Post by stuart on Aug 4, 2005 13:09:07 GMT
Robby Krieger Interview by Rainer Moddemann
During my first visit to Los Angeles it was rather difficult to get an interview date with Robby Krieger. Robby and his band were working on two albums simultaneously in the studio, and he was also busy doing the final mixing of already finished tracks in another studio.
Eventually, however, we were able to agree a date one afternoon, when a studio appointment for the band was cancelled.
Robby Krieger lives in the Benedict Canyon, through which runs a small winding asphalt road. On one of the numerous hills which line the road on both sides and hiding the houses behind from view, a narrow dusty alley leads to a large green gate, which vividly reminded me of Elvis's gate at Graceland. Linda Kyriazi, Robby's PR manageress, who drove me to this interview in her car, did not need to ring the bell, and the gate opened with a quiet squeak. Our arrival had obviously been watched.
The car stopped next to a few American veteran cars parked underneath shady magnolia trees adjacent to a two-storey house. Robby emerged from the front door with a friendly "Hello, how are you?". He was wearing one of those kitschy, but comfortable Hawaiian shirts, corduroy trousers and no shoes. His hair had got thinner and more reddish, than I had remembered from my earlier meeting with The Doors.
He invited us into his comfortably cool, air-conditioned house and told us to make ourselves at home. This was, however, made impossible for me by Robby's dog, Teddy, a huge shaggy gray monster, who tried to knock me over to the ground, despite his master's calling to him not to do this. Only after I grabbed a sock that was lying on the floor with which I managed to lure Teddy out of the front door, we got the desirable coziness - apart from Robby now running outside to rescue his precious sock!
In the meantime I got the opportunity to take a look around family Krieger's living room (Robby lives here with his wife, Lynn, and his son, Waylon). There seemed to be a homely kind of chaos in this huge room. Numerous platinum and gold records were standing on the floor or hanging on the walls. Above the gray fireplace ledge a Nastassia Kinski poster graced the wall, which showed her naked apart from a fully grown boa constrictor being wrapped around her. Next to this stood a quietly sounding television set and a sinfully expensive music tower with black speakers built into the wall. A n enormous wall of shelves was overflowing with records, reels, books and cassettes. A very old Dobro guitar was leaning in front of the large round window with a view onto large oaks and smaller shrubbery. Amongst the freshly ironed clothes on the living room table was a brown Persian tomcat, who watched me suspiciously.
Linda was putting some cans of beer into the fridge in the adjoining kitchen, remarking that "... Robby always forgets to buy any drinks when he gets guests!", when Robby returned and asked me to follow him. He turned towards a glass door and hurried up a few stairs to his home studio. Here I also find numerous platinum and gold records on the walls of a room which is otherwise filled with countless musical instruments and other musical equipment.
My eyes immediately turned to a black 1955 Gibson Les Paul with golden metal attachments that was leaning against a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. Robby, who had noticed my interest, smiled. "This is my original Doors guitar which I always used when playing the slide, either at concerts or in the studio, during Moonlight Drive', Who Do You Love' or Wild Child'. I think you can also see it in the video Dance On Fire'.""And where is the red Gibson SG, which is better known to Doors Fans from the photos?", I asked. Robby pulled a face. "Somebody stole that one of me towards the end of the Doors era. It is probably hanging somewhere on a fan's wall right now. It was my favorite guitar which I had right from the beginning. Really, this was my very first electric guitar and I had used it during the whole time I spent with The Doors." He picked up a red Gibson 335 and plugged the other end of the lead into an amplifier. A few more little lamps lit up on other electronic equipment, and the rich sound of a trombone filled the studio. "With these Computers I have millions of possibilities of changing a guitar's sound," he said, pushing further buttons. Now the guitar sounded like a harp. "So this is Robby's hobby", I added, hinting at the 12" single with the same title. He smiled. "Actually, I only record demos and try out new sounds in this studio. For records I rather prefer real guitar sounds and, of course, a real band. I don't like these drum computers."
Following the push of a button, the drum computer just mentioned released a heavy rhythm, to which Robby started playing a faster-than-the-speed-of light solo. In the meantime, I looked at the Doors' first gold single for "Light My Fire", having already been stripped of color by the constant light from the sun, which hung from a beam above the mess of cables.
We later returned downstairs to the living room, where Teddy was already resting underneath the table. Armed with an ice cold beer, Robby walked over to the music system and put on one of his tapes. "You must listen to this," he said. "A track for the new album." Deafeningly, a funk jazz song penetrates the room. "This thing is called Strut A-Various'!" he shouted into my ear. "A pun of to strut' and Stradivarius'." "A strange title for a song without any violins in it", I shouted back.
Suddenly something cold was pushed into my hands - the Dobro. I played a few chords on it, which, of course, were drowned out totally by the volume of "Strut A-Various". Robby inserted a second cassette, playing a curious comedy tune called "The Black Beatles", which he had taped from the radio. We had a good giggle over this. Eventually Robby switched on several of his Tiffany lamps, took the freshly ironed clothes off the table and was ready for the interview.
Robby Does it work? (He points to the tape recorder and the video camera). I have the same one (he means the recorder).
Rainer At least the tapes run. Well Robby, your new album - what kind of music will be on that one? Something like "Versions"?
Robby Yeah, sort of "Versions". There'll be a few of my own compositions plus some old ones like on "Versions".
Rainer Cover versions?
Robby Yeah. There'll be an Elvis Presley one.
Rainer Oh, which one?
Robby Well, Linda's ecstatic about that (Linda, Robby's PR manager, smiled). It'll be "I want you, I need you, I love you".
Rainer Ah, that one "... with all my heart."
