@@bobowrathsovine. what was my original statement again... ? my lap top scrubs stuff on auto pilot. i'll say another thing about the doors while i'm here , a few other bands have achieved this as well but it's this, every single track is totally different and undefinable from the previous, not like say Oasis or U2 or dare i say the Stones etc. until the lyrics kick in one couldn't guess who was playing.
@@johnhouse9983 While I'm a pretty big fan of The Doors, going back to 23 years ago when I very first started really listening to their albums (I grew up hearing them before that, but was just a little kid) I still have to agree with what you said there.
This song and how it was used in the movie " Apocalypse Now" in the beginning and the end of the movie was the perfect match of film and music defining insanity in unison.
***THE DOORS TRIVIA TIME!!*** ...Is this The End!?? ...not on your LIFE..... ...This looooooong tune is one of THE most important tracks in Rock history; a breakup tune (over a girl), turns into a psychological, dark, twisted, Freudian-complex swan song, that added VERY dark ties to Rock Music....60's Rock NEVER delved this deep before, and, it was stirring to hear, in 1967.... - Jim Morrison may not have 'been' Elvis, but he WAS tortured, like him... 60's Girls LOVED this type of "Bad Boy"; He'll bang you senseless in the backseat.. but, he had something they wanted to 'fix' in him...but, It's WAAAAY to fractured to fix, until it's too late..... - ...."The End" (famously used in the 1979 flick "Apocalypse Now"), opened the 'Doors' for: Art Rock Goth Rock LSD / Psychedelic Rock Spoken word Rock Theatre Rock ...it also challenged the length of Rock Music, with it's 12+ minute time; after this track, there were LOTS of tunes the went up to taking an entire SIDE of an Album! ....WTF is this!?? ...a very, very VERY important track to Rock Music...THE END...
"...This looooooong tune is one of THE most important tracks in Rock history . . ." I concur in italics, bold, underscore, 20-point, ALL CAPS, triple exclamation point. 😎 The band worked on "The End" for months, tweaking things here and there, until it ultimately grew to their debut album's dozen-minute mind-blower final track (props to Elektra execs for having the stones to agree to its pressing). Unfortunately, the tune wasn't received with nearly the same tacit approval when they performed it live at The Whisky a Go Go, resulting in the band's firing in August of '66 despite having been successfully performing there for the prior 3 months. Apparently The Lizard King's Oedipus-themed lyric, and/or parricide reference, was just a bit over the top for the club owners. I can't confirm any of this since the club's bouncers weren't allowing 7 year-olds in the door. 😠
The Doors are fairly unrecognized in their contribution to the dark side of rock music. People today don't usually put it in perspective. This was one of the first popular rock bands to introduce dark lyrics and subjects to the listener. That wasn't really a thing before them, especially when you compare this band to the other popular acts of that time. I think that The Doors also have big contribution to the metal scene that developed after their era. They had a somewhat "heavy" style for that time for sure, and coupled with Jim's dark and thought provoking lyrics, it's just pretty much undeniable IMO. Nobody did that type of thing at that time. Black Sabbath took it to the next level with their guitar heaviness and even darker subject matter...even the drums were heavy. Just listen to their self-titled track.
Into the deep with The Doors! "The End" was used to exceptionally great effect in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I don't remember when I first heard this song exactly, but it probably was while watching that film sometime in the early eighties. I used to play that record all the time when I was in college in the late eighties. The Doors debut album is a classic -- "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", "Soul Kitchen", "The Crystal Ship", "Twentieth Century Fox", "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)", "Light My Fire", "Back Door Man", "I Looked at You", "End of the Night", "Take It as It Comes", "The End" -- Killer! As for the lyrics to "The End", well, I don't suppose you've ever read Sigmund Freud "Civilization and Its Discontents" (1929) or Sophocles "Oedipus Rex" (429 BC) or James George Frazer "The Golden Bough" (1890)? [grin]
Coppola's use of this song in Apocalypse Now for the opening scene and the killing of Kurtz is a masterstroke. That opening scene with a shot of the jungle, the sound of helicopter blades merging into the first notes of The End, and Jim's voice coming on as the napalm falls on the jungle still gives me the goosebumps.
They played this song at the Whiskey A Go Go in LA in late 1966 and they were booted from the owner when Jim threw the Oedipal section of the lyrics “ father, yes son? I want to kill you, mother I want to bleep you” caused a huge commotion and people reacted in shock. From that moment they became a professional band signed by Electra Records.
First heard The End in 1967 in Los Angeles..A different time.. never would of thought 55 years later I’d be watching reactions to the song , on my phone!..I really enjoyed your reactions.. A few other interesting Doors songs:: Not to touch the Earth-Horse Latitudes-The crystal ship-When the musics over-
Jim Morrison was a poet who became a part of his band. Beautiful and tragic, expressive and vulnerable. His poetry was dark and dreamlike. Fun fact my friend and I signed up to be extras in the terrible Doors movie in the 90's, took acid and hid in the field where the concert was being filmed hahahahahah
Speaking of acid you cant discount the effect of drugs , specifically LSD, on Morrisons creativity. I think with some artists that is an over made case but not with Morrison. On an aside why do you think the movie was so bad? It had it issues for sure but was it that bad?
@@swfcocs1 imo, the acid is overplayed.... their last album has several songs on it as abstract & metaphoric as this particular song. they are also as mood setting sound wise. & by that point, morrison was into booze, not acid.... I think its just jim free styling w/ a vast resevoir of symbolic motif material crammed in his head from voluminous amounts of reading over the prior 10 years of his life.
Was fortunate to see them in concert in '68. Yes he was dropping the F-bomb. But at least where we lived the radio station still played it as you heard it. that would have been been AM by the way.
