How Jim Morrison startled his bandmates with the first performance of ‘The End’
In the technicolour of 1960s arts and the growing popularity of the free love movement, it was becoming increasingly difficult for a band to come along and forge their own sonic identity. While it was arguably the most fruitful time for liberal arts, the pantheon of greats who existed in the era made works of pastiche more common and true authentic innovation hard to come by. So if you’re a young Jim Morrison, leading The Doors into future music immortality, how do you stand out in the already colourful music scene? Lean towards the darkness I guess.
In unison with pianist Ray Manzarak, Morrison led The Doors into a new age of alternative rock, where the esoteric and frightening could be injected into the psychedelic and freethinking. It was a bold, creative move and required a unique sense of execution, but ultimately, with Morrison as the frontman, it was more than achievable. From the outset, he garnered a reputation for being charismatic, aloof, and captivating. His voice was soulful and classic, giving The Doors the opportunity to explore classic rock sensibilities with freshness.
The most famous tracks from their self-titled 1967 debut album are probably ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘Break On Through (To The Other Side),’ but it’s within the album’s shadows that fans can begin to understand Morrison’s heart of darkness. Perhaps the record’s epic 12-minute closer is where his personality comes into focus.
As the sonic momentum builds behind him, Morrison embarks on a poetic tirade diagnosing the era of swinging free love with an apocalyptic downfall. It’s a stunning monologue that twists between murderers, the rejection of your parents, motorcycle rides, spiralling out in fields in what his bandmate Manzarak called “a bit of Greek drama. It was theatre!”.
But it wasn’t painstakingly crafted in the studio. Instead, in what will be but another chapter in a book of anecdotes on Morrison’s genius is a tale from Manzarek, who heard it for the first time alongwith a crowd of fans.
“At the Whisky a Go Go, Jim came up with this great part,” he said, while playing the chords to ‘The End’. He continued “and we’d never heard it before, it was the first time he ever did this, on stage at the Whisky a Go Go. And he had that aura about him that had just stopped the entire place. Everything had gone into just a frozen moment in time. Nothing was going on except this. Densmore’s drums and Robbie playing some sitar things,” Manzarek explains as he continues to play the brooding chord sequence from the iconic track. “And Morrison says, ‘The killer awoke before dawn…’ Oh God, what is going to do?
“He put his boots on, he took a face from the ancient gallery, and he walked on down the hallway, baby,” Manzarek remembered.
A tale that reminds music what it was robbed of in 1971 when Morrison sadly died of an overdose. For The Doors were a band that enchanted live audiences and captivated recorded listeners. So much of the appeal of that record isn’t slick multi-track recordings that have been laboured over but rather the alchemy of a band bonded by their pursuit of alternative innovation, led by a master poet who, on a track like ‘The End’ seemed oddly in tune with the future that awaited him.
