A series of posts on doors in popular culture would be woefully inadequate without a post on the doors … yes, The Doors! The Doors were a rock/pop/pschychedelia supergroup in the 60s and 70s, headed by Jim Morrison of LSD fame, and also including John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, and Robby Krieger. Jim Morrison famously struggled with drug abuse, and died in 1971 of a heart failure … induced by what, it isn’t known. The remaining members continued playing without him, with Robby and Ray filling in on vocals for another couple of years, before drummer John Densmore left the band and obtained an injuction against Ray and Robby using the name The Doors.

The songs by The Doors that were the most popular included:
• Light My Fire
• Break on Through (To the Other Side)
• LA Woman
• Riders on the Storm
• The End
• Moonlight Drive
• Hello, I Love You
• Love Her Madly
• People Are Strange
• Love Me Two Times
• Touch Me
• The Unknown Soldier

The band’s name comes from the William Blake poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (which was also hijacked by Aldous Huxley for his book The Doors of Perception) – a lyric in the 14th plate is ‘When the doors of perception are cleansed, everything will appear to man as it is – infinite’. In the context of Jim Morrison and The Doors, this was twisted a little, to mean that when a person took LSD, everything appeared as it truly was – infinite. This was such a common and accepted social phenomenon in the 60s, that taking acid expanded your mind, and allowed you to see the truth of things – however, I sincerely doubt that it was Blake’s intention in writing the original line in the poem! Especially given that while other natural drugs were common among some cultures in the 18th century, LSD had yet to be synthesized, and was almost definitely not common in poor old Blake’s uptight England of the time. Here is the plate it comes from:

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed, and appear infinite and holy whereas it now appears finite & corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment. But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.

Regardless of how true to the spirit of the line The Doors were, the intention behind the name, and especially behind using the words as an excerpt from that poem, is to create an atmosphere and guiding intention for the band as opening the doors of perception for the people of the time … of saying the truth through their songs and lyrics. Whether you believe they achieved that, or not, is up to you … In fact, personally I think it is debatable whether any band or lyricist can speak the truth and uncover the truth through music, which is naturally quite personal and interpretive.

The movie, The Doors, with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, is a beautiful sepia-toned representation of the life of the band as a whole … well put together, and as truthful as you can hope to be when putting the complexities of life, seen from many different perspectives, down on film. Highly recommended for those whose reading consists mainly of blog posts (!) and just want to vegg out otherwise!

Photo credits: Wikipedia

          

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