Post by darkstar3 on Jan 14, 2011 17:09:25 GMT
The Doors: Opening Up
By CRAIG ROSEN
Publication: Billboard
Date: Saturday, November 4 2006
As they prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, the surviving members of the Doors have been reflecting on their legacy.
The trio of keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore have collaborated with music journalist Ben Fong-Torres for "The Doors by the Doors," an oral history that will be published this month by Hyperion.
They also spent time in the studio with longtime engineer Bruce Botnick, as he worked on remixing the Doors' six studio albums in 5.1 surround sound for the "Perception" boxed set on Rhino Records.
Billboard recently spoke with Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore in separate phone interviews about the enduring appeal of their music, and what their late bandmate Jim Morrison would think of their quest to use new technology to expose the Doors' music to the next generation of fans.
In your wildest dreams, did you ever think that people would still be listening to the songs that you recorded for your first album four decades later?
Manzarek: Hardly, but on the other hand, that's not concern. I don't think musicians play music thinking in terms of posterity. It's just the opposite. You have to think in that individual moment in time, the Zen moment in time.
And if you capture the energy, then you do what a musician is supposed to do. If by the grace of the gods on Mount Olympus you happen to be liked 40 years from now, that's only a testament to the Doors' audience as far as I'm concerned.
Doors music is not a simple kind of music. It's like the Bauhaus. It's clean and pure. Morrison's lyrics are psychologically deep. So for people to understand Doors music is certainly a testament to their intellects.
What did your parents think of you playing this crazy rock'n'roll music at the time?
Manzarek: They loved it, and then "Light My Fire" becomes the No. 1 song in America. What's not to like? My mother had three boys of her own, Raymond, Richard and James. So Jim Morrison comes along, and I introduced him and brought him down to Redondo Beach to bum a couple of free meals off my parents. My mother loved him. That's her fourth son. She cut his hair. She used to cut our hair and gave Jim a little trim, too.
What do you remember about that first Doors gig at the Sunset Strip club the London Fog?
Densmore: I had been a professional drummer for years before that playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and bars with my fake ID. Here I was in the dumpiest fucking bar that I'd ever seen. Jim was so nervous he wouldn't even face the audience. I thought, "I don't know if this group is going anywhere."
And then I'd go down to the Whisky and hear Love and wish I was in their band. But when I first walked into Ray's parents' garage, before I brought Robby into the band, I knew immediately that Jim Morrison had the potential for magic, but it certainly hadn't come to fruition at the London Fog. He was learning how to do it.
In the garage we were looking at the really raw ingredient. Jim had never sung, so we were looking at really raw material. But he had brilliant lyrics that made me want to immediately play drums.
Ray handed me a crumpled piece of paper and I read it, "The day destroys the night/The night divides the day/Tried to run/Tried to hide/Break on through to the other side." I read it and went, "Oh, shit. Where's my drums?"
How did you land the gig as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go?
Manzarek: The week before our final night at the London Fog, Ronnie Harran, the booker from the Whisky a Go Go, had come down and fell in love with the band. She asked us after the set, "How would you guys like to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go?" And we went, "Fucking A. Are you kidding? Of course, we'd love to."
She said, "You'll open the show, then the headliners, then you play another set, and then the headliners. So two sets a night." We said, "How much money?" And she said, "Union scale," which was like $135 per man, per week. It was like, "Wow." We were making like $40 or $50 at the London Fog.
We were going to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go and Jim Morrison, Mr. Cool, says to Ronnie, "We got to think about this. Why don't you come back tomorrow?" And she looked at him with these big puppy-dog eyes.
After she left, we proceeded to pummel Morrison on the arms and shoulders. "What do you mean we have to think about it?" Jim said, "Of course we're going to take the gig, but you don't want to appear too anxious."
The next week we started, and the band we played with was none other than Them, Van Morrison and Them. And we jammed during the last set of the night. So Jim Morrison and Van Morrison were singing "Gloria" together at the Whisky a Go Go. What a night.
What were the influences that shaped the Doors' sound and what does each member of the band bring to the table?
Densmore: Ray grew up in Chicago so he had the blues, Muddy Waters and all that. He also had classical training. That was pretty cool. That was invoked in the intro to "Light My Fire," which was very kind of Bach-like. Robby had a flamenco and folk music background. I was so enamored with watching Robby's fingers crawl across the flamenco guitar strings like a crab.
I'm a jazz guy and Ray was also into jazz, so when we met we talked about [John] Coltrane and Miles [Davis]. I think that influence gave me freedom. Like in "When the Music's Over," I just stopped playing the beat, and I would just comment on Jim's words percussively, out of rhythm, like we were having a conversation. I got that from listening to Elvin Jones and John Coltrane.
