Fact #113750
When:
Short story:
The Doors' debut single Light My Fire, on Elektra Records, enters the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in the USA.
Full article:
Robby Krieger (Guitarist, The Doors) : We started the band in 1965, and nothing happened for two years. We were going crazy. Finally, after being turned down by everyone in town, Elektra signed us. Our first single bombed, and it was another six months before “Light My Fire” hit. So it seemed like a long time. We felt like veterans.
(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Jac Holzman (founder, Elektra Records) : The trick was to say yes more than we said no to anything that was worthwhile. The whole idea of Elektra was that we could keep the costs low because artists wanted to work with us - which meant that we could say yes more often. If it didn't work, I'd just give the record back to the artist. We had a very small staff.
(Source : interview with Richard Williams in The Guardian, November 24, 2006)
Robby Krieger (guitarist, The Doors) : Jim had been writing all the songs and then one day we realized we didn’t have enough tunes, so he said, “Hey, why don’t you guys try and write songs?” I wrote “Light My Fire” that night and brought it to the next rehearsal. It was my idea to have that scene in the movie, by the way. I wanted it there because it’s always kind of bugged me that so many people don’t know that I was the composer.
(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Jac Holzman (founder, Elektra Records) : When The Doors' Light My Fire came out in 1967, our entire record company was just 14 people - and we had a giant hit on our hands.
(Source : interview with Richard Williams in The Guardian, November 24, 2006)
Robby Krieger : We wanted a bass player, and we auditioned a few — but we never could find one who was right. Looking back, I’m glad we didn’t, because the Doors’ sound was largely a result of the fact that Ray had to play really simple bass lines, which gave the music a hypnotic feel.
And not having a bass player affected my guitar playing a lot. It made me play more bass notes to fill out the bottom. Not having a rhythm player also made me play differently to fill out the sound. And then, of course, I played lead, so I always felt like three players simultaneously.
(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Paul Rothchild (record producer) : The Doors original success was predicated on one thing: Light My Fire. That was Jim Morrison's great humiliation. It's one of the reasons he lost his enthusiasm. He'd go out on the road and all he'd hear was people yelling for Light My Fire. As a songwriter, he had a particular reason to hate it: he didn't write it! Robbie wrote it. In fact, the one part he DID write is my least favorite line: "No time to wallow in the mire." During his life I didn't know he wrote that, though. I remember one day while we were making the first album, Jim and I were driving down Sunset Blvd. and he asked me what I thought about the lyrics to Light My Fire. At that point, I didn't know who wrote it. I assumed HE had written it. So I said "Gee, I think it's great except for the muck and mire line." It was only recently that Robbie and Ray told me that was the one line Jim had written. He never let on to me for a second, though. I think that's tremendous.
Forgetting that Jim didn't write Light My Fire though, Jim was upset that people didn't appreciate the group's more cerebral songs. Certainly, it didn't say as much as The End or When the Music's Over.
(Source : interview with Blair Jackson, BAM magazine, Jul 3, 1981)
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(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Jac Holzman (founder, Elektra Records) : The trick was to say yes more than we said no to anything that was worthwhile. The whole idea of Elektra was that we could keep the costs low because artists wanted to work with us - which meant that we could say yes more often. If it didn't work, I'd just give the record back to the artist. We had a very small staff.
(Source : interview with Richard Williams in The Guardian, November 24, 2006)
Robby Krieger (guitarist, The Doors) : Jim had been writing all the songs and then one day we realized we didn’t have enough tunes, so he said, “Hey, why don’t you guys try and write songs?” I wrote “Light My Fire” that night and brought it to the next rehearsal. It was my idea to have that scene in the movie, by the way. I wanted it there because it’s always kind of bugged me that so many people don’t know that I was the composer.
(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Jac Holzman (founder, Elektra Records) : When The Doors' Light My Fire came out in 1967, our entire record company was just 14 people - and we had a giant hit on our hands.
(Source : interview with Richard Williams in The Guardian, November 24, 2006)
Robby Krieger : We wanted a bass player, and we auditioned a few — but we never could find one who was right. Looking back, I’m glad we didn’t, because the Doors’ sound was largely a result of the fact that Ray had to play really simple bass lines, which gave the music a hypnotic feel.
And not having a bass player affected my guitar playing a lot. It made me play more bass notes to fill out the bottom. Not having a rhythm player also made me play differently to fill out the sound. And then, of course, I played lead, so I always felt like three players simultaneously.
(Source : interview with Alan Paul, Guitar World, 2014)
Paul Rothchild (record producer) : The Doors original success was predicated on one thing: Light My Fire. That was Jim Morrison's great humiliation. It's one of the reasons he lost his enthusiasm. He'd go out on the road and all he'd hear was people yelling for Light My Fire. As a songwriter, he had a particular reason to hate it: he didn't write it! Robbie wrote it. In fact, the one part he DID write is my least favorite line: "No time to wallow in the mire." During his life I didn't know he wrote that, though. I remember one day while we were making the first album, Jim and I were driving down Sunset Blvd. and he asked me what I thought about the lyrics to Light My Fire. At that point, I didn't know who wrote it. I assumed HE had written it. So I said "Gee, I think it's great except for the muck and mire line." It was only recently that Robbie and Ray told me that was the one line Jim had written. He never let on to me for a second, though. I think that's tremendous.
Forgetting that Jim didn't write Light My Fire though, Jim was upset that people didn't appreciate the group's more cerebral songs. Certainly, it didn't say as much as The End or When the Music's Over.
(Source : interview with Blair Jackson, BAM magazine, Jul 3, 1981)