The Doors’ epic ode to a general store
The 1960s was a pivotal time in popular culture, with music, fashion, film, art, and societal attitudes dramatically shifting. With people born at the end of the war now old enough to think independently and innovatively, the decade saw experiments with new musical styles, drugs and ways of living. One band that became significant figures in the American countercultural revolution was The Doors, whose work infused classic blues with rock and roll and psychedelia.
Named after Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, a book about the author’s experience with hallucinogenic drugs, The Doors encapsulated this free-thinking, psychedelic period of history. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek once told Newsweek, “There are things you know about and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors – that’s us.”
The Doors released six albums with their enigmatic frontman Jim Morrison, who tragically passed away when he was 27 in 1971. From their self-titled debut to L.A. Woman, the band showcased an immense talent for creating songs that were both complex and accessible, garnering a wide fanbase. Morrison, who considered himself more of a poet than a musician, imbued his lyrics with great depth, inspired by his favourite writers, from Symbolists to Beat poets.
Morrison moved between dark and light lyrical themes, sometimes penning love songs and other times highlighting the violence and chaos surrounding him. The cheery Waiting for the Sun cut ‘Love Street’ is an example of the former, with Morrison writing the track about his long-time girlfriend, Pamela Courson.
The pair first met in 1965 after The Doors played a series of shows at the London Fog nightclub. Through the years, the couple engaged in a tumultuous open relationship, although they remained close, eventually moving to Paris together, where Morrison would tragically pass away. However, the 1968 song depicts their time living at 1812 Rothdell Trail in Laurel Canyon, with the couple dubbing the road ‘Love Street’.
Here, they would sit and watch the hippies of Los Angeles walk by, as reflected in the lines, “I see you live on Love Street/ There’s this store where the creatures meet/ I wonder what they do in there”. The “creatures” represent the hippies, who seemingly gathered in the Canyon Country Store across the road from the couple’s house.
So, not only is ‘Love Street’ an ode to Courson, whom Morrison describes as having completely charmed him (“she has me and she has you”), but it is also an ode to the hippies who defined the city, often hanging out by the local store by his house. This observation was typical of Morrison’s style, and through these lyrics, he paints a vivid picture of his life in Los Angeles with his lover, illuminating the surroundings which defined their time together.