Robby Yeah. And also the "Lonely Teardrops".
Rainer Isn't that a Ray Orbison song?
Robby No - Jackie Wilson. And a few other surprises.
Rainer You should do a Robert Johnson cover version, Robby, I know he's one of your favorites, and also one of mine.
Robby If I could do as good as he could I would do (he laughs).
Rainer The Rolling Stones did his "Love In Vain", not mentioning that it was a Robert Johnson tune.
Robby Really? Huh! Did they get away with that?
Rainer I think so. To my knowledge nobody complained.
Robby That's fun. Actually "Crossroads" is good the way Cream did it. I like that, although I still like Robert Johnson's version better, I think. It's amazing that probably very low percent of the people who heard Cream also heard Robert Johnson.
Rainer He was the master of slide guitar.
Robby Oh definitely!
Rainer Was he the first one who inspired you to use a bottleneck?
Robby Not the first, but one of the first.
Rainer He recorded less than 35 songs in a hotel room ...
Robby Yeah, not many. Some people have showed me some bootleg stuff supposed to be Robert Johnson. It's hard to tell. It might be. It's really bad quality stuff, you know, who knows.
Rainer I heard of a Robert Johnson CD coming out very soon, with all known songs plus unreleased material.
Robby Really? Must get this one when it's out.
Rainer Your Halfspeed Master LP and CD "Robby Krieger" contains some surprising stuff. I especially like the song "Costa Brava".
Robby Good!
Rainer Have you ever been at the Costa Brava in Spain?
Robby Yeah. Actually we drove along the coast, stayed at this big old castle up there, I forgot the name of it, it was a beautiful place! Yeah, I liked that I. And we went to Barcelona and Madrid, saw some Flamenco, and visited the Ramirez shop where I bought a guitar. I have three Ramirez guitars. Have one 63, the same exact model that Sabecca uses. That was fun - I didn't know that he used that model, and I had mine for 20 years, and I saw him recently, looked inside his guitar .. a 63! Same one as mine!
Rainer How did you get the idea to write "Spanish Caravan"?
Robby Oh, from Flamenco stuff that I learned. A song called "Granadinas", which is a form that everybody learns, that's more classical.
Rainer So "Spanish Caravan" was a kind of cover version or a Spanish traditional?
Robby Yeah, in fact they sued us for it. The people who owned whatever song that came from, they tried to sue us for it, but they didn't get very much, cos it's such a widely known thing (sings the guitar solo from "Spanish Caravan"), but they claimed they owned this little something stupid.
Rainer How much did you have to pay them?
Robby Aaaah, not that much. I think we gave them the publishing that was earned in France or something, because that's where they were.
Rainer Unfortunately "Spanish Caravan" was cut...
Robby Yeah. (grins)
Rainer Where's the lost part of it?
Robby Ha, I wish I'd know!
Rainer That's pity! I heard you worked a long time at that.
Robby It was a couple of minutes that was cut out from the version on the album, I spent a whole day in the studio on that, and the producers cut it out finally. I still can do it, but I haven't done it in a long time. I definitely plan to record that one day, you know, to re-record that.
Rainer Why did they cut that part out?
Robby Oh, it was a little long, they said. Maybe they wanted it for a single, but I don't know why they cut it, to tell you the truth.
Rainer What guitar did you use for "Spanish Caravan"?
Robby For that part I used the actual Ramirez guitar, and I guess that's why they didn't use it, it didn't ... well, we used that guitar for the first part of "Spanish Caravan" and went to that electric one...
Rainer Are there Flamenco guitarists you like?
Robby Yes, Sabioas and Juan Serrano.
Rainer May I have another Coors? I read in a book that Morrison also had a few of these?
Robby Coors? No, he didn't like Coors that much (laughs). He drank Miller's. I like it myself.
Rainer Let's talk a little bit about the videos that The Doors released. First, "Dance On Fire" - do you agree with the visual concept? Did you work on that as well?
Robby On "Dance On Fire"? I didn't really have that much to do with it. Ray was the video man and you know he loves to do that kind of stuff, I didn't really think we had that much good stuff that we could make a video, you know, but I guess the Doors' fans wanna have anything that we have, you know, anything possible, so...
Rainer I visited one of my fanclub members over here in L.A. recently, and she had three outtakes of"People Are Strange" from the Murray The K Show...
Robby Three versions?
Rainer Yeah. In one Jim forgot to start singing, ...
Robby Ah really (laughs)? How did she get that?
Rainer I don't know. Probably some bootleg stuff. A good title for that would be "The Making Of People Are Strange", you know, it looked like the complete thing, with all takes.
Robby Really? Well, I remember that. Where did she get hold of that?
Rainer I don't know. But it looked funny!
Robby Where were we standing? On a fountain or something?
Rainer Yeah, on a fountain.
Robby (laughs) Well, I don't really remember.
Rainer Where was that filmed?
Robby In New York down by the bowering.
Rainer Do you like the video Ray filmed for the song "L.A. Woman" on the "Dance On Fire" video?
Robby Yeah, it's not bad!
Rainer The songline "Mr Mojo Risin'" - did Jim get that from the song "I got my Mojo workin'"?
Robby I'm sure that had something to do with it, yeah, we used to do that song sometimes, but you know that's the anagram of his name. Yeah, I think he got it more from the "Mojo"-song, and he figured out later that it was an anagram of his name.
Rainer Remember the Super-8 film of the New Haven-bust featured in your "Roadhouse Blues" video ... where did you get that from?
Robby I forgot who came up with that one. Somebody that was there. Linda You guys bought it from the guy who was there in the audience.
Robby And you know there were "Life Magazine" reporters and they caught a lot of it.
