The following essay about songs by The Doors was written by Bob Lefsetz

The following essay about songs by The Doors was written by Bob Lefsetz, and is reprinted with his permission.

Because of the length of some of the individual song stories, his essay will be broken into sections.

Here is the first song he wrote about ........

THE DOORS TOP 16

1. "The End" My friend Harvey Kubernik is writing a book on movie music. He had me on the phone for over an hour last week, pondering where we'd been, where we are, where we're going. Soundtrack albums were DE RIGUEUR in the old days. Of MOVIE MUSIC! To hear a rock tune, a popular tune in a movie, that was RARE!

Oh, there was the occasional title cut, like "Goldfinger", or "To Sir With Love". But that played over the credits. And the rest of the record was filled with score. But, in 1982, there was a breakthrough. "Flashdance". Suddenly, movie soundtracks could stand on their own, as records, IRRELEVANT of the movie. And this got so bad, that at the end of the last decade there were a number of hit soundtracks to STIFF movies. Yes, after "Flashdance", after "Footloose", after "Dirty Dancing", the major labels woke up to the PROFIT POTENTIAL of soundtracks. They formed soundtrack divisions. They paid a fortune for license fees. TO THE MOVIE COMPANY! And then they took a couple of their hitmakers, mixed them in with some licensed notables, threw in some of their developing acts, and VOILA, you had a movie soundtrack. The fact that it had almost nothing to do with the film? That didn't seem to matter. Maybe you saw the headline in today's L.A. "Daily News". Movie grosses are WAY OFF! It's got nothing to do with file-trading. Really, downloading movies is only for college students with light speed connections and a lot of time. No, one could argue that this drop in movie grosses has something to do with DVD. We're at the point where the DVD is almost a better EXPERIENCE! You can OWN it, and watch it WHENEVER you want. And there are extras, and alternative endings. Why go to the THEATRE!!! Drive up, pay to park, get there on the multiplex's schedule? And then be subjected to ads, endless trailers, overpriced food and sticky floors. But really, we all know why grosses are down. Because the flicks SUCK! The seventies are seen as the last golden era of film. The era of the auteur. The director who had to get it just right, who had to get his VISION down.

Those days are gone. Nobody's striving for greatness. They're just striving for GROSSES! Hell, the movie studios themselves are no longer independent entities run by colorful characters. Rather, they're a small part of entertainment CONGLOMERATES, and they're run by penny-pinching accountants. The days of Samuel Goldwyn are GONE, never mind those of Robert Evans. Robert Evans is one of the self-promoters of all time. Actually, rent or buy the documentary about him, "The Kid Stays In The > Picture". It's more fascinating than the fiction flicks made today. But Evans believed first and foremost in quality. If a movie just didn't add up, if he thought a director was playing it safe, HE'D insist on rewrites and reshoots. He felt if the flick was just GOOD ENOUGH it would find its own way in the marketplace.

The definitive work he produced was "The Godfather". He kept pushing Francis Ford Coppola for more, more, more. Told him he'd buy him a Mercedes when the film won an Oscar for Best Picture Of The Year. Coppola, the sensitive artist, HE didn't believe. But Evans just knew. The blood, the sweat, the TEARS that went into this movie. You could FEEL THEM!

And Coppola went on to make the even better "Godfather II". And "The Conversation". And then he was so wealthy, he could make HIS OWN movie. He no longer needed the studio. He was going to pursue excellence on his OWN! He made "Apocalypse Now". The stories in the press didn't add up. The screenplay was by John Milius. But he had little to do with the film. There were no stars. And the star they did have, had a heart attack in the middle of shooting. There was a typhoon. Endless delays. The movie was seen as a folly. Finally, YEARS LATE, Coppola debuted the film at Cannes, in May of 1979. Sans titles. Reaction was very positive. But one doesn't really know what to make of the Cannes spin. Coppola was still working on the picture. Then it was announced. At the end of the summer. "Apocalypse Now" was going to open in Los Angeles in one theatre. The Cinerama Dome. This is the OPPOSITE of today. When a movie opens in more than 3,000 theatres. So the studio can make all its money back before word of mouth can spread, that the flick SUCKS! If a movie only plays in one theatre and it's bad, you're done. Kaput. Thirty million down in this case. In real dollars, one of THE most expensive movies ever made.

