Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Aug 9, 2013 11:23:48 GMT
Just finished The Doors Unhinged (thanks Helen) and it was an unputdownable courtroom thriller which perhaps is the most important Doors book ever written as it goes to the heart of what the Doors were about in 1965 and have become in 2013.
Lies, Hypocrisy and Greed are the real story of The Doors not the one we have come to know.
But luckily one of them had Integrity.
One of them walked the walk as well as talked the talk.
No not John Densmore.
Jim Morrison.
He oozed Integrity. OK he was an alcoholic and could be an asshole when he wanted but for all that he was always a Poet first and foremost.
It was about Integrity and greed.
The greed came from the three surviving Doors whose 40 years of lies have defined Jim Morrison as the pretentious, drunken prat of NOHGOA, the Stone movie and The Doors own film.
He was not, as many think, a rock star with pretentions of being a Poet. He was a Poet who did not want to be a rock star.
The betrayal of Morrison began in 1968 with the COTL album that never was, was compounded by the Buick advert and finally nailed down with the March 11th contract amendment that showed how much trust the other three had for Jim Morrison.
They thought he would betray THEM. But Doors History is littered with examples of how immutable Jim’s loyalty was. Firing their managers when he was approached to dump the band and go solo, the sharing of all Doors royalties and songwriting, the famous incident with the DJ and Jim Morrison & the Doors.
Jim was never a back stabber but he lived in a band of back stabbers who eventually turned on each other in 2003.
Thankfully one of them had learned the lesson Jim Morrison tried to teach and failed due to death and alcohol. One of them remembered what it was all about in 1965.
And John Densmore deserves an ocean of credit for that.
He saw the light when the band sold out Jim Morrison even in death when they sold his song ROTS to Pirelli. He was so ashamed he gave his cut to charity.
As we as fans tend to do I never rated the drummer above the keyboard player or guitarist when I was a kid.
My fave Doors (other than the dead bloke) was Ray Manzarek. I loved listening to his stories. One of my fave CDs was Myth & Reality where Ray does an oral History of the band I love most above all others. What a great time I had listening to the man’s voice as he regaled me with tales of insanity, art and excess.
But like most of Ray Manzarek it was lies.
As I got older I knew it was lies but still enjoyed the stories for what they were. Then came 2002 and the biggest ever betrayal of Jim Morrison.
The Doors were back!
My arce!
Sides began to be drawn and I sided with the drummer even before he actually had a side.
My first words on the battle that was to develop was ‘greedy motherfuckers’. I was told on the Doors official forum that I could not call Ray and Robby ‘greedy motherfuckers’. My response was ‘but I just have’ and I continued to do so until like many JD supporters I was removed from that once worthwhile forum.
Now I and many like me have been proved right by this book and the court documents that filtered out regarding this trial.
John’s book nails the lie that the liars were telling the truth. It exposes Ray Manzarek as thegreedy, hypocritical lying cockroach he always was.
No one can argue he was not one of the greatest musicians to come out of the 60s. His music to this day is something I listen with awe to at how magical this man could be when he sat down at a keyboard. I love his vocals and one of my fave albums is Golden Scarab his overblown and insane solo album from 1974 which I bought six months before it was released in England via HMVs import service.
But as a man Ray is a worthless excuse. Not only is he a liar and a hypocrite but his betrayal of Jim Morrison with 40 years of babbling bullshit single handedly defined Jim Morrison as the pretentious fool many non Doors fans think of today. Ray invented Jimbo, attacked Jim’s friends, set himself up as the arbiter of Doors truth.
If Ray said it was so then it was so!
But now we know it wasn’t. Ray’s lies still reverberate down the ages. But read John’s book and see Ray wilt under cross examination and reveal himself to be a pathetic façade of a Man whose whimperings of self justification for the wrongs he did Jim Morrison ring as hollow as the empty tomb of his 1965 artistic integrity now laid bare for all to see like the Emperors’ new clothes.
Utterly non existent.