Rainer The "Unknown Soldier" promotion-film .. . who's concept was that? And who did the camera-work?
Robby Jim figured that one out. Peter Abrahamson, the guy who did the first "Break On Through" one, you know, the first Doors-promotion-film, well, the same guy did that. Oh, Mark Abrahamson, that's him.
Rainer What about the Jubilee-scenes celebrating the end of World War II and the Vietnam-clips?
Robby Who's idea was that? Oh, I forgot.
Rainer Did The Doors plan to record the Hollywood Bowl concert for a later release on film or for a live-album?
Robby Yeah, we did. You know we had that shoot, that three-camera shoot plus 8-track sound, yeah, we did intend to do that. We didn't know exactly what to do with it for the future. You know we were making a movie at that time called "Feast Of Friends", so I think we wanted to use it in that. We finally added "The End" to the movie, but then we later forgot about the films.
Rainer Do you remember where "Crystal Ship" was filmed for "American Bandstand"? It looks like a very early clip.
Robby Yeah, early 67, I remember. We were meeting Dick Clark. It's funny cos Dick Clark was .. , ah, you know he had that "goody-two-shoes"-image. (laughs) and in order to get over that image he came to our dressing-room and he started talking like "Hey guys, let's fuck some chicks" (laughs) , trying to be a real tough guy, you know "How's fucking junks" (laughs). Hey, let's get this dog out! (Robby jumps up and tries to decoy his dog Teddy out of the room) Teddy, come on!
Rainer (after a little break) Do you know that I found for The Doors the lost "Hello I Love You" video from Frankfurt, West Germany?
Robby Oh yeah, you did? From the show in Frankfurt? That's great! Oh yes, we'll have a screening of that in a few days to see if we can use it.
Rainer And now I'm on the track of two indoor-concerts that were shot in the hall.
Robby Were those from ... ah... Amsterdam?
Rainer No, Frankfurt as well.
Robby The indoor shot was the "Soldier"-show?
Rainer Yeah. You did that song there, too.
Robby It was pretty dark in there.
Rainer Well, I hope you can use it. But back to "Dance On Fire": The "Adagio" - when was that recorded? And did you actually use a string quartet during the recording?
Robby Well, not a quartet, but a whole string section, about 20 guys I think, and that was at the same time as the "Soft Parade", when we had all these strings and horns and stuff, so we recorded this one as well with them. I forgot whose idea it was, We all liked that song for a long time, you know. I like this piece of music, too, you know. Especially Jim liked this "European schmalz", as he used to talk about this kind of music.
Rainer You used it in "Feast Of Friends" as well...
Robby Yeah. It's a good song. It's pretty popular in Europe, isn't it?
Rainer Yes, sure. And it became one of the rare Doors' instrumentals, and it's also on one of the bootlegs, "Rock Is Dead". I remember another instrumental you did at the Matrix, Gershwin's "Summertime".
Robby Yeah, that's right.
Rainer By the way - what do you think about bootlegs, I mailed you a few, I think, with rare Matrix' songs.
Robby Yeah, hmmm...
Rainer Do you remember those concerts?
Robby Oh yeah, I remember the Matrix.
Rainer Just one guy sitting there clapping...
Robby (laughs) I think that was a soundcheck, because the place was packed when we played there, so it couldn't have been one play, one guy clapping, it must have been a soundcheck.
Rainer "Rock Is Dead" - do you like this one?
Robby (laughs) No, I never liked that one, that was pretty much out of nowhere, you know I mean we were just kinda drunken, you know just fishing around for something, I wish it wouldn't have come out on a bootleg, even.
Rainer I heard the tape was stolen from Rothchild...
Robby Yeah, that's the story. It disappeared from his desk.
Rainer When was the recording -- was it after or before the Miami trial?
Robby That must ... ah ...before.
Rainer Before? That's kinda interesting.
Robby Why? Why do you ask?
Rainer Well, before ... the lyrics sound like a comment on the Miami trial.
Robby Hmm, well, could have been.. . well, let's see: That was during the "Soft Parade" also, as I remember, or it could have been "Morrison Hotel", gee, Miami was. . . was "Morrison Hotel" after Miami? I forgot.
Rainer Yeah, it was.
Robby Okay, then it might have been after Miami.
Rainer Would you like to do the soundtrack for the forthcoming Doors' movie?
Robby Sure! Well...
Rainer Ray is talking about the Doors' movie for years...
Robby (laughs) Yeah, I know. It might happen now. They have to come up with some money pretty soon to keep the whole thing going, you know. The people who have the rights, Bill Graham and this other guy, you know, they were supposed to get a writer who's gonna write the script and all that. So far we had about three scripts and they had been terrible (laughs), so I'm afraid that'd never happen, you know. But you never know. I have seen the fourth script, and I think this could be a good movie.
Rainer Dave Brock of"Wild Child" could be a good actor for Jim's part, I think.
Robby Yeah, he could be great, he would be very good ...
Rainer ...for the "early" Morrison...
Robby Yeah! (laughs) There are plenty of guys around who could play the "later" Morrison (laughs)...
Rainer Let's go back to the early days... your first band was called "The Psychedelic Rangers". What was this band all about?
Robby (laughs) Just some friends of mine.
Rainer Any recordings left?
