with "The End", noted for its improvisedOedipal spoken-word section.[4]
The Doors developed much of the material for their debut during live performances in 1966, particularly at theWhisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. After being dismissed from the venue, they signed with Elektra and began recording sessions. Musically, the album incorporates a wide range of styles, includingjazz,blues,classical,pop, andR&B, all anchored in a rock foundation.[5]The Doors has since been recognized as a landmark ofpsychedelic rock and one of the most influential albums of the 1960s, inspiring numerous subsequent artists and recordings.[6]
The album was a commercial and critical success, establishing the Doors as a leading rock act of their era. BothThe Doors and "Light My Fire" have been inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame. In 2015, theLibrary of Congress selectedThe Doors for preservation in theNational Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[7] As of 2015, the album has sold over 13 million copies worldwide, making it the Doors’ best-selling record.[8][9]
Widely considered one of the greatest albums in rock history,The Doors has also been consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time by various publications, including theBBC andRolling Stone. The latter placed it at number 42 on its 2003 and 2012 lists of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and at number 86 in the 2020 update.[10][6]
TheWhisky a Go Go, where the Doors played frequently in 1966
The Doors' final lineup was formed in mid-1965 after keyboardistRay Manzarek's two brothers Rick and Jim 'Manczarek' leftRick & the Ravens, whose members included besides Manzarek, jazz-influenced drummerJohn Densmore and then-novice vocalistJim Morrison. The group's four man membership was established when guitaristRobby Krieger agreed to join.[11] Though he had previous experience playingfolk andflamenco, Krieger had only been playing the electric guitar for a few months when he was invited to become a member of the band, soon renamed the Doors.[12] They were initially signed toColumbia Records under a six-month contract, but they asked for an early release after the record company failed to secure a producer for the album and placed them on a drop list.[13]
Following their release from the label, the Doors played residencies in mid-1966 at two historicSunset Strip club venues, theLondon Fog andWhisky a Go Go.[14] They were spotted at the Whisky a Go Go byElektra Records presidentJac Holzman, who was present at the suggestion ofLove singerArthur Lee.[15] After he saw two sets, Holzman called producerPaul A. Rothchild to see the group.[16] On August 18, after attending several appearances of the band, Holzman and Rothchild ultimately signed them to Elektra Records.[17]
The Doors continued performing at the Whisky until on August 21, when they were fired due to their performance of "The End" on which Morrison improvised a retelling section ofOedipus Rex.[15]
The Doors was recorded by producer Paul A. Rothchild and audio engineerBruce Botnick atSunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, over about a week[18][19] in late August 1966.[20] "Indian Summer"[nb 1] and "Moonlight Drive" were the first rehearsal outtakes of the album,[6] while the first recorded songs that appeared on the album being "I Looked at You" and "Take It as It Comes".[22] Afour-track tape machine was used at the cost of approximately $10,000.[23] Three of the tracks were utilized as: bass and drums on one, guitar and organ on another, and Morrison's vocals on the third. The fourth track was used for overdubbing.[16][24][25]
The album's instrumentation includes keyboards, electric guitar, occasional bass guitar,[26] drums,[27] andmarxophone (on "Alabama Song").[28] Rothchild had forbidden Krieger from using any of his guitar effects (particularly thewah wah pedal) on the record in order to avoid what Rothchild thought was the overuse of these devices.[16] However, the studio was equipped with anecho chamber which gave that specific effect to the sound.[29]
Ray Manzarek, explaining the bass-overdubs, said:
... on some of the songs we brought in an actual bass player, one of the Los Angeles cats, Larry Knechtel, who played the same bass line that I played on "Light My Fire." He doubled my bass line.[25]
