Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Feb 20, 2011 15:38:36 GMT
Was Jim Morrison influenced by a band in his home town of Alexandria? We can never know but this account once again comes from The Lizard King Was Here a book about Morrison's High School days at George Washington High in Virginia.
Club Log Tavern 1965 – 1320 Club started in 1965
Michael Horowitz had visited the 13 20 Club in 1968 and wrote a story for Crawdaddy magazine about Morrison frequenting this club on Route 1 in Hybla Valley a part of Alexandria.
Horowitz went on to say that Jim was influenced by a band that played there called, “Willie and the Handjives.”
In reality, the spot where the 1320 Club sat is the original spot of the Club Log Tavern which burned down in 1965.
The 1320 Club a brick structure was put it in its place.
According to Little Willie, (Donald Ray Downing) lead singer of Little Willie and the Handjives, the band never played Club Log and thinks that the band that the biographies are referring to was his big brothers band “Big Al” (1960-69) as this band did play at Club Log Tavern. Willie and the Handjives didn’t form until 1963 a couple of years after Jim Morrison left Alexandria.
Maggie Phillips
“I can remember going there to the 1320 Club or the Log Tavern or whatever it was called then, and seeing all these people getting drunk and I was sitting there with my friends thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to get killed!’
The band that was playing was a rock and roll group called Ronnie and the Offbeats and I remember seeing Jim Morrison there both times I was there, but I don’t really remember the band because he wasn’t dancing and he wasn’t with somebody I knew or anything like that, I knew him, but I didn’t want to get up from the table and approach him because it was a rough place.
I just remember he was in there hanging around.
This was probably during my senior year in 1960 and I went there twice and then I decided I’d better not do that any more because I remember thinking that my father would kill me if he found out.”
The house band at the Club Log Tavern from 1959-1961 had indeed been Ronnie and the Offbeats, a group of White teenagers from Washington, D.C. who skillfully churned out a mixture of rock, rockabilly, blues and jazz tunes night after night.
Jim MacDonald (Ronnie & The Offbeats)
“You know, I’ve had people come up and tell uis that Jim Morrison used to watch us, the Offbeats, at the Log Tavern.
I’ve heard that story for more than 30 years and even today when I’m out performing with one of my bands people will still come up and tell me that.
It’s funny because I can remember different times when several teenagers came up to us at the Log Tavern and I do remember this one guy that did look a lot like that high school picture of Morrison and he did talk to me several times and I’ve always remembered that.”
“This is how it was. There was this one kid in particular who would come in on different Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights and he used to come and talk to us on our breaks and I was the frontman and since we only had one microphone I guess I was kind of representative of the band.
He would come up and basically just ask about the music or who did a particular song we had just played or something like that because we were playing a lot of current R&B and we were doing a lot of old obscure John Lee Hooker stuff and a lot of Bo Diddley material and songs in general that most teenagers that age most likely would not have heard of or have much interest in.
I think what really struck me at the time was wondering what this kid was doing in there in the first place because he looked so young, but then I reflect back on it and we were too young to be in there as well.
When I saw him in there, which was quite often, he was usually alone and constantly had a notebook with him.
I remember him sitting in a back booth and I can still clearly picture him that exact booth and it was always with a pad or a notebook and he was always scribbling something.
I had no clue what the guy was doing and I thought he might be writing love letters to girlfriend or drawing pictures or something like that.
You know, I can remember maybe once or twice there may have been one or two girls sitting with him, but that’s a very vague memory.
Everytime I had a conversation with him, he’d come up to the bandstand by himself. He was just kind of hanging out and he’d walk by and say “Hey Man” and that kind of thing.
That’s my memory.”
Did Jim Morrison have this teenage rock and roll band in mind when he took the stage years later with the Doors?
“I’ve heard that rumor from people who approached us – Morrison may have been influenced by us – but that sort of thing is difficult to document.
The only way to know for sure is to ask him, but of course that’s impossible now.
I wouldn’t have thought too much about it until I’d heard some of those vocals and some of the arrangements on those Doors songs and compared it to some of the stuff we were doing and it seemed to me it was just too close to be a coincidence.
The thing that did it was one time Danny Gatton and I were driving in a van to some gig – I’m not sure if it was here or upstate New York – and this was maybe eight or ten years later and we heard a Doors song come on the radio and Danny looked at me and I looked at him and he said that it sounded a lot like this arrangement of this tune we used to do and I agreed because of the vocal phrasings and certain kicks that were there.
One example of a song that stuck out was “Break On Through” because we did a cover of a Jimmy Reed song “You Got Me Runnin’’ and we did it with a certain feel and those lines, ‘you got me runnin’’, you got me run, hide, hide, run; I’d sing that in such a way and when Morrison came out with “Break On Through” there was a strong similarity in the way he sang that song.
There were others like that, but who really knows?
