Post by tzinana on Jul 17, 2005 1:18:40 GMT
"DOORS ARE STILL LIGHTING FIRES"
By Yardena Arar Associated Press
Boston Globe
January 3, 1981
Amid all the punk and New Wave, heavy metal and soft
ballads, there's a sound on radio today that's old and
familiar - yet as contemporary as any of the above.
It's the music of the Doors, a band that exists for
all intents and purposes only on tape and record and
has done so since the mystery-shrouded death nine
years ago of lead singer and songwriter Jim Morrison,
one of rock music's most idolized and controversial
figures.
The other three Doors are alive and well and living in
Southern California. Keyboards player Ray Manzarek is
producing such new bands as X and the Zippers,
guitarist Robbie Krieger also is involved in producing
and is working on an instrumental album, and drummer
John Densmore is studying acting and dance.
But Morrison was the creative heart and soul of the
band. No one has ever pushed for a Doors reunion
because no one could take his place.
In fact, a lot of Doors fans have never really
believed Morrison died in the first place - and
lately, it almost seems as though he is back with us.
His resonant voice, sometimes screaming, sometimes
mournful, is on the airwaves all over the place. His
nightmarish "The End," set the mood in Francis
Coppola's Vietnam epic, "Apocalypse Now."
The seven albums the band released between 1967 and
1971 never stopped selling - in a bad year more than
500,000 moved - but in the last year or so the sales
figures have climbed 25-30%, says Rich Linnell, who
looks after the band's business affairs.
"An American Prayer," a montage of tapes of Morrison
reading his poetry and old and new instrumentation by
the three surviving Doors in 1978, and a recently
compiled "Greatest Hits" album, also are being snapped
up at record stores nationwide.
And a biography of Morrison named after one of his
lyrics, "No One Here Gets Out Alive," has astonished
its publisher by selling 275,000 copies since its
release last June, and is in its seventh printing.
Not that the Doors weren't immensely popular in
Morrison's lifetime - they were. While other bands
sang cheerful songs and gently harmonized ballads, the
Doors dominated the darker side of rock with
Morrison's sinister, often tortured visions of sex and
death.
"Light My Fire," with Manzarek's catchy organ riffs,
was their first and biggest hit single, but the Doors
were primarily an album band. They were the first
American group to earn seven gold LPs.
And their concerts were legend, with Morrison's wild
and erotic stage doings so outraging authorities that
he was arrested a number of times.
Drained from too many drugs, too much alcohol and the
energy-sapping concerts, Morrison finally quit and
moved to Paris, where he was found dead in a bathtub
at age 27 in July 1971, reportedly of a heart attack.
Other rock stars have died, other bands have disbanded
as a result. But not that many of them are hot almost
10 years later.
"The Doors were an intelligent band," says Manzarek, a
genial fellow who functions as unofficial spokesman
for the band.
"You had to be smart to understand the Doors. The
Doors were not a good- time, boogie band. And there's
a new generation of people who are becoming smart
enough to understand the Doors . . . The Doors were
always 10 years ahead of their time.
"The Doors were the prototype punk band," notes Danny
Sugarman, who was hired by Morrison as an office boy
when he was 12. Now 25, he is Linnell's partner and
also is pulling in some nice royalties from the
Morrison biography, which he co-authored wih Jerry
Hopkins.
"Jim was the first to wear a leather suit on stage,
animal skins and stuff like that. There was also the
violence of his lifestyle . . . A Doors set was
theater reality. Jim didn't plan his falls off the
stage."
"The Doors were artistic and the Doors always had
integrity," Manzarek adds. "The Doors never sold out.
We were in it for art, for music, for poetry."
But, he admits, the current Doors resurgence has
generated a windfall for the three band members and
Morrison's heirs - his parents, from whom he was so
estranged that he maintained for a long time they were
dead, and the parents of his common-law wife, Pamela
Courson, who died of a heroin overdose in 1974.
"Well, I'll tell you, it doesn't hurt my pocketbook,"
chuckles Manzarek. "It's a Merry Christmas at the
Manzarek household.”
