The Doors

I think that I may have been able to order a set of the LPs of these concerts just now. We shall have to see what the postman brings, but very exciting prospect (along with ‘Absolutely Live’, which I believe that I was able to order last week).

It’s all very confusing, what with my sick laptop, and Visa and AmEx cards which aren’t cooperating.

On the whole, re Ray’s voice, I’d agree…which is why I made the comment about the bootleg recording of MD, which youve not heard I’ll bet - he doesn’t sound too bad. Ray’s trouble was he was not good at loud rock singing, but on some songs he wasn’t terrible per se. His voice is more suited to songs where he doesn’t need to shout - Solar Boat for example, but given your comments, I doubt you’ve ever heard any of his solo albums.
I can’t and won’t dismiss Robbie, Ray or John sans Jim the way you do. These guys were, with Jim, The Doors.
Of course I’m going to be always interested in them post-Doors…you don’t seem to be aware of the Butts Band, for example nor I’d guess Ray’s involvement with X. God knows what you think of D21C…

While OV and FC certainly weren’t The Doors as they were with Jim, I’m not as contemptuous of them as you. Ships w/ Sails and Verdilac were very good songs, played well and sung as well as they could be in the circumstances. Unlike you, I still play both albums, but not often as whole albums.

PS You should hear some of Jim’s drunken bellowing on some live recordings, perhaps I should say ‘Jimbo’s’ - his alter-ego. He’s sober on AL. Try Boston…

Time for a coffee and a soothing cigarette, for me!

Sadly, I missed them when they played with Ian.
I’d imagine, from what I’ve heard of the gig, it was a great evening - I’ll bet he was absolutely stoked to be playing with RR&J.

Well, I agree that each of the four members of The Doors was integral to the sound of the band, but I find that it all fell away when the old Lizard King overdosed in his bath in Paris all those years ago.

I think that the others ought to have walked away, rather than embarrassing themselves with the two non 'Morrison albums. Those two wretched efforts were deleted from Elektra’s catalogue years ago, and are no longer available to buy these days (as far as I know, anyway).

Anyway, enough of the negativity. If I were home now, I’d lob side one of my brand new copy of ‘The Doors’ onto the LP12, and let the sublime music blast away.

I’ll leave the last words with Robbie, talking about Other Voices (an album - w/ a different title I’d suspect! - they had planned to record with Jim):

It was a tough time, of course. When Jim was gone … we had kept going. The three of us were practicing all the time, writing new stuff. When Jim passed, we said, “Jeez, what’re we going to do?” We could just give it up, or, you know, we have all these songs. Let’s go in and record and see what happens. We probably shouldn’t have put it out that quick after Jim’s passing. We just felt like that was all we could do. We could’ve sat around and be depressed. Which we were. But, I don’t know. The record company, Elektra, they were wanting us to continue. It wasn’t that hard of a decision…

When Robbie says “Jim was gone” I think he’s referring to the Paris trip, as he later says {then} when Jim passed

But enough of this positivity… I’m going to play the Aquarius shows and do a bit of time travelling.

Heads up Doors fans.
Vince Treanor has a book coming out in December.
From the blurb:

Vince Treanor’s book is one that any Doors fan will want to read. Vince writes in a very personal style, and he was right in the middle of the action between late 1967 and early 1972. His story is full of detailed observations. He witnessed practically everything The Doors did and went practically everywhere The Doors went: New Haven, Feast Of Friends, Hollywood Bowl, European tour, recording Waiting For The Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman. Thought-provoking concerts in Miami, Isle of Wight, New Orleans. The Other Voices album and tour. He shares indepth technical equipment-related insights, describes the high points, the low points. You’ll read about the familiar names in The Doors entourage, but there are also what Vince calls ‘band boys’: mostly young guys helping to carry and set up the equipment for the band during live concerts. There is more: the advanced stage sound system that he built for The Doors, the few live concerts he recorded, capturing 16mm film at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. His view on the people in and around the band. He’s got a great story to tell, adding unheard details and new insights to the fascinating history of The Doors.

Could and should be interesting, I hope. Pre-orders taken (mine’s in!)
Search YT or Google “Behind The Doors”.

Title: Behind The Doors. The Story Of A Legendary Band’s Road Manager Aldus Boek Compagnie. Netherlands publisher.

PS I have no connection to Vince or the publisher…purely a heads up!

I assume that Mr Treanor’s allusion to the ‘thought provoking concert in Miami’ refers to the infamous occasion when the pissed-up-to-the-eyeballs Lizard King decided that it would be instructive to show the assembled (and no doubt astonished) audience his one-eyed trouser snake, and promptly got himself collared by Miami Dade’s finest.