Jim Morrison was just a talented singer and it’s amazing to think that he used to come into the Club Log Tavern when he was in high school and watch us play. That in itself is really quite a story.”
Club Log Tavern 1965 – 1320 Club started in 1965
Michael Horowitz had visited the 13 20 Club in 1968 and wrote a story for Crawdaddy magazine about Morrison frequenting this club on Route 1 in Hybla Valley a part of Alexandria.
Horowitz went on to say that Jim was influenced by a band that played there called, “Willie and the Handjives.”
In reality, the spot where the 1320 Club sat is the original spot of the Club Log Tavern which burned down in 1965.
The 1320 Club a brick structure was put it in its place.
According to Little Willie, (Donald Ray Downing) lead singer of Little Willie and the Handjives, the band never played Club Log and thinks that the band that the biographies are referring to was his big brothers band “Big Al” (1960-69) as this band did play at Club Log Tavern. Willie and the Handjives didn’t form until 1963 a couple of years after Jim Morrison left Alexandria.
Maggie Phillips
“I can remember going there to the 1320 Club or the Log Tavern or whatever it was called then, and seeing all these people getting drunk and I was sitting there with my friends thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to get killed!’
The band that was playing was a rock and roll group called Ronnie and the Offbeats and I remember seeing Jim Morrison there both times I was there, but I don’t really remember the band because he wasn’t dancing and he wasn’t with somebody I knew or anything like that, I knew him, but I didn’t want to get up from the table and approach him because it was a rough place.
I just remember he was in there hanging around.
This was probably during my senior year in 1960 and I went there twice and then I decided I’d better not do that any more because I remember thinking that my father would kill me if he found out.”
The house band at the Club Log Tavern from 1959-1961 had indeed been Ronnie and the Offbeats, a group of White teenagers from Washington, D.C. who skillfully churned out a mixture of rock, rockabilly, blues and jazz tunes night after night.
Jim MacDonald (Ronnie & The Offbeats)
“You know, I’ve had people come up and tell uis that Jim Morrison used to watch us, the Offbeats, at the Log Tavern.
I’ve heard that story for more than 30 years and even today when I’m out performing with one of my bands people will still come up and tell me that.
It’s funny because I can remember different times when several teenagers came up to us at the Log Tavern and I do remember this one guy that did look a lot like that high school picture of Morrison and he did talk to me several times and I’ve always remembered that.”
“This is how it was. There was this one kid in particular who would come in on different Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights and he used to come and talk to us on our breaks and I was the frontman and since we only had one microphone I guess I was kind of representative of the band.
He would come up and basically just ask about the music or who did a particular song we had just played or something like that because we were playing a lot of current R&B and we were doing a lot of old obscure John Lee Hooker stuff and a lot of Bo Diddley material and songs in general that most teenagers that age most likely would not have heard of or have much interest in.
I think what really struck me at the time was wondering what this kid was doing in there in the first place because he looked so young, but then I reflect back on it and we were too young to be in there as well.
When I saw him in there, which was quite often, he was usually alone and constantly had a notebook with him.
I remember him sitting in a back booth and I can still clearly picture him that exact booth and it was always with a pad or a notebook and he was always scribbling something.
I had no clue what the guy was doing and I thought he might be writing love letters to girlfriend or drawing pictures or something like that.
You know, I can remember maybe once or twice there may have been one or two girls sitting with him, but that’s a very vague memory.
Everytime I had a conversation with him, he’d come up to the bandstand by himself. He was just kind of hanging out and he’d walk by and say “Hey Man” and that kind of thing.
That’s my memory.”
Did Jim Morrison have this teenage rock and roll band in mind when he took the stage years later with the Doors?
“I’ve heard that rumor from people who approached us – Morrison may have been influenced by us – but that sort of thing is difficult to document.
The only way to know for sure is to ask him, but of course that’s impossible now.
I wouldn’t have thought too much about it until I’d heard some of those vocals and some of the arrangements on those Doors songs and compared it to some of the stuff we were doing and it seemed to me it was just too close to be a coincidence.
The thing that did it was one time Danny Gatton and I were driving in a van to some gig – I’m not sure if it was here or upstate New York – and this was maybe eight or ten years later and we heard a Doors song come on the radio and Danny looked at me and I looked at him and he said that it sounded a lot like this arrangement of this tune we used to do and I agreed because of the vocal phrasings and certain kicks that were there.
One example of a song that stuck out was “Break On Through” because we did a cover of a Jimmy Reed song “You Got Me Runnin’’ and we did it with a certain feel and those lines, ‘you got me runnin’’, you got me run, hide, hide, run; I’d sing that in such a way and when Morrison came out with “Break On Through” there was a strong similarity in the way he sang that song.
There were others like that, but who really knows?
Jim Morrison was just a talented singer and it’s amazing to think that he used to come into the Club Log Tavern when he was in high school and watch us play. That in itself is really quite a story.”