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

 

Not just an act of transgression, but a bold cultural stance; a gamble that had in other cases severely damaged the careers of other groups. The Doors' performance at The Ed Sullivan Show on September 17, 1967 is all of this and more.

The group take part in this tv show a week before the release of their second LP ("Strange Days"). In addition, the first of two singles from that album, "People Are Strange" (the B-side was "Unhappy Girl"), had just been released.

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

The Doors performed two songs on the show. The first was the aforementioned single that had just been released, while the second was the one that had been at the top of the U.S. charts since late July '67 (almost two months earlier): "Light My Fire" in the shortened version.

This show was an excellent opportunity for the Californian band to present their art to an even larger audience than they had already reached, thus consolidating and increasing their success.

However, the audience was also made up of conservative families who expected their fears of the new music of '67, which was often considered too transgressive, to be respected.

In order to quench those fears, Ed Sullivan asked The Doors to change a phrase in "Light My Fire" by removing the word "higher”. It could be in fact understood in English slang as "being under the influence of drugs", which was considered scandalous and dangerous for American youth at the time.

After Morrison sang the original phrase, The Doors were banned from America's most-watched show. They also apparently lost the opportunity to reappear on several episodes of the program.

As we know, the band will not be negatively affected by this decision. In fact, the next album and one of the following year's singles ("Waiting For The Sun" and "Hello I Love You" respectively) would reach the top of the U.S. charts.

The consistency shown by The Doors, and especially by their lead singer, would help to define the transgressive and uncompromising image that still makes them so popular today.

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

They agreed with Ed Sullivan in changing one phrase of their "Let's Spend The Night Together" performance on the Ed Sullivan Show by removing the verbal reference to spending the night with a girl.

The Doors' performance has additional significance with regard to the facts we have briefly covered above.

Indeed, by using a word that was controversial and unacceptable on television, the group was able to advance the cultural changes that were shaking Western society. They did it through music, the most immediate, prominent and powerful art available at the time.

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

In fact, just the year before (1966), the great commercial success of a very good U.S. group, the Byrds, had been abruptly and permanently interrupted for the same reason.

Their "Eight Miles High" had been boycotted by radio and television stations because of the word "High" present in the title as well as in the lyrics.

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

Even the almighty Beatles had one song censored in 1967. It was "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," which was accused of containing a reference to the hallucinogenic drug LSD in its title.

Morrison's decision was not only one of courage and consistency. By leaving the lyrics of "Light My Fire" unchanged on the Ed Sullivan Show, he actively participated in the cultural battle that many artists have been fighting for a less hypocritical and repressive society.

A battle that, thanks in part to Morrison's gesture, would be won shortly thereafter. In 1968 and '69, many songs with more or less explicit references to drugs began to be tolerated and enjoyed free circulation since the early 1970s.

Suffice it to mention that Lynard Skynard's second album, "Second Helping" (1972) which was also successful in the U.S., featured two marijuana leaves on its front cover.

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

Prominent among them were The Doors, making them even more culturally relevant than they are already musically recognized.