Post by darkstar on Sept 21, 2005 15:01:58 GMT
Krieger Still Wants You To Light His Fire
By: Neil Baron
Calendar correspondent
June 15th, 2000 Reno Gazette Journal
Former Doors guitarist to perform at Humpty's in Tahoe City
Perhaps the name Robby Krieger, who was once called “The Greatest Guitarist You Never Heard Of” by Guitar World magazine, doesn’t ring a bell. Chances are, the band he played with does.
They were the Doors, christened as such by the late Jim Morrison after Aldous Huxley’s book on mescaline, “The Doors of Perception.”
In a span of six years, 1967 to 1972, the Doors made an impact on the music scene that can still be heard today.
“You listen to a lot of these alternative bands, you can hear the Doors’ influence,” Krieger said by phone from his Los Angeles home. “I talk to a lot of bands like Creed and Smash Mouth, they’re all into Jim and the Doors.”
In terms of record sales, the Doors, which included drummer John Densmore and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, had their best years starting in 1980, nine years after Morrison died of heart failure at 27. That year, the band’s record sales topped all previous figures.
The Doors records continue to sell well. All 12 albums have gone gold and seven have reached platinum status. In 1990, the Doors’ legacy was memorialized on film in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors.” Krieger worked as a consultant to make the musical scenes as realistic as possible.
And in 1993, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction, the three living Doors members teamed up with Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and performed “Light My Fire,” which was written by Krieger.
Krieger said the band’s popularity is nothing short of amazing.
“Jim wanted us to be like the Beatles,” Krieger said. “He wanted to be huge. I don’t know what he was planning to do when it got that big, but I’m sure it would have been something that would have shocked everybody. But we never really thought of ourselves as attaining that status. I’m sure Jim would love it today to see how big the whole thing has gotten.”
Although Morrison has always received the lion’s share for the band’s success, Krieger looks back fondly on the old days.
“It was a great time,” he said. “We really did think that we were doing something. We thought we were changing values and that 20 years from then, everybody would be hippies and there’d be world peace.”
Of course, they were dead wrong.
“The ’70s came, Jimi (Hendrix) and Janis (Joplin) and Jim died and the cosmos took a turn for the dark side.”
While music was a powerful impetus for promoting social change in the 1960s, Krieger said that’s much less likely to happen now.
“Two things have changed the music,” he said. “First, the money situation. Music is such a big money maker, it’s really affected the music in a bad way. The record companies have gotten too big and powerful and they are the ones who tell the public what they’re going to hear.
“The other thing is MTV. It’s really (messed) things up for music. Before MTV, when I would hear a song, it would make me see a little picture in my brain, a movie. Now, that’s all done for you. You’re seeing somebody else’s vision of what it should be and that takes part of your own creativity out of the picture.”
Krieger kept that concept in mind when he and his band released “Cinematix” in April, an all-instrumental album on R&D Records.
“I think good music should make you visualize something in your own mind,” he said. “Especially when I hear instrumental stuff like this, I want it to do something to me and make me see something, visualize something.”
Krieger has a steady tour schedule this summer to support the album. His 150-minute show includes a mix of new material with many Doors songs, including “Touch Me” and “Love Me Two Times,” both of which he also wrote.
Krieger’s band includes his son, Waylon, 26, who plays guitar and provides background vocals. Krieger handles the main vocals.
“I don’t try to sound like Jim, but I do try to phrase like him, to get it so it’ll sound right. I used to not sing at all and I would just play the stuff instrumentally, but there’d always be some weirdo that’d go, ‘Hey man, I can sing like Jim. Let me sing.’ And they were always terrible. So I figured, I can do better than that.”
Krieger enjoys being the front man.
“In the Doors, I was in the back playing guitar and Jim was out there in front doing his thing. This is a whole different experience. In a way it’s more fun, but it’s more responsibility too. It’s kind of cool though. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it. I don’t need the money, that’s for sure.”
Krieger also is working on a Doors tribute album that should feature Creed, STP, Smash Mouth, the Cult, John Lee Hooker, Iggy Pop and others.
All three Doors members have performed off and on over the years, though none as much as Krieger. And there are some differences between the three.
“I remain friends with both of them,” Krieger said. “Those two guys aren’t exactly speaking to each other. If you read John or Ray’s books, you would understand why they don’t speak to each other.”
Manzarek’s book is titled “Light My Fire” and Densmore’s is “Riders on the Storm.” Krieger hasn’t written a book.
“Maybe that’s why I’m still friends with both of them,” he said, laughing.
Krieger did say the trio was considering playing a concert with classical violinist Nigel Kennedy, who released an album of Doors songs.
