The End

[jym]

I always thought Jim quit a couple of weeks before graduation so even though he may have quit school he had enough credits to graduate. A symbolic act.

Even on my best dope smoking days I couldn't maintain that regime, although I could still be talked into trying it. On that note, over the just past holidays I bumped into someone at my local bar & was talking abt how in my youth I'd come home from a party & that just wasn't enough so I'd sit in my parents living room listening to Kashimir & smoking a bong just to try & break through. Well, he suggested we get high so I did ONE (1) hit & I was flying, I'm such a cheap high these days. ;D

[ensenada]

;D there nothing wrong with the odd herbal ciggie! ;D
i truley believe it allows for the free flowing of ideas, I mean the amount of times deep philosophical conversations spark up (pardon the pun) when having a chong

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Sunday August 21st 1966: Whisky A Go Go.
The Doors' final performance at the
Whisky-A-Go--Go for the summer of 1966. The Doors play their
first set without Jim Morrison, who is gaining
notoriety for appearing late at shows. The band compensates
by performing their instrumentals and their
repertoire of blues standards with Ray Manzarek on vocals.
During the break, the proprietors of the Whisky demand
that the band members retrieve Jim from wherever he
is. They locate him at a hotel (probably the
Tropicana), spinning in his own orbit on a large quantity of LSD. The band's frantic entreaties convince Jim that
he ought to at least appear on stage with them,
perhaps even sing a song or two. He is to do much more
than that. The Doors finish their set with an
ominous version of "The End." The dark and otherworldly mood of the song begins to mesmerize the crowd and soon all dancing has ceased. Morrison behaves as if he were enveloped in the great serpentine myth of the song and his trance-like state slowly begins to encompass the entire audience. The club is deathly still
by the time Morrison quietly begins to recite the
Oedipal passage, building it into a crescendo as the
other band members seek to drown out his lyrics -
lyrics that at the time were shocking, and that the
ever-provocative Jim insisted on repeating and emphasizing. The cathartic imagery sends waves of oscillating emotions through the club. The Doors quickly bring the song to a close and leave the stage. In the aftermath of this performance, the Doors are summarily dismissed from the Whisky and the event takes on legendary proportions. Within
a few days, the Doors enter the studio and create
one of the most extraordinary first albums of all
time.

Jim Morrison on "The End": "It didn't start out as an
Oedipus thing, more of a goodbye song. We played it at
the London Fog (on the Strip) where we first started.
Then as we played it each night it got a little more
serious. I'd make up the lyrics each night. Then one
Sunday night at Whisky A Go Go - we were the second band- something clicked. I realized what the whole song
was about, what it had been leading up to. It was
powerful. It just happened. They fired us the next day."
"The Doors swing out Thursday,"
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sept 8, 1967
The Doors On The Road, Greg Shaw

[ptlwp]

Since finding out about Mary Werbelow, the lyrics and music's secrets are a pandora's box that has opened, IMO.

[ensenada]

the first part of the end sounds like it could easily be about mary....this is the end beautiful friend...my only friend the end.....to signify the end of a relationship...however i dont think the rest of the song (the majority) is about her at all.. but jim's fantasy land and the killer....
but as the doors said..it started off as a little love song...thats the mary bit...the rest aint.

[darkstar]

I agree Rick. In my interpretation of "The End" it probably did start as a love song to Mary. As the song refined on stage I believe its meaning has to do with the breaking away or a right of passage as is the point in your life when you turn 13 or 18 or 21 or even 35 and beyond. You move away from your parents, maybe drink your first shot of booze or smoke a joint at some period in your life this may or may not happen as it is up to each individual what path they choose in their lives or what door to open and enter and what door to leave closed. The one thing that does remain the same is we all change and it is this change the ending of one period of your life and the beginning of something different that I believe The End represents. Atleast thats what it represents to me.

[wtd]

darkstar said:

I agree Rick. In my interpretation of "The End" it probably did start as a love song to Mary. As the song refined on stage I believe its meaning has to do with the breaking away or a right of passage as is the point in your life when you turn 13 or 18 or 21 or even 35 and beyond. You move away from your parents, maybe drink your first shot of booze or smoke a joint at some period in your life this may or may not happen as it is up to each individual what path they choose in their lives or what door to open and enter and what door to leave closed. The one thing that does remain the same is we all change and it is this change the ending of one period of your life and the beginning of something different that I believe The End represents. At least thats what it represents to me.

