The Doors (album)


The Doors is the debut album by the American rock band the Doors. Recorded in 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California, it was produced by Paul A. Rothchild and released on January 4, 1967. The album features their breakthrough single "Light My Fire" and the lengthy song "The End" with its Oedipal spoken word section. The Doors was central to the progression of psychedelic rock, and has been critically acclaimed.
The Doors has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; "Light My Fire" was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It has been reissued several times on CD, including a 1999 remaster in “96/24 bit advanced resolution”, a 2007 remixed ”40th Anniversary new mix” and a 2017 new remaster in stereo and mono - "50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition." In 2015 the Library of Congress selected The Doors for inclusion in the National Recording Registry based on its cultural, artistic or historical significance.

Background

The Doors' final lineup was formed in mid-1965 after Ray Manzarek's two brothers Rick and Jim Manczarek left and Robby Krieger joined. Krieger had only been playing the electric guitar for six months when he was invited to become a member of the band. The group also featured jazz-influenced drummer John Densmore and Jim Morrison on vocals. The band was initially signed to Columbia 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. After being released from the label, the Doors played residencies in mid-1966 at two historic Sunset Strip club venues, the London Fog and Whisky a Go Go, until in summer they were signed to Elektra Records by Jac Holzman on the recommendation of producer Paul Rothchild.

Recording

The album was recorded by producer Paul A. Rothchild and audio engineer Bruce Botnick at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California in less than one month in August and September 1966. A four-track tape machine was used for recording, using mostly three tracks: bass and drums on one, guitar and organ on another, and Morrison's vocals on the third. The fourth track was used for overdubbing. Session musician Larry Knechtel played bass on "Light My Fire" in order to give some "punch" to the sound of Manzarek's keyboard bass. For "The End", two takes were edited together to achieve the final recording.

Composition

The Doors features many of the group's most famous compositions, including "Light My Fire", "Break On Through ", and "The End". In 1969, Morrison stated:
Interviewed by Lizze James, he pointed out the meaning of the verse "My only friend, the end":
"Break On Through " was released as the group's first single but it was relatively unsuccessful, peaking at No. 104 in Cash Box and No. 126 in Billboard. Elektra Records edited the line "she gets high", knowing a drug reference would discourage airplay. The song is in 4/4 time and quite fast-paced, starting with Densmore's bossa nova drum groove in which a clave 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. Robby Krieger has stated that he took the idea for the guitar riff from Paul Butterfield's version of the song "Shake Your Moneymaker". Later, a disjointed quirky organ solo is played quite similar to the introduction of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say".
The Doors breakout hit "Light My Fire" was composed by Krieger. Although the album version was just over seven minutes long, it was widely requested for radio play, so a single version was edited to under three minutes with nearly all the instrumental break removed for airplay on AM radio.
The Doors also contains two cover songs: "Alabama Song" and "Back Door Man". "Alabama Song" was written and composed by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1927, for their opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. 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 1967 Live at the Matrix recording, he sings the original "next pretty boy". The Chicago blues "Back Door Man" was written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf.

Releases

The Doors was released on January 4, 1967, by Elektra Records. It made a steady climb up the Billboard 200, ultimately becoming a huge success in the US once "Light My Fire" scaled the charts, with the album peaking at No. 2 on the chart in September 1967 and going on to achieve multi-platinum status. 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-profile Oliver Stone film The Doors, a reissue of "Light My Fire" reached No. 7 in the singles chart, and the album reached No. 43.
The mono LP has unique mixes that sound different from the stereo version. The mono LP was deleted not long after its original release and remained unavailable until 2010, when it was reissued as a limited edition 180 gram audiophile LP by Rhino Records.
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 were produced at the correct speed.
The Doors has been released in 2006 in multichannel DVD-Audio, and on September 14, 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel Super Audio CD by Warner Japan in their Warner Premium Sound series.
The album was once again remastered and reissued on March 31, 2017, to celebrate the album's 50th anniversary. This 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition contains the original stereo mix and the original mono mix, both available for the first time in remastered form.

Reception and legacy

In a contemporary review for Crawdaddy! magazine, Paul Williams hailed The Doors as "an album of magnitude" while likening the band to Brian Wilson and the Rolling Stones 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."
Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in his column for Esquire, 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 hard rock original" 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". 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".
The Doors has since been frequently ranked by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time; according to Acclaimed Music, it is the 27th most ranked record on all-time lists. In 2003, Parke Puterbaugh of Rolling Stone called the record "the L.A. foursome's most successful marriage of rock poetics with classically tempered hard rocka stoned, immaculate classic." Sean Egan of BBC 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."
In 2000, the album was voted number 46 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. The Doors is ranked No. 42 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Q magazine ranked the album at No. 75 on its list of the "100 Greatest Albums Ever" and No. 226 in NME magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" In 2007, Rolling Stone included it on their list of The 40 Essential Albums of 1967.

Track listing

Original album

All tracks are written by the Doors, except where noted. Details are taken from the 1967 U.S. Elektra release; other releases may show different information.

Reissues

Personnel

The Doors
Additional musicians
Production
Album
Chart Peak
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Singles
YearSingle
ChartPosition
1967"Break On Through " /
"End of the Night"		Billboard Hot 100126
1967"Light My Fire" /
"The Crystal Ship"		Hot 1001

Certifications