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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Apr 1, 2005 14:59:05 GMT
What are your thoughts on The Doors first tentative steps in the studio?
On Thursday September 2nd The Doors cut a demo in Los Angeles World Pacific Jazz Studios.
Ray's brothers band "Rick and the Ravens" have some free studio time coming from a trade off on an Aura Records deal. As a result The Doors (without Robby Krieger) cut a demo which sounds very little like The Doors with a very young sounding Jim Morrison. The six songs on the demo are all Morrison originals. The band immediately begins to tout the demos locally around LA.
After the three hour session. Jim is reportedly delighted after hearing his voice on a record for the first time.
Line up:-
Ray: piano (Ray had not gotten the 'Doors' organ yet!)
Jim: vocals
John: drums
Rick Manczarek: guitar
Jim Manczarek: harp
Unknown Girl: bass guitar
"Moonlight Drive"
"Hello I Love You"
"Summers Almost Gone"
"My Eyes Have Seen You"
"End of The Night"
"Go Insane (A Little Game)"
A couple of days later Jim writes his parents, who are in London, disclosing his plans to sing with the band.
Jim's father, an admiral in the navy, vehemently disagrees with Jim's choice and is very upset with his son.
He writes Jim back conveying his objection while mentioning paying for four years of college, Jim abandoning his piano lessons as a child, never caroling with the family, and most importantly mentioning the band will never amount to anything.
Jim isn't good at taking criticism and never writes his family again!
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Post by ensenada on Apr 1, 2005 15:04:33 GMT
i would love to hear this early stuff, that would be cool. where the hell can i get hold of it?
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Post by stuart on Apr 1, 2005 16:23:01 GMT
They are on THE DOORS BOX SET rick which has been out quite a few years now.
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Post by ensenada on Apr 1, 2005 16:24:30 GMT
cheers. i got both the box sets, so must have heard them lol in that case I probably think they are ok cos i like most of the stuff on the box sets  will check em out again! |
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Post by lawless on Apr 1, 2005 16:46:20 GMT
What are your thoughts on The Doors first tentative steps in the studio? To be honest, Jim sounds like any other garage band singer on those demos. The songs obviously have potential, but not the performance. What puzzles me, is how, in a year or so, Jim is able to evolve and develop an original and powerful singing style. Any clues as to how and why he changed his approach? Any pointers/influences pertinant to this period of 1965-7? |
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Post by ensenada on Apr 1, 2005 16:49:38 GMT
perhaps it was a case of jim just finding his feet in this sort of environment. I have sung with a band and i remember the first time it was very scarey, i hadnt done anything like that before, apart from karaoke  and once the band was solidified with john and robbie he may well have got his foot hold and confidence to let his own character shine through entirely, giving the jim we know today. its just a case of saying "fuck it, i am the man and this is how its gonna be"...perhaps ;D |
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Apr 2, 2005 10:04:56 GMT
To be honest, Jim sounds like any other garage band singer on those demos. The songs obviously have potential, but not the performance. What puzzles me, is how, in a year or so, Jim is able to evolve and develop an original and powerful singing style. Any clues as to how and why he changed his approach? Any pointers/influences pertinant to this period of 1965-7? Yes its true that the demos are pretty ordinary and Jim's vocal style is rather weak but I would say that there are several factors that turned everything around. The most obvious was the Manczarek brothers bailing out and the introduction of John's pal Robby Krieger whose guitar was made for Jim's lyrics, the Columbia contract got the band The Doors organ which transformed thier sound, the loss of the Columbia contract fired them up as that put them out on the street angry but determined to succeed. Jim himself became more and more confident due in part to acid but also more because he must have realised that the musicians around him were something very special. His initial shyness on stage taken over by a supreme self confidence and belief in himself could well have come from the bands initial struggle to get those around them to believe in the band....4 against the world seemed to be thier watchword in 65/66 as they struggled to get gigs whilst seeing bands they considered inferior to themselves headline the sacred Whisky a Go Go....... I would argue that a righteous anger and determination to show those around them that he was someone to take note of probably made Jim Morrison the stage giant he became...... Which London Fog gig it was that he actually turned around and faced the audience is not really known but it must have been a breaking through to the other side on his part and a leap into the void for Morrison. He had put away childish things and had taken his first steps to immortality....... The Jim we hear on the demo is totally alien to the Jim we hear on the first Doors album but from those humble beginnings he must have 'seen' something in himself when he first heard that acetate from the World Pacific ............. We have a poll thread on this board which asks whose story you would most want hear relive the earliest glory days of the Doors ....... newdoorstalk.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=poll&action=display&thread=1107247095One person we have never really heard much from about those days in 65/66/early 67 was Jim himself...... if he had lived what a bio he would have had to share with us....  |
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 28, 2006 18:35:24 GMT
"Ray was singing harmonies on that record. His brother played piano."
