And The Doors

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

'We thought of calling ourselves 'And The Doors' because it had started out as The Doors and after a few years became 'Jim Morrison and The Doors. But we kept The Doors because thats who we were. There were four of us ....now there were three of us'
Ray Manzarek to John Tobler ZigZag magazine 1971.

THREE MAN DOORS BACK WITH THE SPIRIT OF JIM
Thanksgiving week saw an incredible number of concerts in New York.
That is the time when students come into town for vacation and everyone is quite aware of thier ticket buying potential. The Doors performed thier first concert in New York since the death of Jim Morrison and it was a very successful one. Despite the fact that it seemed a bit strange to hear Ray Manzarek singing 'Light My Fire' (he did 'Love Me Two Times' better) the crowd went wild for them and they received three screaming ovations and had to return to the stage each time.
Jac Holzman President of Elektra Records could be seen jumping up and down with excitement in the wings and earlier that day at a luncheon held for the group he told me "It's happening all over again for them. They have been breaking it up everywhere they have performed on this tour."
It seemed to me quite apparent that Morrison's spirit was indeed pervading the atmosphere in the hall when The Doors played. I don't think there was anyone would deny that they thought about Jim at least once during the evening.
However whereas all the darker magic and tension might be gone from the group the music Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore are making is lighter and happier rock and roll music and the audience was highly appreciative. Perhaps one was able to concentrate on the music more for the vocals were at best adequate.
Peace Bridge Center Buffalo NY 18th December 1971
Disc & Music Echo

First Doors gig after Jims death Pershing Municipal Auditorium Lincoln Nebraska November 12th 1971 the 3 Doors are joined by Bobby Ray on guitar and bassist Jack Conrad.
"keyboard man Ray Manzarek receives the star on his dressing room door for his friday evening performance.He is super talented on both organ and piano! When he tears into the blues he really is a superstar"
Holly Spence Lincoln Journal November 13th 1971.

On playing NYC for the first time without Jim on November 23rd and featuring old friend Tony Glover on harp.....
"One of the most eagerly awaited concerts in NY fall season was a knockabout at Carnegie Hall. The Doors appearing in Gotham for the first time without the late Jim Morrison were exciting all the way. Their second encore was light My Fire a Krieger composition that had been thier biggest hit"
Variety Magazine December 1st 1971

"The group emphasised its instrumental performances over the vocals and lyrics by playing lengthy numbers from Other Voices at extremely high volumes. Were it not for the uncommonly refined instrumental talents of the 3 surviving Doors thier decision to to retain the name and continue as a trio could have proven fatal.
As it stands the group fronts an impressive attack that could be strengthened by turning down the volume a bit and incorporating more familiar material into thier repertoire"
Doors Other Voices Weaken Carnegie Show
John Koegel Hofstra University Cronicle December 2nd 1971.

"No audience would let them get away with a complete about face. Jim Morrison's image is still very much with them musically and spiritually. Ray Manzarek who looks to calm for it all is the new leader and he wears the role with enough reluctance so that it is readily acceptable. His keyboards are mightier than ever and the sum total of the groups other voices convey much of the richness that made Jim so unique. The new music bears Jim's mark but this is both expected and welcomed. Morrison was and forever will be a Door. Thats the way the crowd want it. Thats the way fate planned it.
Manzarek-Krieger-Densmore they are one and they are three. They are the audience and the audience is them. Full Circle, round circle beautiful circle. Death is not the end when life is strong"
CashBox December 4th 1971.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

'It was all very up in the air as to what we were going to do. we were going to change the name. We'd thought about it but nobody could come up with anything that didn't sound real pretentious'
Robby Krieger ZigZag 1971.

'We sat around and jammed a bit and finally decided to keep the music going.'
John Densmore 1972

'We decided to keep on boogieing. There was no sense in letting it fold up and fall apart. We had too many ideas so we decided to do them ourselves....but it was a tough decision.'
Ray Manzarek ZigZag 1971.

