Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 29, 2005 15:01:41 GMT
Ellen Sander was a New York rock critic and also had a unique position in The Doors story as she became Jac Holzman's lover after he split with his wife Nina in 1969.
She wrote Trips in 1973 and I wondered if anyone has read this book. Greg Shaw refers to it in On The Road a few times.
One of the anecdotes was about Pete Johnson who wrote the famous piece on The Doors in 1966 about thier Whisky show called 'Lost In Space'.
The Doors a hungry looking quartet with an intersting original sound but with the worst stage appearance of any rock group in captivity. The singer emotes with his eyes closed the pianist hunches over his instrument as if reading mysteries from the keys the guitarist drifts about the stage randonly and the drummer seems lost in a seperate world.
The band ran into him after the Singer Bowl show and he told them he had not known they were in town.
They did not seem bothered that he had missed the show.
'Morrison whooped almost slapping Johnson on the back. 'Man when you wrote we were the ugliest group in captivity that was your finest hour.'
Ellen Sander, Trips, New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1973
Ellen Sander commented on the Singer Bowl show's build-up in Trips: "A good portion of the audience still couldn't see and they were furious. Crowds stormed the front of the stage and were turned back by the police. Some were trying to scale the stage and others cheered them on. Morrison spun around and ground the songs out halfheartedly, ad libbing, improvising, doing an ominous dance. Hysteria was building. Morrison shrieked, moaned, gyrated, and minced to the edge of the stage, hovering. Hands reached out and grabbed him and the cops had to pry them away. The camera crew ducked a piece of broken chair which came flying onto the stage. Morrison caught it and heaved it back into the crowd. The Doors were hardly visible from any angle because there were about twenty cops
onstage."
Ellen Sander, Trips, New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1973