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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 20, 2007 19:37:39 GMT
Here is a selection in no particular order of some of the reviews that appeared in the pages of TheDoors4Scorpywag. This one is one of my personal favourites not least because a link to it actually appeared on the Manzarek/mcClure website which showed how bad the rest must have been if this was one of the better ones The Poet In Exile: Ray Manzarek I really did want to enjoy this book as I have a great respect and admiration for Ray and having looked forward to it since it was first spoken of on the internet I was delighted when my copy made it’s way to my door. Then I began to read it…. At first I could not believe how badly written these first few chapters were and expected the book to take off after maybe a third of the way through but sadly was overly optimistic. The plot (now that is a laugh as the Jurassic Park movies have more of a plot than P.I.E.) went something like this…… Roy misses the late lead singer Jody (the Snake Man-Yaaawnn) and receives mysterious messages from the Seychelles signed ‘J’. A promising start but not expanded in any way that is worthy of interest. Roy then jets off to the Seychelles, and begins to work for the local travel board as the rest of the book reads more like a travel guide than an actual novel, in search of aforementioned ‘J’ and upon landing has the most extraordinary strokes of luck in bumping into first the ‘Poets’ son and later ‘The Poet’ himself triggering off a chain of events which culminate in some of the most mind numbingly boring conversations in literary history. Ray turns Jim into a complete doyle who blathers on about the wonders of God, the universe and the reason for being…. just like all the terminally dull drunks you get stuck with at a party at about 2. 30 in the morning and are too pissed to crawl away from. He even has the cheek to write poetry and lyrics for ‘The Poet’ which are so clichéd and banal that even a child would be embarrassed claiming credit for them. It’s sad that Ray never got the chance to have all the silly conversations that he would have liked to have with Jim who was too busy and far too clever to get drawn into them when he was alive but to subject us to them now is worse than ‘Chinese Water Torture’ and personally as I read on I was silently praying that one of the protagonists would fall over drunk so ending this particular phase of the story but nobody did to my chagrin. He turns the history of the worlds greatest band into a mockery of second rate ‘Soap Opera’. Even more criminal, because he was a very worthy part of that history, he cannot even bring himself to credit the other Doors with decent fake names. We have Denny Sullivan (how original!) the new manager, Tim Bladd the LA DJ, Dog the drinking buddy (hypocritically stolen from Olly Stone’s movie) Phil Simmons the old manager but Robby and John are referred to cryptically as ‘the drummer’ and ‘the guitar player’ throughout the whole of this pointless exercise. The ‘revelation’ when it comes at the end is so blindingly obvious that you ought to be ashamed if you don’t see it after the first couple of dozen pages. Ray proved with ‘Light My Fire’ that he could write and Jim as well as we Doors fans deserved better than this lazy excuse for a novel which quite frankly a dyslexic blind monkey could have written better. I don’t know how many trees died to make this book happen but it was not worthy of ‘one’ leaf. Basically the worst book I have read over the last 35 years and Ray should hang his head in shame to have his name associated with it.. AP. Scorpywag Rating 0/10. Total bullshit!!Summer 2002
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 20, 2007 19:42:01 GMT
LA Woman DVD Audio Edition At last this release is more readily available to DVD owners and some of the difficulties (but not all) that plagued it a year ago have been ironed out. First of all it is not possible to play all that’s on the disc through a normal DVD or your computer which is a bit of a pisser after forking out nearly £20 and the improvement in quality hardly makes up for that. The sound quality is superb without doubt but too much tinkering can lose a lot of the heart and soul and the passion that made the thing so good in the first place. Led Zeppelin’s Re-mastered CD’s are a perfect example of this. Here we get a few ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ that we missed in 1971 along with a bit longer introduction to a song or two but is it a worthwhile exercise? I would say ‘Yes’ to that but then I am rather biased 'Cars Hiss By My Window' is the obvious highlight with an extra verse tacked on to the album track. It may well be an out-take as it sounds considerably different to the original but it’s cool nonetheless. "Dog crawl by my window. in the cruel morning yard Dog crawl by my window. in the cruel morning yard To lose your love & keep her that's more than hard" Maybe this is an example of Bruce Botnick doing a Paul Rothchild and taking part of one cut and mixing it with another. Subtle differences which abound on several more tracks such as ‘Love Her Madly’, ‘LA Woman’ with it's Hendrix style US anthem intro, ‘The WASP’ & ‘Hyacinth House’ are interesting enough and it may be worthwhile doing this to the other Doors LPs. L’America is the only other really outstanding track with it’s enhanced ‘Eleanor Rigby’ Robby solo in the middle of it which may well be another unused cut. The extras don’t amount to much which is nothing new with The Doors. A video of The Changeling similar to the NOHGOA documentary and a photo gallery which I could not access but nevertheless a cool release. Scorpywag Rating 7/10. Not bad but could have been a lot better! AP.
LA Woman HMV Special Edition Box Set Released in the 80’s as part of a HMV Classic Collection Series in a pretty neat numbered 12 inch collectors box it is one of the better Doors collectors items. Featuring a nice booklet with text by Max Bell which looks at the recording of the LP and the latter part of The Doors career its one of the few collectables I continue to hang on to and was worth the £13 I paid for it. Music wise it contains the basic CD of LA Woman without any electronic chicanery or enhancement. And you know what? That is fine by me!!! Scorpywag Rating 10/10. The Doors at their very best!! SP.
LA Woman French Special Edition Box Set Nice box but that’s about it really. Featuring a rather silly ‘platinum’ disc encased in plastic as a souvenir in addition to a re-mastered LA Woman CD. Not even a booklet to justify the £20 plus that HMV were charging for it last week. Collectors who must have everything might find this cool but I thought it a pile of junk. Scorpywag Rating 2/10. Bollocks! AP. All 3 from Summer 2002 Scorpywag.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 20, 2007 19:45:32 GMT
Opening The Doors: The Blues Tribute to The Doors
For years we had not a whiff of a Doors tribute album and now we are up to our asses in them. Goth, Classical, whateverthehell Stoned Immaculate could be classed at. What next? Barbershop or maybe Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber present ‘The Celebration Of The Lizard’. A rather innocuous effort from the blues chaps which was a shame really as Jim always considered The Doors to be basically a blues outfit and a blues tribute should have really rocked our ass off instead of mldly interested us.. Featuring among others trumpeter Mitch Manker (wasn’t he in Sparks?), John Nau on piano, brothers Rich Meijer on guitar and slide and Peter on harp who produced a tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd prior to this and are probably great playing blues standards but not very good at interpreting Doors songs.. Some of the better efforts are naturally ‘Roadhouse Blues’ which features some neat fuzz guitar and harp playing and ‘Love Me 2 Times’ which has a cool sax to it and the few innovative sections revolve around ‘20th Century Fox’ which was a strange one to choose but it works rather well with an interesting guitar/bongo combination ‘Break On Through’ with a bit of lively harp playing and some cool piano and ‘LA Woman’ which works well with brass. Other than that it is a pretty lame excuse for an album. Among the worse tracks are ‘Moonlight Drive’ which sounds more like jazz than blues and an awful ‘Love Her Madly’ more akin to Acker Bilk than Jim and whoever told the guys ‘When The Music’s Over’ worked well with a trumpet instead of a guitar was having a laugh. ‘Hello I Love You’ is piss poor ‘Soul Kitchen’ is pretty daft and ‘Light My Fire’ one of the most pedestrian versions I have heard. The worst moment comes with the only non-Doors track on the whole sorry episode during ‘Alabama Song’ which is bloody pitiful and not unlike the sound one would get strangling a hyperactive ferret . Overall it’s time this stopped and these people returned to their first love…. boring us rigid whilst we are getting pissed in pubs. Scorpywag Rating 3/10. A load of cobblers!! AP.
