Why The Doors’ Jim Morrison Attacked The Monkees

The Doors and The Monkees were two of the bands that helped define classic rock from the 1960s. Despite this, The Doors’ Jim Morrison didn’t see The Monkees as his artistic peers. He once attacked the Prefab Four and another band that was popular around the same time. Surprisingly, The Monkees’ music was directly inspired by The Doors.

The Doors’ Jim Morrison attacked The Monkees and the 1st punk rock band

Sometimes, musical pioneers don’t get enough credit. For example, Question Mark & the Mysterians invented punk rock in 1966 with their hit “96 Tears.” Contrary to popular belief, several 1960s artists were producing punk rock songs, including The Beatles, The Doors, and The Monkees.

During an interview published by Vice in 2014, Bobby Balderrama of Question Mark & the Mysterians discussed something Morrison said. “One of the biggest disappointments I ever had was with The Doors,” he said. “I used to love The Doors, and ‘Light My Fire’ was one of my favorite songs. Our song had already come and gone by the time ‘Light My Fire’ came out, but we were still gigging and stuff, and then I read something by Jim Morrison, who said, ‘Well, I don’t like bubblegum music like Question Mark & the Mysterians and The Monkees,’ and all this stuff. He was putting us down!”

Jim Morrison was a product of 1960s attitudes about music

Balderrama didn’t dismiss Morrison after reading his comments. “I mean, Jim was a great writer, and I still admire him, but it bummed me out to hear that from him,” he said. “I guess bubblegum music might even be considered punk, so I was defiantly a punk. But Morrison really bummed me out because, whenever I hear ‘Light My Fire’ on the radio, I think of those times.”

Morrison lived during a time when it was considered cool for serious rock artists to look down upon pop music, as well as any rock music that was seen as too similar to pop. In the 21st century, a movement called “poptimism” worked to rehabilitate the genre’s reputation. Now critics take pop stars like Madonna and Ariana Grande just as seriously as The Doors and The Beatles. This movement also led to a reevaluation of The Monkees. Morrison would be seen as elitist if he made those comments today.

How The Doors inspired The Monkees

Bobby Hart was one of The Monkees’ regular songwriters. In his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles, Hart watched The Doors play at a club called Whisky a Go Go. He felt that The Doors had a unique sound destined to become part of the mainstream.

The Doors inspired Hart to pen songs with a harder edge, such as “She,” “Words,” and, most famously, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.” The Monkees recorded each of these tracks. “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” is the most famous of the bunch because it’s sometimes seen as a predecessor to punk rock. Considering his influences, Hart felt that these songs should have been classified as “psychedelic bubblegum music” rather than mere bubblegum music.

Morrison was no Monkeemaniac, but his influence still worked its way into the Prefab Four’s records.