Original Unperformed Replacement Lyric Recently Unearthed in Sullivan Archives
September 14, 2017 (Los Angeles, CA) – 50 years ago this Sunday night, on September 17, 1967, the Doors shocked Ed Sullivan and CBS by refusing to change the word “higher†while performing their #1 hit, “Light My Fireâ€.
Recalled Doors’ drummer John Densmore, “’You will never do this show again,’ Ed fumed after we’d directly disobeyed his censorship requirements. Jim turned to him and remarked, ‘Hey, that’s okay – we just did The Ed Sullivan Show.’â€
Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger’s reaction was. “We thought they were joking – who were they kidding? Wanting us to change the lyrics on the number one song in America?? We decided to just do the song as-is and maybe they would forget all about it. What could they do? After all, it was live television! So, yeah, we never played the Ed Sullivan show again. But we didn’t care.â€
It may seem ridiculous today, but their action created an absolute furor and media firestorm. Almost anything goes on today’s television, but America’s prudishness about drugs, sexuality and “the counterculture†in the 1960s was extreme by modern standards. In fact, just a decade earlier, Lucy and Desi had to sleep in twin beds, and the word “pregnant†couldn’t be uttered on television. “Light My Fire†was not the first time The Ed Sullivan Show, a Sunday night viewing ritual in American homes, had censored pop music performers—Elvis and The Rolling Stones included. The Doors’ famous moment was dramatized in the 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors.
As Doors’ co-founder and keyboardist Ray Manzarek explained in an interview filmed in 1991, Jim Morrison and his bandmates decided they would not buckle to the network censors. Manzarek promised the CBS executive just before the performance that they would go ahead and replace the offending lyric. But they would be performing live, so The Doors knew that they could get away with singing the controversial song as it was written. In the process, the Doors won their battle with CBS and made television history.
Until producers at SOFA Entertainment decided to dig into the Sullivan production files a week ago, they had no idea what lyrics the network was suggesting Morrison sing instead of the song’s infamous line.
Andrew Solt of SOFA Entertainment, the company that owns the Sullivan archive, relates how the discovery occurred. “Greg Vines and I discussed how good it would be if we could find the word CBS wanted Morrison to sing instead of “higherâ€. When Greg returned from the vault, he was elated. â€You won’t believe it. We not only have the word, we have the whole line! Instead of ‘Girl we couldn’t get much higher’ Jim was asked to sing, ’Girl, there’s nothing I require’. It’s laughable. Imagine Morrison singing ‘require instead of higher’?â€
JAM, Inc’s Jeff Jampol, manager of the Doors, and of the Morrison Estate, was also surprised by the discovery of the absurd suggested replacement lyrics. “It’s fascinating to get an inside peek at how television, the media and corporate culture continually conspired to censor art & free expression, all in the name of selling more cereal, while at the same time, they were co-opting pop culture themselves (and definitely not for the betterment of art). But even more scintillating to me is to take a look back at a time when artists took a stand, not only for their art, but for their ideals and for freedom of expression – their own, as well as others’. It’ a refreshing reminder and contrast to so many of today’s mainstream artists who seemingly refuse to take a stand, to speak out against injustice, or who are unwilling to put their wallet (and sometimes, their entire career) on the line to take a stand for anything, let alone freedom of artistic expression. Thank God for Jim Morrison; thank God for The Doors.â€
To get a behind the scenes look at the historic moment and to access more details about this story, go to www.EdSullivan.com. You will be able to view clips from “Light My Fire†and you can also watch Ray Manzarek’s interview where he explains what went down backstage. One can also check out the altered lyrics and the director’s shooting script. Finally, the story can be told.
The Ed Sullivan Show gained notoriety for two other high profile censored rock moments – when Elvis Presley was filmed from the “waist up only†on January 6, 1957, and eight months before the Doors’ appearance, when the Rolling Stones were pressured to change the lyrics to their hit, “Let’s Spend the Night Together†to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.†Mick Jagger also made TV history by rolling his eyes for the home audience during the band’s forcibly-altered performance.
The Doors remain one of the most beloved and influential rock bands of all time. They have over16 million followers on Facebook alone, and every year their records continue to sell in the millions.
With an intoxicating, genre-blending sound, provocative and uncompromising songs, and the mesmerizing power of singer Jim Morrison’s poetry and presence, The Doors had a transformative impact not only on popular music but on popular culture. The Doors’ arrival on the rock scene in 1967 marked not only the start of a string of hit singles and albums that would become stone classics, but also of something much bigger – a new and deeper relationship between creators and audience. The Los Angeles quartet relentlessly challenged, confronted and inspired their fans. Though they’ve had scores of imitators, there’s never been another band quite like them. And 50 years after their debut album, The Doors’ music and legacy are more influential than ever before. www.TheDoors.com
The Doors: The Singles – a brand-new collection of all the band’s singles and b-sides available together for the first time as a two-CD collection, an expanded two-CD/Blu-ray version and a limited-edition vinyl version featuring twenty 7-inch singles.
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The Ed Sullivan Show is the longest running primetime variety show in American television history. It ran on CBS for 23 years and is currently broadcast daily on the Decades Channel, a digital broadcast network, which is a joint venture between CBS and Weigel Broadcasting. www.EdSullivan.com