This Day In 1967 The Doors Released Their Debut Album
It was January 4th, 1967, one of the greatest albums of all time was released. The debut album for The Doors.
In 2012, it was ranked number 42 in Rolling Stone magazines 500 Greatest Albums of all time. It has sold over 20 million copies and has been reissued several times including a “50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition” in 2017.
While it was their first album. It wasn’t their first break. Have a listen to the end of this video. That’s the Doors! The band went into a screening room and watched the video below on a small monitor. Boys pretty much made up the soundtrack on the spot They picked up $200 for their services!
While recording the song “The End”, for the album, Jim Morrison was so high, the band decided he couldn’t continue and that they should just try again the next day. Jim didn’t agree. Robbie Krieger said:
“Jim was on a lot of acid, and when we finished recording, he didn’t want to go home. The rest of us left, but he snuck back into the studio and got pissed off that there was no one else around, so he sprayed the place down with a foaming fire extinguisher.”
The album was a big deal for Elektra Records. This was the fist time in rock history that a “rock billboard” was put up. The ad said:
“BREAK ON THROUGH WITH AN ELECTRIFYING NEW ALBUM”
They put the billboard up beside the Chateau Marmont, which was apparently just down the street from the club scene. It was the perfect spot, even though it came with a hefty price tag of $1,200 a month! The whole point was to garner the attention of dj’s on their way in to work! It did the trick, after that billboards went up all over that street promoting artists and their albums.
In the bio for the album Jim Morrison said that his parents were dead. As you can see below, that was not the true. The truth was, he and his Father did not see eye to eye.
While his family had some good things to say about him, their relationship was strained because of Jim’s choice of profession. The line “Father, I want to kill you,” from “The End” was inspired by Oedipus, but it’s obvious it had a personal connection too. You can tell his father thought he brilliant, but said above, he just didn’t think his son was a singer.
