The band, the Doors, began in July 1965, after a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, on Venice Beach in California. Morrison told Manzarek he had written songs in math class and with Manzarek's encouragement, Morrison sang "Moonlight Drive." Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band.

Manzarek, who played keyboards, and was then in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick & Jim, knew drummer John Densmore, who was playing with the Psychedelic Rangers. In August, Densmore, along with guitarist, Robby Krieger joined the Doors who took their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954). That title was inspired from a line in a poem by the 18th-century artist and poet, William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite."

The Doors.....MORE.....(full The Doors biography) ←