Post by darkstar on Jan 23, 2005 14:40:08 GMT
HOWARD SMITH OF THE VILLAGE VOICE INTERVIEWS JIM MORRISON – THE DOORS OFFICE, LOS ANGELES – NOVEMBER 6, 1969 ALSO FOUND ON THE CD, “THE CEREMONY CONTINUES.”<br>
**It has been noted in some sources that this interview was conducted in Nov 1970 which wasn’t possible as Jim mentioned The Doors being booked to perform four shows at Madison Square Garden Jan 17 and 18th. The Doors did play four shows at the Felt Forum Jan 17 and 18, 1970. The CD, “Celebration” indicates this interview was in 1970.
Note: The original source of this interview was from this link www.cobweb.nl/fredhwy/smith.html which no longer exists online.
March 12, 1992 BAKTABAK Records released the CD,
"The Ceremony Continues" a 1970 interview with Jim
Morrison in Los Angeles.
The interview was conducted by Howard Smith of the Village Voice Newspaper.
Howard Smith comments on the interview afterwards:
"On the second floor is this office and in there is
his manager, a press agent, those kind of people, you
know, at their desks and there was Jim Morrison. It was
11:00 o'clock in the morning and there was an engineer,
setting up all the equipment and he had a whole bunch of
his comrades coming, sitting around, a lot of voices
you'll hear in the background, kinda laughing at his
jokes and joining in and everything...his people, and
also something, I think it's on the tape, I think it
comes up at a later point, but I want you to keep this
in mind: before I went in there, I had a feeling
that it was going to be a tough interview. I just
kinda had a feeling that he and I didn't have the same
athatalism, that it was going to be tricky, and I said to
Cilla, who was along with me, you know, if things get
really difficult with him, I'm gonna suggest that we
arm wrestle...and then I put it out of my mind, and then you'll
hear what happens about that later on in the
interview..."
THE INTERVIEW:
Jim Morrison: It’s nice of you to come over on a rainy day like this.
Howard Smith: I hear it never rains in Los Angeles.
Jim: Uh-huh – The rainy season.
Howard: I was in New Orleans once and everybody said it never snows and it was snowing.
Jim: I was in New Orleans about two months ago and I thought it was a beautiful town, very strange, and I had a lot of fun there. Did you have a good time in New Orleans?
Howard: Oh yeah. It’s the only place I’ve ever been that looks exactly like it’s suppose to look, you know, from all the photographs.
Jim: You know, I was thinking about New Orleans last night. There’s a bar called Bonapartes. Did you go there?
Howard: No.
Jim: They have a fantastic mural, done by a young artist who doesn’t live in the city anymore. It’s a picture of Napoleon in exile and he’s kind of sulking in this field and there’s a sword stuck in the ground in front of him and then over to the left is the scenes from the…some kind of a….you know, it’s a war scene, people in sewers and chaos and all that, you know, ghosts and shades. It’s a beautiful mural. I can’t get it out of my mind actually.
Howard: Have you been traveling around a lot?
Jim: No that was just…A friend and I went to Atlanta for a film festival; we had a film aired there and then we drove from Atlanta to New Orleans.
Howard: You said you had a film entered there?
Jim: Yeah.
Howard: What kind of film?
Jim: Well, it was a little 40 minute documentary on a rock and roll band, traveling around the States, we shot about a year ago.
Howard: What do you mean, on the Doors?
Jim: Yeah, it’s called Feast Of Friends. They showed it in the New York Film Festival too and so, actually it was just an excuse to go to Atlanta and then we drove to New Orleans from there. I dig the South.
Howard: You have any scenes on the road, while travelin’, you know?
Jim: No, but one thing I do remember. Atlanta has the most amazing hotel you’ve ever seen. You walk in and from the outside it looks like any other large hotel, you know. Then you get in and you look up. It goes up about 27 floors and the interior is like a Spanish courtyard. I mean, in architecturally it’s hollow. So all the rooms face each other across this vast garden arena and the elevators are like, kind of Victorian rocket ships and they’re glass, and so you go up to the, you go up to the restaurant on the penthouse level and it’s completely encased by glass.
Howard: What, it goes up the outside of the building, that elevator?
Jim: No, the inside see and so you get this strange sensation – your rising up 27 floors in this glass elevator.
Howard: Mmm. When traveling around by car, you didn’t have any….
Jim: Oh, somebody jumped, one time from the…somebody jumped…and landed in…They have a restaurant in the middle of it, and so he landed in that restaurant and….I hear it was really horrible.
Howard: Did you see Easy Rider?
Jim: No, I don’t…..I think that’s an exaggeration, really…I don’t know why the South has such a reputation like, you know, but maybe these clichés are really true after all. I never really noticed that the South was any worse than any other part of the United States. Of course, I’m from there, you know, so I might be prejudiced, but I think it’s a grotesque caricature. However, it is a strange territory, you bet.
Howard: How come you don’t have an accent? If your from the South.
Jim: Why, I doo’nt.. knowwww… how come I don’t have an accent, bein’ from the South and all. I watch a lot of television, and I just, I try and obey the norm, you know.
Howard: What?
Jim: That’s what they, you know, people in the Midwest, in the South and all, and they, they call it….like the way people in California talk, they call it TV talk. You know, it’s the way people talk on television, newscasters and commercials and actors and all that…It’s TV talk.
