On The Record This lengthy masterpiece started life as a short love song about Morrisons breakup with a girl. However, in order to bulk out their regular slots at the Whisky a Go Go the then unsigned band started to play around with this track. From this live experimentation, The End grew in size and stature, becoming a downward-spiraling exercise in psychedelic rock and a sublime choice for the closing track on their self-titled debut album. Theatrical when performed live and cinematic in its narrative structure so much so that the song was used by film director Francis Ford Coppola in the closing moments of his Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now The End starts by spinning a tale of loss and despair, before conjuring up nightmarish visions of incest and murder in a mesmerising spoken word segment. Ending on a heady climax of chanting, frantic instrumentals and Morrisons almost inaudible whispers, this is the song that cemented the bands legend and, poignantly, would be the last song they ever played live. Krieger may have gone on to write some of the bands big hits, but The End remains Morrisons screaming baby. Waxing Lyrical The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on As so begins the song's descent into impenetrable darkness.