I agree with Sara, The End has more universal meaning. Jim Morrison wrote universally. The End could apply to so many things in life. Not just a break up with a girl friend. It's was Jim's masterpiece. He is quoted as saying, "I don't like to tell the meaning of a song to people, I like to let them interpret what it means to them". It makes sense to me. My reality, my experiences, my beliefs may totally be different than other peoples. So my take on the song, though may be similar to other peoples, still may be totally different to me as an individual. But that what makes the song so great. It appeals to so many different people on so many different levels.

[othercircles]

People seem to think Jim played tamborine on "the end." I'm 99% sure it was John.. cause you never hear the drums and the tamborine at the same time.. and you hear the drop sounds before the drums starts. (IE.. John putting down tamborine and picking up sticks)

And I don't see Jim having the capacity to play it like that while singing and then still sing it as well as he did.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The first The Doors heard of the song was in this form when Morrison sang it to them under Venice Pier.

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

It developed into a myriad of Myth, observation and metaphor from his own experiences such as his riding on the Blue Bus to and from Venice Beach.


At the beginning it was a song that changed constantly as if it was paint on a pallet being mixed together by an artist striving to find the perfect colour for his vision.
Morrison altered the song throughout The Doors career but the defining version was put down during the Sunset Sound sessions of August 1966.

He also constantly added to it during concerts. One famous example was the Hollywood Bowl in 1968.

Another night, there was a head-on collision on Pacific Coast Highway right outside the house, and surfers in woodies were killed and injured. During one live performance, Morrison would use his acid-enhanced witnessing of that accident in an improvised lyric for his hoary "The End."
Vanity Fair
August 1 2006
Sheila Weller

And we were in this house and there was a sound like
Silverware being dropped on linoleum, and then
Somebody ran into the room and they said
"Have you seen the accident outside?"
And everybody said:
"Hey man, have you seen the accident outside?"

Have you seen the accident outside
Seven people took a ride
Six bachelors and their bride
Seven people took a ride
Seven people died

Don't let me die in an automobile
I wanna lie in an open field
Want the snakes to suck my skin
Want the worms to be my friends
Want the birds to eat my eyes
As here I lie
The clouds fly by


In the end The End became a swirling maelstrom of sensual imagery which to this day can surprise it's listener even after 40 years.

Anyone else got any comments on the lyrics and the thoughts behind them as well as the music that made it such a soaring piece of musical/lyrical genius?

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Under here it’s all dark and spooky. You can see how Morrison was inspired here. (walks under pier which is cast in dark shadow)
It’s cold under here.
This is the kinda place where a man could write a song called The End.
This is the kinda area we liked to hang in. It’s all wet down here but when you get back there it’s a lot softer. And he’s over there sitting back there and this is where he wrote The End. (indicates back of the pier nearest the sidewalk)

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end

And that’s for his girl Mary. He wrote The End for her and little by little it expanded. and became the great song. That was at the London Fog where it stretches out but basically it was a short little love song and this is where he wrote it right down under here. And we took photos under here. The Morrison Hotel photos were taken under here.

Ray Manzarek Under Venice Pier.
From the special features section of Love Her Madly

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Musically The End has quite a few influences.
The introduction particularly stands out with Robby Krieger's haunting guitar raga theme and the rolling and dramatic crescendos of John Densmore's drums which are reminiscent of Native Indian tabla rhythms.
The obvious psychedelic influences also sup from the cup of the classics with a nod to Chopin and also American folk in the guise of Sandy Bull

Lyrically it relies on imagery rather than any deeper meaning and the imagination of the listener. Morrison drew from things he saw in his everyday life to things he had read and the song seems to meander between several different themes during it's 12 minutes.
It was a song that always wanted to evolve until it was carved in stone on the first Doors album. Not that this stopped Morrison from creating new tangents to the song. The most famous when he related the accident that had happened near where he was staying to the Hollywood Bowl audience.
The best explanation comes from the author himself.

