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The Doors - End Of The Night

The Doors - End Of The Night Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Doors
Released: 1967

End Of The Night Lyrics

End Of The Night Song Chart

This is a "confession" of Jim Morrison's aims in life. To the end of the night was his aim through many ways of speeding up death, a kind of death through hallucinations and visions into other worlds (drugs). He was trying to get somewhere nobody had ever been before, a place of complete peace. (thanks, scarlett - winchester, England)

Some of the lyrics were inspired by the French novel Journey To The End Of The Night .

The line, "Realms of bliss, realms of light, some are borne to sweet delight, some are borne to sweet delight, some are borne to the endless night." is taken almost verbatim from the poem Auguries Of Innocence by William Blake. (thanks, max - geneva, IL)

This helped The Doors get a record deal. They included it on a demo they made for Aura Records in 1965. It didn't get them signed, but they landed a deal with Electra 2 years later.

This was released as the B-side of "Break on Through."

The Doors - Break On Through (To The Other Side)

The Doors - Break On Through (To The Other Side) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Doors
Released: 1967

Break On Through (To The Other Side) Lyrics

Break On Through (To The Other Side) Song Chart

This was the first song on The Doors first album, and also their first single. It got some airplay on Los Angeles radio stations after their friends and fans kept requesting it.

The original line in the chorus was "She gets high." Elektra records censored "high," making it sound like, "she get uuggh," but the "high" line can be heard in live versions. You can also hear the song as intended in the 1999 reissue of the album, which was overseen by their original engineer Bruce Botnick. He also replaced Jim Morrison's "f--k"s on "The End."

Jim Morrison got some of the lyrics from John Rechy's 1963 book "City of Night."

The guitar melody was inspired by Paul Butterfield's "Shake Your Money Maker."

John Densmore added the knocking drum sound by hitting his drumstick sideways across the snare.

This was one of 6 songs The Doors recorded for a demo on Aura Records while they were trying to get signed in 1965. Robby Krieger was not yet with the group.

The vocals are a mix of two of Morrison's takes.

In year 2000, the surviving members of The Doors taped a VH1 Storytellers episode with guest vocalists filling in for Morrison. Scott Weiland from The Stone Temple Pilots sang on this track.

This was included on the Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate , with Scott Weiland on vocals.

As John Densmore states in The Doors Box Set , the beat of this song was inspired by Brazilian Bossa Nova like Joao Gilberto and Tom Jobim.

In The Doors Box Set, Ray Manzarek said this was the last song they played live. It was during the Isle of the Wight Festival in the summer of 1970. The festival occurred while Morrison was on trial in Miami faced with charges of indecent exposure, and the band got a special five days of recess to be in England and get back to US. "This was to be the first gig of an European tour just as Miami was to be the first gig of a 20-city US tour. We never got beyond the first date of either one," said Ray. (thanks, Nisio - Belo Horizonte, Brazil, for above 2)

In an episode of The Simpsons, Krusty the Klown sings this when he shows the crowd a tape of him when he was younger. (thanks, bob - Laguna Beach, CA)

The Doors - Soul Kitchen

The Doors - Soul Kitchen Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Doors
Released: 1967

Soul Kitchen Lyrics

Soul Kitchen Song Chart

This is a tribute to a soul food restaurant Jim Morrison ate at on Venice Beach called Olivia's. Morrison often stayed too late at Olivia's, where he liked the food because it reminded him of home and warmed his "soul." They often kicked him out so they can close, thus lines like: "let me sleep all night, in your soul kitchen."

"Soul Kitchen" as a restaurant title, would have of course referred to "soul food." That's a traditional kind of cuisine popular with African Americans of the mid-20th century, named in harmony with other "soul" affectations. Soul food usually revolved around ham (cuts like hog's feet and hog jowls), beans, okra, hushpuppies, cornbread, collard greens, and other one-offs of standard American fair. The idea is to that the food is both economical and very filling. People in colder climates (from any culture) may also find soul food comforting in the heart of winter, since you're going to burn all those calories shoveling snow anyway.

According to the Greil Marcus book The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, "Soul Kitchen" was The Doors' own "Gloria," comparing the steady climb toward a looming chorus. It also quotes Paul Williams' May 1967 article in Crawdaddy! opining that it was more comparable to "Blowin' in the Wind," in that both songs have a message, but the message of "Soul Kitchen" is of course "learn to forget."

