The acid trip that almost overhauled The Doors’ 1967 breakthrough: “Went to church and had an epiphany”
For a long time, The Doors couldn’t quite figure out how to record. When they first tried getting into the studio, everything felt too fussy and too clunky.
By this point, they were already a cultishly beloved live act. When they’d pop up in a city, hashing out early versions of songs like ‘Light My Fire’ or ‘The End’ live on stage, they’d leave a wake of obsessors in their path.
“I heard about The Doors from the superfans at Max’s who were excited about having seen this band with an extremely sexy lead singer. There was a buzz,” journalist Danny Fields recorded as the band appeared at Max’s Kansas City before their debut was on tape. Their appeal wasn’t just Morrison’s looks, though, it was his energy.
It was the whole band’s energy, which can truly only be described as frantic, powerful, and electric. Before the songs were even on tape, they already had that messianic vibe that would only see them get more and more famous. On stage, it felt like something came over them all, sweeping them away. But in the studio, something was missing.
It was their producer, Paul A Rothchild, who eventually realised the problem. “Paul realised they were a performance act and they didn’t need to be manufactured in the studio, they needed to be captured,” sound engineer Bruce Botnik recalled. They quickly realised that the band should simply record playing live, not fuss around with individual takes, just try and get the energy going.
This was all decided when Morrison was missing. In his absence, the live room at Sunset Sound was rearranged, and everything was set up ready for him to return. The expectation was that he would come in, perform with the power he did on stage with the band backing him up, all falling together into their collective magic, and musical history would be made.
It didn’t quite go like that as Botnik remembered: “The only problem in the session came when Jim was on acid and went to church and had an epiphany”. An epiphany is an interesting choice of words for what was really just a bad trip. “He came back to the studio, saw the red light and thought the place was on fire, so used an extinguisher,” Botnik said as their carefully set up studio, with all the mics and instruments ready to go, was suddenly absolutely drenched in water and foam.
Extinguishing the energy for what was supposed to be a major breakthrough, the team would have been forgiven for stalling and giving up. But as the producers and band were determined to push through beyond Morrison’s antics, they simply cleaned up and went again, with Botnik saying, “Other than that, it was very quick”.
Eventually, they got it down. Recorded live with some subtle overdubs just added on top after, the first track they got was ‘Light My Fire’, and with that, The Doors’ recorded legacy began.