HOWARD WERTH THE NEW JIM MORRISON?
Howard Werth former singer with Audience is virtually certain to become the successor to Jim Morrison as lead singer with The Doors.Audience broke up last September and the job with The Doors has come about due to the friendship between Werths label boss Tony stratton-Smith and Jac Holzman head of Elektra in America, The Doors label.
'Jac gave the early Audience albums to the Doors and they really liked Howards singing and writing'...Stratton-Smith told MM this week. 'Then he called me from The States and asked how Howard would feel about working with The Doors. And he is very excited about it.'
The Doors are coming over to England next month to rehearse with Werth and tie up a deal which will put Howard into Jim Morrisons shoes.
Melody Maker 3rd February 1973

'We came to London to find a vocalist and as we started jamming we realised more than ever that when you have a good proffesional singer who can do with his voice what someone else can do with an instrument how much more fluid everything is......but that led to writing problems. Everyone was doing songs ...myself included....and all of Ray's were real personal so it finally got to the point where it was obvious that he was the only one who could sing them because they were very philisophical, cosmic whatever. So how could another singer relate to something that was so personal? So when we first came over we were still together...sort of...but when we realised how very different our musical directions were heading...Ray split back home!"
John Densmore 1977

"It wasn't very easy. You'd call up people and say 'Come down and jam' but they'd know it really was an audition and the pressure would creep in"
Robby Krieger 1984

"We were in England looking for a new singer a bass player a second guitarist whatever.....something to give The Doors new life. But it just got old...it just got boring. We'd been together too long.
Without Jim The Doors just were not the Doors anymore. It wasn't the same band. So we went to England to see if we could change things but we really didn't find anybody. A couple of guys we worked with were good but I thought it was time to put The Doors to bed so I said to John and Robby...'listen you guys lets just pass on this and end it'...so we did!"
Ray Manzarek 1978

"We wanted to recharge our creative batteries just as Jim did when he went to paris....but it really didn't work out. It was time to 'close' The Doors"
Ray Manzarek 1978

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles November 26th 1971.
The first gig in LA without Jim was also long time former roadie equipment genius now Road manager Vince Treanor’s last with The Doors….and the band pays tribute to him for all his efforts over the years after playing Hang On To Your Life from the new album.


“The Music of The Doors still deals with apocalypse but now the group tends to be doing a rueful little dance along the edge of the abyss. The death of Jim Morrison seemed to make survivors Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore a lot freer in their musicianship and more consistently able to express their meta-physical outlook with touches of cosmic humour. Onstage minus Morrison they have obviously lost something in fiery charisma at this early phase of their new career. But their return to LA set showed craftsmanship of a high order and a touching eagerness to communicate all out. The Doors trio is sure to remain a major force in rock for many more years!”
BillBoard December 1971.

“As far as most of the audience are concerned the group could do no wrong and to be honest they were good….damn good. The five men together with engineer/producer Bruce Botnick who mixed the show delivered one of the tightest sounds you’d want to hear. They don’t have to rely on old material…the set was well placed and the excitement level was consistently high. Other Voices is like a rough sketch of the kind of finished masterpiece they can create on stage. It’s a new group and it’s an exciting group. And it is a group that I would even go out of my way to see again. And coming from a reviewer who more often than not has to force himself to go to a concert that is quite a compliment.”
Chris Van Ness. LA Free Press December 3rd 1971.

“It just wasn’t the same without Jim. I felt that we were just lost man! It was impossible for us to continue as the Doors we should have recorded those albums as Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger it would have made a lot more sense and said hey we used to be the Doors but are not The Doors anymore the Doors are Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek.
That’s the Doors. Take away ANY (his emphasis NOT mine) part and it’s not The Doors anymore and man we lost the number one part the lead singer himself…the word man and it was impossible to continue to be The Doors so after the second album I just said hey man lets put it to bed you guys…lets close the Doors…no sense continuing. We are not The Doors…The Doors are four people The Doors are not three people and we could never replace Jim Morrison and so lets just give up”
Ray Manzarek
Three Hours For Magic Radio Show 1982

“I have to date the death of The Doors with the death of Jim Morrison even though we did two more albums. I’ve been away from the whole Doors thing for three years now and I’m still in the process of exploring all kinds of musical facets and styles but on the other hand I know I’ll never get completely away from The Doors.”
Ray Manzarek. The Gig Magazine November 1974.