The Electronic Tribute to The Doors
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the record shop along comes another bloody Doors tribute album but like the very underrated Gothic Tribute once again a bunch of musos not even famous in their own living rooms put a bit of effort into what they do. Although not quite emulating their Gothic cousins who did a brilliant job these guys deserve praise for daring to interpret Doors songs in their own Garage/Industrial whatever the genre goes under nowadays and damn what we ‘the fans’ think …….which gets my vote. Interspersed with lots of ‘beeps’ and bizarre rhythms the music is eminently listenable and the bands involved have obviously put some thought into what they set out to do. A very neat outfit called Motor Industries do cool versions of ‘When The Music’s Over’ and a wickedly weird ‘People Are Strange’ whilst Bugs Funny Foundation and their cool lady singer cover ‘Break On Through’ excellently and even manage to do ‘The End’ justice. The rest is pretty cool too including the strange Dogooder who tackle ‘Peace Frog’, The Galactic Achievement Society who chip in with a doomy rendition of ‘Riders On The Storm’ and Dissolve who contribute a worthy version of Robby’s ‘Touch Me’ which is just one of the albums many highlights. Coooool….. Scorpywag Rating 8/10. Well worth a listen ….. SP. Summer 2002
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 20, 2007 19:49:00 GMT
Another couple from the Summer 2002 Issue
Michael McClure &Ray Manzarek: Love Lion
Pretty weird stuff here consisting of Ray playing piano to Michaels eerie poetry during a live poetry/piano jam at The Bottom Line Club in New York's Greenwich Village (where else?). Having never heard Michael McClure before I have to admit to being impressed at the power of his voice and it is easy to hear how Jim Morrison was influenced by this guy who was a good friend to him during his Doors days. Rays piano playing complements McClure's poetry perfectly and he seems consummately at ease in his company so much so it is not difficult to imagine Jim making up a trio here if he had still been alive. The openers ‘Action Philosophy’ and ‘Love Lion Blues’ (both very Morrisonesque which is no surprise) lead into Michaels tribute to their long dead friend ‘In Memoriam: For Jim Morrison’ with Ray playing his own eulogy in his own way. ‘Indian’ and ‘Antechamber of the Night’ are both cool poems with a musical panorama of doom laden Doorsy keyboards as a backdrop and if not for knowing beforehand what this was it would be easy to imagine this to be Morrison not McClure so similar are the poets in style and in vocal presentation. Michael reads some pretty powerful angry poetry at times and with Ray anchoring him with some great piano wizardry the whole concept works marvellously in bringing Michaels words to life in a cool fusion of poetry and jazz/blues. I enjoyed a lot of this immensely especially ‘Paragon Of Danger’ which sounds very like a Doors out-take and ‘Rose Rain’ with Ray’s tinkling ivories flitting in and out like a summer rain storm to add a dramatic support. Released on video as well as CD it is well worth checking out. AP. Scorpywag Rating 9/10. Excellent effort.
Darryl Read &Ray Manzarek: Freshly Dug
Performed live in a Hollywood studio poet, actor, musician, teen pin up and Marc Bolan look-alike Exeter born Darryl collaborates with Doors keyboard wizard Ray on a brief but powerful poetry set. Ray wrote the original music for this 27 minute extravaganza and Darryl provided the very potent verse. Not a patch on his work with Mike McClure but interesting enough. Sounding a bit like 70’s icon David Essex, Darryl is not as haunting as McClure but reads his poetry in a captivating enough ‘Cockney’ Gothic style which is very well complemented by some evocative Manzarek electric/acoustic piano work. Kicking of with the boogie/prayer of ‘Set’ it takes a few moments to get going but becomes rather mesmerising as it progresses. Getting quite intense at times such as ‘The High Bright Sun’ relating the tale of a dead guy lying in the road. ‘Behind the Beat’ with it’s staccato piano track is very ‘Jim’ as is ‘Azure Skies’ which could have easily graced an early Doors album. As the tracks barely last 2 minutes they have to be delivered in a forceful punchy style such as during ‘Tales from The Underground Kings’, ‘Broken Highways’ and the spookiness of ‘The Magic Tavern’ featuring a crashing Piano from Ray. To their credit Ray and Darryl nearly pull it off –but not quite! The excellent ‘Last Poets Land’ with it ethereal ghostlike funeral piano playing closes the set and leaves you pondering just what Ray could have done with a poet like Jim Morrison and for that matter what Jim would have made of a poet like Darryl. “I am the dark angel, We are the last poets from the summer lands.” cool! AP. Scorpywag Rating 7/10. Not bad for a Southerner but bit too short.
from the Scorpywag Spring 2006 Issue
The Doors: The Mosquito From the final Doors throw of the dice 'Full Circle' this single was notable for being the most 'irritating' and rather fun Doors record in the history of the band. Oddly enough it has even managed to find an audience with the new generation of Doors fans thanks to its inclusion on the Greatest Hits package the band released in 2000. It has always sounded to me like Robby got drunk one evening and amused himself by writing the song for a laff as it's a rather insane ditty! Perhaps thinking of Jim and combining insects with Mexican food. Classic! Some sublime Ray organ juxtaposes nicely with a cool Densmore back beat and once again some excellent guitar playing from RK. The years 1971 and 1972 truly his best Doors moments, musicianship never being a weak point with the Post Jim Doors. The song featured strongly during the bands 1972 US and European tours and was a crowd pleaser by all accounts and its easy to see why as it both infuriates and entertains in the same breath with an easy going Robby lyric that hardly challenges Morrison but is fun in its slightness. Robby's vocals were never a strong point for the band but he does rather well with such a silly song. Amazingly the single actually breached the top 100 in the US making # 85 which was very respectful considering most Post Jim material generally did badly. A nice 'light side' to a band that conspired with the 'Dark Side' for so long and well worth a listen even if it will drive you nuts! The B Side 'It Slipped My Mind' by complete contrast is the worst Doors song ever recorded and should be strung up by its feet and horsewhipped.
'No me moleste mosquito' Jim Morrison could never have said it better! By Alex Patton from Stockton On Tees, England.
