10 Most Controversial Hard Rock Songs Of All Time
6. The End - The Doors
The Doors had been getting plenty of notoriety ever since they hit the Los Angeles club scene. Though most of their music was inoffensive enough, there was always a more off-kilter quality to it that put people on-edge. Even though Jim Morrison’s aura wasn’t too outlandish, it did get much too dark when it came to “The End.”
Originally conceived as a droning love song, this finisher to the band’s debut album took on a whole new life once the band played it live. While the song had a solid foundation at the outset, the band would usually keep droning on while Morrison recited bits of his poetry over the music. Some of these metaphors ended up painting beautiful pictures, but then Morrison started to take on a more aggressive character. After making allusions to a killer getting ready for his day, Morrison decided to use the opportunity to tell his own take on the Oedipus Rex play, with him threatening to kill his father and have sex with his mother.
The final bits were left on the album, but the song’s reception onstage at the Whiskey led to the band being fired from their residency midsong. Even if the rock mainstream wasn’t ready for this kind of darkness, “The End” marked a shift where rock music started to get nasty.