The Doors' Lasting Legacy: A Photo Gallery

It's been a year of fortieth anniversaries here at Rolling Stone, as we've looked back at the Summer of Love and the beginnings of the magazine in 1967. That year also marked the debut album from Jim Morrison's Doors, an event being celebrated at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum with a special exhibit titled Break on Through -- The Lasting Legacy of the Doors. The exhibition, the first ever to be endorsed by the Morrison estate and the surviving members of the band, features the handwritten lyrics to "Not to Touch the Earth," Morrison's first-ever childhood poem, Robby Krieger's custom Gibson guitar, a piece of drummer John Densmore's original kit, a promotional record that came with purchases of toothpaste and shampoo and even Ray Manzarek's marriage certificate. Get a close-up look at these pieces of memorabilia and more by checking out our Break on Through photo gallery.

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  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
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  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
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  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
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  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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