The Doors Dance On Fire by Ross Clarke Behind every dead legend is an army of opportunists eager to voice his or her opinions to an ever expectant bunch of followers. Nothing wrong with that. The result this time is a glossy sumptuous book written by Ross Clark (which may be a pseudonym). The finished product consists mainly of passages and quotes from previous biographies blended smartly together to make easy reading. Fans will be bored by the familiar text but can always drool over the gorgeous glossy pictures and colourful reproductions of old concert posters which are the best things about this offering. The author takes a few liberties such as when writing about the recording of the first album….. "it was good that Paul Rothchild understood what Jim was trying to say because the rest of the band did not have a clue". W--H----A-------T!!!!!! Slight case of literary licence there? He also has a thing about the two main women in Jim's life praising them up and telling us how Patricia Keneally nursed Jim though his pneumonia bout….. Big deal!! How good Pam was for him and how concerned she was for his health and well being…. I see…. The story of how worried Jim was supposed to be after the Amsterdam gig on hearing how great the other three played without him rears its ugly head again. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Who started this? The gig was lousy and the crowd wanted Jim. I know because I was there. And Jim was totally unfazed. Let us clear that one up! Included in the back of the book is a story from our friend Rainer Modderman explaining his love for the group and plugging his (no defunct) fanclub. Nice one Rainer! The book is a good but for £12.95 if only for the really outstanding photographs and the impressive layout of the pages, But my overall feeling was the reason for publication was to show these off as we know the story by heart anyway! As I said nothing wrong with that….as long as liberties are not taken. By Sue Jeffries from Walsall.
The Doors: Tightrope Ride 35 years ago this July one of the most brilliant lights in the rock music world was dimmed in a nondescript Paris street to be reborn as a Legend than still today impacts upon the psyche of the young folks in search of a 'rebellion of the spirit' in the same way kids did back then. This single which was released in Autumn 1971 was The Doors tribute to their fallen comrade and for me has never really been equalled by anyone as a eulogy for James Douglas Morrison. Ray Manzarek has unfairly come in for a lot of flak for his vocals during The Doors era but comparing him to Jim is a bit of an injustice. He was always an enthusiastic singer and his performance here is full of fire and passion as he almost seems 'angry' at his friend throwing away so much with so much still left to give. The band is 'tight as shite' as they used to say in the 70s and with this song give their most passionate performance on vinyl ever after the death of Jim Morrison. The intro is pure class with Robby and John merging perfectly with Ray's organ (not very often you get to sat that in a review) for one of The Doors finest Post Morrison moments. John Densmore's drumming was its usual solid self and Ray's keyboards reliable as they ever were but it's the Robby Krieger moments on this record that are most noteworthy as he shone during the whole Other Voices era and is at his brightest on this the first Doors single without Jim Morrison. The lyrics, which were written by Ray, are a plaintive cry to History for a second chance that could never come to The Doors story which was 'buried' in a Paris graveyard on July 7th 1971. Ray seems to get 'angrier' as the song progresses pleading for Jim to come down off the wall he was walking on but knowing he never could.
"You're on a tightrope ride We're all by your side But you're all alone And we're going home"
The 'angry' feel is compounded at the conclusion of the song as John's drumming turns almost punk-like in its sparseness and Robby gives us his best ever Doors guitar solo as Ray screams in frustration for a lost Morrison to beware the pitfalls of this particular 'wall walk' knowing it's far too late.
But you're all alone Like a rolling stone Like Brian Jones
On a tightrope ride On a tightrope ride
One of the most under rated gems of the entire Doors era! By Alex Patton from Stockton On Tees, England.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 21, 2007 19:27:54 GMT
Some book reviews from 2001 and 2002.
Jim Morrison and The Doors by Mike Jahn Excellent and very rare book from 1969 which uses the backdrop of The March ‘68 gig at News York’s newly opened Fillmore East to tell The story of LA’s newest superstars The Doors.The chapters alternate between the gig and background of the band as seen through the eyes of some of the top rock writers of the time and the band themselves. Mike brings the atmosphere of a Doors concert to life brilliantly and as the tension rises towards the climactic ‘Light my Fire’ relates the story from his observers point of view as to how Jim becoming bored during the solo sections finds a flower lying on the stage. As the rest of the band are lost in their deliberations Jim impishly taunts Robby Krieger with the flower but as Robby is too engrossed in his solo to take any notice Morrison stalks moodily off in search of new prey. John Densmore concentrating on his drumming finds himself now confronted by a leather clad madman holding a yellow flower in his face and he is far from pleased. Shaking his head ‘no’ he takes a shot at his tormentors fingers, narrowly missing. Morrison retreats before returning to poke the flower once more, John smashes it to bits with his drumsticks as the solo section comes to a close. Morrison wraps it round a cymbal and calm as you like returns to his territory, centre stage, just in time for “the time to hesitate is through”. What a band! Alex Patton Scorpywag rating 9+ bloody excellent!
“ELOQUENT BASILISK” by Ken Brooks Taking its name from the fabled lizard that could kill with one glance and a reference by Patricia Kennealy Eloquent Basilisk gives a modern perspective to Jim Morrison and The Doors and attempts to re-evaluate all their work. Opening with a recollection by the author of a brief meeting with Jim at the Roundhouse and a regret that he had not paid more attention. Then moving twenty years into the future as Brooks pays his respects to the Paris Jim Morrison knew before taking off on a chronological journey through the history of The Doors and their six crucial studio dates with destiny. Examining the links with the thoughts behind the music and those that inspired such thoughts Brooks analyses, in slightly more interesting detail than the similar but dull ‘Artistic Vision’, every Doors song. Touching on many of the events that followed Jim’s death such as the Doors trio, Rays solo projects, Apocalypse Now and the Doors movie Brooks looks at the legacy of Jim Morrison and his influence on today’s music scene including the continuing strength of the band as a marketable commodity such as the recent Doors Box Set. Its not a bad effort but sadly the book never seems to raise itself above the pack preferring to wallow in the same tried and tired formulae of its many predecessors. Quoting several of the usual dubious sources in its background look at The Doors it disappoints on several levels. First of all its superficial look at the poetry and songs of Jim Morrison and also its inability to look beyond the hype that has been built up around the band over the last twenty years by some of those closest to Jim. Brooks looks more for the obvious and avoids the interesting so consigning his work to the myriad other books about Jim and The Doors that fail to really get to grips with a subject that deserves better. The book contains no startling conclusions and contains little in the way of understanding as to why Jim was the way he was but is interesting enough to warrant a read. Alex Patton Scorpywag rating 7/10 worth a look
"STUMBLING INTO NEON" - by Bob Nibor & Clive Patrick "Pretty much a home made effort from something called The Parkway Press, Nibor & Patrick's book is the first to seriously explore the Artist Jim Morrison as opposed to the drug crazed piss head Jim Morrison. Describing him as Edgar Allan Poe blown back as a hippy it focuses on his dark side of course (the guy had only been dead 2/3 years when it was written so the mystery of JM and his death was still very fresh here in the UK) but examines the link between his song/poetry and artists such as Artaud, Cendrars, Joyce and Rimbaud and his fascination with theatre/drama and cinema. Giving an interesting run down of the Doors career including Miami and New Haven, and quoting such sources as Mike McClure and Richard Goldstein, it looks at all the albums and the perception of The Doors as Superstars in the US and here in the UK. It studies the excitement of a Doors concert and tries to analyse the "games" Morrison loved to play with his audiences heads comparing Jim to Sergie Eisenstein for his use of dramatic tension in the rock song. It is the first book to try to make head or tail of Jim's death and gets a feel for the time through Herve Muller's account of Jim's last couple of weeks. Including the strange tale of how Muller phoned Jim's flat on the morning of July 3rd only to be told by Alan Ronay that Jim & Pam had gone away for the weekend. Concluding with a footnote that Howard Werth, the excellent singer from the equally excellent British Charisma records band Audience, would become the new lead singer of The Doors. (Jac Holzman and Charisma records boss Tony Stratton- Smith were friends) then an added note that The Doors had now split and JD & RK had formed the Butts Band with Jess Roden another who had been in the frame for Jim's job gives you a feel of the time it was written. Overall one of the more interesting Doors books it contains a few mistakes and expresses one or two opinions I found myself at odds with but seemed to have been produced with an affection for the Artist Jim that is rarely found in today's sensationalised accounts which seem to battle with each other for the title “biggest load of bullshit written about Jim Morrison this side of the 4th millennium." It would be really cool to see this make a comeback but sadly I doubt something like this with a little over 100 pages would excite the money hungry Doors industry. Alex Patton Scorpywag rating 8/10 hard to find but great if you do!.
