Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 23, 2004 12:37:19 GMT
PAUL ROTHCHILD - THE DOORS PRODUCER RECALLS THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF WORKING WITH THE DOORS Part 1
BAM: Of course, even you censored the group a little bit. "Mother I want to fuck you" became "Mother I want to AAAUGH" And on the remixed version of "The End" on the Apocalyspe Now soundtrack there's a very distinctive passage
Morrison chanting "fuck, fuck fuck!"
PAUL: That was an overdub we didn't use on the record. Flat out, we knew "fuck, fuck, fuck" wouldn't get on the radio, so that was censored. It's on the master, but it isn't up front like it is on the Coppola-Rubinson mix. On the original, it's there as part of the rhythm
track, which was the original intent. It was never
supposed to be a lyric. If you listen closely to Doors
records you'll find hundreds of places where there are
vocal things put in that are part of the subliminal
rhythm track. You'll hear a "ch-ch-ch." Things like
that.
BAM: Did the absence of a bass player strike you as a
drawback to the band?
PAUL: On the first album we
used an uncredited bass player named Larry Knechtal on a few tracks. He was one of Phil Spector's boys. He
came and played where Ray's piano-bass thing wasn't
hot enough. We also overdubbed Morrison singing
harmony to himself on a couple of things.
BAM: Who was the primary architect of the music at this
point? Morrison? (1968 - WFTS)
PAUL: It was a great tragedy that the early songs are credited only to "The Doors," although that's what they wanted. They didn't want people to know who did what. The Doors were a democracy and they didn't want anyone one to become the leader. Well, that's great lip service, but the truth is everyone did something very specific in that band. The fact is, nobody did anything, that Jim Morrison didn't want. He was the creative genius. he was the irreplaceable member, as we learned after he died the Doors tried to go on without him.
BAM: Excuse me for interrupting, but you're quoted in No One Here Gets Out Alive as saying you thought Riders On The Storm was cocktail music.
PAUL: I'm glad you mentioned that. I'd like to digress for a while and tell you about that. I did not say that about Riders On The Storm. Danny Sugarman (co-author of the book) is a fan of The Doors who took Jerry Hopkins' original manuscript and destroyed it. Danny didn't interview me. Jerry did. Danny then changed a lot of my interview to hearsay that other people did. I'm furious about that book and so is everyone else I've talked to who is quoted in it. It's a great piece of
sensationalism, very little of which holds to historical fact. The general shape of it is correct, but Jim is
sensationalized rather spectacularly, and the best parts of Morrison are not there. The people who really helped The Doors' career are treated in a very cavalier manner, and the only people who come off well in my opinion are
the groupies and syocpants who were hanging around
the band and close to Danny Sugarman.
What actually happened was this: The Doors
career had been going downhill for sometime when we started LA Woman (the lp that contains Riders On The Storm). There had been a couple of peaks, but basically, things had been sliding since Miami. Jim was really not interested after about the third album. He wanted to do other things. He wanted to write. Wanted to be an actor. Being lead singer of The Doors was really not his idea of a good time. It became very difficult to get him involved with the records. When we made The Soft Parade it was like pulling teeth to get Jim into it.
BAM: The song The Soft Parade sounds heavily
fragmented to me, as if it wasn't even designed as one
song.
PAUL: It wasn't. Whenever we got stuck in the studio
with a bridge section, I'd ask Jim to get out his
notebooks of poetry and we'd go through them and find a piece that fit rhythmically and conceptually. Alot of
the fragments there were just bits of poetry we put
together. That song came out kind of interesting. I
thought.
BAM: But in general the sessions were very
difficult.
PAUL: Very difficult. You see, Jim decided around this
time that he was going to be really rebellious. I
think he was trying to show the band that they weren't
shit without him. Jim was always testing. He tested us
all every minute of every day. He tested people's
limits to see where their level of infuriation
was.
BAM: You were trying to make a point earlier about LA
Woman and Riders On The Storm, I'd like to get back to
that.
PAUL: Okay, we're back on LA Woman. I went to
rehearsals with The Doors for about a month. They were set up in the basement of their offices on Santa Monica Blvd. Jim wouldn't even show up half the time. There was no enthusiasm at all. They were drugged on their own boredom. Just totally bummed out. Ray would try to get things together. He still has this great
enthusiasm. Still does. I love that man. John was really
angry about Jim's additute, and Robby sort of laughed
at it and said, "That's Jim!" It wasn't just Jim,
though. They only had 4-5 songs that were even defined enough to play as songs by this point. The most complete were LA Woman and Riders On The Storm, both of which I thought were great songs. My problem was I couldn't get them to play either of them decently. Their heart wasn't in it and it was easy to see why: Jim's heart wasn't in it. We rehearsed and rehearsed but it didn't get any better. I finally turned to Bruce Botnick and said, "I know another producer would stick with this because it's a quarter of a million dollars for the producer, but I can't do it. The reason I went into producing was I loved music. But I cannot prostitute myself. This is whoring." I went into the studio finally and said, "Guys, I think the best thing that could happen is for me to leave. The only way you'll survive is if you make the record yourself. You'll have to
generate the enthusiasm and brillance." They freaked.
Robby got pale. Ray sat down heavily. Jim turned around and walked to the other side of the studio and John looked like he was going to have coronary. We said a very warm and tender and loving goodbye and I left. I'm still dear friends with them. If Jim were still
alive, we'd still be making poetry records together.
BAM: Love Her Madly was not one of their better
singles.