Posted by Tzinana
By Yardena Arar Associated Press
Boston Globe
January 3, 1981
Amid all the punk and New Wave, heavy metal and soft
ballads, there's a sound on radio today that's old and
familiar - yet as contemporary as any of the above.
It's the music of the Doors, a band that exists for
all intents and purposes only on tape and record and
has done so since the mystery-shrouded death nine
years ago of lead singer and songwriter Jim Morrison,
one of rock music's most idolized and controversial
figures.
The other three Doors are alive and well and living in
Southern California. Keyboards player Ray Manzarek is
producing such new bands as X and the Zippers,
guitarist Robbie Krieger also is involved in producing
and is working on an instrumental album, and drummer
John Densmore is studying acting and dance.
But Morrison was the creative heart and soul of the
band. No one has ever pushed for a Doors reunion
because no one could take his place.
In fact, a lot of Doors fans have never really
believed Morrison died in the first place - and
lately, it almost seems as though he is back with us.
His resonant voice, sometimes screaming, sometimes
mournful, is on the airwaves all over the place. His
nightmarish "The End," set the mood in Francis
Coppola's Vietnam epic, "Apocalypse Now."
The seven albums the band released between 1967 and
1971 never stopped selling - in a bad year more than
500,000 moved - but in the last year or so the sales
figures have climbed 25-30%, says Rich Linnell, who
looks after the band's business affairs.
"An American Prayer," a montage of tapes of Morrison
reading his poetry and old and new instrumentation by
the three surviving Doors in 1978, and a recently
compiled "Greatest Hits" album, also are being snapped
up at record stores nationwide.
And a biography of Morrison named after one of his
lyrics, "No One Here Gets Out Alive," has astonished
its publisher by selling 275,000 copies since its
release last June, and is in its seventh printing.
Not that the Doors weren't immensely popular in
Morrison's lifetime - they were. While other bands
sang cheerful songs and gently harmonized ballads, the
Doors dominated the darker side of rock with
Morrison's sinister, often tortured visions of sex and
death.
"Light My Fire," with Manzarek's catchy organ riffs,
was their first and biggest hit single, but the Doors
were primarily an album band. They were the first
American group to earn seven gold LPs.
And their concerts were legend, with Morrison's wild
and erotic stage doings so outraging authorities that
he was arrested a number of times.
Drained from too many drugs, too much alcohol and the
energy-sapping concerts, Morrison finally quit and
moved to Paris, where he was found dead in a bathtub
at age 27 in July 1971, reportedly of a heart attack.
Other rock stars have died, other bands have disbanded
as a result. But not that many of them are hot almost
10 years later.
"The Doors were an intelligent band," says Manzarek, a
genial fellow who functions as unofficial spokesman
for the band.
"You had to be smart to understand the Doors. The
Doors were not a good- time, boogie band. And there's
a new generation of people who are becoming smart
enough to understand the Doors . . . The Doors were
always 10 years ahead of their time.
"The Doors were the prototype punk band," notes Danny
Sugarman, who was hired by Morrison as an office boy
when he was 12. Now 25, he is Linnell's partner and
also is pulling in some nice royalties from the
Morrison biography, which he co-authored wih Jerry
Hopkins.
"Jim was the first to wear a leather suit on stage,
animal skins and stuff like that. There was also the
violence of his lifestyle . . . A Doors set was
theater reality. Jim didn't plan his falls off the
stage."
"The Doors were artistic and the Doors always had
integrity," Manzarek adds. "The Doors never sold out.
We were in it for art, for music, for poetry."
But, he admits, the current Doors resurgence has
generated a windfall for the three band members and
Morrison's heirs - his parents, from whom he was so
estranged that he maintained for a long time they were
dead, and the parents of his common-law wife, Pamela
Courson, who died of a heroin overdose in 1974.
"Well, I'll tell you, it doesn't hurt my pocketbook,"
chuckles Manzarek. "It's a Merry Christmas at the
Manzarek household.”
Posted by Tzinana