According to Botnick, "What you hear on the first album is what they did live. It wasn't just playing the song–it transcended that."[30] Session musicianLarry Knechtel and Krieger overdubbed bass guitar on several tracks in order to give some "punch" to the sound of Manzarek'skeyboard bass.[31][32][33][34][35][nb 2] Morrison explained in 1969, "We started almost immediately, and some of the songs took only a few takes. We'd do several takes just to make sure we couldn't do a better one."[36] For "The End" and "Light My Fire", two takes were edited together to achieve the final recording.[31][25] The album was mixed and completed in October 1966.[37] Although "Indian Summer" was recorded during the sessions and thought was given to including it as the final track, it was eventually replaced with "The End".[6][38]
The Doors features many of the group's most famous compositions, including "Light My Fire", "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", and "The End". In 1969, Morrison stated:
Every time I hear ["The End"], it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song ... Probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don't know. I think it's sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be.[39]
Interviewed by Lizze James, he pointed out the meaning of the verse "My only friend, the end":
Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate ... That doesn't make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend.[40]
"Break On Through (To the Other Side)" was released as the group's first single but it was relatively unsuccessful, peaking at No. 104 inCash Box and No. 126 inBillboard. Elektra Records edited the line "she gets high", knowing a drug reference would discourage airplay (many releases have the original portions of both "Break On Through" and "The End" edited).[41] The song is in4/4 time and quite fast-paced, starting with Densmore'sbossa nova drum groove in which aclave pattern is played as a rim click underneath a driving ride cymbal pattern. Densmore appreciated the new bossa nova craze coming from Brazil, so he decided to use it in the song.[42] Robby Krieger has stated that he took the idea for the guitar riff fromPaul Butterfield's version of the song "Shake Your Moneymaker" (originally byblues guitaristElmore James).[42] Later, a disjointed quirky organ solo is played quite similar to the introduction ofRay Charles' "What'd I Say".[43]
Promotional photo of the Doors in late 1966. From left to right: Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek and Morrison.
The Doors' breakout hit "Light My Fire" was primarily composed by Krieger. Although the album version was just over seven minutes long, it was widely requested for radio play,[44] so a single version was edited to under three minutes with nearly all the instrumental break removed for airplay on AM radio.[45] Krieger has claimed that it was Morrison who encouraged the others to write songs when they realized they did not have enough original material.[29] He recalled that Morrison had suggested to him to write "about something universal."[46]
Additionally, Morrison wrote "Take It as It Comes", which is thought to be a "tribute toMaharishi Mahesh Yogi".[47] It came from one of his observations on Maharishi's meditation classes, which Morrison wasn't initially studying contrary to the other group members, but was later convinced by them to attend.[48] Manzarek's organ solo on the song was inspired byJohann Sebastian Bach.[49] The lyrics to "Twentieth Century Fox" refer to either Manzarek's wife Dorothy Fujikawa[50] or Morrison's girlfriendPamela Courson.[51]
The Doors also contains two cover songs: "Alabama Song" and "Back Door Man". "Alabama Song" was written and composed byBertolt Brecht andKurt Weill in 1927, for their operaAufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny).[52] The melody is changed and the verse beginning "Show me the way to the next little dollar" is omitted. On the album version, Morrison altered the second verse from "Show us the way to the next pretty boy" to "Show me the way to the next little girl", but on the 1967Live at the Matrix recording, he sings the original "next pretty boy". Notable peculiarity of the band's version is the unusual use of the marxophone.[41] The Chicago blues "Back Door Man" was written byWillie Dixon and originally recorded byHowlin' Wolf.[53][54]
The Doors was released on January 4, 1967, by Elektra Records.[4] Jac Holzman originally intended to release the record in November 1966, but after a negotiation with the band, he decided to postpone the release to the new year, as he felt it was the appropriate time for better album sales.[37] For the album's cover,Joel Brodsky was hired to provide a photo of the group, which later received aGrammy nomination.[55] Holzman also suggested an association withBillboard magazine for the album's advertisement by promoting the record with "hoarding", a novel concept which was made popular later on. It was promoted with the slogan "Break On Through With An Electrifying Album".[56] The Doors were the first rock band to use this advertising medium.[57]
