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Music Legacy | The Doors - The End



From the self-titled debut album "The End" was first released on January 4, 1967. The song was recorded live in the studio with no overdubbing.

The Doors developed this song during live performances at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in 1966. They had to play two sets a night, so they were forced to extend their songs in order to fill the sets. This gave them a chance to experiment with their songs.

"The End" began as Jim Morrison's farewell to Mary Werbelow, his girlfriend who followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. It developed into an 11-minute epic.


Morrison sang this live as "F--k the mother," rather than "Screw the mother." At the time, the band couldn't cross what their engineer Bruce Botnick called "the f--k barrier," so they sanitized the lyric on the album. When Botnick remixed the album for a 1999 reissue, however, he put Morrison's "f--k"s back in, which is how the song was intended.


This was famously used in the movie Apocalypse Now over scenes from the Vietnam War. Director Francis Ford Coppola had it remixed to include the line "F--k the mother."








Lyrics


This is the end, beautiful friend This is the end, my only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end I'll never look into your eyes, again

Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free Desperately in need, of some, stranger's hand In a, desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain And all the children are insane, all the children are insane Waiting for the summer rain, yeah There's danger on the edge of town Ride the King's highway, baby Weird scenes inside the gold mine Ride the highway west, baby Ride the snake, ride the snake To the lake, the ancient lake, baby The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake, he's old, and his skin is cold The west is the best, the west is the best Get here, and we'll do the rest The blue bus is callin' us, the blue bus is callin' us Driver, where you taken us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on He took a face from the ancient gallery And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and, then he Paid a visit to his brother, and then he He walked on down the hall, and And he came to a door, and he looked inside Father, yes son, I want to kill you Mother, I want to, f--k you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us C'mon baby, take a chance with us C'mon baby, take a chance with us

And meet me at the back of the blue bus Doin' a blue rock, on a blue bus Doin' a blue rock, c'mon, yeah Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end It hurts to set you free But you'll never follow me The end of laughter and soft lies The end of nights we tried to die This is the end





Writer/s: BRUCE W. FRANKLIN, ERIC WAGNER, RICK J. WARTELL

Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group






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