The Doors: John Tobler & Andrew Doe A rare Brit book from the 80’s which is based loosely around a series of BBC interviews that John Tobler carried out for BBC Radio One it gives a interesting European perspective of The Doors from the point of view of a fan who was a journalist and actually interviewed Morrison famously at The Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. Tobler who was one of the brains behind the excellent 70’s Zig-Zag rock fanzine, which was read avidly in pubs when I was a youngster, was a bit star-struck when he talked to Jim just before Jimi Hendrix walked onto a British stage for the last time but his fumblings managed to bring out some highly perceptive views on music from the lead singer of The Doors and rank among the more fascinating interviews that survive of Jim Morrison. The book takes a decent in depth look at The Doors career and does not baulk at a critical evaluation of the bands catalogue. Each album is disassembled and some interesting and not commonly know facts and foibles are unearthed about the sessions and the background of the records. The difficult circumstances of the ‘Waiting For the Sun’ album to The Soft Parade coming in for some scathing criticism culminating in ‘Do It’ being nominated for the worst Doors song ever. But the writers are not anti Doors just passionate enough about the subject to get angry at what they saw as The Doors not fulfilling their potential from the point of view of fans who were there at the time. Indeed the final two Morrison Doors outings are highly praised for their bluesy style and the Genesis of The Doors talked about with awe and reverence. The Doors concerts are scrutinized and here we find another reference to ‘Riders On The Storm’ having been played in Dallas in 1970 fuelling the debate as to whether it ever saw the light of day on stage. The general feeling of their worth live seemingly that they were an important concert act that never really lived up to the expectation that the promise of their first couple of years led people to expect. The demon drink being one of the reasons for that. The dark side of Jim is hinted at but thankfully not examined to closely here (later efforts would do that side to death) but of course the Miami concert and Jim’s legal wrangles are touched upon as is the obligatory dip in the waters of Paris and Jim’s death but this book is more about The Doors life than its death and more enjoyable because of that. An added bonus is it’s one of the very few books that examines what happened after Jim died in any depth and gives a very good insight into the making of Other Voices, Full Circle, The Doors split in London in 1973 and the splinter group John and Robby formed The Butts Band. The book also looks at Ray and Robby’s solo careers, the making of American Prayer and Ray’s short lived band Nite City. Indeed The Butts Band story is examined in depth from the Brit line up that promised so much to the dire all American line up that should have been drowned at birth. There are some excellent photos included in this offering some of which were new to Doors fans at the time and the book overall presented an enjoyable look at The Doors that could easily be read and understood by a newcomer to the band. Sadly this kind of thing has been replaced by the ‘sensation’ of books by Kennealy, Butler, Davis and Ashcroft that prefer to delve into unsubstantiated rumour than try to just examine ‘the facts’…..
Scorpywag rating 9/10 well thought out an executed mini bio of the worlds greatest band. AP
“Follow the Music” by Jac Holzman. This amazing book relates the rise of Elektra Records through the eyes of its creator Jac Holzman and those he entrusted with his vision. Starting his own record company at the age of nineteen with a few dollars in his pocket Jac over the next twenty years built up one of America’s most important labels. With an incredible eye for talent he saw the potential of folk artists such as Bob Dylan (whom he lost out to Columbia) rockers such as Love and The Doors blues men Paul Butterfield and John Koerner and singer songwriters Judy Collins, Harry Chapin and Carly Simon. Surrounding himself with like minded and equally brilliant producers, engineers and executives of the calibre of Paul Rothchild, Steve Harris, David Anderle, John Haeny and Mark Abramson who helped turn Jac’s original concept into the most innovative American record label ever. Always searching for new challenges he changed the face of classical music in America with his ground breaking ‘Nonesuch’ label and embraced country, jazz and blues with a passion unlike most of his contemporaries. His use of folk samplers to allow his artists a chance to be discovered by a wider audience was inspired and led to many triumphs during his career with Elektra. Even his failures were full of innovation such as the Paxton project overseen by the brilliant but quite insane Barry Friedman a.k.a ‘Frazier Mohawk’ whose attempt to bring singer songwriters such as Jackson Browne together in an atmosphere conducive to fostering their creative genius collapsed into chaos costing Elektra a fortune. The Doors may have been Jac’s finest moment but an incredible array of artists owe a debt to this mans vision and determination for success. He had the ability to talk to artists on an artistic level a fact that endeared him to many of his most famous signings including ‘The Lizard King’ himself, Jim Morrison, Holzman’s own son was a Doors fanatic. Holzman was an engineering genius with a feel for music unlike any other record company executive and his natural ability to anticipate a hit on an album led to many chart topping excursions for Elektra. This was never better demonstrated than by his choice of ‘Amazing Grace’ from Judy Collins album ‘Whales & Nightingale’ which was the least obvious hit but became huge on its release. For The Doors he chose ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘Love Her Madly’. His friendship with The Famous Charisma Labels’ equally visionary boss Tony Stratton-Smith led to English acts such as Genesis, Lindisfarne and Audience being introduced to the American record buying public. The book deals with his travels across the world in search of inspiration and chronicles the many triumphs and tragedies along the road as he followed the music that he loved. From the New York, Village Scene and the insanity that was LA to the genesis of recording behemoth WEA Jac’s story is fascinating in the extreme and rich in the mad characters that only the record business could ever conceive made even more crazy because they were real. Alex Patton Scorpywag Rating 10/10 miss this at your peril!
