I think that Joel Brodsky may have taken the cover shots of Arthur Lee and chums for Love’s ‘Da Capo’ LP (also Elektra), but I’m not at home to check at present. Perhaps also The Doors’ ‘Strange Days’, even?
He was a very talented photographer in a very ‘niche’ market.
I imagine, but I have no way of proving, that many people were persuaded to buy Elektra LPs on the strength of his cover shots.
Yes, Brodsky shot the first album & Strange Days. I’d have to check WFTS (edit/ nope, that’s Paul Ferrara).
Love’s first two album photos are the same location
IIRC. I’d have to check who shot them.
He was an icon in Elektra cover photos. He also did The Stooges album, which echoes Doors first in feel.
Credit is also due to Wm Harvey, the label’s design guy. Great sense of a visual “ooh…what’s this?” across a while swathe of Elektra releases…
Goodness, it had never occurred to me until just now that the naked torso shots of Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop must have been taken by the same photographer. But it’s pretty obvious when you think about it. (He wouldn’t have got away with trying it with a third ‘young Adonis’.)
Well, Iggy did inherit Jim’s leather trousers, it’s said!
Brodsky did the The Stooges cover:
I don’t know offhand who shot the Raw Power cover (bare chest one).
This is a message for Doors obsessives only.
A very strange video can be found on YouTube, which looks as if it could have beet made in Sniffen Court in New York with the same circus troupe performers as were used in the front and rear LP cover shot photos for ‘Strange Days’.
II found the video some months ago, and have never worked out if it was made in 1967, or whether it is an amazingly clever recreation of those photos. (I don’t think that full-length videos were made in pre-MTV 1967, decades before music videos were even thought of.)
Have a look, and post what you think.
I wonder if Iggy Pop got Morrison’s ‘stinky boots’ as well?
(As in ‘I hate these stinky boots’ on, I think, An American Prayer.)
One of Jim’s worst lines 
At least his Ode to LA While Thinking Of Brian Jones was good, unlike Ode To My C**k.
BTW, have you had notification that Guide To The Labyrinth is in transit/arrived yet?
Haven’t found a video yet. There’s a couple of stills
on Pop Spots NYC dot com, where they superimpose the SD cover ( translucent) over Sniffen Ct. Part of series with a whole host of covers/locations.
I haven’t had notification, but I’m still stuck in my very unpleasing care home, so goodness only knows what may or may not be happening at home.
Transfer from a video tape, but worth it:
A young John on the Doors hangouts in LA. Brought all my memories of staying at Alta Cienega Motel and being on Sunset rushing back, so…thanks John!
That’s fascinating, thanks for posting it.
Mr Densmore didn’t look old enough in the film to be an ex-Door.
I bought this triple album when it came out in 91, digital remaster from original tapes and sounds really good on vinyl.
One of the best opening concerts with the house announcer telling the crowd that fire marshall and police will not let the show go on unless they move back, just after he finishes the Doors come on with a blistering “Who do you Love”
I think, but I would need to check, that this was a mash-up of ‘Absolutely Live’ and ‘Live At The Hollywood Bowl’.
‘Absolutely Live’ was dropped from Elektra’s catalogue for many years, was then released on blue vinyl for (US) Record Store Day a couple of years ago, and now seems to be back on Elektra as a 2LP set.
‘Absolutely Live’ was always one of the best live albums by any group, but its’ claim to be taken from the soundboards with no tinkering has been shown to be untrue. One of the engineers (Bruce Botnick perhaps) once wrote that just about everything had been fiddled with (my words, not his) before the record’s release.
It was hugely well received at the time of its release for The Doors getting back to good old dirty rock n’ roll, after all the pansying around with strings and brass on ‘The Soft Parade’.
Absolutely Live is a melding of different concerts and was meant to portray the album as a single event. Half the fun is tracking down and hearing the component parts as part of the specific night/s they were borrowed from (ie Felt Forum etc).
It’s a fine, if ‘false’, document. It served its purpose well.
To hear a later more relaxed and initimate Doors, the Aquarius shows are well worth hunting down.
I don’t have access to the LP cover at the moment, but I recall that the cities were named where the music had been recorded. I think that there was some wording to the effect that they had mixed up the shows to give the impression of an ideal Doors concert.
I have ordered the Felt Forum (6LP?) set, which I shall listen to soon before thinking of trying to track down any other recordings that might be out there. I don’t approve of, or give money to, bootleggers.
Never suggested you need to give money to bootleggers. There are plenty of shows released legitimately, let alone the official Bright Midnight stuff.
I don’t recall that a list of cities was given in the cover of AL. I’ll check when I get in from work.
Interesting to hear how it was made up, added to my discogs so got to hear that it’s several concerts in one but they did a great job.
I bought the LA Sessions this year which was part of RSD but it’s on Amazon. This is like being in the studio, I have been playing this to folks who like the Doors and want to feel the live in studio experience.
LA Woman Sessions is a good set, one that I need to settle down with and play more. And of course, there was LA Woman: The Workshop Sessions which was OK as far as it went…
For anyone who has not heard the demo tapes back in the band’s very early days before Elektra and even before the band went to CBS and (almost) became one of their artistes:
Enjoy!
Note: the line up is early (1965) and wasn’t yet ‘The Doors’ as we know them:
Jim on lead vocals and tambourine, Ray Manzarek on piano and backing vocals, John Densmore on drums, Pat Sullivan on bass, Jim Manzarek on harmonica, Rick Manzarek on electric guitar
Ray’s brothers left, Robbie came in (friend of John’s), Ray went keyboard bass and…voilà…The Doors were born.
Good lord, if I didn’t know the songs that are being played on those tapes, I would have guessed that I was listening to early recordings of a group such as The Monkees.
It was said that, when The Doors were playing at The Whisky A Go Go, Jim Morrison was ‘shy’ and would stand at the rear of the stage with his back to the audience. He certainly hadn’t developed his growling baritone vocal stage presence.
It makes you realise what a great job that Jac Holzman and Bruce Botnick did in refining the Doors ‘sound’ for their first few albums. Just as well that they went to Elektra.
But fascinating stuff - thanks for posting!
