The End - The Doors Lyrics
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
| The Doors developed this during live performances at the
Whiskey-A-Go-Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in
1966. They had to play 2 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. This started as a short song about a
farewell to a girl, and developed into an 11 minute epic. |
| One night, Morrison didn't show up for his gig as the
Whiskey-A-Go-Go. After their first set, the band retrieved Morrison from
his apartment, where he had been tripping on acid. They always played
this 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 Morrison 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 they were 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 Whiskey was not a crushing blow. |
| This seems to be about 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." |
| Morrison sang this live as "F--k the mother," rather than "Screw the
mother." |
| "The End" is death. |
| This was used in the movie Apocalypse Now over scenes from
the Vietnam War. Director Francis Ford Coppola had it remixed to include
the line "F--k the mother." |
| This is supposedly the last song Morrison heard. The night he died,
he was playing old Doors albums, ending with this one. This was the last
song on that album. |
| Morrison was on an acid trip when they first tried to record this.
He kept singing "F--k the mother, kill the father" rather than the
actual lyrics. That session was canceled, but Morrison nailed it the
next day. |
| This was recorded with the lights off and only one candle burning
next to Morrison. |
| The album version is a combination of 2 takes. |
| Morrison would sometimes stop in the middle of this during concerts
to get a reaction from the crowd. |
The Doors Lyrics
