The Doors presented as complete a statement as the Doors themselves were capable of, each track unveiling another facet of Morrison's polygonic personality. If "Back Door Man" established his erotic credentials, "Soul Kitchen" enhanced them….

The album's tour de force, "The End," had begun innocently as the Doors' show farewell, stretched by Morrison into a molten fresco of travel-weary images and faces. "C'mon, baby, take a chance with us," he cajoled, outlining terrors real, imagined, pulsing with phosphorescence and decay. He walked through hallways beyond the range of vision, confronting the Oedipal embrace of "Father I want to kill you … Mother I want to …," the beast language of primal instinct. (p. 163)

Pinioned by the respective demands of their dual audiences, the one demanding hit singles, the other "art," the Doors were never able to combine these demands to their own satisfaction. Morrison made few concessions to commerciality for...