Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison THE DOORS
Lizard King Born December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida Died July 3, 1971 in Paris, France (age 27) American singer/songwriter/poet Best known as lead singer of The Doors Ranked number 47 on Rolling Stones “100 greatest singers of all time”
Education Attended St. Petersburg college in Clearwater, Florida Attended Florida State University where he appeared in a school recruitment film Graduated from UCLA film school in the Theater Arts department in 1965 Made several short films while attending UCLA, including: First Love which appeared in a documentary about the film Obscura
The Doors Morrison and fellow UCLA student, Ray Manzarek, formed The Doors as the first two members in summer 1965 Drummer, John Densmore, and guitarist, Robby Krieger later joined The band chose their name out of the title of Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception” which was a reference to a William Blake quotation “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite”
The Doors… continued The doors performing for Danish television In Copenhagen in 1968 Jim Morrison recorded six studio albums with The Doors by 1971 before his death including: The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting For the Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, and L.A. Woman.
Musical Style and Instruments The Doors play psychedelic and blues rock with poetic lyrics Their music features instruments as: keyboard, piano, organ, drums, guitar, amps, saxophones, harmonica, tambourine, maraca, etc. Ray Manzarek playing Kalamzoo organ he toured with for 2 years
“Light My Fire” First Doors song on Billboard top 100
Musical structure and composition “Break On Through to the Other Side” Played in 4/4 time, features organ solo, steady bass line throughout song The Doors use back beats, boogie-woogie piano and organ solos, bottleneck style guitar playing, and more to give them their blues and rock style playing
“Roadhouse Blues” Song features harmonica, piano, bass line, etc
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