THE DOORS
"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." - William Blake
This quote from poet William Blake, was an inspiration to Jim Morrison (b. James Douglas Morrison, 8 December 1943, Melbourne, Florida, USA, d. 3 July 1971, Paris, France), a student of theatre arts at the University of California and an aspiring musician. His dream of a rock band entitled "the Doors" was fulfilled in 1965, when he sang a rudimentary composition, "Moonlight Drive", to fellow scholar Ray Manzarek (b. Raymond Daniel Manzarek, 12 February 1939, Chicago, Illinois, USA; keyboards). Ray then recruited drummer John Densmore (b. 1 December 1944, Santa Monica, California, USA), and the reshaped outfit recorded six Morrison songs at the famed World Pacific studios. Manzarek's brothers disliked the new material and later dropped out. They were replaced by Robbie Krieger (b. Robert Alan Krieger, 8 January 1946, Los Angeles, California, USA), an inventive guitarist, whom Densmore met at a meditation centre. Morrison was now established as the vocalist and the quartet began rehearsing in earnest.
The best-known track, was "Light My Fire", which, when trimmed down from its original seven minutes, became a number 1 single in the USA. Its success created new problems and the Doors, perceived by some as underground heroes, were tarred as teenybop fodder by others. This dichotomy weighed heavily on Morrison who wished to be accepted as a serious artist. Despite all of his problems, Morrison is renowned for his success today and a movie called The Doors, starring Val Kilmer.
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