The Doors made a steady climb up theBillboard 200, ultimately becoming a huge success in the US once the edited single version of "Light My Fire" scaled the charts to become No. 1, with the album peaking at No. 2 on the chart in September 1967 (kept off the top stop bythe Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) and going on to achieve multi-platinum status.[58] In Europe the band would have to wait slightly longer for similar recognition, with "Light My Fire" originally stalling at No. 49 in the UK singles chart and the album failing to chart at all; however, in 1991, buoyed by the high-profileOliver Stone filmThe Doors, a reissue of "Light My Fire" reached No. 7 in the singles chart, and the album reached No. 43.[59]
The mono LP was withdrawn not long after its original release and remained unavailable until 2009, when it was reissued as a limited edition 180 gram audiophile LP byRhino Records.[60] The 40th anniversary mix of the debut album presents a stereo version of "Light My Fire" in speed-corrected form for the first time. Previously, only the original 45 RPM singles ("Light My Fire" and "Break On Through") were produced at the correct speed.[61]
The Doors has been reissued several times since the 1980s. In 1981,Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a half speed mastered version of the album on vinyl, cut by Stan Ricker with the Ortofon Cutting System.[62] In 1988, it was digitally remastered by Bruce Botnick and Paul A. Rothchild at Digital Magnetics, using the original master tapes.[63] In 1992,DCC Compact Classics reissued the album on24kt gold CD and 180g vinyl; the gold CD was remastered bySteve Hoffman while the vinyl was cut byKevin Gray and Hoffman at Future Disc.[64][65] It was remastered again in 1999 forThe Complete Studio Recordings box set byBernie Grundman and Botnick at Bernie Grundman Mastering using96khz/24bit technology; it was also released as a standalone CD release.[66] In 2006, the record was released in multichannelDVD-Audio as part of thePerception box set.[67] The next year, a 40th anniversary edition was released featuring the 2006 stereo remix and three bonus tracks, which was mastered by Botnick at Uniteye.[68] In 2009, the original mono mix was released on 180g vinyl, cut by Grundman.[69]
On September 14, 2011,The Doors was released on hybrid stereo-multichannelSuper Audio CD by Warner Japan in their Warner Premium Sound series.[70]Analogue Productions reissued the album on hybridSACD and double 45 RPM vinyl, both editions were mastered byDoug Sax and Sangwook Nam at The Mastering Lab; the CD layer of the Super Audio CD contains the original stereo mix while the SACD layer contains Botnick's 2006 5.1surround mix.[71][72] In 2017, a deluxe edition was released in commemoration of the album's 50th anniversary, and includes the original stereo and mono mixes, as well as a compilation of songs recorded live at The Matrix in San Francisco on March 7, 1967. This edition was remastered by Botnick from "recently discovered original master tapes".[73]
In a contemporary review forCrawdaddy! magazine, founder and criticPaul Williams hailedThe Doors as "an album of magnitude" and described the band as creators of "modern music", with which "contemporary 'jazz' and 'classical' composers must try to measure up". Williams added: "The birth of the group is in this album, and it's as good as anything in rock. The awesome fact about the Doors is that they will improve."[84]Record Mirror wrote: "[The Doors] for Elektra is wild, rough and although it's subtle in places, the overall sound is torrid. They're blues-based and get quite an effective sound."[85]The Beatles had reportedly bought ten copies of the album,[86] andPaul McCartney cited the Doors as an influence on the Beatles' 1967 albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[nb 3]
Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in his column forEsquire, recommending the album but with reservations; he approved of Manzarek's organ playing and Morrison's "flexible though sometimes faint" singing while highlighting the presence of a "great original hard rock" in "Break on Through" and clever songs such as "Twentieth Century Fox", but was critical of more "esoteric" material such as the "long, obscure dirge" "The End".[89] He also found Morrison's lyrics often self-indulgent, particularly lines like "our love becomes a funeral pyre", which he said spoiled "Light My Fire", and "the nebulousness that passes for depth among so many lovers of rock poetry" on "The End".[90]
