On the End

The End, released by The Doors in the late sixties, has been a fixture in the minds of music fans everywhere. It's a song that's often used in movies and TV to signal chaos, horror, and decline. You might have heard it in Apocalypse Now, where it serves to represent the hero's descent into madness.

You can listen to it any time on YouTube if you do not have the album. But YouTube isn't just a place to watch videos for free. The comment function on YouTube serves to record the impressions of millions of viewers around the world. Take The Doors' The End, for example. It was posted on YouTube back in 2011 and has since been viewed 58 million times. That's a lot of eyeballs. And 23,000 of those viewers have left comments on the video. That's a lot of opinions. So what can we learn from 23,000 other people about the things we think we know?

The End stands for everything that's left. It's an image of a prison inverted and overlaid upon itself. It represents our fascination with death, our cynical approach to the world around us, or the hope of a new beginning through a violent departure from the past. It captures the adolescent feelings that overwhelm us in our youth and haunt us for the rest of our lives. It can even represent our view of the social and political world, broken, corrupt, dying, and yet somehow still going on.

So what does the internet have to say about The End?

Of everything that stands. The End. An image of a prison inverted and overlayed upon itself

For our purposes, and in the interest of time, I did not want to review 23,000 comments. Instead I selected the pool of comments where greater than average “Likes” were received and where greater than average length of comment was submitted. Excluding zero “Like” comments which make up the majority of comments (most comments stack up at zero) the average comment received 15 “Likes” (that falls to 4 “Likes” if we do not exclude zeroes). The average length was 99 Characters. Taken together this sample set adds up to only 184 of 23,150 comments. The average comment in this sample set received 104 “Likes” . The average length in this sample set was 310 Characters.

Applying these simple tests to the data I hoped to derive a high quality sample of thoughtful commentary. While this approach biases towards the popular posts that required more effort, the method does not bias the content beyond those quantifiable measures identified above.

Thematically these comments, all very personal, tend to focus on, Perspectives about the Doors, Remembrance of Youth and Experiences in the Military.

On the Doors:

It bothers me that The Doors were always marketed with Jim Morrison so far out front. Don't get me wrong, he was a great singer and frontman. But when I think of The Doors, I think of a BAND, in the truest sense of the word. John Densmore's jazz-inspired drumming; Robby Krieger's perfect, subtle guitar work; and Ray Manzarek's essential keyboard sounds making it distinct. None of it works without the four of them, together, cohesive.

I know you don't care but those of you who find stuff like this interesting, I grew up in South Carolina and know about The Kings Highway. I've been on it. Never knew it went this far, check it out: "The King's Highway was a roughly 1,300-mile (2,100 km) road laid out from 1650 to 1735 in the American colonies. It was built on the order of Charles II of England, who directed his colonial governors to link Charleston, South Carolina, and Boston, Massachusetts. From Virginia southward, the modern U.S. 17 has many segments that follow the old King's Highway."

I think Jim was saying that revolution lies within us and when we find it we burn out quickly after we inspire others, and energy never dies after we fade. When he said Roman Wilderness he meant America is the modern Roman Empire that is collapsing. The children (adults in their early twenties and late teenage years) desire only sensations and baptism through them rather than knowledge in the soul's storm. He just basically goes on a long Native American description of heaven or California. The west is where the sun sets and sheds its rays. It is liberated and free, unlike other regions. But is it a simple illusion of happiness that leads to an endless night of intellectual depression? But when you pass it, you start traveling in this wilderness naked, natural, and free beyond society's perception. The finally part ends within a nightmare....he is talking about murdering his own father do him rebelling against him due to his youthful wants and desires as a liberated thinker.The ending part is him simply talking to a groupie to meet him and the band before doing their nasty business. Well, that is what I think what he means. Scenes inside the gold mine I think his viewpoints towards America's philosophy orbiting around Plato's Cave Allegory, which he desired to free us from. That is a mouth full but that is what I think those where the underlying meanings behind the song. The Snake may represent the course of time and how must endure it as a universal motion. It gives us structure and freedom with its weird motion.

Donald Trump: C'mon baby take a chance with us.

On Youth:

In 1991, we were driving through Cork on out way back to the UK. We had to leave at 2 AM and my dad was driving. I was still pretty young, and exhausted. Everyone was asleep except me and my dad. The End came on the radio, I was pretending to sleep through it but it was so hypnotic, I still remember how amazing that trip was. And nothing actually happened.

this song is haunting,, but deep and truth to it,, it was one of my sons favorites nd this ws long before his time and mine, but he was an older soul, he was killed on his motorcycle at 19 and referred to it as the snake once or twice, and he was into this song,, i truly believe there are those that can see their own deaths,, i believe jim morrison did without a doubt, and so did my son without a doubt

I was a bit younger in 67, but remember being in a motel with my parents on some trip. Some "teenagers" were playing this song very loud in the parking lot. I was totally enjoying the music. Parents were yelling and screaming to keep it down. bah. I can still see the red convertible in the parking lot with folks around it listening to this song as my parents raged. Great music.

So , Manson killed the sixties ? This track reminds us of the darkness inherent in the hippy/commune/flower power era. Those of us who were young in 67/68 were well aware of the sense of brooding doom that permeated youth culture long before Charlie Manson hit the west coast. Having said that, "The End" is a supreme artistic achievement and one of the best recordings of all time. I love this song.

All the children are insane, waiting for the summer rain.

This song is perfect for many of us: We grew up in the 1960's, so full of hope that we could somehow "change the world". Then we became immersed in "society", with all its rules & expectations - making us conform to its norms. We became "soccer moms" and "junior execs". We voted - oh yes, we voted - hoping with each new candidate that things would "truly change". BUT, NOTHING CHANGED. And now, at 60-something, we look back on our lives and wonder - WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE ?

And Finally, the Military:

Read aloud at my fathers best friend's funeral! Vietnam veteran 2 tour's!!!! Drank himself to death because he couldn't come to terms with his experiences!!!! Miss you Spaulding

In1970 I was a hospital corpsman. I spent 9 months in National Naval recovering and the first few months was in a wheelchair. I spent my days in the dark room of the x ray department. I'd listen to this all day, pain meds made it sink deep. All war sucks.

I am many generations later but it's the same for me, I think about my brothers in Iraq that never came back, and I crank this song.

I was in Vietnam at the time but heard this on battery power record player that was a little slow, made song much darker. Everyday was the end then you just did not know for who. Dark days that still linger.

The Black Sun is unlocked and refugees mourn their dead. The end of laughter and soft lies.

So what does the Internet have to say about the End?

That human minds are complex, deep with feeling and haunted by memories. That thousands of humans sit alone and put forth their thoughts many from a deep place in their hearts, on the things that they care about. That humans are curious and eager to unburden themselves of their ideas and their pains. Most of all, that the shallow comments on a deep song can yield some heavy thoughts. At a minimum, if nothing else, the Russian trolls have yet to attack Jim Morrison.

Appendix:

The images interspersed throughout this article are drawings that I made in 2016 after the presidential election. In those dark days in which I felt acute dread of the potential destruction to be wrought by Bannon/Trump, the song, the End was often front of mine.