From the self-titled debut album "The End" was first released on January 4, 1967. The song was recorded live in the studio with no overdubbing.

The Doors developed this song during live performances at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in 1966. They had to play two sets a night, so they were forced to extend their songs in order to fill the sets. This gave them a chance to experiment with their songs.

"The End" began as Jim Morrison's farewell to Mary Werbelow, his girlfriend who followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. It developed into an 11-minute epic.

Morrison sang this live as "F--k the mother," rather than "Screw the mother." At the time, the band couldn't cross what their engineer Bruce Botnick called "the f--k barrier," so they sanitized the lyric on the album. When Botnick remixed the album for a 1999 reissue, however, he put Morrison's "f--k"s back in, which is how the song was intended.

This was famously used in the movie Apocalypse Now over scenes from the Vietnam War. Director Francis Ford Coppola had it remixed to include the line "F--k the mother."

Lyrics

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes, again

Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free

Desperately in need, of some, stranger's hand

In a, desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane, all the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town

Ride the King's highway, baby

Weird scenes inside the gold mine

Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake

To the lake, the ancient lake, baby

The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake, he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best, the west is the best

Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us, the blue bus is callin' us

Driver, where you taken us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on

He took a face from the ancient gallery

And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and, then he

Paid a visit to his brother, and then he

He walked on down the hall, and

And he came to a door, and he looked inside

Father, yes son, I want to kill you

Mother, I want to, f--k you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

And meet me at the back of the blue bus

Doin' a blue rock, on a blue bus

Doin' a blue rock, c'mon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Writer/s: BRUCE W. FRANKLIN, ERIC WAGNER, RICK J. WARTELL

Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group