(1981) Elektra label from 1967 recording.  Purchased new at Music Plus in Sacramento in 1981 while in college.  My stepdad owned a copy of this record.  When I went away to college I could not take his albums with me.  So I bought used textbooks to save money back to buy this record.  I don’t know of any red-blooded American teenager into rock and roll that doesn’t either go through a Door phase (at the least) or becomes obsessed with them.  I fall somewhere in the middle. This is the only Doors album I own. There was a time I could hear The Doors on any rock and roll radio station just about any day of the week.  Now not soo much.  No denying their influence.  No grunge without The Doors.

The Doors were Jim Morrison poet, vocalist, and rock icon; Ray Manzarek on organ, piano, and bass; Robby Krieger on guitar; John Densmore on drums.  Much has been written about this band– their early days at UCLA, their meteoric rise on the charts, their questionable lyrics and the infamous Ed Sullivan appearances, the indecency charges (no one has worn leather pants better), the drug use/abuse and the mysterious circumstances surrounding Morrison’s death in Paris in July 1971.

Side One

1. Break On Through (To The Other Side)  (2:25)
2. Soul Kitchen  (3:30)
3. The Crystal Ship  (2:30)
4. Twentieth Century Fox  (2:30)
5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)  (3:15)
6. Light My Fire  (6:50)

Side Two

1. Back Door Man  (3:30)
2. I Looked At You  (2:18)
3. End Of The Night  (2:49)
4. Take It As It Comes  (2:13)
5. The End  (11:35)

Here are my Doors memories.

I had the infamous poster of Jim Morrison.  The one WITH the cold sore hanging in my dorm room.

There is the much talked about sighting of Jim Morrison at Riverside City College– because I swear I saw a guy sitting alone in the quad writing in a notebook that WAS Jim Morrison.  I was there waiting for my friends to finish up with a class and I spotted him.  I was so knocked out that I couldn’t even move.  My heart was beating so fast.  I sat staring at him and he must have felt it, because he looked up in my direction with a jolt and got up and walked away.

Then there is the time I saw Apocalypse Now in 70 MM and F R E A K E D out to the part in the film with The End playing in it.  Coppola knew exactly what he was doing marrying that song to that scene in his film.  Cinema perfection.

My next Doors memories: I was managing theaters in Los Angeles.  I had the great fortune to be operating the only theater showing Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Ray Manzarek came in to see the show.  I shook his hand and told him how much of a fan I was.  He was so gracious.  At the end of the movie during the credits the Rolling Stones’ song Paint It Black plays.  As the movie would end I would often slap out the drumming to Paint It Black on the ticket takers box (it had such a great hollow drum sound).  This particular day I was drumming and Ray Manzarek was standing behind me listening.  As the song finished I hadn’t missed a beat and I heard Ray say, “Right On!”  I was thrilled and embarrassed at the same time. And then there was the time Robby Krieger came in to see a film at another theater I was managing.  He was wearing an old flannel shirt and looked just like a regular guy.  Very humble and unassuming.

Probably more on the “obsessed with” rather than just a “phase”.  Put it this way, Jim Morrison was a Sagittarius and a poet and so is Illinois… I’m just saying…