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 21, 2007 19:58:23 GMT
‘Love Her Madly’ a film by Ray Manzarek.With the rallying cry of ‘Lets make a movie’ Ray Manzarek led his cast and crew into an intense seventeen days of 20 hour shoots and using a backdrop of his beloved LA set out on digital camera a vision he envisaged from a bygone era of Venice Beach and his long gone friend Jim Morrison. It’s just a pity all the actors in LA must have been of on their holidays. The movie starts by introducing the characters with a Ray Manzarek voice over which is so cheesy in the extreme its hard to watch the next 80 minutes. The ‘plot’ revolves around three morons who think they are the epitome of artistic cool but actually are incredibly boring twats. The most useless being the professor who gets pissed a lot and talks bollocks around a bar table with the sculptor and the video geek. All three are obsessed with Hadley a so called ‘actress’ who spends most of the film with her tits out, probably to detract from the fact she could not act for toffee. Our three heroes all have their own sordid little tales to tell and all have their own reasons for ‘murder’. For years many Doors fans have been debating whether Ray Manzarek could have done a better job than Oliver Stone on the Morrison Bio-Pic ‘The Doors’….now they have their 90 minute answer….No Way Jose! You could argue that Ray has a masters degree in film and I failed CSE woodwork but this paltry effort is so lame that after an hour and a half your argument would be as useless as my attempts to make a lamp stand in 1971. Ray uses every little movie trick he learned at school to astound us with his brilliance from jerky camera work, slo-mo, weird angles, moving from Black and White footage to colour, gloomy night shots, close ups and lots off shots of people walking past cool buildings and fountains along with some ducks who are probably among the films best actors.
The films stars take a well deserved smoke break
The human ‘actors’ fill the screen with the full gamut of emotions from world weary to angst ridden but fail to portray anything more than how truly boring this film is. Supposedly based on an idea from some guy Ray met on a beach called Jim Morrison this tale of passion and revenge trundles along with lots of dramatic shouting and breaking things but is about as exciting and interesting to watch as the Xmas afternoon Queens Speech . From listening to the commentary and the behind the scenes footage which are really rather interesting it seems like all involved had a lot of fun making this so-called film but quite honestly why they wasted 17 days of their lives is frankly beyond me. From time to time various extras (probably investors that wanted a line in the movie….as in an Ed Wood production) popped up to deliver pointless sentences that added nothing to the narrative but probably helped fill ninety minutes of film stock. Ed himself would have been proud of this movie which is so bad ‘Alan Smithee’ would have nothing to do with it and would probably insist it was credited to ‘Ray Manzarek’!! Some scenes are of minor interest….Rays missus Dorothy appears in cameo as a member of the faculty voting to sack the piss head in a non speaking role and there are some unintentionally funny scenes with video geek and sleazy porno guy. Bits of this are nicked from several much better movies including one crucial part of the plot swiped from the excellent Sidney Lumet film Death Trap which had some real actors in it but sadly no ducks!. The best sequence in the whole film has to be where Ray and Michael McClure appear as themselves performing at sculpy boys party in his bar/studio The Golden Bough (you can tell these people are artistes as they do not call their pub The Dog and Duck!) to promote his art….tickets were only $20. During this little episode Michael gets the movies only decent line…. as after the show Hadley and video geek proceed to shout a lot and run around in the bedroom breaking things then notice sitting in the studio below, with the woman dean who has just sacked piss head…..yes it is that complicated!, Ray and Mike having an after show drink. Cue some more shouting then after they leave ….for some reason sculpy boy runs in all angst ridden and up the staircase. Michael deadpan as you come and oblivious to all the intensity going on around him shouts up the stair to sculpy boy the eternal mantra of the artist…... ‘Hey man! When are we gonna get paid!!’ Priceless …..!! Ray describes this as a whodunnit in the finest tradition of film noir but this idle boast is as empty as the script-writers talent. It starts with a murder and as we see a blood stained sheet covering the ‘mystery corpse’ we begin the truly dull 90 minute journey which ends with us not really giving a fuck who is under the sheet…...as long as it was not one of the ducks!! All we wanna see is the end credits and hear Jim sing ‘Love Her Madly’. To say this movie is ‘bad’ is pretty much understating it as it lurches from one truly dull set piece to the next. The tedious plot would have trouble holding the attention of a goldfish and the acting which includes a nasty bank manager cameo from the guy who played the older Private Ryan in Spielberg's WW2 romp is pretty abysmal. Madison Mason who plays the drunk Dennis Hopper look-alike is actually a respected TV/Movie and Stage actor and, apart from being the same age as Jim would have been today, has appeared in movies as diverse as last years ‘Red Dragon’, Kevin Costner’s ‘Thirteen Days’, ‘Dreamscape’ and ‘The Day After’ with Jason Robards. I doubt this on his CV will be of a great deal of help in getting him his next part! The rest are pretty much up-and-coming and unheard of and I doubt any of them will be making a big splash in 2003….. So is the movie truly that bad or am I just having a bad day as I type….no! Truly this must rank as one of the new centuries biggest stinkers and it’s hard to imagine many films over the next 97 years beating it. But hopefully the ducks will get more work as they stole the show and deserve another ‘gig’!…………….. but having said that!!! Thankfully the DVD is far from a lost cause as the extra features are well worth your attention. The most exceptional section being when Ray takes us on a highly absorbing tour of Venice Beach which is sadly only 20 minutes long. Setting himself down on the exact spot on the beach he shares the memory of that fateful meeting with the newly lean James Douglas Morrison and demonstrates how Jim sat among the sands and made rock history. An incredible moment and worth the DVD price on its own. We visit the canals, a few bars, are taken to Venice pier and shown where Jim Morrison first came up with The End as a love ballad to his girlfriend Mary Werbelow. We hit Muscle Beach where Ray remembers how he and Jim fooled around on the bars whilst Dorothy was out working and keeping the two would be muzos as well as the house where Dot and Ray lived with Morrison in 1965. Knocking on the door he muses whether we will be able to get inside but sadly nobodies home so standing on the porch Ray shares the funny tale of how the trio would go shopping and having very little money would find it hard to feed themselves. Jim solved that problem by wearing a large overcoat and ‘borrowing’ steaks from the local supermart. See Winona you should have claimed you were a Doors fan!!