Robby No, I'm afraid not. Actually John was in that band, too. Our one and only demo was called "Paranoia". (sings) "Paranoo-i-a". Was kinda like "Love", like the old "Love" days, kinda like "Hey Joe" chords. That's good, actually. We had this great piano-player, a friend of mine named Grant Johnson, who lives up north now, and he could play jazz at that age, you know, and me and John and this other guitarplayer, a friend of mine named David Wolfe, who was my guitar teacher, he still lives in Los Angeles and plays jazz in a band named "Citizen", we did a movie-soundtrack, ah - I forgot the name of it unfortunately, for the Psychedelic Rangers. But, you know, David and I, we both copied a terrible Flamenco record called "Dos Flamencos", it had these two guys playing flamenco together, and he taught me how to play the guitar. We were locked into a room at our school for three hours a day, in order to practice our guitars, you know. That's why I always had my guitar with me. I also started to read a Mickey Baker book, but did not even finish the second page. When I saw a terrific Chuck Berry concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, I turned into Rock'n'Roll and bought my first electric guitar, a Gibson SG, the one that got stolen. Before I just played acoustic guitars, and I had a holder for my harp. Before The Doors I used to play at coffee-houses and I played Bob Dylan-songs. I also played with a strange band called "The Back Bay Chamberpot Terriers". When I got interested in Indian Sitar music I met John Densmore in a Maharishi Meditation seminar, who was already playing with The Doors at that time. A few weeks later he came over to my house with Jim Morrison and we played and sang for a couple of hours. That was the kick for me. They needed a guitar player and they asked me to join them. I was a bit skeptic at the beginning but after a few sessions and gigs I knew The Doors would make it.
Rainer Did you ever play with "Rick and the Ravens"?
Robby No, I never did. I sat in sometimes. John played with them.
Rainer The first demo record of The Doors ... you didn't play on this, right?
Robby No, I didn't. I didn't play on the first Doors demo. I wasn't in the group then.
Rainer Which songs were the first ones that you recorded for the first Doors album?
Robby Aehm, for the first Doors LP? Well, the first song we ever recorded was "Indian Summer".
Rainer Surprise, surprise! "Indian Summer"?
Robby Yeah. "Indian Summer" was the song that came out on the fifth album "Morrison Hotel". But that was actually the first song we ever recorded.
Rainer You used the same recording for "Morrison Hotel"? I always wondered why this song sounded so different from the other material on "Morrison Hotel".
Robby Yes, it's the same one. You know, we pepped it up a little bit. And then the second thing we did was "Moonlight Drive". You know, not the version you hear on the "Strange Days" album. But in fact it got lost, stupidly, that was a good version which I wish we could put out, but somebody lost it!
Rainer "Light My Fire" was your song ...
Robby Yeah!
Rainer ... but I also read that Jim helped you with some lyrics.
Robby Right.
Rainer Which ones?
Robby (smiles) The one about the "funeral pyre". (laughs)
Rainer Oh, that one,..
Robby Yeah, that verse is Jim's.
Rainer But it is definitely your song?
Robby That's right.
Rainer Which other songs did you write for the album? The credits always say "The Doors".
Robby The songs for the first album were written by all four of us. Ray wrote the introduction to "Light My Fire", but the lyrics for most songs were Jim's. The music was developed by all of us. For the lyrics Jim was a phenomena. He came to our sessions with a piece of paper he had scribbled some lyrics on. He was humming the music to it, and we all started work on the melodies. Especially the rhythm and the solo parts.
Rainer I remember an early version of "Light My Fire" from the Matrix. Ray did not play the intro which was recorded on record before ...
Robby We play a lot of gigs at that time and we had to improvise a lot. I mean, many songs developed on stage or we worked them out during our concerts.
Rainer What's the Blue Bus in "The End"? Could it simply be the real busline from Santa Monica to the UCLA as written in one of the Quarterlies?
Robby Possible. I have read the article in the Quarterly, too. Yes, there is a blue bus there -- oh, one funny thing : my wife Lynn was hanging out with Jim and some other people, and they were just hitch-hiking somewhere, and all of the sudden this big blue bus comes up and picks them up, and this weird hippie was driving it with a weird dog, and he drove them all over town, everywhere they wanted to go, never said a word, and then they got off and never saw him again. And they were freaking out, cos Jim had written about the Blue Bus earlier.
Rainer You started using synthesizers on the second LP, changing the sound of Jim's voice. Did you also change the sound of your guitar with a synthesizer?
Robby No, not really. Not the guitar. At the time all they had was the Moog, you know, and they could use it on the keyboards and on voices and acoustic guitars ...
Rainer Do you remember which instrument Ray Manzarek plays on "Love Me Two Times"? Was it a harpsichord?
Robby Yeah, it was a real harpsichord.
Rainer And "Unhappy Girl" had a backwards piano...
Robby Yeah, it was actually organ and piano played backwards.
Rainer There's this line in "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" from "Strange Days" saying - "carnival dogs consume the line" - what's the meaning of this?
Robby Maybe you could say the line being the linearity of the world, you know, with the image of the dogs it means, you know, everything is not as we see it.
Rainer Do you remember the recording of "When The Music's Over"?
Robby Sure!
Rainer Someone said it was recorded like first the music and then Jim's voice. Is that true? It sounds so perfect...
Robby (laughs) Yeah, I know. When we used to do it, we knew sort of what he was gonna sing, so: Let's kinda do it that way. The day it was supposed to be recorded he was on an acid trip somewhere and he never showed up to the studio. So we recorded the music before, and when he finally came we needed only one vocal recording, then it was perfect.
Rainer By the way - is there any Doors song on record you don't like?
Robby A Doors song I don't like? Aehm, I think "My Wild Love" is one of my least favorites.
Rainer A weird song. It's an unusual Doors song, without any instruments.
Robby Yeah, yeah (mumbles).
Rainer How did you guys record that?
Robby We sort of needed an extra song or something (laughs)... And everybody who happened to be in the studio joined in. We were looking through Jim's poetry books and, you know, here's one, let's make a song out of it. Jim was humming the melody like a simple children's song, and we all just followed him.
