Friday was my last day at the job I've worked at for the last 6 years and all that day, 'The End' by The Doors was the only song that was going round and round in my head.
The song had its beginnings in being a break-up song that Jim Morrison wrote after splitting up with a girl he'd been seeing, but as it progressed it developed into a song with many other layers. Along with the boy/girl relationship theme it has themes of saying goodbye to childhood as well as an Oedipal section which, though often interpreted on a basic level which can be seen as quite shocking and perverse, is actually more in Morrison's eyes about rejecting other authority in order to create your own ('father, I want to kill you') and embracing the positive and enriching sides of life ('mother, I want to fuck you'). It also may well have been aimed, in part, at his estrangement from his own parents who he would often be quoted in interviews as saying they were both dead even though they were alive and well and his dad held a high rank in the US navy.
Also, through its use in the Francis Ford Coppola movie 'Apocalypse Now' it is often connected to the tragedies and loss of young soldiers lives in the Vietnam war.
The music of The Doors has often given me strength in tough times and I cannot imagine living without it.
I hope you enjoy this weeks song!!
The Doors - The End
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land
Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the King's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest
The blue bus is callin' us
The blue bus is callin' us
Driver, where you taken' us
The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door...and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother...I want to...fuck you
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
C'mon baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
On a blue bus
Doin' a blue rock
C'mon, yeah
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end
1 comment:
True story.... Last night (somewhere about midnight) I moved my car from its temp spot on the street to its proper spot in the driveway. As I was walking back around to go back inside, in the cool quiet night air I heard wind chimes on a neighbors porch. In that live and subtle moment I instantly heard a snippet of John Densmore's cymbals that have that chime like feel in The End.
Good luck with what comes now after The End of where you were and what you were doing. I am certain that good things lie ahead.
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