Meanwhile, John Densmore's book Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors declares that the title restaurant Olivia's was a "small soul food restaurant at the corner of Ocean Park and Main." The author describes a meal there with Morrison, commenting that the restaurant "belonged in Biloxi, Mississippi" and resembled "an Amtrak dining car that got stranded on the beach" and was packed with UCLA film students. Another famous diner was Linda Ronstadt.

He is not credited on the album, but Larry Knetchel was brought in to play bass. The Doors usually did not use a bass player, but producer Paul Rothchild felt this needed it.

This song was used as part of the soundtrack to the 1994 blockbuster film Forrest Gump and in the 2003 documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip. The song "I'm a Tree" by alternative Hip-Hop artist Imani Coppola samples this song, and Coppola's song appears in many more film and TV episode soundtracks.

Jim Morrison sang lead and harmony. His vocals were overdubbed.

The punk rock band X released a cover of this song on their 1980 album Los Angeles.

In terms of time length, at 3 min. 35 seconds, this song is the second-longest on The Doors' debut album. With the longest, of course, being "The End."

The Doors - Back Door Man

The Doors - Back Door Man Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Doors
Released: 1967

Back Door Man Lyrics

Wha, yeah!, c'mon, yeah, yeah, c'mon, yeah
I'm a Back Door Man, I'm a back door man
The men don't know, but the little girl understand

Hey, all you people that tryin' to sleep
I'm out to make it with my midnight dream, yeah
'Cause I'm a back door man, the men don't know
But the little girls understand, all right, yeah

You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans
I eat more chicken, than any man ever seen, yeah, yeah
I'm a back door man, wha, the men don't know
But the little girl understand

Well, I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
Whoa, baby, I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand

Writer/s: WILLIE DIXON
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Back Door Man Song Chart

A Willie Dixon blues song from 1961, this has been covered by John Hammond Jr. and Howlin' Wolf, among others. The Doors decided to cover this after their guitarist Robby Krieger heard John Hammond Jr.'s version.

A "Back Door Man" is a guy who has relations with a woman while her husband has been out slaving away to provide for her. The usual guilty perpetrator if a wife was caught cheating was a regular tradesman caller (Ice Man, Insurance Salesman etc.). He would then run out the back door as the husband entered the front door.

The "Back Door Man" theme has been taken up in several Soul and Blues songs, including "Back Door Santa" by Clarence Carter. (thanks, Gary - Thetford, England, for above 2)

At a show at Winterland in San Francisco, The Doors stopped in the middle of this when their taped performance came on The Jonathan Winters Show. They watched the segment from a TV on stage, picked up their instruments, and finished the song.

In 2000, the surviving members of the Doors taped a VH1 Storytellers episode with guest vocalists filling in for Morrison. Former Cult lead singer Ian Astbury sang on this track. He became their new lead singer when Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek re-formed The Doors a few years later. Astbury told us: "I can really say that for me it was authentic. It wasn't something I was doing as a career move. It's something I did because I was an absolutely venerated devotee. I put them in a very, very high place." (Read more about his Doors experience in our interview with Ian Astbury .)

The Doors played a lot of Blues songs in their early days when they were playing clubs, but this is the only one they recorded until 2 years later, when they did "Crawling King Snake" on LA Woman.

The Doors performed this at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. The Doors didn't play well, as Morrison was worried about his trial resulting from a Miami concert where he was accused of exposing himself to the crowd. Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure, but died while the case was under appeal. In 2010, the governor of Florida granted Morrison a posthumous pardon after a fan requested a review of the case.

The Doors were playing this in New Haven, Connecticut on December 9, 1967 when Jim Morrison was arrested on stage for "giving an indecent or immoral exhibition." He was angry about being confronted backstage by police after he was seen in an allegedly sexual encounter with a young girl. When he took the stage, during the middle section of this song, he said this before three officers arrested him, making him the first rock star arrested in mid-performance:

"We started talking and we wanted some privacy and so went into this little show room. We weren't doing anything. You know, just standing there talking, and then this little man in a little blue suit and a little blue cap came in there. He said 'Whatcha doin' there?' 'Nothin'.' But he didn't go away, he stood there and then he reached round behind him and brought out this little black can of something. It looked like shaving cream. And then he sprayed it in my eyes. I was blinded for about 30 minutes."

Jim Morrison left out lyrics from the original version about being accused of murder.