To answer your question, when I first heard it it freaked me out. Scared me. I was maybe 15. I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought it was really atmospheric but I don’t think I really understood it. I still don’t think I do, lol. I’m not an expert on Jim Morrison but I think he was probably strongly influenced by the beat poets, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac..
Today music is made mostly for commercial use, and some are very good, but you must realize the music in the '60 and '70 were songs dealing with a very violent and divided country over civil rights and an unpopular war. We need deep artists now to answer the call.
The Doors are one of my favourite bands, as well as Jim Morrison's fantastic vocals, they are also magicians with musical instruments. "Light My Fire" and "LA Woman" are two excellent songs you can try as well.
When I started watching my first thought was, “turn out the lights in your room, Empress” Lol. To try to get the mood that this song was listened to when it came out. Maybe light a candle. With this one you really have to try to put yourself back in the late 60s and the atmosphere of that time, with all of the protesting of the Vietnam War, the use of psychedelic drugs by young people. I was too young but I was alive and I kind of know the feeling of the time. (Edit: You did get into the spirit of it really well) I like your thought about Elvis, I don’t know if that’s true about Jim Morrison, but it probably is.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident that started the Vietnam war ( An American ship was surprised attacked ) The captain of that ship was Jim Morrisons father!
This may be hard to believe since you're relatively new to The Doors and this is your first exposure to The End, but trust me when I say that this song is one of the most celebrated in rock history (the many excellent comments by other subscribers further explain why, not the least of which are Robbie Krieger's sitar-inspired guitar work and the song being a psychedelic progenitor of the harder acid rock genre to come) and that it was mind blowing to have been included on their '67 Elektra label debut (final track, of course). Jim gave an interview to Rolling Stone back in '69 and when asked about the song's meaning he said, "Let's see . . . Oedipus is a Greek myth. Sophocles wrote about it. I don't know who before that. It's about a man who inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Yeh, I'd say there was a similarity, definitely. But to tell you the truth, every time I hear that song, it means something else to me. I really don't know what I was trying to say. It just started out as a simple goodbye song, probably just to a girl, but I could see how it could be 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." So take it from Jim himself -- it's a fool's errand to attempt to figure out exactly every nuance of this tune since there's just so much to decipher and depends upon individual interpretation. Anyway, I hope this helps explain WTF you were listening to. 😛 Kudos to you for sticking with The End all the way to the end, and not dismissing it out of hand without giving it a fair shake -- especially since you're 55 years removed from its debut and that entire era/generation -- it's no wonder your subscription base continues to grow. 🏆👍👏🤩
How much did that one cost for almost an 11 minute or is that like using up two of your patreon pics at once? Welcome to a virtual acid trip without taking the drug Absolutely amazing psychedelic classic
I was a big Doors fan growing up! They had a huge resurgence in the 90s because Oliver Stone did a biopic and all of their albums were reissued on CD. "The End" was my gateway into their music and I went back and bought all of their albums. Went on my own "journey" the old fashioned way! I have no doubt that Jim Morrison was inspired by Elvis, but he often talked about Frank Sinatra as being a big influence on his singing - or at least that he wished he had a voice like Frank. You can hear the influence on some of the Doors' ballads. This song is very weird, so probably not the best intro - I would check out "Riders on the Storm," which has a similar vibe but isn't as eccentric. I think you reacted to a remastered version because the F bombs weren't included in the original and there's actually a version where he says "Mother, I want to f*** you!" It's an "Oedipal opus." Actually, I always associated this song with Madonna's Blond Ambition performance of "Like a Virgin" because they both have a Middle Eastern influence and they both speed up at the end to simulate "f*cking." Always comes back to Madonna. This is part of the journey. Hahaha.
There are dozens of other Doors tunes that have a more unique song structure and lyrically poetic. But people get stuck on their energetic rock performances. Their ballads are where its at
It's Rimbaud's poems mixed with Artaud's theatre of cruelty madness and shock . Not really rock inspired but their attitude was very beatnik nihilist for their hippy period . Art Rock for adults rather than teen B rock n roll
Love your reactions. This song is a vibe and over the top but a classic. It is time for you to react to Pearl Jam (Jeremy the official uncensored video and Black from their unplugged show. If you want to have fun check Porch from the Pink Pop concert. All amazing. Oh and Chris Cornell (Nothing Compares to U from the Sirius concert). You need to get going with these guys ASAP. You will not regret any of it, trust me.
you need to check out more to get Jim and ....the Doors...they do a lot of different shit and all really cool. Every song a vibe but never the same vibe....unless you count the band as a vibe.
Whether you want to be or not, you are part of Western culture. Western culture starts in Egypt, then Minoa, Mycenae, Greece, Rome, England and then the US. You do not have a choice.
You did the right thing, to groved to the music. The lyrics are very deep just like the singer. You really jumped into the deep end with this song try something different from them. Like Roadhouse Blues LA Woman These are great mainstream Doors songs.
Nah, his voice reminds me of Elvis a little. Considering Elvis was the biggest pop star in the 60s. I'm quite sure he grew up listening and even idolizing Elvis at one point
@@EmpressReacts u r both right...Morrison was influenced in his vocal mood by Elvis and even Sinatra...but his lyrics were completely different, Elvis would have never sung about the oedipus thing, even though in real life he might have been more concerned about it than Jim...
I didn't read all the comments but I skimmed them and I didn't see any one mention the Oedipus Rex inspiration in the lyrics. Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy about a man who was adopted who grows up and kills his father and then sleeps with his mother. When he finds out it was his mother he takes her broach and gouges out his own eyes. This theme repeats it's self through plays and movies even unto modern times. In The Rocky Horror picture show the character (Riff Raff) sleeps with his sister and kills his commander. In Star Wars Luke kisses his sister and attempts to kill his father.