Ray’s greatest strength is his ability to beguile the listener with his Doors tales and I may not be prepared to pay $150 to watch the 21st century dorks but I’d pay it to go on a tour of Venice CA. if Ray Manzarek was the tour guide. One absolute treat in this section is when Ray produces one of Jim’s self produced copies of ‘The Lords: Notes On Vision’ in its blue folder and printed on separate sheets of paper as suggested to him by his friend Michael McClure. Ray then, standing on one of the familiar Venice canal bridges, reads a few of JD’s classic muses about film and the world in general. An extra treat is that the ducks also make a cameo appearance here too!! Ray takes a moment to explain how the movie came about after Jim shared a vision of a future screenplay with him based on himself his girl Mary, Dennis Jacobs and an unnamed UCLA professor…... which was rather cool.. Also featuring some excellent Behind the Scenes footage with all concerned having lots of fun and a superb 10 minute section of Ray and Mike McClure performing ‘Maybe Mama Lion’ and ‘Czechoslovakia’ from the films Golden Bough party sequence. Michaels silky white hair washed with a purple hue from the lights and Ray head hunched at the keyboard adding a touch of magic to Michaels words...awesome! Another plus is the films soundtrack which includes some great music from Ray and Bruce Hanifan. It gives the movie a cool feel that the plot and the acting fail miserably to do. Added to that we get a video sample of the aforementioned soundtrack with ‘Jennifer’ as well as a couple of deleted scenes from the actual movie..which include an hilarious punch up in the pub! Another plus has to be the excellent commentary from Ray and the movies producer Rick Valentine which is the best way to actually watch the film ...not then having to listen to the corny dialogue. A lot of very interesting facts are learned both about the movie and some of LA’s landmarks including the ‘video geeks dungeon’ which was where The Eagles first jammed together. There is no doubting Ray and Rick's love of the art of film-making but it’s just Ray is not very good at it as surely the knack of a good film is to actually keep the audiences interest and sadly I found mine drifting throughout the whole sorry mess at the most insignificant of distractions. The packaging is poor as Eagle Rock...now called Eagle Vision….once again give us a useless one sided sheet as an insert….no information or stills from the movie...at least the price is not excessive. All in all worthwhile for a Doors fan least of all to finally bury the myth that Ray Manzarek could have directed ‘The Doors Movie’ better than Oliver Stone! AP. Scorpywag rating: Film 3/10 codswallop….gets extra point for the ducks!! DVD Extras 8/10 a lot of effort made and some very cool stuff
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 21, 2007 20:11:48 GMT
From the 2003 Summer issue
The Doors: Other Voices (EKS-75017 ) October 1971 saw the Elektra release of The Doors 7th studio album, Other Voices, produced by The Doors and Bruce Botnick, and engineered by Bruce Botnick. An album title marking the groups first release without the now legendary front man and my personal hero, Jim Morrison. To the ardent Doors’ fan this album would be an abominable suggestion, for The Doors power came from the unit of four, diamond-shaped powering their messages of freedom and release through Jim, out there on the perimeter. Without him, surely, had to mark the end of a truly remarkable musical group. But The Doors were more than just Jim Morrison - as the man himself attested ‘they put out a hell of a lot of sound for just three guys’. With Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger now handling the vocals and John Densmore continuing to fuel the engine room, Jim was not wrong. All tracks have Krieger/Densmore/Manzarek credits. I found my heart thumping with anticipation as the disc drawer closed and the first thumping bars of ‘In The Eye Of The Sun’ strummed out. Immediately it felt like familiar territory as Ray’s reassuringly harsh vocals sat over Robbie’s ‘Changeling’ riffs. A bit of a non-starter really with a slightly vague Krieger wah wah bottleneck solo twisting into a standard blues turnaround. John rolls in to ‘Variety Is The Spice Of Life’ which kicks in with Robby on vocals, the first time since Poor Otis we have heard him in full voice, which was actually a pleasant though somewhat comical surprise. Ray’s saloon bar piano tinkles away beautifully behind an obvious tale of infidelity. It is ‘Ships w/ Sails’ that properly grabs my attention, and I find myself wondering who is singing - and dare I say it - I thought perhaps Bryan Ferry on the intro. But it is Ray, at an octave lower than usual and quite clearly more at ease. The opus continues with a superb jam with the boys just getting loose with plenty of bongo backing from percussionist Francisco Aguabella. ‘Tightrope Ride’ we know from its inclusion in the 1997 Box Set, the only song deemed worthy, and should have been the album’s opener. John adds muscle to the piece with two simultaneous drum beats and lyrically, it is thinly disguised as a sonnet for their former front man. Robby rides the tightrope out with a blistering but simple solo and The Doors come together just as we love them. ‘Down On the Farm’ is the first track to give me goose-bumps as it sounds so Doors, especially with Jerry Scheff on bass. That is until after one and a half minutes into the song it tangents into a wonderfully ‘gooky’ middle eight with Emil Richards joining in on the marimba, kickshaws and whim whams. Soon enough though in true Doors tradition we’re back on the riff again, perfectly and unwittingly delivered. ‘Down on the Farm’ has the catchiest hook of all the tracks on this album, and I guarantee you’ll be humming the rainbow ragged. This is a good song to clank pints to and toast brotherhood. ‘I’m Horny, I’m Stoned’ is a cool foot tapper with a classic Krieger couplet ‘I feel my mind is shaking out of place, I look like a truck ran over my face’. I think John enjoys this one, some lovely rolls and interplay with the bass, again from Jerry. ‘Wandering Musician’ has to be my least favorite track. This is not Doors. Again, Ray’s voice is difficult to get close to, and I’m left wondering who squeezed his testicles for the high notes. You would have to be very drunk in a scrum of dance floor hangers on to enjoy this one. Wrapping the album up is the fantastic ‘Hang On To Your Life’. Very relaxed and taking it’s time to warm up, Wolfgang Meltz providing some truly exceptional bass work over bongo’s, cow bells and shakers. This song makes you feel good, optimistic and the blasting double time coda is a fitting high note for the album to end with. Total playing time 39.42. Highest chart position No. 31
by Alex Wallis from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.
