50 Years Ago: The Doors Keep Evolving on ‘Full Circle'
- by Allison Rapp
After the death of Jim Morrison in July 1971 at age 27, many people wondered if there was any point to the Doors continuing. Without him, the heart and engine of the band, what else was there?
But the reality was that the rest of the band wasn't unaccustomed to working on their own. Morrison, struggling with substance addiction, was sometimes unreliable when it came to showing up for sessions. When he left for Paris shortly after the recording of L.A. Woman, his bandmates felt the change of scenery would do him well.
"When Jim moved to Paris, none of us thought the band was over," guitarist Robby Krieger wrote in his 2021 book Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying and Playing Guitar With the Doors. "We knew Jim needed a break, we knew he might be away for a while, but we had no reason to think he wouldn't be back and that we wouldn't pick up where we left off."