PAUL: That's exactly the song I was talking about that
I said sounded like cocktail music. That's the song
that drove me out of the recording studio.
BAM 7th March 1981
BAM: Of course, even you censored the group a little bit. "Mother I want to fuck you" became "Mother I want to AAAUGH" And on the remixed version of "The End" on the Apocalyspe Now soundtrack there's a very distinctive passage
Morrison chanting "fuck, fuck fuck!"
PAUL: That was an overdub we didn't use on the record. Flat out, we knew "fuck, fuck, fuck" wouldn't get on the radio, so that was censored. It's on the master, but it isn't up front like it is on the Coppola-Rubinson mix. On the original, it's there as part of the rhythm
track, which was the original intent. It was never
supposed to be a lyric. If you listen closely to Doors
records you'll find hundreds of places where there are
vocal things put in that are part of the subliminal
rhythm track. You'll hear a "ch-ch-ch." Things like
that.
BAM: Did the absence of a bass player strike you as a
drawback to the band?
PAUL: On the first album we
used an uncredited bass player named Larry Knechtal on a few tracks. He was one of Phil Spector's boys. He
came and played where Ray's piano-bass thing wasn't
hot enough. We also overdubbed Morrison singing
harmony to himself on a couple of things.
BAM: Who was the primary architect of the music at this
point? Morrison? (1968 - WFTS)
PAUL: It was a great tragedy that the early songs are credited only to "The Doors," although that's what they wanted. They didn't want people to know who did what. The Doors were a democracy and they didn't want anyone one to become the leader. Well, that's great lip service, but the truth is everyone did something very specific in that band. The fact is, nobody did anything, that Jim Morrison didn't want. He was the creative genius. he was the irreplaceable member, as we learned after he died the Doors tried to go on without him.
BAM: Excuse me for interrupting, but you're quoted in No One Here Gets Out Alive as saying you thought Riders On The Storm was cocktail music.
PAUL: I'm glad you mentioned that. I'd like to digress for a while and tell you about that. I did not say that about Riders On The Storm. Danny Sugarman (co-author of the book) is a fan of The Doors who took Jerry Hopkins' original manuscript and destroyed it. Danny didn't interview me. Jerry did. Danny then changed a lot of my interview to hearsay that other people did. I'm furious about that book and so is everyone else I've talked to who is quoted in it. It's a great piece of
sensationalism, very little of which holds to historical fact. The general shape of it is correct, but Jim is
sensationalized rather spectacularly, and the best parts of Morrison are not there. The people who really helped The Doors' career are treated in a very cavalier manner, and the only people who come off well in my opinion are
the groupies and syocpants who were hanging around
the band and close to Danny Sugarman.
What actually happened was this: The Doors
career had been going downhill for sometime when we started LA Woman (the lp that contains Riders On The Storm). There had been a couple of peaks, but basically, things had been sliding since Miami. Jim was really not interested after about the third album. He wanted to do other things. He wanted to write. Wanted to be an actor. Being lead singer of The Doors was really not his idea of a good time. It became very difficult to get him involved with the records. When we made The Soft Parade it was like pulling teeth to get Jim into it.
BAM: The song The Soft Parade sounds heavily
fragmented to me, as if it wasn't even designed as one
song.
PAUL: It wasn't. Whenever we got stuck in the studio
with a bridge section, I'd ask Jim to get out his
notebooks of poetry and we'd go through them and find a piece that fit rhythmically and conceptually. Alot of
the fragments there were just bits of poetry we put
together. That song came out kind of interesting. I
thought.
BAM: But in general the sessions were very
difficult.
PAUL: Very difficult. You see, Jim decided around this
time that he was going to be really rebellious. I
think he was trying to show the band that they weren't
shit without him. Jim was always testing. He tested us
all every minute of every day. He tested people's
limits to see where their level of infuriation
was.
BAM: You were trying to make a point earlier about LA
Woman and Riders On The Storm, I'd like to get back to
that.
PAUL: Okay, we're back on LA Woman. I went to
rehearsals with The Doors for about a month. They were set up in the basement of their offices on Santa Monica Blvd. Jim wouldn't even show up half the time. There was no enthusiasm at all. They were drugged on their own boredom. Just totally bummed out. Ray would try to get things together. He still has this great
enthusiasm. Still does. I love that man. John was really
angry about Jim's additute, and Robby sort of laughed
at it and said, "That's Jim!" It wasn't just Jim,
though. They only had 4-5 songs that were even defined enough to play as songs by this point. The most complete were LA Woman and Riders On The Storm, both of which I thought were great songs. My problem was I couldn't get them to play either of them decently. Their heart wasn't in it and it was easy to see why: Jim's heart wasn't in it. We rehearsed and rehearsed but it didn't get any better. I finally turned to Bruce Botnick and said, "I know another producer would stick with this because it's a quarter of a million dollars for the producer, but I can't do it. The reason I went into producing was I loved music. But I cannot prostitute myself. This is whoring." I went into the studio finally and said, "Guys, I think the best thing that could happen is for me to leave. The only way you'll survive is if you make the record yourself. You'll have to
generate the enthusiasm and brillance." They freaked.
Robby got pale. Ray sat down heavily. Jim turned around and walked to the other side of the studio and John looked like he was going to have coronary. We said a very warm and tender and loving goodbye and I left. I'm still dear friends with them. If Jim were still
alive, we'd still be making poetry records together.
BAM: Love Her Madly was not one of their better
singles.
PAUL: That's exactly the song I was talking about that
I said sounded like cocktail music. That's the song
that drove me out of the recording studio.
BAM 7th March 1981