Post by othercircles on May 1, 2006 17:27:47 GMT
This is from a doors music book I have.
In the following interview from March 2000, Robby Krieger describes his musical roots and the sensibility he brought to his playing in the Doors.
What kind of music influenced you when you started playing?
RK: I was into a lot of flamenco and folk music. My main flamenco guy was probably Sabicas, who was the master flamenco player. And I also liked Juan Serano and Carlos Montoya. On the folk side, I was listening to a lot of the people who were just getting big around the time, like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, who was actually a great flatpicking guitar player.
You obviously had a strong affinity for the blues. Who were you into in this area?
RK: Oh there were a bunch. I guess Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson were the two big ones. I also listened to Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson
Dave "Snaker" Ray was another big influence. He was one of the guys who did an album called Bles Rags and Hollers that I had when I was in highschool. It was a major influence on me. They put out another albumed More Blues Rags and Hollars, which Paul Rothchild produced, by the way. He also produced the Paul Butterfield albums, which were some of my favorites, too.
It was kind of a phychic thing, in a way, that we ended up with Paul Rothchild as our producer. It just so happened that he was the producer at Elektra at the time. That couldn't have worked out better. Robert Johnson was probably the biggest influence as far as slide playing, though. He was the big country blues slide guy. I liked Blind Willie Johnson's slide too.
So were you playing acoustic slide before you started playing electric?
RK: Yea, although I must say I first heard electric slide when Brian Jones used it on "The Spider and The Fly" [from the 1965 album Out Of Our Heads] But other then that I think I was the first to use electric slide.
What did you use for a slide?
RK: In those days you used bottles. I liked to use California chapagne bottles. I just broke off the necks. I didn't grind down the edges or anything. I left them jagged in case I ran into trouble [laughs]
Were you listening to any pop or rock 'n' roll at that time - things you really liked outside of the acoustic music you were listening to?
RK: Yeah, I always liked Elvis, and I also listened to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and other stuff like that. It was actually seeing Chuck Berry play that made me go out and buy my first electric guitar -- a Gibson SG electric, which turned out to be my main guitar with the Doors. But the acoustic stuff was what really got me playing guitar.
Were you just a fan when you started playing, or did you know you wanted to be a musician early in your life?
RK: No, I didn't necessarily know if I'd be able to. The Doors actually started out as kind of a lark. I'd played in a couple of bands before that, The Clouds and The Psychedelic Rangers, but it was nothing serious.
What other guitars did you like to play in the doors?
RK: Let's see, I also had a Guild 12 string, a Gibson electric 12-string and an old Gibson [Les Paul] black beauty.
Ray's brother gave me a "National" electric guitar with all these knobs and dials all over it. Most of them didn't seem to do anything [laughing]. The Guild 12 string is actually in the Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame now.
Which guitar did you most like to play slide on?
RK: Mostly the national but sometimes the black beauty. I used different tunings on them... mostly open D or open G for playing slide [Open D tuning is D-A-D-F#-A-D, low string to high string; Open G tuning is D-G-D-G-B-D]
Was the transition from acoustic to electric difficult?
RK: Not really. Starting out playing acoustic, electric seemed so much easier to play. The strings were skinnier, and it was so easy to get volume. And I continued to fingerpick when I was playing electric, so there was no real break there in how I was doing things.
In the following interview from March 2000, Robby Krieger describes his musical roots and the sensibility he brought to his playing in the Doors.
What kind of music influenced you when you started playing?
RK: I was into a lot of flamenco and folk music. My main flamenco guy was probably Sabicas, who was the master flamenco player. And I also liked Juan Serano and Carlos Montoya. On the folk side, I was listening to a lot of the people who were just getting big around the time, like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, who was actually a great flatpicking guitar player.
You obviously had a strong affinity for the blues. Who were you into in this area?
RK: Oh there were a bunch. I guess Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson were the two big ones. I also listened to Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson
Dave "Snaker" Ray was another big influence. He was one of the guys who did an album called Bles Rags and Hollers that I had when I was in highschool. It was a major influence on me. They put out another albumed More Blues Rags and Hollars, which Paul Rothchild produced, by the way. He also produced the Paul Butterfield albums, which were some of my favorites, too.
It was kind of a phychic thing, in a way, that we ended up with Paul Rothchild as our producer. It just so happened that he was the producer at Elektra at the time. That couldn't have worked out better. Robert Johnson was probably the biggest influence as far as slide playing, though. He was the big country blues slide guy. I liked Blind Willie Johnson's slide too.
So were you playing acoustic slide before you started playing electric?
RK: Yea, although I must say I first heard electric slide when Brian Jones used it on "The Spider and The Fly" [from the 1965 album Out Of Our Heads] But other then that I think I was the first to use electric slide.
What did you use for a slide?
RK: In those days you used bottles. I liked to use California chapagne bottles. I just broke off the necks. I didn't grind down the edges or anything. I left them jagged in case I ran into trouble [laughs]
Were you listening to any pop or rock 'n' roll at that time - things you really liked outside of the acoustic music you were listening to?
RK: Yeah, I always liked Elvis, and I also listened to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and other stuff like that. It was actually seeing Chuck Berry play that made me go out and buy my first electric guitar -- a Gibson SG electric, which turned out to be my main guitar with the Doors. But the acoustic stuff was what really got me playing guitar.
Were you just a fan when you started playing, or did you know you wanted to be a musician early in your life?
RK: No, I didn't necessarily know if I'd be able to. The Doors actually started out as kind of a lark. I'd played in a couple of bands before that, The Clouds and The Psychedelic Rangers, but it was nothing serious.
What other guitars did you like to play in the doors?
RK: Let's see, I also had a Guild 12 string, a Gibson electric 12-string and an old Gibson [Les Paul] black beauty.
Ray's brother gave me a "National" electric guitar with all these knobs and dials all over it. Most of them didn't seem to do anything [laughing]. The Guild 12 string is actually in the Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame now.
Which guitar did you most like to play slide on?
RK: Mostly the national but sometimes the black beauty. I used different tunings on them... mostly open D or open G for playing slide [Open D tuning is D-A-D-F#-A-D, low string to high string; Open G tuning is D-G-D-G-B-D]
Was the transition from acoustic to electric difficult?
RK: Not really. Starting out playing acoustic, electric seemed so much easier to play. The strings were skinnier, and it was so easy to get volume. And I continued to fingerpick when I was playing electric, so there was no real break there in how I was doing things.