JD has done a service to all Doors fans in revealing the dark underbelly of his band and shattering some of the Myths that to this day are the bedrock on which my fave band stands.
Does that mean I have somehow lost respect for my fave band? Not one iota. The Music is set in stone for all time. The men who made that music will forever be musical icons to me.
The people behind those men not so much.
Who comes off the worst in all of this?
Undoubtedly Ray Manzarek. And my one regret is that this man escaped the Judgement of History by dying earlier this year. Before he was exposed as a liar, a hypocrite and one of the greediest men in rock which is saying something. It would have been satisfying to see Ray try to squirm his way out of that one. But He would have given it a go I am sure as one thing I do give Ray credit for was that he could talk. Once I listened enthralled as the Chicago Lip wove his tale.
Nowadays his voice makes me nauseous.
Did the other two escape unscathed?
Not really.
Robby too was exposed as a liar and a rather pathetic figure. A weak willed follower rather than a leader like Jim and Ray.
JD too whined a bit in his book and some of his anecdotes were pretty nauseating themselves.
Especially his last chapter as he tried to reconcile with his two ex band mates.
A chapter that was 95% utter drivel with 5% quite profound. But I could forgive John that after his fight to save the soul of The Doors. Of course it did not stop JD selling Jim to a shoe company or stop the exploitation of the back catalogue or stop him endorsing another of the biggest betrayal of Jim Morrison in Doors History. The pile of backstabbing shit that was called When You’re Strange!
But to paraphrase Jim Morrison I ‘give the drummer some’.
John Paul Densmore stepped back from a different abyss to the one Jim Morrison felt at ease walking into but it took courage to do it and he deserves nothing but credit for his actions. Because actions do speak louder than words.
Jim wanted to be judged by his actions but was judged by Ray’s words instead.
John saw the writing on the wall with Pirelli and it gave him pause for thought that culminated in this book.
He came to a fork in the road and decided that he would walk the path of the Hitch hiker and he levelled his thumb in the ‘calm calculus of reason’ and he saw he was wrong and the dead guy was right all along.
This trial heard a lot of voices but one that was never heard was Jim Morrison as he was otherwise engaged in being dead. But John Densmore stepped up to the plate when it mattered and did a pretty good job of substituting for Jim.
Something ian astbury could never do with the silly little tribute band that was the cause of all this fuss.
Now it’s all History. Ray Manzarek is dead and eventually his band mates and people like me who were there in the 60s who saw first hand what that decade was all about.
But thanks to John some truth will survive all the bullshit and lies about this band. Jim Morrison wanted to make people think. John Densmore has give Doors fans much to ponder on. In 2003 we Doors fans split down the middle perhaps the truth will heal some of those rifts.
Perhaps not.
I did get annoyed at John’s assertions that long time fans sided with Ray when he knew from his own forum that was not true. A perfect example of how hard ‘truth’ has to be heard in the Doors world.
It’s not a perfect world and never has been and we have shown we can be as vicious as any crazy sect when we come under attack from within.
We fought many battles but the most important was in LA by John Densmore.
I was glad I was part of the Doors world and glad I chose the side of right over the side of greed.
To this day I never have seen a Door perform and doubt I ever will. But I don’t really need to see these guys to know how great they were.
They failed as human beings but excelled as musicians. History will judge them most likely as musicians but this book at least sets a record straight and gives truth a chance over the hyperbole of the last 40 years.
Thanks for that mate. For the fight and for this record of the war.
Sadly like all wars the cost was high. What was gained could never replace what was lost.
And that is the final truth of all this.
It’s hard to keep Integrity and sometimes the temptations are too much for even the most saintly of us.
None of The Doors were saints but at least half of them retained some integrity. Jim Morrison oozed artistic Integrity and luckily for us it managed to rub off on the drummer eventually.
I leave the last word to the man who was responsible for all this fuss in the first place.
I see your rider, coming down the road.
Got a burden, carrying a heavy load,
One sack of silver and one bag of gold.