And then there was Jim, Mr. Literary, who had read every book on the planet, but didn't know anything about music and how to write songs and trusted us. Therefore, we were a total democracy.
We shared everything—writing credits, veto power. Jim had melodies as well as words. He didn't know how to play a chord on any instrument, but he had melodies in his head. To remember the lyrics he would think of melodies and then they would stay in his head. He had melodies and lyrics in his head, and he would sing them a cappella, and we would eke out the arrangements.
What is it about the Doors' music that makes it so seemingly timeless?
Krieger: The Doors were just ahead of their time. It seems like what we were playing back then, the blues and stuff like that that we were into, were starting to catch on 10 years later. Because we were ahead of our time in our heyday, we weren't really that huge.
I don't think a lot of people really understood what the hell we were doing until later. Maybe just now people are waking up to the Doors' music.
What in your mind is the essential Doors album?
Densmore: The first one had all the hits, but was poorly recorded. There were only four tracks. The second one was one of my faves because we got relaxed in the studio. We had fun experimenting.
The fourth and fifth [albums], we tried strings and horns. Those are good, the critics hated them, but I don't care. They were [both hit albums].
The last one, "L.A. Woman," gets back to who we really are. We got back to the essence. We produced it ourselves with Bruce Botnick and only did two takes on everything. Fuck the mistakes, like Miles [Davis]. I said that to Ray when we were recording, "Let's just go for the feeling and raw emotion."
What inspired "Light My Fire"?
Krieger: At that point, Jim was writing the songs. I'd written maybe a couple before that but nothing too serious. One day Jim mentioned that we didn't have enough songs, so he said, "Why don't you guys try and write some songs."
So I went home and wrote "Light My Fire." It was the first song I wrote for the Doors. Jim came up with the second verse about the funeral pyre. Ray did the baroque intro and John came up with the kind of Latin drum beat.
When we would play "Light My Fire" for the live audience, everybody loved it, so we knew it was a special song.
knew if it was going to compete with Jim's stuff, it had to be pretty heavy duty.
So I figured, OK, I'll write about the four elements: earth, air, fire or water. I picked fire because I like the [Rolling] Stones song "Play With Fire."
Consumers now have the ability to buy individual songs, not just singles, out of the context of an album. How do you feel about that?
Densmore: Bad, because we spend a lot of time arranging the program and thinking of the album as a total experience you'd have listening to the whole thing. On the other hand, it's fun playing producer, isn't it? Everybody gets to mix things around and make their own record and that's kind of cool.
What would Morrison think about the use of the Doors' songs as ringtones and in videogames?
Krieger: You never knew what Jim was going to think. I'd hate to put words in his mouth, but I know he didn't like the idea of using songs in advertisements. I think ringtones are different. It's another way of having your song heard.
I feel the same way about advertisements, too. It's getting harder and harder to get your stuff on the radio to be heard, and there are a lot of different new ways to get it heard, whether it's advertisements or ringtones or any of those things. I'm not against those things.
Densmore: We're not selling deodorant, and I'm sure that's where Jim would draw the line and get very upset. I'm positive about that.
Have you seen any commercials featuring music by some of your peers that made you cringe?
Densmore: I was shocked when Bob Dylan did Victoria's Secret, but I also love him to death for being the greatest songwriter of the 20th century and possibly the 21st.
Do you have a favorite use of the Doors' music in a film?
Densmore: "Apocalypse Now"—a world-class director, a movie about American foreign policy at the time, which was very important. It polarized the entire country. All that and they take one of our songs. It really pleased us that a great, artistic filmmaker would do that. We were real happy.
Through the years the Doors have been covered by hundreds of artists. Do you have any favorites?
Densmore: I'd say Jose Feliciano and X, because they found a new way of interpreting the songs they did. Jose made "Light My Fire" a ballad. That's very interesting. We didn't think of it that way when we wrote it. Echo & the Bunnymen just copied "People Are Strange," which is cool, we made some money, thanks. But when an artist finds a new interpretation of one of your songs, that's great. It turns your head around.
What are your feelings about the proposed Las Vegas attraction using the Doors' music?
Densmore: I went to the premiere of the Beatles thing ["Love"] and the music was stellar. I'm excited by the idea. I don't know what it is yet. This kind of project is big. You have to have a stage built and it ain't cheap, but I'm very intrigued by the idea. It's not a commercial. It could be magic. Our songs take you on a journey, so what better vehicle for a theatrical production.
How would you like the Doors to be remembered?
Krieger: For the music. I think that's how we will be remembered in the long run, because all the movies, all the books and all that stuff eventually will go away, but the music will last for a long time. If you think about Count Basie or Duke Ellington, people don't really know who those guys were, but they do know the music. After 50 or 60 years, that's what's important.
