The Doors find their bass player!

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

T H E D O O R S F I N D T H E I R B A S S P L A Y E R

The Doors begin auditioning in various small clubs, but are continuously turned down for either being too different or having no bass player. The band auditions bass players but none fit the mold. Ray, while auditioning for a gig, finds a unique Fender Rhodes piano bass organ which Columbia picks up the bill for. The Doors sound is finalized.

"We never found a bass guitarist we wanted to work with. The bass players invariably played too much. No bass player would want to play the way we wanted which was sparse and hypnotic. Then one day we were auditioning at some place - we didn't get the gig of course because we were too weird - but the house band there had an instrument called a Fender Rhodes piano bass sitting on top of a Vox Continental organ just like I had. I switched on the amplifier, played the thing, and realized it was a keyboard bass. When I saw that I said 'This is it. We have found our bass player!' "
Ray Manzarek


Not being a musician I never was able to understand why the band could not find a bass player to fit thier style. Michael C Ford the poet and friend of theirs was offered the job by them in 1965 but turned it down to persue his poetry. It seems odd that in a city like LA they never found the right guy for the job......
Also odd that they never named the girl who played bass during the demo....I for one do not believe they forgot who she was .....maybe she never actually existed in the first place or requested anonimity considering the band became rather notorious......I am happy that the lack of a bass player made them differnt from the pack but its always been something that bugged me......

[jedi]

admin said:

We never found a bass guitarist we wanted to work with. The bass players invariably played too much. No bass player would want to play the way we wanted which was sparse and hypnotic. - Ray Manzarek

LOL!! Can you blame them?!!
Thinking about it though, when Ray played the bass, was HE sparse? IMO, I don't think he was......hypnotic, yes.
Perhaps they just never found anyone that played it the way Ray wanted it?

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Its a fair point Jedi as Ray was a very strong personality within the band and was capable of playing the keyboards with independant hands.....maybe he felt threatened by a bass player and thought that such an addition would have been detrimental to the diamond that was the four Doors....maybe they never found a bass player that suited because Ray did not want one......I call ray all sorts of names but I have never ever claimed he was daft nor a class musician......if thats a fair reflection of what actually happened then I for one applaud Ray......it never did the band any harm

[othercircles]

Well they did end up having several. Larry Ketchner, Doug Lubahn, Ray Neopolitan, Jerry Scheff, Jack Conrad, Chris Ethridge.. and a couple others. Thing is they were all session players not commiting to any one thing. The one with the longest stretch was Doug.. who I'd consider a Door as he played nearly all the bass on Strange Days, WFTS and TSP.

Right about the time of miami he went around em less and less.. and when TSP sold poorly suddenly mister opprotunist session player ditched em. You gotta think from that point of view.. its 1969.. the doors appear to be on the way out... theres another band thats selling good and seems like itd be more of a sure thing. Do you stick with the band youve worked with for over 2 years or do you skip town to play with the guys that are selling more records. Doug chose to stick with what he thought was a better choice and left for better opprotunities. Now the d-bag promotes himself on his site as the fifth door. :-P

i could see in the early days not being able to find anyone that fit.. but once they were big shits it wouldnt have been hard at all. They could have made doug an official member and had his mug on the albums too.. but it wouldnt have been right. He wasnt there with them at the beginning.. he didnt put in the same kind of work and investment into the formation of the band as them. Plus Elektra already had an image to sell of 4 guys. The Rhoads was plenty suitable for live acts which anyone knows seldom sounds just like the record. People are less concerned with precision and good sound at shows.. they just want to have fun.. but on the records.. gotta have a bass player.

If I were Robbie I woulda just overdubbed bass on the records and kept it in the band. They had nice 3/4 scale necks that are small enough that they arent a big leap for a guitarist to take on bass.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

May 1, 2006 16:44:48 GMT @othercircles said:

Well they did end up having several. Larry Ketchner, Doug Lubahn, Ray Neopolitan, Jerry Scheff, Jack Conrad, Chris Ethridge.. and a couple others. Thing is they were all session players not commiting to any one thing. The one with the longest stretch was Doug.. who I'd consider a Door as he played nearly all the bass on Strange Days, WFTS and TSP.

The band asked their friend Michael C Ford to take on bass duties in 1965 but he preffered to pursue his poetry.
Michael had played bass in a band with Ray during his UCLA days.

It's all part of the Myth that The Doors did not have a bass player and looks good in print but like a lot about The Doors is not true as the band even used bass players on stage sometimes.

Hell they even had a different drummer on a few occasions as Densmore had gone off on one of his whinging binges and was replaced by a local drummer.

They even replaced Jim with their roadie Ronny Krieger during a TV spot they recorded.

Never a dull moment in The Doors world even then.