“The only thing to do after Jim died was to keep making music but it wasn’t right without Jim. Quite honestly the new Doors was some other band that I didn’t care to be in. but that whole period was the beginning of me as a composer. I’d never written much before but when Jim died the rest of us had to start writing.”
Ray Manzarek talking to Barbara Charone NME July 1974.

"When we first started out there were four of us and one of the guys is missing now. I don't know whether you know that or not. But he met with a little unfortunate accident and he's not here righ now. But he'll be back. He'll be back next time we play the Bowl! And we're going to try and do this whether or not he's just janging around digging it. We're going to do this one for our own Jimbo! Okay Jim get ready! I know you're out there somewhere man so get ready for it cause here it comes!"
Ray introducing his own eulogy for Jim & the band at the last ever concert by The Doors in rock history performed at The Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles California on September 10th 1972.

SET LIST OF LAST EVER CONCERT BY THE DOORS:
Augmented on stage by Bobby Ray guitar, Jack Conrad bass and Ron Starr sax.....

Tightrope Ride
In The Eye Of The Sun
Mosquito
Love Me Two Times
Piano Bird (flute player Charles Lloyd joins them onstage and remains for the rest of the set)
Verdilac
I'm Horny I'm Stoned
Ships With Sails
Light My Fire

I think Ray showed real 'guts' to take that decision back in 1972....it would have been easy to carry on and just go through the motions as The Doors ending up as part of a 60s revival tour 20 years later. He showed courage to accept The Doors day was done and I am sure the other two were feeling pretty much the same but did not have the bottle to admit it. Ray did and even though I disagreed with him in 1972 I have seen the truth in what he said!
How many musicians would have had the bravery to dump a Gold Mine like The Doors back then.......I was there at the time and I can say with certainty not bloody many.
Ray showed integrity and true courage to face up to the fact that The Doors were dead.......I really do miss THAT guy! AP.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I had the chance to see The Doors trio at Newcastle City Hall in 1972........tickets were easy to get here in Stockton we had coach trips to the City hall via a local bus company......I was just a dumb kid pissed off that Morrison was dead without really understanding what The Doors were about.......I think I did not go in protest really.....I thought The Doors were not The Doors without Jim......its a different argument 30 years on and one I am always ready to take part it but back then those guys WERE The Doors and I wish I had gone.....
Now I will NEVER see The Doors.
IOW too young and my sister would not take me along....Newcastle too dumb and too young to understand.....
I think from what I read that maybe the audiences the trio faced were a bit like that dumb kid.....heartbroken Jim was not there so took out there dissapointment on the three guys.......they were really on a hiding to nothing back then....but after 30 odd year I respect them for trying to carry on.....an impossible task its true but they gave it a shot......
Other Voices was a decent album (I think its great) but Full Circle showed that Morrison was right about them carrying on as an instrumental trio......bereft of lyrics and the less said about the vocals the better....
Ray was always good on the 'Hardwood Floors' but try to be a little deeper and all he managed to do was show us why we missed Jim so much.
Ray was right to call time on The Doors back in 1973.
He was wrong to try to bring them back 30 years later...

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Howard Werth shared a little of the time he spent with The Doors with Scorpywag readers in September of 2002

Dear Alex
apologies for taking so long to respond to your request for info on myself and Doors/Ray Manzarek configuration but I've been up to my neck in muck and bullets………….
Firstly my initial contact with the Doors came via Tony Stratton-Smith the head of Charisma records and also through Gus Dudgeon (Audience producer and later Elton John who sadly was killed in a car crash in July 2002…:ED) who had both been contacted by the Doors in order to try to reach me. As I was in the middle of recording the 'King Brilliant' album (Howard's debut solo LP after Audience disbanded..:ED) Tony was worried that I might abandon that project and so took his time telling me about the Doors thing. When I eventually found out through Gus I made contact and the remaining three members arrived in town and rehearsals were arranged, in an old summerhouse in Barnes by the river Thames.
I must add that the whole situation with the Doors was probably initiated by
Jack Holzman 'Mr.Elektra' who was a big Audience fan and whose plan to
replace the now Morrison-less Doors with Audience as the Elektra main focus
was scuppered by the fact that we had disbanded, this led to the initiation
of the idea of a merger between the remaining Doors and myself.
The rehearsals went well and we went through a lot of their early material and some stuff from their post Morrison album. After the rehearsal period the Doors stayed around town and I stayed in contact over the next few weeks, it then became apparent that Ray had decided that a reformation of the Doors was not to be (and never was). At this point Ray's wife Dorothy had become ill and so he returned to Los Angeles. I moved to L.A. in January of 1977 and got involved in the emerging punk scene recording and producing for the ‘Dangerhouse’ label where I produced the first recordings by 'X'.
I met up with Ray once again in the local supermarket (very R'n'R). I went to his place in the Hollywood hills and played him some material that I was working on he felt an immediate empathy with what I was doing and we spent some time in the studio recording my songs, with Ray producing and
playing some keyboards.
Ray coincidentally then started to produce 'X' and wanted me to front the line up with him on keyboards the project being ‘Howard Werth & the 'X' Ray’ band with himself and Danny Sugarman managing.
Alas another project bit the dust (I had no work permit and was reluctant to commit) though I've stayed in contact with Ray over the years and he has discussed the possibilities of us recording together, which would be excellent.
I shall keep you posted on that one.
All the best Howard Werth

