Time Capsule: Sept. 17, 1967

The Doors were banned from The Ed Sullivan Show after they performed "Light My Fire" on the program.

At the time, the band were appearing on the show to promote their second album, Strange Days, which was to be released the next week. They performed "People Are Strange" from that album and "Light My Fire," from their self-titled debut.

The show's staffers had asked the band to change one of their lyrics to the latter song, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" because they felt it was inappropriate for television. But Doors frontman Jim Morrison sang the original lyrics on air. Morrison said this was because he was nervous and forgot, but keyboardist Ray Manzarek later wrote that the band did not want to change them.

Sullivan refused to shake Morrison's hand backstage, and the band were told they had just fucked up a seven-episode deal with the show and would now be banned from the program.

The Doors later let Buick use "Light My Fire" in a commercial in which the lyrics were changed to "Come on Buick, light my fire." But they didn't get Morrison's permission to do so, and when Morrison found out this happened, he became so angry that he called Buick and threatened to smash a Buick with a sledgehammer on a TV show if the commercial was used.

Here are The Doors performing "Light My Fire" on The Ed Sullivan Show:

And "People Are Strange," which they performed earlier on the show: