"The End" is an epic song by the American rock band the Doors. Lead singer Jim Morrison initially wrote the lyrics about his break up with an old girlfriend Mary Werbelow, but it evolved through months of performances at the Whisky a Go Go into a much longer song. The Doors recorded a nearly 12-minute version for their self-titled debut album, which was released on January 4, 1967. "The End" was ranked at number 336 on 2010 Rolling Stone magazines list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song's guitar solo was ranked number 93 on Guitar Worlds "100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time". Lyrics and recording In a 1969 interview with Jerry Hopkins, Morrison said about the lyrics: When interviewed by Lizze James, he pointed out the meaning of the verse "My only friend, the End": Shortly past the midpoint of the nearly 12-minute-long album version, the song enters a spoken word section with the words, "The killer awoke before dawn / he put his boots on". That section of the song reaches a dramatic climax with the lines, "Father / Yes son? / I want to kill you / Mother, I want to..." (with the next words screamed out unintelligibly). Morrison had worked on a student production of Oedipus Rex at Florida State University. Ray Manzarek, the former keyboard player of the Doors, explained: When asked if whether the lyrics of the Oedipal section resonated with his own parents, Morrison simply replied, "I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to involve anyone unless they want it." On the other hand, Doors' guitarist Robby Krieger believed that Morrison indeed suffered "from an apparent Oedipus complex". However, in John Densmore's autobiography Riders on the Storm, he recalls when Morrison explained the actual meaning of the song: According to Mojo magazine, during the recording sessions, Morrison was obsessed and skeptical of the words, "Fuck the mother, kill the father", as Krieger recalled, "He was on this Oedipus complex trip." Then he accidentally threw a TV, which was brought in by sound engineer Bruce Botnick, at the control room window. After the incident, he was sent home by producer Paul A. Rothchild. However, Morrison, who had taken LSD, returned in the middle of the night, broke into the studio and hosed it with a fire extinguisher. The agent marked only the instruments that were mounted in