The Doors’ iconic self-titled album, which holds many of their most famous songs, dropped in the year 1967. Leading up to that famed release, they became famous in Los Angeles and would soon be international psychedelic rock icons. Much of that fame was built up during The Doors’ famous residency at the historic nightclub, Whisky a Go Go, in 1966.
And despite that residency being so famous, the band was actually fired before they could complete it. And the story behind their firing from the legendary nightclub revolves around one particular song that any a Doors fan knows by heart.
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The story goes that back in 1966, The Doors, along with other big names in local rock in California at the time, started to gain more popularity across Los Angeles. They started their residency as the house band at Whisky a Go Go in May of that year, working with the likes of Van Morrison’s Them and others. They were the talk of the town, but like many bands of the era, they got into a bit of trouble because of their frontman’s drug use.
How The Doors Got Fired From Whisky a Go Go Over Jim Morrison’s LSD-Fueled Experimentations in “The End”
Jim Morrison would be the one to get The Doors booted from Whisky a Go Go, not long after they started. On August 21, the band would take to the stage with Morrison in tow. He missed the first few sets of the night, all because he had been tripping on LSD at a nearby hotel. The song they played was “The End”. It was a track that had been perfected over the weeks through numerous closing-song performances at the nightclub. Any Doors fan knows this song well, as it would become the closing track on their debut album.
But the rendition of the song that Morrison gave that night was… unexpected. Considering his state, the band decided to perform the fan favorite earlier in the set. Still wildly under the influence, Morrison delivered a vocal performance that was just a touch too trippy. That was something that fans would grow to love about the song in retrospect. But at the time, nobody other than Morrison was in the loop. Some say that the whole club was pin-drop silent as Morrison babbled on through “The End”. He finished the track off with an Oedipal ad-lib about murdering his father and being intimate with his mother. Mario Maglieri, the club’s owner, was fuming. The Doors were fired soon after.
Obviously, getting the boot wasn’t the end of the world, though. The Doors would reach superstardom the following year, and “The End” remains one of their most famous songs.
Photo by Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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