4 January: The Doors

On this date in 1967 The Doors released their self-titled debut album The Doors. 10 things you might not know about The Doors:

1. The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The members were vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore.
2. The band’s name came from a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors Of Perception, which got its title from a quote by William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."
3. The band was signed by Elektra Records in 1966 and went on to record six albums in five years.
4. Their first album was recorded in just six days. This was in spite of Jim Morrison expressing concern that they didn’t have enough original songs. Robby Krieger turned up with Light My Fire the next day.
5. Morrison’s father, Steve, had a distinguished military career. He was an elite US fighter pilot in WWII, earned a Bronze Star in the Korean War for ‘heroic achievement’ in a combat zone and became the youngest admiral in the US Navy at 47 years of age, just as Light My Fire reached number one in the charts. Jim Morrison had originally decided to change his name to James Phoenix in case it affected his father’s career. He was talked out of it before the album artwork went to print. Morrison and his father didn’t get on. His dad was a disciplinarian who thoroughly disapproved of his son’s choice of career and didn’t believe he had any talent. Jim distanced himself from his parents to the extent that he’d tell people they were dead, when they weren’t.
6. The Doors have more songs in the film Forrest Gump than any other band. Six of their songs feature in the movie.
7. They were the first band to have an album advertised on a billboard. Elektra Records paid $1500 to promote their first album on LA's Sunset Strip.
8. One of the people who helped set up filming equipment for The Doors’ Live At The Hollywood Bowl recording in 1968 was a young carpenter named Harrison Ford.
9. Morrison witnessed the aftermath of a road traffic accident as a child, which had long lasting effects on him. A truck carrying a number of Native Americans had crashed, and they were lying dying in the road. Morrison believed that a couple of the departing souls were absorbed by his own, “like a sponge”. He would later write the incident into a song, Peace Frog, on The Doors' 1970 album Morrison Hotel.
10. Jim Morrison was one of several rock stars of the time who died at the age of 27. He was found dead in his bath by his girlfriend, Pamela Courson, at their apartment in Paris. The official cause of death was a heart attack, but rumours and conspiracy theories abound. It was a drug overdose; he’d actually died in a nightclub toilet from an overdose but his dealers carried him home and put him in his bath; he was killed by the CIA; he faked his own death. Morrison was buried in Paris and his headstone reads: "Kata ton daimona eay toy," Greek for "True to his own spirit." As for the Doors, the band continued as a trio until disbanding in 1973.

Character birthday

Technocrat (Roger Barnes): A member of Combat Team Beta. Not in a book published at time of writing. He is a genius but very shy. Studied at Cambridge and was noticed by the secret organisation, the Vipers, but turned down an invitation to a recruitment event because the person asking him was a beautiful woman and he was too flustered by her attention to accept. He regretted this, and so when a representative of Combat Team Beta came to ask if he would be their healer and fixer, he accepted at once.

He has a reputation among his team mates for being a loner and preferring machines to people; although he secretly envies the ease at which the others make friends and get along. While his genius level intelligence is within normal boundaries, his healing ability is genetic variant in origin.

Fire in her Blood

A Superhero love story.

Sent away to school to get her away from undesirable company, Agnes finds herself homesick and lonely. A brief connection with Jason Warner leads to the teenage crush to end all teenage crushes. Jason is barely aware Agnes exists, but she plans her whole future around him.

It is only when they meet again as adults that the connection becomes mutual; but before it can develop, Jason makes a discovery which rocks his entire world. He needs time alone, away from everyone, including Agnes. When Jason is finally ready to go back to his old life, Agnes has moved on and he cannot find her.

Agnes is now a single parent to the remarkable Seraphina. The Power League want to harness Seraphina's powers for evil before the Freedom League become aware of her. Agnes has no idea her new colleague and friend is a supervillain with his own agenda, and his willingness to babysit is not as innocent as she thinks. As Incendio starts teaching Seraphina to use her powers, the Freedom League intervene. Little do they know that they have found one of their own.

Themes

Superheroes and villains, family, romance, DNA,  friendship, celebrities, hero worship, jealousy.

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