The Doors officially close in 1972
On September 10th, 1972, The Doors officially close as a band, their last concert takes place at the Hollywood Bowl where 5 years before, in 1968, they reached the peak of their popularity with their late frontman Jim Morrison
The Doors officially close in 1972
On September 10th, 1972, The Doors shut down as a band, their last concert takes place at the Hollywood Bowl where 5 years before, in 1968, they reached the peak of their popularity for two nights. Despite the death of lead singer Jim Morrison in July 1971, the band continued as a trio, they first searched for a new singer but it proved to be a difficult task to fill Morrison’s shoes, with Ray Manzarek, keyboardist, taking the lead vocals role the band released two more albums, “Other Voices” in 1971 and “Full Circle” in 1972, however the results were not critically and commercially satisfactory. Towards the end of 1972, they decided to go separate ways. Ray Manzarek accomplished a successful solo career during the 70’s with albums such as “Carmina Burana” and also with the band Nite City. Drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger formed the short-lived group Butts Band. Despite being individually talented, the surviving members of The Doors lived their careers forever in the shadow of Jim Morrison. The band got together a few times during the 90’s, most notably for their induction at The Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 where they played with Pearl Jam’s singer Eddie Vedder, and the VH1 show “Story Tellers” where they performed Doors songs with some of Rock’s best singer including Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, Ian Astbury from The Cult and Perry Farell from Jane’s Addiction among others. In 2002 Manzarek and Krieger got together again to go on the road with a reformed band now called The Doors of the 21st Century featuring Ian Astbury on vocals, drummer John Densmore who rejected the offer to join them later sued his former band members together with Jim Morrison’s estate by the unauthorized use of The Doors name. After several years on court dispute, Densmore won the process, and the band switched their name to Riders on the Storm. They successfully toured around the world until 2012. On May 2013 Ray Manzarek passed away from cancer and Krieger returned to the solo projects that he currently tours with. Densmore wrote a book about the lawsuit and made peace with his former bandmates shortly before Manzarek’s death. He has appeared together with Robbie Krieger performing some Doors songs on a few events. The last song the band performed together on September 10th, 1972, is “Light My Fire”, their signature song and also the last song they performed live with Morrison.
Watch The Doors performing “Tightrope Ride” live at the German TV show Beat Club in 1972
Listen to a selection of The Doors post-Morrison songs compiled by Pop Expresso on Spotify
Watch more The Doors related videos
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