An American Prayer Booklet

The Doors were somewhat of an anomaly in the rock pantheon. In their heyday they weren't folk or jazz and while some rock critics called their music "acid rock" they weren't part of the peace-and-love Airplane-Dead-Quicksilver acid-rock sound of San Francisco. They had nothing in common with the English invasion, or even pop music in general though they generated three Number 1 hit singles, and while New York City was good to the Doors-almost to the point of adopting them as their own-they were still a league apart from the Velvet Underground, despite a mutual affinity for dark and somber themes. They weren't even part of the folk-rock scene which dominated Los Angeles in those days, in the music of the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the like. Even among the hierarchy that includes Elvis, Joplin, and Hendrix, they were a world unto themselves. " A strange and haunting world," as Jim himself once said, "suggestive of a new and wild west."

To get the best view of Jim Morrison you must go through the Doors and the most important thing to remember about the Doors is that they were a band and each individual formed a side of the diamond that was the whole. One night, on the road, just before the concert was to begin, a disc jockey climbed on the stage to introduce the act: "Ladies and gentlemen, " he announced to the audience, "please welcome Jim Morrison and the Doors!" There was the customary applause. As the DJ walked down the stairs leading from the stage, Jim pulled him aside and said, "Uh-uh, man, you go back up there and introduce us right." The DJ panicked. "What did I say? What did I do? " "It's The Doors, " Jim said, "the name of the band is The Doors."