During my first visit to Los Angeles it was rather difficult to get an interview date with Robby Krieger. Robby and his band were working on two albums simultaneously in the studio, and he was also busy doing the final mixing of already finished tracks in another studio.
Eventually, however, we were able to agree a date one afternoon, when a studio appointment for the band was cancelled.
Robby Krieger lives in the Benedict Canyon, through which runs a small winding asphalt road. On one of the numerous hills which line the road on both sides and hiding the houses behind from view, a narrow dusty alley leads to a large green gate, which vividly reminded me of Elvis's gate at Graceland. Linda Kyriazi, Robby's PR manageress, who drove me to this interview in her car, did not need to ring the bell, and the gate opened with a quiet squeak. Our arrival had obviously been watched.
The car stopped next to a few American veteran cars parked underneath shady magnolia trees adjacent to a two-storey house. Robby emerged from the front door with a friendly "Hello, how are you?". He was wearing one of those kitschy, but comfortable Hawaiian shirts, corduroy trousers and no shoes. His hair had got thinner and more reddish, than I had remembered from my earlier meeting with The Doors.
He invited us into his comfortably cool, air-conditioned house and told us to make ourselves at home. This was, however, made impossible for me by Robby's dog, Teddy, a huge shaggy gray monster, who tried to knock me over to the ground, despite his master's calling to him not to do this. Only after I grabbed a sock that was lying on the floor with which I managed to lure Teddy out of the front door, we got the desirable coziness - apart from Robby now running outside to rescue his precious sock!
In the meantime I got the opportunity to take a look around family Krieger's living room (Robby lives here with his wife, Lynn, and his son, Waylon). There seemed to be a homely kind of chaos in this huge room. Numerous platinum and gold records were standing on the floor or hanging on the walls. Above the gray fireplace ledge a Nastassia Kinski poster graced the wall, which showed her naked apart from a fully grown boa constrictor being wrapped around her. Next to this stood a quietly sounding television set and a sinfully expensive music tower with black speakers built into the wall. A n enormous wall of shelves was overflowing with records, reels, books and cassettes. A very old Dobro guitar was leaning in front of the large round window with a view onto large oaks and smaller shrubbery. Amongst the freshly ironed clothes on the living room table was a brown Persian tomcat, who watched me suspiciously.
Linda was putting some cans of beer into the fridge in the adjoining kitchen, remarking that "... Robby always forgets to buy any drinks when he gets guests!", when Robby returned and asked me to follow him. He turned towards a glass door and hurried up a few stairs to his home studio. Here I also find numerous platinum and gold records on the walls of a room which is otherwise filled with countless musical instruments and other musical equipment.
My eyes immediately turned to a black 1955 Gibson Les Paul with golden metal attachments that was leaning against a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. Robby, who had noticed my interest, smiled. "This is my original Doors guitar which I always used when playing the slide, either at concerts or in the studio, during Moonlight Drive', Who Do You Love' or Wild Child'. I think you can also see it in the video Dance On Fire'.""And where is the red Gibson SG, which is better known to Doors Fans from the photos?", I asked. Robby pulled a face. "Somebody stole that one of me towards the end of the Doors era. It is probably hanging somewhere on a fan's wall right now. It was my favorite guitar which I had right from the beginning. Really, this was my very first electric guitar and I had used it during the whole time I spent with The Doors." He picked up a red Gibson 335 and plugged the other end of the lead into an amplifier. A few more little lamps lit up on other electronic equipment, and the rich sound of a trombone filled the studio. "With these Computers I have millions of possibilities of changing a guitar's sound," he said, pushing further buttons. Now the guitar sounded like a harp. "So this is Robby's hobby", I added, hinting at the 12" single with the same title. He smiled. "Actually, I only record demos and try out new sounds in this studio. For records I rather prefer real guitar sounds and, of course, a real band. I don't like these drum computers."
Following the push of a button, the drum computer just mentioned released a heavy rhythm, to which Robby started playing a faster-than-the-speed-of light solo. In the meantime, I looked at the Doors' first gold single for "Light My Fire", having already been stripped of color by the constant light from the sun, which hung from a beam above the mess of cables.
We later returned downstairs to the living room, where Teddy was already resting underneath the table. Armed with an ice cold beer, Robby walked over to the music system and put on one of his tapes. "You must listen to this," he said. "A track for the new album." Deafeningly, a funk jazz song penetrates the room. "This thing is called Strut A-Various'!" he shouted into my ear. "A pun of to strut' and Stradivarius'." "A strange title for a song without any violins in it", I shouted back.
Suddenly something cold was pushed into my hands - the Dobro. I played a few chords on it, which, of course, were drowned out totally by the volume of "Strut A-Various". Robby inserted a second cassette, playing a curious comedy tune called "The Black Beatles", which he had taped from the radio. We had a good giggle over this. Eventually Robby switched on several of his Tiffany lamps, took the freshly ironed clothes off the table and was ready for the interview.
Robby Does it work? (He points to the tape recorder and the video camera). I have the same one (he means the recorder).
Rainer At least the tapes run. Well Robby, your new album - what kind of music will be on that one? Something like "Versions"?
Robby Yeah, sort of "Versions". There'll be a few of my own compositions plus some old ones like on "Versions".
Rainer Cover versions?
Robby Yeah. There'll be an Elvis Presley one.
Rainer Oh, which one?
Robby Well, Linda's ecstatic about that (Linda, Robby's PR manager, smiled). It'll be "I want you, I need you, I love you".
Rainer Ah, that one "... with all my heart."
Robby Yeah. And also the "Lonely Teardrops".
Rainer Isn't that a Ray Orbison song?
