The End Lyrics

[Verse 6]
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

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About

Genius Annotation

“The End” served as the finale for many of The Doors' most notable concerts. The lyrics are a combination of different variations sung during jam-style performances over several months at the Whiskey A Go Go nightclub in Los Angeles in 1966.

The song was famously used in the iconic opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film Apocalypse Now, with images of the Vietnam War to the cinematic battle towards the end of the movie between Willard (Martin Sheen’s character) and Kurtz (Marlon Brando’s character).

In a 1969 interview with Rolling Stone, Morrison said the song means something different every time he listened to it:

It started out as a simple good-bye song… Probably just to a girl, but I see how it could be a goodbye to a kind of childhood. I really don’t know. I think it’s sufficiently complex and universal in its imagery that it could be almost anything you want it to be.

Several musical influences are apparent in Robby Krieger’s composition of this song, including Chopin’s “Funeral March.”

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did The Doors say about "The End"?
Genius Answer

Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate… That doesn’t make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend…

Jim Morrison

He was giving voice in a rock ‘n’ roll setting to the Oedipus complex, at the time a widely discussed tendency in Freudian psychology. He wasn’t saying he wanted to do that to his own mom and dad. He was re-enacting a bit of Greek drama. It was theatre!

Ray Manzarek

What does the line "Lost in a roman wilderness of pain" mean?
Genius Answer

A “Roman wilderness of pain” is a metaphor to describe situations that one struggles to overcome, or a bad experience that has to be dealt with. Morrison was heavily influenced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who argued that over coming difficulty and dealing with struggles makes a person stronger and better.

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