The Doors: Full Circle (EKS-75038) Released in July 1972, Full Circle is The Doors eighth studio album with Elektra. The album is produced by The Doors and engineered by Henry Lewy. With the album limping into a chart position of No. 68 perhaps The Doors had reached ever decreasing circles. However, purely for the joy of their art they delivered what is really a studio farewell and went out with some ‘good times’ rock and roll. Absent are the dark undertones Morrison evoked and the ensuing lyrical eloquence, but replacing it is a newer ‘happier’ Doors that began to smile with the spirit of LA Woman. Clapping us in is ‘Get Up And Dance’ which has Ray and a team of munchkin backing vocalists prompting us to do just that. This will make your head nod, but not much more than that. It is nice however to hear references to the ‘year 2000’ from a 70’s number. I can’t help picturing Charlie Brown walking to school when I listen to this. ‘4 Billion Souls’ is a great track with Robby cleverly handling some impossibly high vocal notes. Ray has a smooth whistle keyboard sound on the instrumental interludes that wonder in after each verse. John’s drums, as ever, are right on the cheese punctuating every nuance‘Verdilac’ If you’re wandering what the word that rhymes with Cadillac is, try a reference to transcendental meditation. This song is groovy. Veteran jazzman Charles Lloyd delivers superb tenor saxophone on the break that mingles fluently into some nice guitar mirroring. ‘Hardwood Floor’ revisits that ‘You Make Me Real’ sound with Ray pleading poverty into some cheesy blues. This track would sit well in the Rocky Horror Picture Show and perhaps could be described as a ‘filler’, but a good one nonetheless with the novelty of Robbie’s harmonica. ‘Good Rockin’ is the sort of track Ray would keep the audience distracted with while Jimbo was comatose backstage somewhere. The Roy Brown/Elvis Presley penned number is delivered bombastically by Mr. Manzarek and best left to the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis. Gladly, the album taps me on the shoulder with ‘The Mosquito’, a mostly instrumental pseudo-Mexican number with a porno flick keyboard solo that transports me to the market mazes of Camden. ‘The Piano Bird’ credited to Densmore and rhythm guitarist Jack Conrad is crying out for Morrison’s vocals and in these instances I lament his untimely demise and departure from the band. Charles Lloyd adds some beautiful flute over the ‘Riders’ piano of Manzarek. While the lyrical concept is ostensibly silly, it still conjures up pleasant images and the song fades out sleepily. The penultimate track ‘It Slipped My Mind’ credited to, and sung by Krieger doesn’t really go anywhere. But then again there is a great lyric ‘my mind and body are still out of tune, I hope they run into each other real soon’ which holds my interest for it’s three minutes. Lastly, ‘The Peking King And The New York Queen’ brings us to the end of the album using the ride out from LA Women as the main hook. This track is Ray Manzarek at large with a goofy but funny conversation between Ray and an oriental half-wit in the break. Clydie King, Venetta Fields and Melissa Mackay lay down some ritzy backing vocals. This track is growing on me and those single notes of Robbie’s stick mercilessly in the mind at bedtime. Total playing time 40.05 highest chart position No. 68
It is the popular thing to do to slate these albums, mostly out of some misplaced loyalty to Jim Morrison. Even the band’s official website ignores them completely in their discography. While the walls do not scream poetry, they definitely scream some good tunes. I love these albums not just because they are The Doors but because the songs endure constant playing. You would agree I’m sure, the enthusiasm contained therein is infectious. The Doors made eight studio albums back in the day, and no collection is complete without Other Voices and Full Circle. by Alex Wallis from Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 22, 2007 9:17:08 GMT
JIM MORRISON* Life, Death, Legend by Stephen Davis ...Reviewed by Nick Haynes
Published in 2004 overall I found this a slightly dark read, as dark as the black cover of a hard back book with a picture on the front cover of a lifeless looking Jim eyes open staring into the Infinite from what might have been his death bed. It has been a while since I have read a book about Jim and the Doors but Stephen Davis’ treatise on Jim Morrison was a constant bedtime companion from the time of it’s arrival as a Christmas present until early March and some 477 pages later. All in all I found it a very detailed and comprehensive book full of information and facts which chronicled in considerable depth his life from his birth in Melbourne, Florida on December 8 1943 through to his untimely death in Paris on July3 1971. There was a great amount of additional background information not only to the development of his life but also that of the band, the music and their gigs, the social and artistic backdrop of the period than I remember from other books on Jim and the Doors that I have read. The book came across to me as being written almost in the style of a diary probably because of the sequential time references and the overall writing style. The early part of the book deals extensively with Jim’s childhood although he was known by his family as “Jimmy” and apparently would answer to this name from intimates throughout his life. It describes a rather dysfunctional boy who would appear to have reflected throughout his life the considerable chaos and disorder that he may have suffered as a result of an absent father whose life was the Navy and the ever-changing academic and domestic circumstances that a career in the Navy brought. Interestingly I liked the author’s reflection as he briefly explores a psychological theory for Jimmy’s behaviour in which he says, “ Several ideas taken from the fields of psychology and child development might help to illuminate Jim Morrison’s behaviour later in life. Attachment Theory, for instance, suggests that children who receive insensitive, neglectful, or inconsistent care can develop difficulties with controlling their emotions, and often turn to drugs and alcohol to soothe themselves. Such children often have trouble with trusting other people and maintaining consistent relationships, and may also become impossible to control. They often exaggerate their behaviour to get the attention they crave, with negative attention being better than none.” Around the age of eighteen the author introduces us to a recurring theme throughout the book with apparent evidence that Jim may have engaged in bisexual encounters from time to time throughout his remaining years and that he certainly liked his women to be open to the theme of the song Backdoor Man. Having said that obvious tensions did emerge particularly with a lead singer as “erratic as Jim was” as Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane has been quoted as saying. Overall though I doubt that the relationship on the inside was as clearcut as Davis would have us believe. All in all I found it a very detailed and comprehensive book full of information and facts which chronicled in considerable depth his life from his birth in Melbourne, Florida on December 8 1943 through to his untimely death in Paris on July3 1971. There was a great amount of additional background information not only to the development of his life but also that of the band, the music and their gigs, the social and artistic backdrop of the period than I remember from other books on Jim and the Doors that I have read. The book came across to me as being written almost in the style of a diary probably because of the sequential time references and the overall writing style. The early part of the book deals extensively with Jim’s childhood although he was known by his family as “Jimmy” and apparently would answer to this name from intimates throughout his life. It describes a rather dysfunctional boy who would appear to have reflected throughout his life the considerable chaos and disorder that he may have suffered as a result of an absent father whose life was the Navy and the ever-changing academic and domestic circumstances that a career in the Navy brought. Interestingly I liked the author’s reflection as he briefly explores a psychological theory for Jimmy’s behaviour in which he says, “ Several ideas taken from the fields of psychology and child development might help to illuminate Jim Morrison’s behaviour later in life. Attachment Theory, for instance, suggests that children who receive insensitive, neglectful, or inconsistent care can develop difficulties with controlling their emotions, and often turn to drugs and alcohol to soothe themselves. Such children often have trouble with trusting other people and maintaining consistent relationships, and may also become impossible to control. They often exaggerate their behaviour to get the attention they crave, with negative attention being better than none.” Around the age of eighteen the author introduces us to a recurring theme throughout the book with apparent evidence that Jim may have engaged in bisexual encounters from time to time throughout his remaining years and that he certainly liked his women to be open to the theme of the song Backdoor Man. According to Davis Jim’s relationship with the band degenerated fairly quickly from ’69 onwards in terms of the respect that Jim held them in and I felt that the author possibly slightly unfairly portrayed them as rather weak and insipid or that their artistic relationship did not have more resilient depths. Having said that obvious tensions did emerge particularly with a lead singer as “ erratic as Jim was” as Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane has been quoted as saying. Overall though I doubt that the relationship on the inside was as clearcut as Davis would have us believe. As you would expect with a book of this length the reader is given a fair amount of information about Jim’s time and stay in Paris and the events that may have provoked his untimely death in a bath in a flat at 17 Rue Beautreillis. In the song Cars Hiss By My Window on the LA Woman album some people have wondered whether Jim was having a premonition when he sang “ a cold girl will kill you in a darkened room”. The words of the song are referred to by Stephen Davis in this book as being possibly prophetic in the sense that he believes Jim died from factors precipitated by jointly taking heroin with his girlfriend Pamela that was provided by her although according to Davis Jim took it knowingly.
