20 Landmark Songs Of The 60s

8. The Doors €“ The End

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9IIn3R6_50 The Doors wrote many iconic, landmark songs of the 60's, and of all the rock bands of the decade were certainly the most risqué, their decision to not tone down 'Light my fire' as depicted on Oliver Stone's film hilariously showed how touchy TV was about sex in pop, ever since Elvis shook his hips in the 50's the media was wary of what influence these wayward musicians would have on the youth of the day. But whilst The Doors brought menace to pretty much everything that did, be that songs about sex, or songs about society, think 'Riders on the storm', their peak moment was to be found on the last song of their first album, the supremely titled 'The End'. The song was a 10 minute rambling, episodic odyssey of the meaning of life, and many critics were moved to say the end of what exactly? Well, it was one of the songs that started the move away from the hippy dream and the iconoclasm and idealism of the 60's dream of free love, it was the most prescient set of lyrics Jim Morrison wrote, for all his references to an Indian Shaman, this was the closest he got to seeing the future, where the 60's would dissolve in a cloud of violence at the Altamont festival (more on that later). It was the song that provided Frances Ford Coppola with the perfect soundtrack for the end of 'Apocalypse Now', if you've not seen that scene then YouTube it immediately. The music builds and builds, with the words effortlessly pirouetting alongside, "All the children are insane, waiting for the summer rain". Jim Morrison was a bloated, failed Baudelaire for many, but when he wrote a killer lyric he was untouchable, and boy could he sing.