Sept 17th in Pop History
On this day, September 17th, in:
• 1967 - The Doors performed Light My Fire and People are Strange on The Ed Sullivan Show. After this first performance on the show, they were banned from ever being on the show again. Ed Sullivan, who already had in the past censored some acts such as Elvis Presley, accepted The Doors to play on the show under the condition that they would replace the Light My Fire verse “Girl We Couldn’t Get Much Higher,” due to it’s drug connotations, to something less explicit. They agreed to do so, but then on live television, Jim Morrison defiantly yelled the original lyrics into the camera. Sullivan was outraged, and the band was never invited back. I don’t think they really cared.
My Playlist of The Doors on Spotify:
The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krueger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts of the 1960s; mostly due to Morrison's lyrics and voice, along with his erratic stage persona, and the group was widely regarded as an important part of the era’s counterculture.
The band took its name from the title of Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, itself a reference to a quote by William Blake. After signing with Electra Records in 1966, the Doors with Morrison released six albums in five years, some of which are considered among the greatest of all time, including The Doors (1967), Strange Days (1967), and L.A. Woman (1971). They were one of the most successful bands during that time and by 1972 the Doors had sold over 4 million albums domestically and nearly 8 million singles.
The Doors were the first American band to accumulate eight consecutive gold LPs. As time has passed, according to the RIAA, they have sold 33 million albums in the United States and over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The Doors have been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines including Rolling Stone, which ranked them 41st on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 1993, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jim Morrison died in uncertain circumstances in the Summer of 1971. The Doors had just released L.A. Woman, an album so memorable it still lives and breathes, half a century later. The title track is one of the great rock songs of that period: "Driving down your freeways / Midnight alleys roam / Cops in cars, the topless bars / Never saw a woman / So alone, so alone," Morrison sings on the rock classic, a vignette about people at the margins of society.
That spring, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter moved to Paris, where he had plans to develop his poetry. But, a few months later, he died of a cause that was listed as heart failure, though no autopsy was performed. The initial news of Morrison's death and funeral was kept quiet to avoid the attention that surrounded the passing of such other rock personalities as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. But it didn’t work. The news was everywhere - and sadly Morrison had unwittingly joined the infamous “27 Club.” If you’re not familiar with that, it is a list of popular musicians and artists, some noted for their high-risk lifestyles, who died at the age of 27. Club members include of course Jim Morrison, also Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), and Amy Winehouse, to name a few.
Morrison often wrote about alienation, drawing millions of fans, including generations of high school kids who could relate. Listeners were also entranced by the band's unmistakably dark sound. When Morrison performed, he and the band packed auditoriums with their theatrical screams and pulsating electronic music. And by 1971, The Doors had played some of the biggest gigs around, like the Hollywood Bowl and The Ed Sullivan Show (As we noted above, that gig didn’t go so well — at least for the show’s producers).
The band continued as a trio until disbanding in 1973. They released three more albums in the 1970s, two of which featured earlier recordings by Morrison, and over the decades reunited on stage in various configurations, but it was never really the same without Jim Morrison as the front man.
"Morrison's death was heartbreaking," says Anthony Decurtis, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. "You know, he lived hard for someone to die at 27, certainly. And it was a big, big loss. I think Morrison had much more work to do. We all have missed out on that."
And continuing on Sept. 17th…
• 1964 - The Supremes released the single Baby Love on Motown Records
• 1973 - Billy Joel began recording Piano Man in the first of five sessions at Devonshire Sound in Los Angeles
On this day in…
• 1977 - Rumours by Fleetwood Mac broke the all-time record for weeks at # 1 on the Album chart with 19 on this date. The blockbuster went on to record its 31st non-consecutive week at # 1 on January 14, 1978, a mark that held until March 10, 1984, when Michael Jackson's Thriller scored its 32nd week at # 1
• 1977 - Andy Gibb reached # 1 with his first single I Just Want to Be Your Everything, holding off the Floaters and Float On. The four-week # 1 Best Of My Love from the Emotions was at # 3 and James Taylor peaked at 4 with Handy Man. Rounding out the Top 5 was Fleetwood Mac with the third hit from the Rumours LP — Don't Stop