John Densmore on the Doors demo from 1978
'The Doors In Their Own Words' (p13)
Now that is a fascinating statement from a Doors book which has never been explored much.......I doubt in the new History of The Doors that we have been seeing in the last couple of decades such things would find a place but I do believe I have read somewhere else that one of Ray's brothers played piano for Rick & The Ravens.
I for one would like to hear more about the demo but it is never really explored much by The Doors. It's not something that should be a big deal as we all know Ray was a wonderful keyboard player but if indeed one of his brothers played the piano on the demo I for one would like to see it discussed a little during the fake 40th celebrations in 2007.
Listening to the demos a lot more lately and they are very piano and harmonica driven and that seems to me to be a sop to the Manczarek brothers. Perhaps Ray had to give them centre stage to talk them into taking part in the demos.
Maybe Ray needed to support Jim vocal wise to help overcome his natural shyness (as Rick points out singing with a band is a bit scary if you are not confident) during the session so could not play too much of a part musically. There is hardly any guitar at all in the demos so it would seem that the guitar playing Manczarek may well have taken over the piano duties. The bass player and John are heard well enough and its easy to pick out Ray doing backing vocals.......
Its an interesting part of the History of the Doors and it would be nice to question Ray & John about it more but I doubt Ray would admit to having a lesser role in the demo especially as he has stated in the past that HE played the piano parts.........but for John to make such a statement in an Officially sanctioned Doors book does beg the question of how much exactly Ray Manzarek did have to do with the original Door demo.
It in no way detracts from the genius of him as The Doors keyboard player nor his role in The Doors earliest days as the man who pushed the band out of just being another LA garage band onto the first rungs towards fame but nontheless it is a fascinating little vignette in the bands story that would be of tremendous interest to Doors fans....
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 15, 2006 12:48:18 GMT
My favourite track from the demo has to be Summers Almost Gone which happens to be one of my all time fave Doors songs as well............
It must have been amazing that period between Jim leaving UCLA, crashing on Dennis Jacobs roof and then 'bumping' into Ray on Venice Beach............
I wonder if Jim and Dennis would sit on the roof and Jim would chat to his mate about this concert going on in his head....
Morning found us calmly unaware
Noon burned gold into our hair
At night, we swam the laughin' sea
When summer's gone
Where will we be
Summer's almost gone
Summer's almost gone
We had some good times
But they're gone
The winter's comin' on
Summer's almost gone
I love this lyric....to me a metaphor for life in the same vein as Neil Young's Sugar Mountian............you get born do a lot of shit and then get old and realise you wish you had done more....
Anyone else got a fave from the demo?
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Post by stuart on Jul 15, 2006 12:52:00 GMT
I Quite Like "Go Insane" i think it's rather hiliarious!!.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 18, 2006 21:42:49 GMT
"Ray was singing harmonies on that record. His brother played piano."
John Densmore on the Doors demo from 1978
'The Doors In Their Own Words' (p13)
Now that is a fascinating statement from a Doors book which has never been explored much.......I doubt in the new History of The Doors that we have been seeing in the last couple of decades such things would find a place but I do believe I have read somewhere else that one of Ray's brothers played piano for Rick & The Ravens.