The Doors has since been ranked by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1985,Sounds magazine ranked it the ninth greatest album of all time.[91] In 1993,New Musical Express writers citedThe Doors the 25th greatest album of all time,[92] while in 1998, it was named the 70th in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted in the UK byHMV,Channel 4,The Guardian andClassic FM.[93] In 2003, Parke Puterbaugh ofRolling Stone called the record "the L.A. foursome's most successful marriage of rock poetics with classically tempered hard rock – a stoned, immaculate classic."[80] Sean Egan ofBBC Music opines, "The eponymous debut of the Doors took popular music into areas previously thought impossible: the incitement to expand one's consciousness of opener 'Break on Through' was just the beginning of its incendiary agenda."[94]AllMusic criticRichie Unterberger laudedThe Doors as a "tremendous debut album" and "one of the best first-time outings in rock history", whose "nonstop melodicism and dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered."[74]
All tracks are written by the Doors (Jim Morrison,Ray Manzarek,Robby Krieger andJohn Densmore), except where noted. Details are taken from the 1967 U.S. Elektra release; other releases may show different information.[27]
Robby Krieger – guitar; bass guitar on "Soul Kitchen"[nb 4] and "Back Door Man";[35][108] backing vocals on "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)"[104]
John Densmore – drums, backing vocals on "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)"[104]
Additional musicians
Larry Knechtel – bass guitar on "Soul Kitchen", "Twentieth Century Fox",[107][109] "Light My Fire",[32] "I Looked at You" and "Take It as It Comes"[110]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^"Indian Summer" was the first recording session, occurred on August 19, 1966.[21]
^Despite their contributions, both Robby Krieger andLarry Knechtel were not credited in the album's liner notes as bass players.[27]
^Paul McCartney didn't refer specifically to the Doors' self-titled debut album,[87] but onlyThe Doors was officially released during the period ofSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's making.[88]
^Engineer Bruce Botnick has claimed that the song's bass guitar was provided by session musician Larry Knechtel,[105] but Krieger argues that he played the bass part.[35][106][107]
^Bruce Botnick stated on the documentaryClassic Albums: The Doors, while hearing the song's final verse: "It's possible that Paul Rothchild was singing in there too."[104]
^Although some sources incorrectly state this record peaked at 106, the actual chart published inBillboard verifies the position was 126.[114]
^Buskin, Richard."Classic Tracks: The Doors 'Strange Days'".Sound On Sound. RetrievedJune 5, 2021.Engineer and producer Bruce Botnick recorded some of the greatest artifacts of West Coast psychedelia, among them the first five albums by the Doors.
^The Doors (Media notes and runouts). The Doors. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL 1-051). 1981.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Booklet). The Doors. Elektra (74007-2). 1988.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Booklet). The Doors. DCC Compact Classics (GZS 1023). 1992.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Media notes and runouts). The Doors. DCC Compact Classics (LPZ-2046). 1992.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Booklet). The Doors. Elektra (62434-2A). 1999.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Puterbaugh, Parke (December 3, 2006)."The Doors DVD-As".Sound & Vision.Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. RetrievedDecember 20, 2014.
^The Doors (Booklet). The Doors. Elektra (R2 101184). 2007.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Media notes and runouts). The Doors. Elektra (8122-79788-8). 2009.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Booklet). The Doors. Analogue Productions (CAPP 74007 SA). 2013.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^The Doors (Media notes). The Doors. Analogue Productions (APP 74007-45). 2011.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^abThe Doors (Booklet). The Doors. Elektra (R2-558716). 2017.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^abPuterbaugh, Parke (April 8, 2003)."The Doors by the Doors".Rolling Stone. New York City. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. RetrievedApril 23, 2016.
^Lawrence W. (October 10, 1966). Phonograph Recording Contract 3308 (Report).American Federation of Musicians. p. 1.Titles of Tunes: 20th Century Fox, Employee's Name: Knechtel
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