"Everytime I hear that song, it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don't know. I think it's sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be."
Jim Morrison

The Oedipal section created most controversy and argument to what Morrison meant by it rage to this day.
He first added this to the set the band were playing one night at The Whisky A Go Go and it resulted in management not being pleased.

He was giving voice in a rock 'n' roll setting to the Oedipus complex, at the time a widely discussed tendency in Freudian psychology. He wasn't saying he wanted to do that to his own mom and dad. He was re-enacting a bit of Greek drama. It was theatre!
Ray Manzarek

Doors producer Paul Rothchild said that he believed the song to be an inside trip, and that "kill the father" means destroying everything hierarchical, controlling, and restrictive in one's psyche, while "fuck the mother" means embracing everything that is expansive, flowing, and alive in the psyche.

Without doubt one of The Doors greatest triumphs and a song that still has tremendous power even after 45 years.
The song itself has acquired legendary status even going so far as being used in an utterly ludicrous story that Jim Morrison was listening to the song as his life slipped away in a Paris bathtub.
One song that set The Doors apart from other band of that time.
An Apocalyptic ride of a song that conj ours up insane images and landscapes when listened to quietly by oneself.

Used to awesome effect by former UCLA graduate Francis Ford Coppola and Jim Morrison's best friend at UCLA Dennis Jakob in Coppola's Apocalypse Now film masterpiece.

Thanks to Coppola and Jakob the song became ingrained in the psyche of generation after generation and whatever it meant before you can be sure it will acquire deeper meaning ass the generations pass by.
One of the few songs from the glorious era of rock 1965 - 1975 that can be classed as absolutely timeless.


Chopin - Funeral March
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFyAqLtHq8

Sandy Bull - Blend
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLqvyxMPAkg

The Doors

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

The next day was different, however. Due to the complexity of the song, a good portion of the day was spent setting up, but once the tape began rolling the performance was what Paul Rothchild later called "the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever witnessed in a studio." For the recording, the studio was completely darkened except for the lights on the recording console and a single candle burning next to Jim. "I was totally overwhelmed. Normally, the producer sits there just listening for all the things that are right and anything about to go wrong, but for this take I was completely sucked up into it, absolutely an audience."

"We were about six minutes into it when I turned to Bruce and said 'Do you understand what's happening here? This is one of the most important moments in recorded rock 'n' roll.' It was a magic moment. Jim was doing The End, doing it for all time, and I was pulled off, right on down his road. He said come with me and I did. And it was almost a shock when the song was over - it felt like, yes, it's the end, that's the end, that's the statement, it cannot go any further. When they were done, I felt emotionally washed. I had goose bumps from head to foot. For one of the very first times in rock 'n' roll history, sheer drama had taken place on tape...Bruce was also completely sucked into it. His head was on the console, and he was just absolutely immersed in the take - he became part of the audience, too. So the muse did visit the studio that night, and all of us were audience. The machines knew what to do, I guess. It was magic."

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

THE END

The ominous drone of the guitar on that song is due to tuning both E strings to D, while the other strings were left alone, and the fact that I used my fingers instead of a pick.

Actually, I never learned to use a pick until after the Doors.
I'd been playing flamenco and stuff like that before I joined the band.

Robby Krieger: Guitar Player Magazine 1998

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

From Rock Folk magazine July year unknown.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

" That song took a long time to come together. It was originally a short 2 and a half minute love song, But we had so much time to fill at our early gigs like the Whisky and the Fog that we just stretched it out and gasve Jim room to improvise with the words.
Robby and I were always improvising so this was a chance for Jim.
So in the studio it was like 75% together and the other 25% improvised."
Ray Manzarek

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

"It sent a chill, a shiver, through the entire place and froze the Whisky A Go Go. He was taking us on this psychic journey. The club stopped little by little. The dancers stopped, the waitresses stopped serving drinks. Jim was so hypnotic that night."
Ray Manzarek witnessing history at The Whisky

