A song with one of the most famous talky bits ever recorded today, as The Lizard King gets oedipal on us...
The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door
And he looked inside
"Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you"
"Mother? I want to..."
...and if you want to dig into the history behind the writing and recording of this song, it all gets unintentionally hilarious the more you read, from Morrison throwing a TV set and drenching the recording studio in fire extinguisher foam to a historian suggesting Morrison used the word 'fuck' in this song as "a rhythm instrument". Morrison himself claims the song was originally written about breaking up with a girl (aren't 95% of all great pop songs?) but that "it could be almost anything you want it to be". Well, in that case, Jim, I say it's about ice cream, how about that?
The truth is, it's very easy to mock Jim Morrison's lyrics on the page as pretentious 6th Form psychology or hallucinogenic drivel... but these words weren't meant to be seen on the page. They were meant to be heard live or on record... and there, through Morrison's skills as a performer and his 100% conviction in his own "message", they take on a power of their own. Let your blinkers down and listen to this song on its own merits and... wow.
The End also inspired quite a few other famous performances, a couple of which I'll come to shortly...
Although I'm a big fan of The Doors, "The End" isn't a favourite of mine and I tended to skip it when playing their 1st album (same with "The Unknown Soldier" on the 3rd album). Live though, "The End" is a magnificent piece of performance art, but I'm a fool for songs like "Break On Through" and "The WASP".
ReplyDelete