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

Zappa & The Doors Hollywood Bowl 10th September 1972

Zappa Has Style of Mothers
As much as he might want to eliminate the element of shock and outrage that distinguished the Mothers of Invention in favor of "serious musical endeavor," Frank Zappa just can't seem to get away from it.

Sunday night it took the form of a large exodus of disgruntled folk who had come to the Hollywood Bowl expecting to see the Mothers and hear some rock 'n' roll.

Instead they got the world premiere of the Grand Wazoo, a 20-piece orchestra which performed several jazzy and contemporary classical pieces, some of which were plain dull, the best of which sparkled with the unique and inventive Zappa humor.

The 21st-century cartoon music of "The New Brown Clouds" was an engaging opener; "Big Swifty" featured some modestly successful jazz solos, while "Approximate," a finely wrought collection of controlled randomness, was the most blatantly avant-garde selection.

Spectre of Morrison
The highlight of the program was by far "The Adventures of Gregory Peccary," and while one might wish that it could be presented full-scale--with narrator, chorus and dancers--its pictorial quality and adventurous textures (especially the jarring dissonances of the third movement) indicate that while Zappa is moving toward a synthesis whose chance for success is uncertain, he, if anyone, will be able to pull it off.

The spectre of Jim Morrison still hangs heavy over the Doors, and they have yet to come up with any music with enough personality to dispel it. Their set was most innocuous, until Ray Manzarek, displaying a rather odd sense of humor, dedicated "Light My Fire" to Jimbo and promised that he'll be back with the group the next time they're at the Bowl. Don't miss it.

Tim Buckley opened the show.
From the Los Angeles Times, 9/12/72
RICHARD CROMELIN

[othercircles]

They should have kept going. Even if they felt they had to get a new singer.. which they really didn't. Then I think today there wouldnt be so much attention on Morris.

[TheWallsScreamedPoetry]

I think a new singer was an essential item as vocally Ray and Robby were weak. Ray is a damn good blues singer but his voice was not good enough for The Doors. I enjoyed his vocal in 1971 when I got Other Voices but was not too impressed with 1972s Full Circle......Robbys vocals always made me cringe.....
I have said on another thread Bobby Harrison the ex drummer with Procul Harum and later the singer with SNAFU would have done a good job.....John 'Pix' Pickford from 70s outfit A Band Called O would have fitted in well as well as Audiences Howard Werth who was favourite for the job.
It would not have been The Doors we knew but it would have been capable of producing a couple of good albums in the 70s. Jazz fusion or a slightly blues orientated rock sound....who knows but a new singer might have brought a few new ideas and a new dimension to the band and it might have survived a couple more years.
Probably the right decision was made to end the band but in 1973 I was a tad dissapointed and would have liked to have seen that 3rd post Jim album!

Mike Olszewski is a DJ with classic rock station WNCX of Cleveland, Ohio
www.wncx.com/pages/103095.php.
He often plays Audience tracks on his programme and writes to tell me of two recent situations involving the band. During an interview with John Densmore, The Doors drummer,
Mike asked him about Howard’s sessions with the band in 1973 and Densmore bemoaned the fact there were no tapes in existence.
Audience Newsletter - Dec 2006