"It didn't start out as an Oedipus thing, more of a goodbye song. We played it at the London Fog where we first started. Then as we played it each night it got a little more serious. I'd make up the lyrics each night. Then one Sunday night at Whisky A Go Go, we were the second band - something clicked. I realized what the whole song was about, what it had been leading up to. It was powerful. It just happened. They fired us the next day."
Jim Morrison on The End at the Whisky

"As far as the Oedipal section . . . we had never even heard of it before that night. We're just playing along
and all of a sudden, he's killing his father and
screwing his mother. Elmer's old partner, Phil Tanzini,
thought he was crazy."
John Densmore on The End at the Whisky

"It was beautiful, it was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever had in a recording studio, that half hour when "The End" was recorded. I was emotionally wrung. Usually as a producer you sit there listening for all of the things that are right and all of the things that are about to go wrong. You're following every instrument simultaniously, you're following the feeling, the mood all the way through. In this take, I was completely, I was absolutely audience. I had done my job, there was nothing actually for me to do once the machines were rolling, I had made sure the sound was right on each instrument, you know when we did our setup, Bruce Botnick, the engineer, had been cued by me on everything that I wanted to do, and at the beginning of the take I was sitting there- producer- listening to take. Midway through I was no longer producer, I was just completely sucked up into it, and when we recorded it, the studio was completely darkened, the only lights visible were a candle burning in the recording studio right next to Jim whose back was to the control room, singing into his microphone, and the lights on the VU meters in the control room. All the other lights were off... it was...very dark...
It was a magic moment... Jim doing "The End", he was just doing it, for all time, and I was pulled off, right on down his road, he said come with me and I did it. It was almost a shock when the song was over, you know when Robbie played those last little tinkling notes on the guitar. It felt like yeah, you know, like it's the end, that's the end, it cannot go any further, that's the statement. I felt emotionally washed. There were four other people in the control room at that time, when the take was over and we realized the tape was still going. Bruce, the engineer, was completely sucked along into it and instead of sitting there at attention the way engineers are wont to do, his head was on the console and he was just- immersed. Just absolutely all the moves right, because Bruce and I had established a kind of rapport, he knew where I wanted things done and when, and when his work was done he did exactly the same thing, involuntarily, without volition, he didn't know he was going to do it, but he became the audience, too. So the muse did visit the studio that time. And, all of us were audience, there was nothing left, the machines knew what to do."
Paul Rothchild Crawdaddy Magazine August 1967

"The End" is eleven and one-half minutes of solid song. It's hints of sitar and tabla and it's faint aroma of raga counterpoint are balanced by a sturdy blues foundation. Anyone who disputes the
concept of rock literature had better listen long and hard to this song. This is Joycean pop, with a steam-of-consciousness lyric in which images are strung together by association. "The End" builds to
a realization of mood rather than a sequence of events. It is also the fist pop song in my memory to deal directly with the Oedipus complex. "The End" begins with visions of collapsing peace and
harmony, and ends with violent death. "
Richard Goldstein New York Magazine 1967


"When it came time to do 'The End' a very different
mood took Jim over. He became shamanistic and led the
small group on a shamanistic voyage. He put himself
into a trance and, through that, put us all into a
trance."
Ray Manzarek

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

MD: Your drum tracks are always thoughtful. It’s never just basic timekeeping but real parts, arrangements. Did you have an approach to crafting a beat?

John: Because of all this background of classical music and jazz and every kind of music possible, I had a sense of arrangement. I intuitively knew we needed a guitar solo or a bridge, or we needed to modulate or change keys, or whatever. And since Jim didn’t play an instrument, he said, “Let’s just do all this together.” So everybody gave 200 percent. And I had a big mouth about the arrangements. Likewise, with my playing, I just couldn’t help myself. I don’t know what I was doing.

Springsteen asked me why I dropped those bombs on the tom-toms in the middle of “The End,” when it was real quiet. I said, “I don’t know!” But now that I reflect on it, it increased the tension. It was a real quiet section, then I’d play something real loud, just for a second. I’m a real fan of dynamics. That’s everything to me. Music, if it has a full range of dynamics, it’s like a human being breathing and going through all the emotions.
John Densmore
Modern Drummer 2010

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]