The Doors Post-Jim

Quick Intro

The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965. The original members included Jim Morrison as the lead singer, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore.

The Doors’ musical genres included mainly pshycedelic rock and blues rock, and they were one of the most widely-known and influential bands in the 1960’s, and of all times.

Jim Morrison

As the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison was known for his great vocals and stage persona

(I suggest to play the entire thing, but if you are short of time, start at 3:00)

Jim was an accentric person, often swearing, abusing drugs and alcohol, and getting arrested (He was actually arrested on stage, mid-performance once!)

However, it seemed his controvertial personality only made him, and The Doors, more famous and loved. He was the epitome of A Rock Star

The Other Band Members

As much as Jim Morrison deserved credit for his enchanting persona and amazing vocals, one cannot overlook the fact that The Doors instrumental parts were just as epic as the vocal parts.

Jim Morrison didn’t play any instruments and neither did he compose any of the songs performed by The Doors (He did, however, write and co-write many of the songs, such as “Roadhouse Blues”, “Hello, I love you”, “People Are Strange” and more).

A lot of credit is due to the amazingly talented Robby Krieger (who wrote “Love Her Madly”, “Love me two times”, “Touch Me”, “Light My Fire” and more) and to Ray Manzarek, who filled the role of both the keyboardist and the bass player (The Doors didn’t have a bass player, a very rare occurance for rock bands, and Manzarek played on a keyboard bass to “fill the void”)

Jim’s Death

On July 3rd, 1971, Jim Morrison was found dead in his rented Paris apartment, by his girlfriend Pamela Courson.

An autopsy was not perfomed, but it is believed his death was due to a heroin overdose. He joined Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix at “The 27 Club” (A list of popular artists who died at 27- which, unfortunately, also includes Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and Brian Jones)

The Doors post-Jim

Another Doors album was being planned when Jim Morrison died. The other members of the band expected Jim to return from his Paris trip to complete the album.

The surviving members initially considered replacing Jim Morrison with a new lead singer but instead, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek took over lead vocal duties, while John Densmore stayed as the drummer.

The Doors released to albums after Jim Morrison’s death: “Other Voices” – 1971, and “Full circle” – 1972 , and kept touring with supporting members, until dibanding in 1973.

After The Doors (Robby Krieger and John Densmore)

In 1973, Robby Krieger and John Densmore formed a new rock band, called Butts Band. The band was active from 1973 to 1975 and released 2 albums.

Robby Krieger also started a solo career, and had some success as a jazz-fusion guitarist, recording some albums in the 1970’s and 1980’s, including Versions (1982), Robby Krieger (1985), and No Habla (1989).

John Densmore surprisingly pursued a musical theatre career, and won two different awards for his writing and producing of musicals. He has also acted in numerous TV shows and movies!

After The Doors (Ray Manzarek)

After recording two solo albums, Ray Manzarek played in several groups, most notably Nite City.

Ray Manzarek also published three books: “Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors” (1998) is a memoir, “The Poet in Exile” (2001) is a novel exploring the urban legend that Jim Morrison may have faked his death and “Snake Moon” (2006) is a fiction novel.

Overall, Ray Manzarek remained very famous (at least compared to other keyboardists)

Manzarek–Krieger

In 2002, Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger w formed by two formed a new band: Manzarek–Krieger.

They were also known as “The Doors of the 21st Century”, “D21C”, and “Riders on the Storm”, but they used the name “Manzarek–Krieger” for legal reasons, after court battles between the two and Doors co-founder/ drummer John Densmore.

They performed Doors material exclusively until the death of Ray Manzarek in 2013, and even toured in Israel in 2011!

The Doors Reunions

“An American Prayer”, the third album The Doors released after JimMorrison’s death, was released in 1978, and consisted of the band adding musical backing tracks to previously recorded spoken word performances of Morrison reciting his poetry.

The remaining three members reunited a few more times over the years:

In 1993, the Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the ceremony, the three reunited to perform “Roadhouse Blues”, “Break On Through” and “Light My Fire”.

For the 1997 boxed set, the three once again reunited to complete “Orange County Suite”.

Why Couldn’t the Remaining Members Recreate The Doors’ Success?

Some people might disagree and claim that the remaining members have indeed stayed successful and famous.

What I meant was, compared to people who started off in successful bands and then remained just as famous, if not more, once the band disbanded (Paul McCartney, Sting, Beyonce)- none of the remaining Doors members maintained their huge success as a band.

I believe that altough Jim Morrison wasn’t the only one to be credited for the band’s huge success, his perona and vocals were truly the glue that kept it all together and made The Doors what they were, and still are. Jim Morrison was the rock star, the “bad boy”, the one all the girls loved, the one who kept people on edge.

Jim Morrison was an epic musician and performer, gone too soon, and despite the tremendous talent the remaining members had (and have), they couldn’t replace Jim’s qualities and therefore couldn’t replicate the success they had while he was still alive.