Somebody would have thrown a really big shoe at him. A really big shoe.
Alternate universe scenario:
Ed Sullivan: Boys, I’d like you to perform your big hit “Light My Fire” on this week’s show, but I’m not happy about that line about getting high. You can’t say that on my show. How about changing it to “Girl, we couldn’t get much better”? Robbie, you wrote the song, right? How does that sound to you?
Robbie Krieger: Well, Mr. Sullivan, I wouldn’t mind myself, but I don’t think our singer would be comfortable singing that line. Besides, it doesn’t rhyme.
Ed Sullivan: Hmm. All right, we’re going to have to forget that song. What about your other single, “Break on Through”? That’s not about getting high, is it?
John Densmore: Umm, actually, Mr. Sullivan, Jim does sing “She gets high! She gets high!” in the middle of that one.
Robbie Krieger: Yeah, the record company cut it out, but Jim always sings it live.
Ed Sullivan: Oh, for God’s sake. [Picks up a copy of the Doors’ album] “Soul Kitchen”? “The Crystal Ship”? Those sound too weird. “20th Century Fox”? I’m not giving them a free plug. “Alabama Song”? Sounds controversial. “Back Door Man”? Forget it! Here we go: “The End.” You may think I’m an old square, but I know what that means in hippie talk. It’s like “way out” and “groovy.” That’s the sort of thing the kids like to hear. Does that one have “get high” in the lyrics?
Ray Manzarek: Uhhh…no, sir.
Ed Sullivan: Good. Do it.
“Get over it.” Get over a cliff! I’m not interested in your antihero pipe dream. Come up with a legal defense or shut up.
The “people who love a rebel” don’t include judges or other rational beings.
Show damages or you have no case. Since there were none, you got nothin’. If anything, Sullivan benefited from their appearance.
Sullivan was on the wrong side of history is many ways, and long before the rock era. He was a red baiter, even turning on some long-time friends if there was any hint of “red” activity. His behavior toward his friend Canada Lee was especially appalling.
You’re the one who claimed they could sue, it’s your job to come up with a reason. How was Sullivan harmed, could he prove intent, and was it actually stated in their contract that they would change the lyric, rather than just a verbal request? Sullivan would be the one who’d have to prove all that, not the Doors.
And I imagine that the Doors could then turn around and counter sue over the fact that their later appearances were cancelled. Sullivan would’ve destroyed himself.
You may not like it, but that’s life in show business.
Morrison did the exact right thing. For all of Morrison’s supposed douchebaggery, the man had morals. He refused to allow any Doors songs to be used for commercial purposes, and you still will not hear a Doors song to endorse a product, however lucrative that may have been.
All Doors songs were credited to the Doors. John Densmore has steadfastly refused to allow any songs for commercial purposes to this date.
The Doors didn’t sell out on Ed Sullivan, and they still haven’t sold out.
Morrison was a really intelligent and decent guy, unfortunately with an alcohol abuse issue.
Believe it or not there was a “Come on Buick light my fire” ad back in the day. I think it aired once in the midwest and was pulled. It was a complicated situation, I think having to do with the fact that Morrison was screwing up the bands careers, wasn’t around to say no, and that he didn’t write the song.
The ad was approved by the other Doors and Morrison was furious. The ad never aired. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I don’t believe I am.
Was it Sullivan himself who wanted to bowdlerize “Light My Fire,” or was it the network’s standards and practices department? TV networks were very conservative in those days, with or without Ed Sullivan.
This again? When Ed gives you the chance to switch doors your odds are better if you switch. Your first choice had a 1 in 3 chance of winning the big prize. There is a 2 in 3 chance of the big prize being behind one of the doors you didn’t pick. You already have been shown a door that you didn’t pick that doesn’t have the big prize behind it, so the remaining door has a 2 in 3 chance that the big prize is behind it. Really guys, we’ve been over this so many times.
Couldn’t help myself when I saw the thread title.
“Rio” by Duran Duran
Same here, but I think in the last Doors book I read it said it aired in local markets in the south very briefly.
By the time the Doors appeared on Ed Sullivan, Mr. Ed was obsolete and irrelevant. He was useful only for ridicule, and could easily be ignored by the record-buying teen public, much like Lawrence Welk, Myron Floren, or Perry Como. Sullivan’s rejection of the Doors only increased their record sales and his refusal to let them on the show again only decreased his influence in the show-biz world. A bad career move for Ed, but he was done anyway.
Here’s a cite that the ads appeared.
Oh, I see: He was an Enemy of the People who must be eliminated.
For fuck’s sake, nobody said anything like that. Just that he was on the decline. Chill, dude.
Dry up and blow away. :mad:
NOW who’s the immature one? :dubious:
You have been noted many, many times for talking like this to other posters, so this is a warning now. DO NOT get this harsh with other posters outside of the Pit. Either report their posts if you think they are mod actionable or resist replying back to them if you can’t help yourself from resorting to smack talk like this.