END.
By CRAIG ROSEN
Publication: Billboard
Date: Saturday, November 4 2006
As they prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, the surviving members of the Doors have been reflecting on their legacy.
The trio of keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore have collaborated with music journalist Ben Fong-Torres for "The Doors by the Doors," an oral history that will be published this month by Hyperion.
They also spent time in the studio with longtime engineer Bruce Botnick, as he worked on remixing the Doors' six studio albums in 5.1 surround sound for the "Perception" boxed set on Rhino Records.
Billboard recently spoke with Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore in separate phone interviews about the enduring appeal of their music, and what their late bandmate Jim Morrison would think of their quest to use new technology to expose the Doors' music to the next generation of fans.
In your wildest dreams, did you ever think that people would still be listening to the songs that you recorded for your first album four decades later?
Manzarek: Hardly, but on the other hand, that's not concern. I don't think musicians play music thinking in terms of posterity. It's just the opposite. You have to think in that individual moment in time, the Zen moment in time.
And if you capture the energy, then you do what a musician is supposed to do. If by the grace of the gods on Mount Olympus you happen to be liked 40 years from now, that's only a testament to the Doors' audience as far as I'm concerned.
Doors music is not a simple kind of music. It's like the Bauhaus. It's clean and pure. Morrison's lyrics are psychologically deep. So for people to understand Doors music is certainly a testament to their intellects.
What did your parents think of you playing this crazy rock'n'roll music at the time?
Manzarek: They loved it, and then "Light My Fire" becomes the No. 1 song in America. What's not to like? My mother had three boys of her own, Raymond, Richard and James. So Jim Morrison comes along, and I introduced him and brought him down to Redondo Beach to bum a couple of free meals off my parents. My mother loved him. That's her fourth son. She cut his hair. She used to cut our hair and gave Jim a little trim, too.
What do you remember about that first Doors gig at the Sunset Strip club the London Fog?
Densmore: I had been a professional drummer for years before that playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and bars with my fake ID. Here I was in the dumpiest fucking bar that I'd ever seen. Jim was so nervous he wouldn't even face the audience. I thought, "I don't know if this group is going anywhere."
And then I'd go down to the Whisky and hear Love and wish I was in their band. But when I first walked into Ray's parents' garage, before I brought Robby into the band, I knew immediately that Jim Morrison had the potential for magic, but it certainly hadn't come to fruition at the London Fog. He was learning how to do it.
In the garage we were looking at the really raw ingredient. Jim had never sung, so we were looking at really raw material. But he had brilliant lyrics that made me want to immediately play drums.
Ray handed me a crumpled piece of paper and I read it, "The day destroys the night/The night divides the day/Tried to run/Tried to hide/Break on through to the other side." I read it and went, "Oh, shit. Where's my drums?"
How did you land the gig as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go?
Manzarek: The week before our final night at the London Fog, Ronnie Harran, the booker from the Whisky a Go Go, had come down and fell in love with the band. She asked us after the set, "How would you guys like to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go?" And we went, "Fucking A. Are you kidding? Of course, we'd love to."
She said, "You'll open the show, then the headliners, then you play another set, and then the headliners. So two sets a night." We said, "How much money?" And she said, "Union scale," which was like $135 per man, per week. It was like, "Wow." We were making like $40 or $50 at the London Fog.
We were going to be the house band at the Whisky a Go Go and Jim Morrison, Mr. Cool, says to Ronnie, "We got to think about this. Why don't you come back tomorrow?" And she looked at him with these big puppy-dog eyes.
After she left, we proceeded to pummel Morrison on the arms and shoulders. "What do you mean we have to think about it?" Jim said, "Of course we're going to take the gig, but you don't want to appear too anxious."
The next week we started, and the band we played with was none other than Them, Van Morrison and Them. And we jammed during the last set of the night. So Jim Morrison and Van Morrison were singing "Gloria" together at the Whisky a Go Go. What a night.
What were the influences that shaped the Doors' sound and what does each member of the band bring to the table?
Densmore: Ray grew up in Chicago so he had the blues, Muddy Waters and all that. He also had classical training. That was pretty cool. That was invoked in the intro to "Light My Fire," which was very kind of Bach-like. Robby had a flamenco and folk music background. I was so enamored with watching Robby's fingers crawl across the flamenco guitar strings like a crab.
I'm a jazz guy and Ray was also into jazz, so when we met we talked about [John] Coltrane and Miles [Davis]. I think that influence gave me freedom. Like in "When the Music's Over," I just stopped playing the beat, and I would just comment on Jim's words percussively, out of rhythm, like we were having a conversation. I got that from listening to Elvin Jones and John Coltrane.
