The Doors Forum

The story goes that The Doors were the first to have a billboard on Sunset to promote their new album.

Here's an image I scanned of the 'Forever Changes' billboard that was put up in the same location. Are there any good stories behind it?

Was Love asked to decide on a name for the album before the billboard was commissioned?

It doesn't seem to have been decided upon by the time the billboard went up.

RunAlltheLights wrote:The story goes that The Doors were the first to have a billboard on Sunset to promote their new album.

Here's an image I scanned of the 'Forever Changes' billboard that was put up in the same location. Are there any good stories behind it?

No, except we were extremely pissed off at being dissed that way!

BallroomDays67 wrote:Was Love asked to decide on a name for the album before the billboard was commissioned?

No we weren't, communication was a bit frosty at that time.

jamestkirk wrote:It doesn't seem to have been decided upon by the time the billboard went up.

The billboard thing caught us all off guard! We were still tossing around possible names, when it hit the fan. Jac Holtzman knew exactly what he was doing, he wanted to provoke a reaction...he got one! JE.

I remember Michael writing how he and Bryan drove out to see it, once they heard of it, and Bryan was pissed that Michael's image was larger than his in the art/collage.

I assume LoVE had zero input on choosing the FC album cover....do you like the art?

It has been used many times as a 60's symbol--used often in film & print--an iconic image of the times; one that even Elektra seems to have adopted as a symbol of the music they produced in the 60's. I have grown to love it, maybe more than any other album cover image of the day. LoVE represents the sound, the music and the scene of the day more than any other 60's band for me.

Michael's image is the smallest one, and Bryan actually complained about it being in the center. He also didn't feel that his own image was a good resemblance, but I don't agree.

The image is that of a human heart, so there weren't too many ways Pepper could have satisfied individual group member's, personal vanities, and remained true to his vision. I think the cover is fantastic! JE.

BallroomDays67 wrote:Michael's image is the smallest one, and Bryan actually complained about it being in the center. He also didn't feel that his own image was a good resemblance, but I don't agree.

Right...as you said ...it is in the center.......

Johnny Echols wrote:The image is that of a human heart,

DOH! I am so blind... I never noticed that! Now that's all I can see!

Michael,

What was your general opinion of the album cover? Were there ever any theories as to why each member of the band was placed where they were? In some ways you got the prime spot, being dead center.

First of all I was extremely flattered that the billboard was located above the Liquor Locker,... located near the corner of Crescent Heights on Sunset, it was the primary booze outlet to all the stars who lived in Laurel Canyon.

The funny thing about the configuration of our faces is, I don't think Bob Pepper knew who was who in the group, or maybe he didn't care. He was just working off the photos he was handed and trying to come up with something artistically interesting. But the bottom line is, turning our faces into the shape of an organic human heart was a stroke of genius, one that (barring any evidence to the contrary) had to have come from the creative mind of Bob Pepper, himself.

I guess it might have gone something like...Bob's burning the midnight oil, trying hard to come up with something unusual, only perhaps using the stereotypical valentine, but then suddenly his subconscious harkens back to an anatomy class he took in college... and the light bulb goes on, "Hey, wait a minute..."

I didn't catch it the first time I saw it, either. My Dad was the first to mention to me that the shape resembled a human heart.