Robby No - Jackie Wilson. And a few other surprises.
Rainer You should do a Robert Johnson cover version, Robby, I know he's one of your favorites, and also one of mine.
Robby If I could do as good as he could I would do (he laughs).
Rainer The Rolling Stones did his "Love In Vain", not mentioning that it was a Robert Johnson tune.
Robby Really? Huh! Did they get away with that?
Rainer I think so. To my knowledge nobody complained.
Robby That's fun. Actually "Crossroads" is good the way Cream did it. I like that, although I still like Robert Johnson's version better, I think. It's amazing that probably very low percent of the people who heard Cream also heard Robert Johnson.
Rainer He was the master of slide guitar.
Robby Oh definitely!
Rainer Was he the first one who inspired you to use a bottleneck?
Robby Not the first, but one of the first.
Rainer He recorded less than 35 songs in a hotel room ...
Robby Yeah, not many. Some people have showed me some bootleg stuff supposed to be Robert Johnson. It's hard to tell. It might be. It's really bad quality stuff, you know, who knows.
Rainer I heard of a Robert Johnson CD coming out very soon, with all known songs plus unreleased material.
Robby Really? Must get this one when it's out.
Rainer Your Halfspeed Master LP and CD "Robby Krieger" contains some surprising stuff. I especially like the song "Costa Brava".
Robby Good!
Rainer Have you ever been at the Costa Brava in Spain?
Robby Yeah. Actually we drove along the coast, stayed at this big old castle up there, I forgot the name of it, it was a beautiful place! Yeah, I liked that I. And we went to Barcelona and Madrid, saw some Flamenco, and visited the Ramirez shop where I bought a guitar. I have three Ramirez guitars. Have one 63, the same exact model that Sabecca uses. That was fun - I didn't know that he used that model, and I had mine for 20 years, and I saw him recently, looked inside his guitar .. a 63! Same one as mine!
Rainer How did you get the idea to write "Spanish Caravan"?
Robby Oh, from Flamenco stuff that I learned. A song called "Granadinas", which is a form that everybody learns, that's more classical.
Rainer So "Spanish Caravan" was a kind of cover version or a Spanish traditional?
Robby Yeah, in fact they sued us for it. The people who owned whatever song that came from, they tried to sue us for it, but they didn't get very much, cos it's such a widely known thing (sings the guitar solo from "Spanish Caravan"), but they claimed they owned this little something stupid.
Rainer How much did you have to pay them?
Robby Aaaah, not that much. I think we gave them the publishing that was earned in France or something, because that's where they were.
Rainer Unfortunately "Spanish Caravan" was cut...
Robby Yeah. (grins)
Rainer Where's the lost part of it?
Robby Ha, I wish I'd know!
Rainer That's pity! I heard you worked a long time at that.
Robby It was a couple of minutes that was cut out from the version on the album, I spent a whole day in the studio on that, and the producers cut it out finally. I still can do it, but I haven't done it in a long time. I definitely plan to record that one day, you know, to re-record that.
Rainer Why did they cut that part out?
Robby Oh, it was a little long, they said. Maybe they wanted it for a single, but I don't know why they cut it, to tell you the truth.
Rainer What guitar did you use for "Spanish Caravan"?
Robby For that part I used the actual Ramirez guitar, and I guess that's why they didn't use it, it didn't ... well, we used that guitar for the first part of "Spanish Caravan" and went to that electric one...
Rainer Are there Flamenco guitarists you like?
Robby Yes, Sabioas and Juan Serrano.
Rainer May I have another Coors? I read in a book that Morrison also had a few of these?
Robby Coors? No, he didn't like Coors that much (laughs). He drank Miller's. I like it myself.
Rainer Let's talk a little bit about the videos that The Doors released. First, "Dance On Fire" - do you agree with the visual concept? Did you work on that as well?
Robby On "Dance On Fire"? I didn't really have that much to do with it. Ray was the video man and you know he loves to do that kind of stuff, I didn't really think we had that much good stuff that we could make a video, you know, but I guess the Doors' fans wanna have anything that we have, you know, anything possible, so...
Rainer I visited one of my fanclub members over here in L.A. recently, and she had three outtakes of"People Are Strange" from the Murray The K Show...
Robby Three versions?
Rainer Yeah. In one Jim forgot to start singing, ...
Robby Ah really (laughs)? How did she get that?
Rainer I don't know. Probably some bootleg stuff. A good title for that would be "The Making Of People Are Strange", you know, it looked like the complete thing, with all takes.
Robby Really? Well, I remember that. Where did she get hold of that?
Rainer I don't know. But it looked funny!
Robby Where were we standing? On a fountain or something?
Rainer Yeah, on a fountain.
Robby (laughs) Well, I don't really remember.
Rainer Where was that filmed?
Robby In New York down by the bowering.
Rainer Do you like the video Ray filmed for the song "L.A. Woman" on the "Dance On Fire" video?
Robby Yeah, it's not bad!
Rainer The songline "Mr Mojo Risin'" - did Jim get that from the song "I got my Mojo workin'"?
Robby I'm sure that had something to do with it, yeah, we used to do that song sometimes, but you know that's the anagram of his name. Yeah, I think he got it more from the "Mojo"-song, and he figured out later that it was an anagram of his name.
Rainer Remember the Super-8 film of the New Haven-bust featured in your "Roadhouse Blues" video ... where did you get that from?
Robby I forgot who came up with that one. Somebody that was there. Linda You guys bought it from the guy who was there in the audience.
Robby And you know there were "Life Magazine" reporters and they caught a lot of it.
Rainer The "Unknown Soldier" promotion-film .. . who's concept was that? And who did the camera-work?