And then there was Jim, Mr. Literary, who had read every book on the planet, but didn't know anything about music and how to write songs and trusted us. Therefore, we were a total democracy.
We shared everything—writing credits, veto power. Jim had melodies as well as words. He didn't know how to play a chord on any instrument, but he had melodies in his head. To remember the lyrics he would think of melodies and then they would stay in his head. He had melodies and lyrics in his head, and he would sing them a cappella, and we would eke out the arrangements.
What is it about the Doors' music that makes it so seemingly timeless?
Krieger: The Doors were just ahead of their time. It seems like what we were playing back then, the blues and stuff like that that we were into, were starting to catch on 10 years later. Because we were ahead of our time in our heyday, we weren't really that huge.
I don't think a lot of people really understood what the hell we were doing until later. Maybe just now people are waking up to the Doors' music.
What in your mind is the essential Doors album?
Densmore: The first one had all the hits, but was poorly recorded. There were only four tracks. The second one was one of my faves because we got relaxed in the studio. We had fun experimenting.
The fourth and fifth [albums], we tried strings and horns. Those are good, the critics hated them, but I don't care. They were [both hit albums].
The last one, "L.A. Woman," gets back to who we really are. We got back to the essence. We produced it ourselves with Bruce Botnick and only did two takes on everything. Fuck the mistakes, like Miles [Davis]. I said that to Ray when we were recording, "Let's just go for the feeling and raw emotion."
What inspired "Light My Fire"?
Krieger: At that point, Jim was writing the songs. I'd written maybe a couple before that but nothing too serious. One day Jim mentioned that we didn't have enough songs, so he said, "Why don't you guys try and write some songs."
So I went home and wrote "Light My Fire." It was the first song I wrote for the Doors. Jim came up with the second verse about the funeral pyre. Ray did the baroque intro and John came up with the kind of Latin drum beat.
When we would play "Light My Fire" for the live audience, everybody loved it, so we knew it was a special song.
knew if it was going to compete with Jim's stuff, it had to be pretty heavy duty.
So I figured, OK, I'll write about the four elements: earth, air, fire or water. I picked fire because I like the [Rolling] Stones song "Play With Fire."
Consumers now have the ability to buy individual songs, not just singles, out of the context of an album. How do you feel about that?
Densmore: Bad, because we spend a lot of time arranging the program and thinking of the album as a total experience you'd have listening to the whole thing. On the other hand, it's fun playing producer, isn't it? Everybody gets to mix things around and make their own record and that's kind of cool.
What would Morrison think about the use of the Doors' songs as ringtones and in videogames?
Krieger: You never knew what Jim was going to think. I'd hate to put words in his mouth, but I know he didn't like the idea of using songs in advertisements. I think ringtones are different. It's another way of having your song heard.
I feel the same way about advertisements, too. It's getting harder and harder to get your stuff on the radio to be heard, and there are a lot of different new ways to get it heard, whether it's advertisements or ringtones or any of those things. I'm not against those things.
Densmore: We're not selling deodorant, and I'm sure that's where Jim would draw the line and get very upset. I'm positive about that.
Have you seen any commercials featuring music by some of your peers that made you cringe?
Densmore: I was shocked when Bob Dylan did Victoria's Secret, but I also love him to death for being the greatest songwriter of the 20th century and possibly the 21st.
Do you have a favorite use of the Doors' music in a film?
Densmore: "Apocalypse Now"—a world-class director, a movie about American foreign policy at the time, which was very important. It polarized the entire country. All that and they take one of our songs. It really pleased us that a great, artistic filmmaker would do that. We were real happy.
Through the years the Doors have been covered by hundreds of artists. Do you have any favorites?
Densmore: I'd say Jose Feliciano and X, because they found a new way of interpreting the songs they did. Jose made "Light My Fire" a ballad. That's very interesting. We didn't think of it that way when we wrote it. Echo & the Bunnymen just copied "People Are Strange," which is cool, we made some money, thanks. But when an artist finds a new interpretation of one of your songs, that's great. It turns your head around.
What are your feelings about the proposed Las Vegas attraction using the Doors' music?
Densmore: I went to the premiere of the Beatles thing ["Love"] and the music was stellar. I'm excited by the idea. I don't know what it is yet. This kind of project is big. You have to have a stage built and it ain't cheap, but I'm very intrigued by the idea. It's not a commercial. It could be magic. Our songs take you on a journey, so what better vehicle for a theatrical production.
How would you like the Doors to be remembered?
Krieger: For the music. I think that's how we will be remembered in the long run, because all the movies, all the books and all that stuff eventually will go away, but the music will last for a long time. If you think about Count Basie or Duke Ellington, people don't really know who those guys were, but they do know the music. After 50 or 60 years, that's what's important.
END.