Howard: Mmm. Are The Doors gonna be performing, going on tour again soon, or what?
Jim: Well, the only thing we have planned is a gig in Madison Square Garden for four shows, two days, around January 17th, 18th, something like that.
**It has been noted in some sources that this interview was conducted in Nov 1970 which wasn’t possible as Jim mentioned The Doors being booked to perform four shows at Madison Square Garden Jan 17 and 18th. The Doors did play four shows at the Felt Forum Jan 17 and 18, 1970. The CD, “Celebration” indicates this interview was in 1970.
Note: The original source of this interview was from this link www.cobweb.nl/fredhwy/smith.html which no longer exists online.
March 12, 1992 BAKTABAK Records released the CD,
"The Ceremony Continues" a 1970 interview with Jim
Morrison in Los Angeles.
The interview was conducted by Howard Smith of the Village Voice Newspaper.
Howard Smith comments on the interview afterwards:
"On the second floor is this office and in there is
his manager, a press agent, those kind of people, you
know, at their desks and there was Jim Morrison. It was
11:00 o'clock in the morning and there was an engineer,
setting up all the equipment and he had a whole bunch of
his comrades coming, sitting around, a lot of voices
you'll hear in the background, kinda laughing at his
jokes and joining in and everything...his people, and
also something, I think it's on the tape, I think it
comes up at a later point, but I want you to keep this
in mind: before I went in there, I had a feeling
that it was going to be a tough interview. I just
kinda had a feeling that he and I didn't have the same
athatalism, that it was going to be tricky, and I said to
Cilla, who was along with me, you know, if things get
really difficult with him, I'm gonna suggest that we
arm wrestle...and then I put it out of my mind, and then you'll
hear what happens about that later on in the
interview..."
THE INTERVIEW:
Jim Morrison: It’s nice of you to come over on a rainy day like this.
Howard Smith: I hear it never rains in Los Angeles.
Jim: Uh-huh – The rainy season.
Howard: I was in New Orleans once and everybody said it never snows and it was snowing.
Jim: I was in New Orleans about two months ago and I thought it was a beautiful town, very strange, and I had a lot of fun there. Did you have a good time in New Orleans?
Howard: Oh yeah. It’s the only place I’ve ever been that looks exactly like it’s suppose to look, you know, from all the photographs.
Jim: You know, I was thinking about New Orleans last night. There’s a bar called Bonapartes. Did you go there?
Howard: No.
Jim: They have a fantastic mural, done by a young artist who doesn’t live in the city anymore. It’s a picture of Napoleon in exile and he’s kind of sulking in this field and there’s a sword stuck in the ground in front of him and then over to the left is the scenes from the…some kind of a….you know, it’s a war scene, people in sewers and chaos and all that, you know, ghosts and shades. It’s a beautiful mural. I can’t get it out of my mind actually.
Howard: Have you been traveling around a lot?
Jim: No that was just…A friend and I went to Atlanta for a film festival; we had a film aired there and then we drove from Atlanta to New Orleans.
Howard: You said you had a film entered there?
Jim: Yeah.
Howard: What kind of film?
Jim: Well, it was a little 40 minute documentary on a rock and roll band, traveling around the States, we shot about a year ago.
Howard: What do you mean, on the Doors?
Jim: Yeah, it’s called Feast Of Friends. They showed it in the New York Film Festival too and so, actually it was just an excuse to go to Atlanta and then we drove to New Orleans from there. I dig the South.
Howard: You have any scenes on the road, while travelin’, you know?
Jim: No, but one thing I do remember. Atlanta has the most amazing hotel you’ve ever seen. You walk in and from the outside it looks like any other large hotel, you know. Then you get in and you look up. It goes up about 27 floors and the interior is like a Spanish courtyard. I mean, in architecturally it’s hollow. So all the rooms face each other across this vast garden arena and the elevators are like, kind of Victorian rocket ships and they’re glass, and so you go up to the, you go up to the restaurant on the penthouse level and it’s completely encased by glass.
Howard: What, it goes up the outside of the building, that elevator?
Jim: No, the inside see and so you get this strange sensation – your rising up 27 floors in this glass elevator.
Howard: Mmm. When traveling around by car, you didn’t have any….
Jim: Oh, somebody jumped, one time from the…somebody jumped…and landed in…They have a restaurant in the middle of it, and so he landed in that restaurant and….I hear it was really horrible.
Howard: Did you see Easy Rider?
Jim: No, I don’t…..I think that’s an exaggeration, really…I don’t know why the South has such a reputation like, you know, but maybe these clichés are really true after all. I never really noticed that the South was any worse than any other part of the United States. Of course, I’m from there, you know, so I might be prejudiced, but I think it’s a grotesque caricature. However, it is a strange territory, you bet.
Howard: How come you don’t have an accent? If your from the South.
Jim: Why, I doo’nt.. knowwww… how come I don’t have an accent, bein’ from the South and all. I watch a lot of television, and I just, I try and obey the norm, you know.
Howard: What?
Jim: That’s what they, you know, people in the Midwest, in the South and all, and they, they call it….like the way people in California talk, they call it TV talk. You know, it’s the way people talk on television, newscasters and commercials and actors and all that…It’s TV talk.
Howard: Mmm. Are The Doors gonna be performing, going on tour again soon, or what?
Jim: Well, the only thing we have planned is a gig in Madison Square Garden for four shows, two days, around January 17th, 18th, something like that.