Robby Jim figured that one out. Peter Abrahamson, the guy who did the first "Break On Through" one, you know, the first Doors-promotion-film, well, the same guy did that. Oh, Mark Abrahamson, that's him.
Rainer What about the Jubilee-scenes celebrating the end of World War II and the Vietnam-clips?
Robby Who's idea was that? Oh, I forgot.
Rainer Did The Doors plan to record the Hollywood Bowl concert for a later release on film or for a live-album?
Robby Yeah, we did. You know we had that shoot, that three-camera shoot plus 8-track sound, yeah, we did intend to do that. We didn't know exactly what to do with it for the future. You know we were making a movie at that time called "Feast Of Friends", so I think we wanted to use it in that. We finally added "The End" to the movie, but then we later forgot about the films.
Rainer Do you remember where "Crystal Ship" was filmed for "American Bandstand"? It looks like a very early clip.
Robby Yeah, early 67, I remember. We were meeting Dick Clark. It's funny cos Dick Clark was .. , ah, you know he had that "goody-two-shoes"-image. (laughs) and in order to get over that image he came to our dressing-room and he started talking like "Hey guys, let's fuck some chicks" (laughs) , trying to be a real tough guy, you know "How's fucking junks" (laughs). Hey, let's get this dog out! (Robby jumps up and tries to decoy his dog Teddy out of the room) Teddy, come on!
Rainer (after a little break) Do you know that I found for The Doors the lost "Hello I Love You" video from Frankfurt, West Germany?
Robby Oh yeah, you did? From the show in Frankfurt? That's great! Oh yes, we'll have a screening of that in a few days to see if we can use it.
Rainer And now I'm on the track of two indoor-concerts that were shot in the hall.
Robby Were those from ... ah... Amsterdam?
Rainer No, Frankfurt as well.
Robby The indoor shot was the "Soldier"-show?
Rainer Yeah. You did that song there, too.
Robby It was pretty dark in there.
Rainer Well, I hope you can use it. But back to "Dance On Fire": The "Adagio" - when was that recorded? And did you actually use a string quartet during the recording?
Robby Well, not a quartet, but a whole string section, about 20 guys I think, and that was at the same time as the "Soft Parade", when we had all these strings and horns and stuff, so we recorded this one as well with them. I forgot whose idea it was, We all liked that song for a long time, you know. I like this piece of music, too, you know. Especially Jim liked this "European schmalz", as he used to talk about this kind of music.
Rainer You used it in "Feast Of Friends" as well...
Robby Yeah. It's a good song. It's pretty popular in Europe, isn't it?
Rainer Yes, sure. And it became one of the rare Doors' instrumentals, and it's also on one of the bootlegs, "Rock Is Dead". I remember another instrumental you did at the Matrix, Gershwin's "Summertime".
Robby Yeah, that's right.
Rainer By the way - what do you think about bootlegs, I mailed you a few, I think, with rare Matrix' songs.
Robby Yeah, hmmm...
Rainer Do you remember those concerts?
Robby Oh yeah, I remember the Matrix.
Rainer Just one guy sitting there clapping...
Robby (laughs) I think that was a soundcheck, because the place was packed when we played there, so it couldn't have been one play, one guy clapping, it must have been a soundcheck.
Rainer "Rock Is Dead" - do you like this one?
Robby (laughs) No, I never liked that one, that was pretty much out of nowhere, you know I mean we were just kinda drunken, you know just fishing around for something, I wish it wouldn't have come out on a bootleg, even.
Rainer I heard the tape was stolen from Rothchild...
Robby Yeah, that's the story. It disappeared from his desk.
Rainer When was the recording -- was it after or before the Miami trial?
Robby That must ... ah ...before.
Rainer Before? That's kinda interesting.
Robby Why? Why do you ask?
Rainer Well, before ... the lyrics sound like a comment on the Miami trial.
Robby Hmm, well, could have been.. . well, let's see: That was during the "Soft Parade" also, as I remember, or it could have been "Morrison Hotel", gee, Miami was. . . was "Morrison Hotel" after Miami? I forgot.
Rainer Yeah, it was.
Robby Okay, then it might have been after Miami.
Rainer Would you like to do the soundtrack for the forthcoming Doors' movie?
Robby Sure! Well...
Rainer Ray is talking about the Doors' movie for years...
Robby (laughs) Yeah, I know. It might happen now. They have to come up with some money pretty soon to keep the whole thing going, you know. The people who have the rights, Bill Graham and this other guy, you know, they were supposed to get a writer who's gonna write the script and all that. So far we had about three scripts and they had been terrible (laughs), so I'm afraid that'd never happen, you know. But you never know. I have seen the fourth script, and I think this could be a good movie.
Rainer Dave Brock of"Wild Child" could be a good actor for Jim's part, I think.
Robby Yeah, he could be great, he would be very good ...
Rainer ...for the "early" Morrison...
Robby Yeah! (laughs) There are plenty of guys around who could play the "later" Morrison (laughs)...
Rainer Let's go back to the early days... your first band was called "The Psychedelic Rangers". What was this band all about?
Robby (laughs) Just some friends of mine.
Rainer Any recordings left?