“They’ll get together for something like that,” he said. “When it comes to playing music, we always seem to forget our differences.”
www.rgj.com/cgi-bin/printstory.cgi?publish_date=20000609&story=961108356
By: Neil Baron
Calendar correspondent
June 15th, 2000 Reno Gazette Journal
Former Doors guitarist to perform at Humpty's in Tahoe City
Perhaps the name Robby Krieger, who was once called “The Greatest Guitarist You Never Heard Of” by Guitar World magazine, doesn’t ring a bell. Chances are, the band he played with does.
They were the Doors, christened as such by the late Jim Morrison after Aldous Huxley’s book on mescaline, “The Doors of Perception.”
In a span of six years, 1967 to 1972, the Doors made an impact on the music scene that can still be heard today.
“You listen to a lot of these alternative bands, you can hear the Doors’ influence,” Krieger said by phone from his Los Angeles home. “I talk to a lot of bands like Creed and Smash Mouth, they’re all into Jim and the Doors.”
In terms of record sales, the Doors, which included drummer John Densmore and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, had their best years starting in 1980, nine years after Morrison died of heart failure at 27. That year, the band’s record sales topped all previous figures.
The Doors records continue to sell well. All 12 albums have gone gold and seven have reached platinum status. In 1990, the Doors’ legacy was memorialized on film in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors.” Krieger worked as a consultant to make the musical scenes as realistic as possible.
And in 1993, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction, the three living Doors members teamed up with Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and performed “Light My Fire,” which was written by Krieger.
Krieger said the band’s popularity is nothing short of amazing.
“Jim wanted us to be like the Beatles,” Krieger said. “He wanted to be huge. I don’t know what he was planning to do when it got that big, but I’m sure it would have been something that would have shocked everybody. But we never really thought of ourselves as attaining that status. I’m sure Jim would love it today to see how big the whole thing has gotten.”
Although Morrison has always received the lion’s share for the band’s success, Krieger looks back fondly on the old days.
“It was a great time,” he said. “We really did think that we were doing something. We thought we were changing values and that 20 years from then, everybody would be hippies and there’d be world peace.”
Of course, they were dead wrong.
“The ’70s came, Jimi (Hendrix) and Janis (Joplin) and Jim died and the cosmos took a turn for the dark side.”
While music was a powerful impetus for promoting social change in the 1960s, Krieger said that’s much less likely to happen now.
“Two things have changed the music,” he said. “First, the money situation. Music is such a big money maker, it’s really affected the music in a bad way. The record companies have gotten too big and powerful and they are the ones who tell the public what they’re going to hear.
“The other thing is MTV. It’s really (messed) things up for music. Before MTV, when I would hear a song, it would make me see a little picture in my brain, a movie. Now, that’s all done for you. You’re seeing somebody else’s vision of what it should be and that takes part of your own creativity out of the picture.”
Krieger kept that concept in mind when he and his band released “Cinematix” in April, an all-instrumental album on R&D Records.
“I think good music should make you visualize something in your own mind,” he said. “Especially when I hear instrumental stuff like this, I want it to do something to me and make me see something, visualize something.”
Krieger has a steady tour schedule this summer to support the album. His 150-minute show includes a mix of new material with many Doors songs, including “Touch Me” and “Love Me Two Times,” both of which he also wrote.
Krieger’s band includes his son, Waylon, 26, who plays guitar and provides background vocals. Krieger handles the main vocals.
“I don’t try to sound like Jim, but I do try to phrase like him, to get it so it’ll sound right. I used to not sing at all and I would just play the stuff instrumentally, but there’d always be some weirdo that’d go, ‘Hey man, I can sing like Jim. Let me sing.’ And they were always terrible. So I figured, I can do better than that.”
Krieger enjoys being the front man.
“In the Doors, I was in the back playing guitar and Jim was out there in front doing his thing. This is a whole different experience. In a way it’s more fun, but it’s more responsibility too. It’s kind of cool though. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it. I don’t need the money, that’s for sure.”
Krieger also is working on a Doors tribute album that should feature Creed, STP, Smash Mouth, the Cult, John Lee Hooker, Iggy Pop and others.
All three Doors members have performed off and on over the years, though none as much as Krieger. And there are some differences between the three.
“I remain friends with both of them,” Krieger said. “Those two guys aren’t exactly speaking to each other. If you read John or Ray’s books, you would understand why they don’t speak to each other.”
Manzarek’s book is titled “Light My Fire” and Densmore’s is “Riders on the Storm.” Krieger hasn’t written a book.
“Maybe that’s why I’m still friends with both of them,” he said, laughing.
Krieger did say the trio was considering playing a concert with classical violinist Nigel Kennedy, who released an album of Doors songs.
“They’ll get together for something like that,” he said. “When it comes to playing music, we always seem to forget our differences.”
www.rgj.com/cgi-bin/printstory.cgi?publish_date=20000609&story=961108356