I for one would like to hear more about the demo but it is never really explored much by The Doors. It's not something that should be a big deal as we all know Ray was a wonderful keyboard player but if indeed one of his brothers played the piano on the demo I for one would like to see it discussed a little during the fake 40th celebrations in 2007.
Listening to the demos a lot more lately and they are very piano and harmonica driven and that seems to me to be a sop to the Manczarek brothers. Perhaps Ray had to give them centre stage to talk them into taking part in the demos.
Maybe Ray needed to support Jim vocal wise to help overcome his natural shyness (as Rick points out singing with a band is a bit scary if you are not confident) during the session so could not play too much of a part musically. There is hardly any guitar at all in the demos so it would seem that the guitar playing Manczarek may well have taken over the piano duties. The bass player and John are heard well enough and its easy to pick out Ray doing backing vocals.......
Its an interesting part of the History of the Doors and it would be nice to question Ray & John about it more but I doubt Ray would admit to having a lesser role in the demo especially as he has stated in the past that HE played the piano parts.........but for John to make such a statement in an Officially sanctioned Doors book does beg the question of how much exactly Ray Manzarek did have to do with the original Door demo.
It in no way detracts from the genius of him as The Doors keyboard player nor his role in The Doors earliest days as the man who pushed the band out of just being another LA garage band onto the first rungs towards fame but nontheless it is a fascinating little vignette in the bands story that would be of tremendous interest to Doors fans.... |
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Post by cobriaclord on Jul 18, 2006 23:05:19 GMT
The Doors sound completely different in their demo, good thing their style changed.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 31, 2011 9:06:48 GMT
More information regarding the demos has come to light recently to suggest that more than these six songs were recorded during the 3 hour session.
What these songs were is not forthcoming but it is intriguing to think that there may well be some of the songs from the first two albums featuring the three man proto-Doors.
It is a fascinating window into The Doors early evolution and shows what a simple Vox organ, a decent guitar player and a singer with a lot more confidence could do.
Less than a year later the same group of people, augmented by Krieger and minus the dead wood that was The Ravens, would go into Sunset Sound and record in a week what is arguably the best debut album ever made by any artist.
A monumental achievement to go from this weak and weedy demo disc to the biggest selling artist in the US in 18 months.
Would be amazing if there was more of this 1965 stuff. Time will tell.
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Post by darkstar3 on Jul 13, 2011 16:01:58 GMT
Why do you think The Doors chose not to record the song "Go Insane" in the studio as it was written in 1965. Other than a few references by Jim in live performances the song didn't get a proper recording in the studio.
Since I've evolved over the years I have compared Metallica's song, "Welcome Home (Sanitarium) to "Go Insane." You may think I'm insane myself for this comparison but these two tracks do have something in common where the subject/lyrics are concerned. Of course the music set to the lyrics is completely different as the latter in a musical sense is more intimidating. "Go Insane" talks about the eventual Breaking Through, freeing your mind where as "Sanitarium" talks about being kept in a place against a person's will who is trying to break through in both their mind and in the physical sense. Both songs make a very profound statement based on reality.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jul 18, 2011 9:29:51 GMT
We know that The Doors only went back to the demo when COTL failed and WFTS emerged. More of necessity than actual will to record new versions of the demo. Adam Holzman pushed for HILY as he liked the song and his dad supported his kids view. SAG and HILY made it to the WFTS album. Go Insane is the only track that never made it to a studio version and maybe they remembered the reaction to it. We cannot know if it was originally a part of the COTL poem or gravitated there as a result of the demo being pushed by Adam Holzman and Morrison incorporating it into his idea. It is on the only version we know of but was it on the other versions that were recorded.  Early version of the song most likely in Ray's hand. Lyric is related to music and chord changes and written in the same hand for both. Morrison did not know chords and so it is unlikely to be his hand. Date Unknown but likely 65/66 See calander entry for more info including some on the girl bass player. The Doors Demo 1965 |
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Aug 9, 2023 17:36:55 GMT
The 6 track one sided Doors Demo 1965  
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