L.A.'s a movie town. THE MOVIE TOWN! Screenings were held from noon to midnight. You bought tickets in advance. And on a strange late August day, when it looked like rain, and uncharacteristically sprinkled, Fredda and I drove all the way across town for the first screening. On Tuesday. Movies are a tribal rite. A weekend ritual. But this was something different. This was like the theatre. This was like Broadway. Well, the Broadway of YORE, when it was not supported by out-of-towners, but TRUE BELIEVERS! Who had to see EVERYTHING!

Maybe you've never been to the Cinerama Dome. It's been redone, but back then there were two levels. An essentially flat lower ring, and then an upper one that was tiered, akin to a balcony. And the key to going to the movies is to be INVOLVED! To sit close enough that you feel you're PART OF THE FILM! So we sat about ten rows back, as close to the center as we could. And at the appointed hour, the lights started to dim. And I heard this sound... It was unmistakable. If you live in the city, you know it. It was HELICOPTERS! Cruise Hollywood after dark and you'll come across them. Floating in the sky. Shooting their spotlights down on perps. Illuminating them in artificial daylight, daring them to run while police cruisers scream to the scene. FUCK, I'm here to see "Apocalypse Now" and there's a fucking CRIME IN HOLLYWOOD! It's fucking up my EXPERIENCE! But that was not the case. An image started to appear on the curtain. Which opened to reveal that immense curved screen, with helicopters, and then Martin Sheen, in a hotel room, tossing and turning. "Can you picture what will be So limitless and free" That's what we went to Vietnam for. To insure FREEDOM! But instead of setting the populace free, WE got ensnared. In a quagmire. It was dreaded by every teenager. You might have to go to VIETNAM! And you might never come back. As the years went by it wasn't clear what we were fighting for. All we knew was more people kept going, more people kept getting killed. Yes, the body count was on the 7 o'clock news. It was a regular feature. "Desperately in need of some stranger's hand In a desperate land" Martin Sheen needed HELP! But there was none to be found. Nobody was really in charge. He was lost. In the heart of darkness. There was a darkness in Cream, the rest of the British bluesmen. Hell, you could get mighty stoned and listen to Ten Years After's "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and feel like you were hovering far above the landscape. And a lot of Jimi's stuff was dark too. But nothing was as viscerally dark as the Doors. You see the Doors weren't from across the pond. They weren't about outfits. They were US! And that's what made them so dangerous. Our entire entertainment business is built on escape. And on one hand, this IS what people want. But not really. Really people want a reflection of the human condition. They've got more questions than answers. Isn't anybody going to acknowledge the complexity of life? Help them out? At least expose the issues in solidarity? That was the Doors. The music had an ethereal quality. And Jim Morrison was like the bad preacher. The one that had your attention, but instead of soothing you with the word of God threw the Bible out, and made you question everything you knew. Yes, "The End" is based on Greek mythology. Yes, there is the issue of a son wanting to kill his father and desiring to fuck his mother. But don't listen to the rock critics. This isn't what flipped us out. This wasn't what made us listen to "The End" over and over again. No, it was the SOUND! THIS was Alice's Wonderland. Jefferson Airplane danced around it. Did drugs and TALKED about it. Jim Morrison said WHO'S WITH ME? And then led the troops underground. You felt like you were in a mine. You had to hunker down for fear of hitting your head. There were weird noises off in the distance. You feared you wouldn't make it back. You felt even if the mine didn't collapse, you'd never find your return path. Francis Ford Coppola was one of us. He listened to these albums. They impacted him. This was not one of today's directors listening to the music supervisor pitch hip tracks. No, Coppola chose this song on instinct. And it resonated. Sitting in the Dome one felt like one does when the roller coaster safety bar comes up tight and you leave the station. You're going slowly. The hill is in front of you. You're starting to get anxious. And what was to come in "Apocalypse Now" was positively mesmerizing. But it wouldn't have had the same effect if it wasn't set up by the Doors' piece de resistance, "The End". The band cut fresh radio singles. And dark meandering album tracks. But, with "The End" the gap was bridged. It was deep, dark, meaningful and CATCHY! Now it wasn't ubiquitous on the radio. At least not on the east coast. Then again, east coast disk jockeys always seemed to have a bit of contempt for the west coast scions. No, one discovered this ten plus minute opus at friends' houses. And then YOU spread the word. They truly don't make them like this anymore. No one's that good.

Oh, Alice In Chains came close with "Rooster", but now everybody's into making money, not a statement.

e-mail address: lefsetz@aol.com

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