The Doors often opened their concerts with this song. Typically, the concerts ended with "The End." They rarely did encores. (thanks, John - Topeka, KS)

The Doors - Light My Fire

The Doors - Light My Fire Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Doors
Released: 1967

Light My Fire Lyrics

Light My Fire Song Chart

This became The Doors' signature song. Released on their first album, it was a huge hit and launched them to stardom. Before this was released, The Doors were an underground band popular in the Los Angeles area, but this got the attention of a mass audience.

The Doors' record company thought this was too long to get radio play, so the guitar solos were edited down for the single to make it considerably shorter. Many stations played the 6:50 album version anyway. Since the single was a shortened version, fans had to buy the album to get the extended mix, which helped spur sales of the album.

Elektra founder Jaz Holzman recalled to Mojo magazine November 2010: "We had that huge problem with the time length - seven-and-a-half minutes. Nobody could figure out how to cut it. Finally I said to Rothchild, Nobody can cut it but you. When her cut out the solo, there were screams. Except from Jim. Jim said, 'Imagine a kid in Minneapolis hearing even the cut version over the radio, it's going to turn his head around.' So they said, 'Go ahead, release it.' We released it with the full version on the other side.

Most of the lyrics were written by Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. He wanted to write about one of the elements: fire, air, earth, and water. Jim Morrison wrote some of the second verse, and Ray Manzarek came up with the organ intro.

The extended organ and guitar solos in the album version of the song are based on John Coltrane's Jazz cover of the song "My Favorite Things" from the motion picture The Sound of Music. (thanks, Sam - Lincoln, NE)

Jim Morrison indicated in his notebooks that he disliked this song and hated performing it. He also seemed to resent that the popularity of the band derived from this song, which he had just a small part writing. (thanks, John - Topeka, KS)

This was produced by Paul Rothchild and was recorded in late 1966 and then released in April 1967.

The song topped the chart for the first three weeks in July 1967. It sold over one million copies and was the first #1 hit for their record label Elektra. (thanks, Kain - Charleston, SC, for above 2)

The producers of The Ed Sullivan Show asked the band to change the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher" for their appearance in 1967. Morrison said he would, but sung it anyway. Afterwards, he told Sullivan that he was nervous and simply forgot to change the line. This didn't fly, and The Doors were never invited back.

A blind, Puerto Rican singer named Jose Feliciano recorded a Latin-tinged version of this song that reached #3 in 1968 and won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance, Male. For Feliciano, who also won the Best New Artist Grammy that year, the song was his breakout hit and introduced his style of acoustic, woodwind-heavy arrangements. Based on his "Light My Fire" performance, Feliciano was asked to sing the The Star Spangled Banner before Game 5 of World Series between the Tigers and Cardinals. He delivered the first non-traditional take on the National Anthem at a major sporting event, doing a slow, acoustic version and causing an uproar. Feliciano capitalized on the controversy by releasing his Anthem performance as a single, and it reached #50 in the US.

Buick offered The Doors $100,000 to use this in a commercial as "Come on Buick, light my fire." With Morrison away, Krieger, Densmore, and Manzarek agreed to allow it. When Morrison found out, he pitched a fit and killed the deal.

This was the last song Jim Morrison performed live. It was a show at The Warehouse in New Orleans.

Train covered this on the 2000 Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate . Lead singer Pat Monahan sang with the remaining members (Manzarek, Krieger, Densmore) on the VH1's Storytellers dedicated to the Doors.

According to Ray Manzarek on BBC Radio 2's program Ray Manzarek's Summer of Love, the baseline to "Light My Fire" was inspired by Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill." (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)

Manzarek told About.com how the keyboard solo came about: "It was exactly what we were doing at the time at Whisky a Go Go - letting the music take us wherever it might lead in a particular performance, just improvising. And that’s exactly the same way that solo came about." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The Doors didn't have a bass player, but there is some bass on this song. Determining who played it is an inexact science, as session musicians were not formally credited at the time, but Carol Kaye claims it was her. She was a first call studio pro at the time, and had performed on a lot of the hits that were recorded in Los Angeles, including many of Phil Spector's productions. She told us regarding her involvement: "The Doors weren't there. Just a couple of the guys were there in the booth. We cut the track. I'm playing on that, but I don't like to talk about it, because there's too many fanatics about that stuff. I'm a prude. I don't do drugs. I think it's stupid. I think for people to be into drugs and to die on stage, I think that's so stupid, and totally unnecessary. So I stay away from even talking about that. But I am on the contract, yeah, I played on the hit of that." (Here's our full Carol Kaye interview .)