
Morrison and The Doors would have a long affair with the camera. Pictures of The Byrds were less common, The Yardbirds or Love nearly non-existent, but Morrison was the stuff of 16 magazine or Look or Life. There was a fervor over The Doors like there was for The Beatles earlier in the decade, though never was it more stylistic than the photography for The Doors' fifth album, Morrison Hotel.
Here's what photographer Henry Diltz had to say about the cover photo shoot: "We parked the VW van and walked in. I told the guy at the desk we were going to take a few photos and it would take but a few minutes and he said we couldn't without the owner's permission and the owner wasn't there. I thought, You're kidding! It was a transient hotel and it was empty! I saw him leave the desk and get in the elevator. Right on the cover, you can see the lit elevator numbers right under the 'son' in 'Morrison.' I said 'Quick you guys, run in there!' They jumped right behind the windows and hit their places without shuffling and I shot. I shot one roll of film, starting close to the window, and then I backed across the street [1246 Hope Street] with a telephoto lens. So we finished the whole thing in about five minutes and the guy never saw us. We pulled it off though, like a guerrilla photo shoot."
Afterwards the
photo shoot moved further downtown to the Hard Rock Cafe on East 5th Street in a section of downtown known as Skid Row (this was a year
before London's original Hard Rock Cafe would open in Picadilly). A dingy fleatrap filled with what Morrison called "The real people." The Doors happened upon this ramshackle dive bar and collectively said, "Oh, we gotta go in there!"

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