I said at the start of this review that overall I found the book a little dark and I have spent some time reflecting whether that might be because I read it through the eyes of a Doors fan and saw it a certain way rather than somebody who approached the book as a relative stranger to Jim Morrison and the Doors. To tell you the truth I don’t know because it is difficult to be objective. What I can say is that it came across to me as a very factually intense and quite unemotional account of the circumstances of Jim’s life both before and during the Doors. I found it quite difficult to read more than a few pages at a time because of the amount of factual information presented. It painted him as a quite dysfunctional and not very nice adolescent, an extremely erratic but very charismatic performer who was extremely self-centred towards his fellow performers who in this book are rightly the backdrop for the central character but I thought presented rather harshly as weaker and less effective than they probably were as members of one of America’s leading bands of the era. At the end of the day most of us like our heroes to be portrayed as charming, lovable and their lives meaningful. Whilst I do not think that for a moment that Stephen Davis thinks that Jim Morrison lacked charm or could not be loving or lovable I felt the book was written in a style that left me feeling slightly depressed and dark. Here for me was a central character who was principally shown to have had an unhappy childhood that left him stained and injured by the experience and who gradually unravelled in an extremely restless and self-injurious manner to the point when he died hopelessly young essentially by himself in a bathtub in Paris. There was not a lot of love and light that I got from this book and that is why it came across to me in the way it did. Having said that arguably Jim Morrison manifested the struggle between the angel and the demon in us all I would certainly recommend this book….. for the amount of additional detail and information on Jim, the band and their music that the author appears to have painstakingly researched and presumably accurately reported. However the effect that you get if you read this book is very much going to be up to you and how you see it through your eyes……………
My eyes have seen you, My eyes have seen you, My eyes have seen you Stand in your door, Meet inside, Show me some more, Show me some more, Show me some more.
Review by Nick Haynes from Bicester, England June 2005
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 21, 2008 23:36:21 GMT
Becoming Angel by Jim Cherry
Jim's book is a poignant look at the inherent sadness of relationships. Every time we make a friend we are lining ourselves up for despondency which is the fate that befalls his main character John Beckett when he is introduced to a new workmate. At first he finds little of interest in Paige but as time passes and the debauchery continues he realises he may well be in love, for the first time in his life, with her. Spending his evenings either drunk or spaced out on coke or both he longs for something more to his life and dares to hope that Paige may well provide it. Who else in his world can he turn to. His friends are as sad and alone as he is and his family absolve themselves of responsibility by sending him for regular sessions with a psychiatrist who is as bored with `Becks' life as him. So seeking salvation with Paige he embarks on a journey that will inevitably lead to heartache and redemption. Only in the anguish of loss can we truly appreciate what we actually had but were too stupid to realise. Setting up home with her he attempts to distance himself from all the rottenness around him but his friends ensure that this is an impossible dream. The characters Jim brings to life are more than believable because most of us know someone just like them and most of us know of a place just like the suburb where Jim sets his story. Rock references abound including many Doors ones as our `hero' does have a decent taste in music but this is a rather sad tale set in seedy surroundings of bars and drug dealers front rooms. Tinged with hope yes but as we all know to our cost the futile promise hope brings is always just an elusive fingertip away and so it inevitably is for John Beckett. Jim's narrative contains no car chases, serial killers or great plot twists but instead concentrates on the innate humanness we all possess but try our best to subdue in the laughable quest to be `cool' and is a very readable little effort very worthy of your attention.
Scorpywag rating 8/10 very neat debut.- Alex Patton, Editor of Thedoors4Scorpywag the on-line Doors fanzine. From Scorpywag 2002
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jun 17, 2011 13:04:48 GMT
Wild Child in the City of Light by Jochen Maassen
"Every now and then something remarkable comes along in The Doors world that is worthy of note for its uniqueness rather than a simple cash in on boozy Jim or gay Jim or whatever. This is one of those."
I first saw a copy in the flesh in Paris for Jim's July bash and mightily impressed I was as to how lavishly and lovingly this had been put together. So why should a Doors fan pay it any attention? Simply because it was written and put together by a Doors fan. Just like you and me. A really nice guy from Germany who loves his Doors as much as you or I love ours. Difference is he put his tale down in print whilst most of us just get to share ours over a beer or a smattering of conversation at Jim's grave. The passion for The Doors is obvious but its the way that passion is laid out in this truly astonishing work of art that makes it noteworthy.
So I am sold on the book you are entitled to ask. Yes I bloody am as its an extraordinary account of a fans journey to becoming a Doors fan. We all have one and this is his. Written more as an old style 'annual' rather than an outright book it documents some wonderful moments in time from both Jochen and some of his friends such as rocker Darryl Read (who tells his tale of working with Ray) and writer Hans Bezemer who makes several contributions and adds some of his poetry. A series of poignant and funny vignettes about his life interspersed with some fantastic poetry and art from more of his Doors friends.
For me the pick of the bunch include Jochen's visit to Sniffen Court in New York, which was the cover of the Strange Days album and the magnificent photos he and Ulli Michaelis took of the spot. The superb coverage of The Soft Parade in Europe is sumptuously presented in words and pictures and includes a piece by singer Joe Russo written especially for this book. But the most amazing story however has to be how Jochen found Moussa Megnafi the kid looking out of the window on the cover of 'The Lost Paris Tapes' bootleg CD.
Check it out.. he's the face in the bottom left of the sleeve and Jochen's detective work brought a copy to his door much to his astonishment. Darryl Read adds his touching poem 'A Lonely Way To Die' as a eulogy to a fan who died on the very floor of La Renaissance Bar next to Jim's cemetery and recounts the tale of Jochen's wedding whilst Hans adds a series of little vignettes within vignettes throughout the book.
The photographs are quite simply superb and include many from the 30th anniversary of Jim's death in July 2001 from a unique perspective inside Ray and Danny's Paris circle, as well as words and photos from other Paris trips, Robby's visit to Germany in 1997 with John, a trip to pay tribute to Brian Jones and Jochen's UK sojourn in search of his other passion The Beatles. The book includes a rare interview with Eric Burdon as an extra and a couple of chapters on Eric are featured in the book.
It's heartening to think this band I have loved for three quarters of my life can still bring out as much passion in the 21st century that I had back in the 70s trying desperately to fight The Doors corner here on Teesside. But this book and my trip to Paris show its still there in many of us and hopefully the new generation will learn from the old that The Doors are more than just a rock band with a pretty singer. This book plays its part and deserves all the accolades its had since it was first printed last year. Simply a stunning story of being a rock fan and a Doors fan.. if you can check it out!" Alex Patton, UK
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