1967Released
11:43

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about The End. By Songfacts®.

"The End" is death, although the song also deals with Jim Morrison's parents - it contains Oedipal themes of loving the mother and killing the father. Morrison was always vague as to the meaning, explaining: "It could be almost anything you want it to be."

The Doors developed this song during live performances at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in 1966. They had to play two sets a night, so they were forced to extend their songs in order to fill the sets. This gave them a chance to experiment with their songs. "The End" began as Jim Morrison's farewell to Mary Werbelow, his girlfriend who followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. It developed into an 11-minute epic.

On August 21, 1966, Jim Morrison didn't show up for The Doors gig at the Whisky a Go Go. After playing the first set without him, the band retrieved Morrison from his apartment, where he had been tripping on acid. They always played "The End" as the last song, but Morrison decided to play it early in the set, and the band went along. When they got to the part where he could do a spoken improvisation, he started talking about a killer, and said, "Father, I want to kill you. Mother, I want to f--k you!" The crowd went nuts, but the band was fired right after the show. The Doors had recently signed a record deal and they had established a large following, so getting fired from the Whisky was not a crushing blow.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of The End.
CKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
106BPM

Album

The album The End is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released The End.
Rhino/Elektra
© 1967 Elektra Entertainment for United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States.
℗ 1967 Elektra Entertainment Group Inc. for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States

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