Doors: the definitive anthology 'Night Divides the Day' is coming

The Doors' story will be told in a new officially licensed anthology titled 'Night Divides the Day', due out in January 2025. The volume was created with “unrestricted access to the Doors archives” and contains new interviews with living members from the band Robby Krieger and John Densmore, archival interviews with the late Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, and contributions from Van Morrison, Mark Volman of the Turtles, Slash, Nile Rodgers, Nancy Sinatra and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds.

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic wrote the foreword, while Gustavo Dudamel, the famous conductor who currently serves as musical and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, wrote the afterword.

'Night Divides the Day' also includes rare youth photos, song lyrics, posters, previously unreleased album covers, vintage guitars, microphones, keyboards, amplifiers and more all from the band's archives. The book is only available in a special box set limited to 2000 numbered copies available in two different editions.

The collector's edition, of 1650 copies, is signed by drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger and includes a 24-page replica of the Doors' 1968 tour programme, a booklet reproducing the master tape boxes of six albums and a picture disc 7″ vinyl with rare demos of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive” remastered by original engineer Bruce Botnick. The deluxe edition, limited to just 350 copies, includes five never-before-seen photographic prints of the Doors at the Whiskey a Go Go during their time as the house band in 1966.

“We were reflecting on our career as it was happening,” Jim Morrison said in an archival interview republished in the book. “It's not that we were trend-conscious, we were doing exactly what we were going to do anyway, but it was the right time.”

“We were just a bunch of psychedelic kids trying to spread the word and the feeling of what it was like to get high in Venice in the mid-'60s. And boy, was it a good feeling watching that sun set in the middle of the ocean, feeling that peace and feeling at one with the universe,” added Ray Manzarek.

“We didn't sit down and say, 'Hey, we want to change people's minds.' We didn't say it but we enjoyed doing it,” John Densmore said. “We could see it happening, we could hear it at concerts, that sociologically, as well as musically, it was influencing people.”

Robby Krieger added: “I think the Doors remained popular because of the amount of great songs. We never put a song on an album unless everyone liked it.”