THE DOORS AT THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW: MY POINT OF VIEW

 

It was not just an act of transgression, but also a bold cultural stance — a gamble that had severely damaged the careers of other groups in the recent past. The Doors' performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on 17 September 1967 embodies all of this and more.

The group took part in the TV show a week before the release of their second LP, "Strange Days". The first of two singles from that album, "People Are Strange" (with "Unhappy Girl" as the B-side), had also just been released.

The Ed Sullivan Show was watched by millions in the United States and was an essential platform for any band or artist with chart ambitions.

The Doors performed two songs on the show. The first was the aforementioned recently released single, while the second had been at the top of the US charts since late July 1967 (almost two months earlier): "Light My Fire" in its edited version.

This show presented the Californian band with an excellent opportunity to showcase their art to an even larger audience, thus consolidating and increasing their success.

However, the audience also included many conservative families who expected their concerns about the music of 1967, which was often considered too transgressive, to be taken into account.

To address these concerns, Ed Sullivan asked The Doors to alter the lyrics of "Light My Fire" by removing the word "higher”. In English slang, it could be understood as referring to being under the influence of drugs, which was considered scandalous and dangerous for American youth at the time.

After Morrison sang the original lyrics (link here), The Doors were banned from America's most-watched show, losing the opportunity to appear on several more episodes of the program.

As we know, however, the band was not negatively affected by this decision. In fact, their next album and a single from the following year ("Waiting for the Sun" and "Hello, I Love You", respectively) reached the top of the US charts.

The Doors' coherence, especially that of their lead singer, helped define the transgressive and uncompromising image that still makes them so popular today.

Other groups in the same year (1967) did not have the same courage; the most illustrious example being The Rolling Stones.

They agreed with Ed Sullivan to change one phrase of their performance of "Let's Spend the Night Together" on The Ed Sullivan Show, removing the reference to spending the night with a girl (link here).

This makes The Doors' performance even more daring and noteworthy.

By using a controversial and unacceptable word on television, the group advanced the cultural changes shaking Western society. They achieved this through music, which was the most immediate, prominent and powerful art form available at the time.

This was by no means something that could be taken for granted.

In fact, the year before (1966), the great commercial success of an excellent US group (The Byrds) had been abruptly and permanently halted for the same reason.

Radio and television stations had boycotted their song "Eight Miles High" because of the word "high" in the title and lyrics.

Since then, the band had dropped out of the top spots in the charts. The aforementioned song only reached number 14 in the singles chart after two number ones, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!", just a few months earlier.

Even the Beatles had a song censored in 1967. It was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was accused of referencing the hallucinogenic drug LSD in its title.

By leaving the lyrics of "Light My Fire" unchanged when performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show", Morrison actively participated in the cultural battle that many artists had been fighting for a less hypocritical and repressive society.

A battle that would be won shortly thereafter, in part thanks to Morrison's gesture. From 1968 onwards, songs with more or less explicit references to drugs began to be tolerated and circulated freely, a trend that continued into the early 1970s.

Lynard Skynyrd’s second album, "Second Helping" (1972), which was also successful in the US, is a case in point: it featured two marijuana leaves on its front cover.

This freedom was earned thanks to the musicians who, in 1966 and '67, dared to risk their image and careers by asserting a new, freer cultural paradigm.

The Doors were prominent among them, making the quartet even more culturally relevant than they are recognized for musically.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days"- The most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .mx, .it, etc.

Here’s a link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”