Come On Buick Light My Fire.????

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

This is what the 3 musicians got for their 'integrity' and of course 70 grand.
But a pittance compared to what they gave away.
They whined and weaselled when Jim got home and discovered their duplicity.
They blamed Jac Holzman and once Jim was dead they blamed him.

We saw Manzarek, who was the only one with any balls of the musical trio, try to blame Jim for being where he was without telling them. And how they could not contact him as he needs to be at the other 3s beck and call 24hrs a day.
Did they have to do the same when they went anywhere?
As if they even tried 'where's Jim?'...'no idea'.....'why is he never here when we need him'.

Again Manzarek tried to justify it as Buick wanted an answer 'now' so they could not wait a few days.

None of the three had to be micro managed by the record company so why should Morrison.
I'm sure Buick could wait until all the partners were contacted so this was just another Manzarek lie.
They told Jim, Jac had gotten them them to accept but when Jim confronted Jac he was told it was not the record boss who chose to sign a deal.
More lies from Ray.

Basically it was everyone but the treacherous trio who had sold themselves for 70 thou. It was not as if LMF was Jim's song but he would go into bat to defend it as hard as he would his own.
This told you everything you need to know about the individual Doors.

But their treachery destroyed the trust Jim Morrison had with people whom he considered friends but were now business partners. (he said exactly that)

Buick made a TV advert which was shown in some parts of the States and these newspaper/magazine adverts.
Jac Holzman saw it and mentioned it in Follow The Music the Elektra History.

The campaign was soon quietly brushed under the carpet, perhaps when Jim said he would destroy Buicks on stage with a sledge hammer.
That was obviously bravado but the threat and the bad publicity was enough to stop the LMF campaign.
Considering how fast the band sued his corpse for what he owed I wonder if they subtracted Jim's Buick cut.

It would happen again after Jim died when they sold his ROTS to a tyre company in the UK.
The drummer felt bad about this and gave away his cut and never again allowed his art to be sold to the highest bidder.

The photos are from magazine adverts in late 1969 early 1970. Or are they?













‘Light My Fire’.......Doors Icon?

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

WHEN WHAT WHY things are not what they seemed?

This is interesting as the time line seems rather askew and begs the question when exactly did the Buick Incident take place.

I always understood it to be Jim hanging around London after their 1968 tour and the Buick events happened then.

phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.com/2013/10/1970-buick-skylark-gs-versus-doors.html

But this brings up Jim in London with Michael McClure which happened on October 13th 1968 When Jim was in the Belgravia Hotel.
But here they have that as late 1969.
Which makes sense as the cars are 1970 editions but it did not occur in 1969.
So it must have been something else that happened in late 1969.
But what?





Like a lot of Doors History it is sometimes hard to get a proper timeline but Buick were selling their 1970
Buick Skylarks and these adds appeared in magazines in late 1969 early 70 so 1968 is very doubtful and it had to be 1969.
Although where Jim was is a mystery if that is the case.

[adam]

Might it be as simple as ‘light YOUR fire’ was hardly copyright infringement so Buick kinda said, fuck you doors, we’ll effectively run with the marketing campaign we paid for, but without your song and without paying you for it.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

no mate
they paid for the name did the ad campaign including TV ad.
to just do it the next year without permission would get their arce sued

[adam]

Sept 28, 2022 15:54:38 GMT TheWallsScreamedPoetry said:

no mate
they paid for the name did the ad campaign including TV ad.
to just do it the next year without permission would get their arce sued

But do we even know how that turned out?

We know that the doors (sans Jim) did the Buick deal, then Jim found out and wanted it stopped... we know he flew into a rage/calmly spoke to the lawyers (depending on who you listen too), but what we.. well I, don't know is what Buick said...

was it

a) oh ok guys sure no problem, if Jim's not happy then no worries call it all off, we're cool and the gang with that peace man

or

b) fuck you you fucking hippy pricks, we paid you already and we're running with the ad campaign

Let's be honest.... it was something closer to B than A

But what about if the deal was.... lose the tune but keep the slogan

The 3 non-Jim doors would have been in a very awkward position here... and if anyone was likely to get sued it would have been the Doors.

Legend has it they made and aired a LMF backed TV commercial right? That means it was a done deal, you dont spend thousands of dollars on filming and TV time before you have the rights to use the music...

....and Buick didn't have to back down or back out of the signed and delivered deal.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

We know Jac Holzman saw the TV ad as he says so in the book Follow The Music.
It was only used in a few states and then pulled possibly due to Jim making a scene threatening to smash Buick on stage. Which never happened as Jim was in this case full of shit.

a or b?
Buick did none of those things mate. The promotion was done and quietly ran down to make way for the next one. Jim was making noises but it was just bluster.
In the end Buick got what they required and used it in their ad campaign.

They paid for the music and used it in their ad. They used the title of the song with minor change for their magazine add campaign. We know this as the pictures are there.
Of course if Buick used it again without paying they would get sued by Elektra.

This did not happen so we are back where we began with adverts adverting the !970 Buick from late 69 to early 70.

Is this a fake?
It sure looks a good one if it is even down to the rusty staples below.
Which make what we thought we know rather shaky.

Companies then as now spend money on add campaigns that are never seen.
70G is nothing for companies like Buick and I am certain Jac would have sued Buick had they did a second campaign.

Still a very interesting piece of Doors History

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

This makes no sense. If the deal was done in September 1968 and Buick were ready to roll out a TV commercial (that Jac Holzman verified seeing) why are they still using the LMF connection advertising a 1970 Buick a year later??
This is one of the most puzzling areas of Doors History as it defined them for the second half of their career and the band was no longer as one.
Maybe Adam was right after all and they thought they could do an advertising campaign a year later.


"This 2-page ad for the 1970 Buick Opel GT and GS 455 appeared in late 1969. The Opel and its “mini-vette” styling first hit the roads of Europe and the U.S. in 1968, and no less an authority than motorauthority.com says of it: “Today the GT still raises eyebrows and people stick their thumbs up if occasionally one is passing by. It’s considered an icon in modern motoring history.” Many of them were painted orange, and they were (and are) reportedly very fun to drive.

The Gran Sport 455 was also available with the stage 1 engine and GSX high-performance options. Wikipedia states that the “relatively unknown, very expensive, and very rare, 1970 GS 455 Stage 1 drew a great amount of attention and controversy in the muscle-car world when in the 1980s it was listed as faster than any of the Chrysler Hemi cars in the original “50 fastest muscle cars” list. This Hemi vs. Stage 1 controversy has prompted several contests to settle the issue; it remains an unsettled matter and has been a great boon to car magazine sales over the years.”

I was curious about the ad’s “Light-Your-Fire” catchphrase, and of course its Doors connection. I had not realized that Buick had offered the band what must have been quite a sizable sum back then to use the song. As –

“John Densmore recalls that Buick offered $75,000 in October, 1968 to adapt the song for use in a Buick Opel TV commercial (“Come on, Buick, light my fire”.) Morrison, however, was still in London after a European tour had just ended on September 20 and could not be reached by the other group members who agreed to the deal in his absence. As the band had agreed in 1965 to both equal splits and everyone having veto power in decisions, Morrison consequently called Buick and threatened to smash an Opel with a sledgehammer on television should the (presumably ready) commercial be aired. Various sources claim that this was a turning point in the band’s career and Jim started losing faith in the other members for selling out just for quick cash.”

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