The End

THE END

By The Doors

Probably there’s no other music group that have successfully reached a high market position in the music world as The Doors did in 1967 with the album “The Doors”. The album, which contains great rock classics like “Break on Through” and ”Light my fire”, was ranked at number 336 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (Wikipedia, 2010).

The song is quite relaxed, and it starts with a pretty known guitar sound. After  bass and drums have been added, Jim comes with his voice. Just a few minutes before the ending, the song becomes faster, increasing the beat, the rhythm, the tempo, it takes you high just only to put you back to the initial relaxed stated. It’s a real journey through all the experiences.

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.

Something quite remarkable is the universality of the lyrics. Every person, can give its own meaning of the words, and it would be ok. Even more, the same person can give a completely different interpretation just after have listened it for a second time. For me, it’s a song for ending a stage, a phase. It’s perfect to express that you have discovered that something need to be buried into the past, that something can’t be any longer part of your present. Yes, I was in the middle of a battle, fighting a war and and giving all I had, but I lost it, this is my end, nothing else to do or to say, no matter how much I tried, how much I put on it or how beautiful was it, it’s just that, the end. It hurts like the hell, but that what life is, if you want a gram of happiness you are obliged to feel a ton of pain. We should notice that the death is almost a rest for the soul after a whole life of suffering. For sure you will be so happy knowing that after all the calvary you've found the end. Maybe that interpretation is connected with Jim Morrison’s lyrics: ”This is the end, my beautiful friend”.

But, probably you have given it a completely different signification, and it’s ok.

The song has been used in several movies, the remarkable one for me: “Apocalypse Now” by Francis Ford Coppola. It express all what a soldier in Vietnam can feel. 

To be honest, I don't need to be in Vietnam to feel the hell surrounding me. 

"I'll never look into your eyes...again"

I'd like to finish quoting Jim Morrison talking about “The End”:

« Everytime I hear that song, it means something else to me. It started out as a simple good-bye song.... Probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don't know. I think it's sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be »