Robby No, I'm afraid not. Actually John was in that band, too. Our one and only demo was called "Paranoia". (sings) "Paranoo-i-a". Was kinda like "Love", like the old "Love" days, kinda like "Hey Joe" chords. That's good, actually. We had this great piano-player, a friend of mine named Grant Johnson, who lives up north now, and he could play jazz at that age, you know, and me and John and this other guitarplayer, a friend of mine named David Wolfe, who was my guitar teacher, he still lives in Los Angeles and plays jazz in a band named "Citizen", we did a movie-soundtrack, ah - I forgot the name of it unfortunately, for the Psychedelic Rangers. But, you know, David and I, we both copied a terrible Flamenco record called "Dos Flamencos", it had these two guys playing flamenco together, and he taught me how to play the guitar. We were locked into a room at our school for three hours a day, in order to practice our guitars, you know. That's why I always had my guitar with me. I also started to read a Mickey Baker book, but did not even finish the second page. When I saw a terrific Chuck Berry concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, I turned into Rock'n'Roll and bought my first electric guitar, a Gibson SG, the one that got stolen. Before I just played acoustic guitars, and I had a holder for my harp. Before The Doors I used to play at coffee-houses and I played Bob Dylan-songs. I also played with a strange band called "The Back Bay Chamberpot Terriers". When I got interested in Indian Sitar music I met John Densmore in a Maharishi Meditation seminar, who was already playing with The Doors at that time. A few weeks later he came over to my house with Jim Morrison and we played and sang for a couple of hours. That was the kick for me. They needed a guitar player and they asked me to join them. I was a bit skeptic at the beginning but after a few sessions and gigs I knew The Doors would make it.
Rainer Did you ever play with "Rick and the Ravens"?
Robby No, I never did. I sat in sometimes. John played with them.
Rainer The first demo record of The Doors ... you didn't play on this, right?
Robby No, I didn't. I didn't play on the first Doors demo. I wasn't in the group then.
Rainer Which songs were the first ones that you recorded for the first Doors album?
Robby Aehm, for the first Doors LP? Well, the first song we ever recorded was "Indian Summer".
Rainer Surprise, surprise! "Indian Summer"?
Robby Yeah. "Indian Summer" was the song that came out on the fifth album "Morrison Hotel". But that was actually the first song we ever recorded.
Rainer You used the same recording for "Morrison Hotel"? I always wondered why this song sounded so different from the other material on "Morrison Hotel".
Robby Yes, it's the same one. You know, we pepped it up a little bit. And then the second thing we did was "Moonlight Drive". You know, not the version you hear on the "Strange Days" album. But in fact it got lost, stupidly, that was a good version which I wish we could put out, but somebody lost it!
Rainer "Light My Fire" was your song ...
Robby Yeah!
Rainer ... but I also read that Jim helped you with some lyrics.
Robby Right.
Rainer Which ones?
Robby (smiles) The one about the "funeral pyre". (laughs)
Rainer Oh, that one,..
Robby Yeah, that verse is Jim's.
Rainer But it is definitely your song?
Robby That's right.
Rainer Which other songs did you write for the album? The credits always say "The Doors".
Robby The songs for the first album were written by all four of us. Ray wrote the introduction to "Light My Fire", but the lyrics for most songs were Jim's. The music was developed by all of us. For the lyrics Jim was a phenomena. He came to our sessions with a piece of paper he had scribbled some lyrics on. He was humming the music to it, and we all started work on the melodies. Especially the rhythm and the solo parts.
Rainer I remember an early version of "Light My Fire" from the Matrix. Ray did not play the intro which was recorded on record before ...
Robby We play a lot of gigs at that time and we had to improvise a lot. I mean, many songs developed on stage or we worked them out during our concerts.
Rainer What's the Blue Bus in "The End"? Could it simply be the real busline from Santa Monica to the UCLA as written in one of the Quarterlies?
Robby Possible. I have read the article in the Quarterly, too. Yes, there is a blue bus there -- oh, one funny thing : my wife Lynn was hanging out with Jim and some other people, and they were just hitch-hiking somewhere, and all of the sudden this big blue bus comes up and picks them up, and this weird hippie was driving it with a weird dog, and he drove them all over town, everywhere they wanted to go, never said a word, and then they got off and never saw him again. And they were freaking out, cos Jim had written about the Blue Bus earlier.
Rainer You started using synthesizers on the second LP, changing the sound of Jim's voice. Did you also change the sound of your guitar with a synthesizer?
Robby No, not really. Not the guitar. At the time all they had was the Moog, you know, and they could use it on the keyboards and on voices and acoustic guitars ...
Rainer Do you remember which instrument Ray Manzarek plays on "Love Me Two Times"? Was it a harpsichord?
Robby Yeah, it was a real harpsichord.
Rainer And "Unhappy Girl" had a backwards piano...
Robby Yeah, it was actually organ and piano played backwards.
Rainer There's this line in "I Can't See Your Face In My Mind" from "Strange Days" saying - "carnival dogs consume the line" - what's the meaning of this?
Robby Maybe you could say the line being the linearity of the world, you know, with the image of the dogs it means, you know, everything is not as we see it.
Rainer Do you remember the recording of "When The Music's Over"?
Robby Sure!
Rainer Someone said it was recorded like first the music and then Jim's voice. Is that true? It sounds so perfect...
Robby (laughs) Yeah, I know. When we used to do it, we knew sort of what he was gonna sing, so: Let's kinda do it that way. The day it was supposed to be recorded he was on an acid trip somewhere and he never showed up to the studio. So we recorded the music before, and when he finally came we needed only one vocal recording, then it was perfect.
Rainer By the way - is there any Doors song on record you don't like?
Robby A Doors song I don't like? Aehm, I think "My Wild Love" is one of my least favorites.
Rainer A weird song. It's an unusual Doors song, without any instruments.
Robby Yeah, yeah (mumbles).
Rainer How did you guys record that?
Robby We sort of needed an extra song or something (laughs)... And everybody who happened to be in the studio joined in. We were looking through Jim's poetry books and, you know, here's one, let's make a song out of it. Jim was humming the melody like a simple children's song, and we all just followed him.