Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the formation of The Doors and it will be celebrated with numerous releases starting next month.
The first is The Doors 1967-1971, a six-LP set as part of Rhino’s High Fidelity audiophile vinyl series, on November 22nd. It contains their six studio albums cut from the original analog master tapes, a heavyweight gatefold jacket featuring rare photos and liner notes by Doors archivist David Dutkowski. Limited to 3000 copies, it's available at TheDoors.com and Rhino.com.
Out on Record Store Day, November 29th, for the first time on vinyl is The Doors – Live in Detroit, featuring their performance from the Cobo Arena on May 8th, 1970.
Playing an hour past curfew, it was one of their longest performances, even getting them banned from the Cobo Arena on future tours. Contributing to the length of the show were a 17-minute version of "The End" and a 19-minute run through "Light My Fire."
And coming early next year is a limited-edition 344-page anthology book, Night Divides the Day. It contains new interviews with Robby Krieger and John Densmore, archival interviews with Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, never before seen photos, including childhood photos, song lyrics, poster artwork, movie stills, and much more. The foreword was written by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.
It's limited to 2000 numbered box sets, each hand-signed by Densmore and Krieger, and contains a seven-inch vinyl single with rare demos of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive,” and other assorted historical memorabilia.
In the summer of 1965, Ray Manzarek ran into Jim Morrison, who he knew when they were both students at UCLA’s film school, on Venice Beach in California. Morrison told him that he had been writing songs, and sang some of them, including “Moonlight Drive,” which Manzarek thought were the best lyrics he ever heard.
It was then that they decided to start a band, which was rounded out by guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore, who’d played together in the Psychedelic Rangers.
After months of rehearsals, they landed a gig as the house band at a small Sunset Strip club called the London Fog. By May 1966, they graduated to the Whisky a Go Go, which is where Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw them and gave them a record deal.