Discovering The Doors

Sure, there are lots of people that were there in the day. People who saw The Doors in concert. People who still own an original vinyl copy of The Soft Parade and remember how they were shocked to see the individual Doors members credited with song writing. I wasn't one of them. I am one of the majority of Doors fans that discovered The Doors after Jim Morrisons death. Not because of his death though. I didn't even know he was dead!

I was a 16 year old living with parents in Liverpool, England in 1976. It was an exciting timer to be a teenager. Music was at this transition stage from the tired prog rock and emerging heavy metal - neither of which had any soul. The charts were full of teeny bopper bands like The Osmonds and the need for some new music was being met by the new wave. Not just The Sex Pistols - there was lots of new emerging music beginning to appear. I didn't pick up on much of it at the time. It was wallpaper then. It's only with the passing of time that you appreciate how much fun it really was. And it was a Friday evening coming home from the pub, parents gone to bed. I sat down to watch TV with my brother. The local TV channel, Granada, was showing a repeat of a documentary called 'The Doors Are Open'. I sat transfixed. How is it that I'd never heard of this group? Such great music. Such a charismatic singer. The following day, I bought a compilation album.

The beginning of an obsession.