With the benefit of 50 years’ hindsight, I’m minded to comment that he was a bit of a d*ck (quite a large one, reputedly).

They don’t make 'em like that any more. Which is probably just as well.

I wish that I had met him, I’m sure he’d have been a scream.

Drunk, check. Very drunk, check!

But…without making excuses (Jim could certainly be d*ck as much as you and I or anyone. The bozo prince)…Jim was influenced greatly by a performance he’d attended of The Living Theatre in San Francisco just a little while before the Miami fiasco, which heavily featured social boundary-breaking and, IIRC, a call for ultimate freedom of expression…

Also, remember that not one concertgoer or indeed cop gave proof that he’d actually exposed himself. Of course the moral majority went crazy in the days following (remember when American kids were burning Beatles albums and memorabilia in the uproar over Lennon’s “bigger then Jesus” comment?) when the band were in the Caribbean taking a break (delierately to avoid the scandal? I’m not so sure. I don’t think there was scandal as such at the concert’s end). That came later…

His response to the imitation of oral sex charge was laughable though - that he’d been admiring Robbie’s fingering technique! Lol and double lol!

The promoter of the gig is also to blame for overcrowding the arena, leading to a potentially explosive result.

It was no Altamont, that is for sure.

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Yes, it would be only too easy to parody JM, a ‘clown prince’ perhaps.

I think also that The Doors whipped up their audiences’ expectations, creating a freak show atmosphere at their concerts. It’s interesting to listen through the noise and madness of the audience to how ‘tight’ the group is playing on ‘Absolutely Live’ .

They were simply very good musicians. And they had the best ever frontman.

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Amen to that.

Another thing that occurs to me is that younger Members may not realise that, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Doors didn’t enjoy any great popularity here in the UK, compared to their massive fame in the US.

This may be because they only ever did shows here twice, at The Roundhouse in Camden and at the Isle of Wight festival.

Their fame here grew, sadly, after JM’s death to the point, I suspect, that they would be in many music lovers’ Top Twenty these days.

I’ll shut up now, and let someone else contribute.

Couple of photos I’d not seen before, courtesy Mild Equator website. Well worth a visit.


Danbury67Photograph

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That looks like a tiny little place, very small amps, and no facial hair on the Lizard King, so I imagine that the photo was shot in 1966, or thereabouts.

The bottom photo above is @ Danbury High School 1967.

One for the scrapbooks:


Jim and Pam’s apartment building in Paris.
17 Rue de Beautreillis.
I got to the street door, but thought better of asking if I could go in.

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Hoping this link works (I still don’t get how to post a YT, or indeed any, video…ooooh, it looks like it works!)
Any Doors fan who’s not had the pleasure of roaming the band’s LA:

(Jim’s room at La Cienaga is really different now to when we stayed in it - then, it looked pretty much like Jim could’ve just left minutes before, just an ordinary motel room. Now…blimey. I preferred how it was, no signs, no homage graffiti. Wish I’d kept the 32 keyring too, though!)

It’s a huge shame to see the room looking so trashed. Jim Morrison’s grave at Pere Lachaise has been ruined with bottles, fag packets, graffiti, and no doubt condoms (and things). There was a head-and-shoulders bust of him there, which has been nicked.

It’s sad that people don’t seem able just to leave things like that alone.

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Funnily enough, despite the graffiti the actual furniture in 32 as in the video is pretty much as I remember it, bed’s in the same place etc - pretty basic nondescript motel stuff (obviously not the same actual furniture when I stayed in the room in the early 80’s, which I highly doubt was the actual furniture Jim had, but of the same level - it was not a high- class place back then- citation for prostitution on the wall behind the front desk!)

I wish the video had gone into the bathroom so I could see the tiles again - very Celebration of The Lizard! And yes I did let my cheek slide down when I was taking a shower, lol…

Jim would’ve liked the anonymity of the place, I think, and that it was pretty central for the bars, Doors office etc. I wonder what he’d think of it now? Maybe not anti, but perhaps bemused. Even a little smile about it?

As for his grave, I really must get back to PL. It’s a beautiful, engrossing place - Jim or no Jim.

https://youtube.com/shorts/gQySoL0zoiA?feature=share

Hmmm… that one didn’t work!
Oh well, still a great clip.

This…is one very weird Doors clip I’d never known about or seen until tonight.
HOW this has not come up on my radar until 2022, I’ll never know!

In September 1967, they did a sketch for Murray the K’s TV show - the ‘plot’ of which involved space girls in sparkly outfits robbing a city Treasury (all filmed in NY), stealing Jim Morrison’s bead necklace in the process, and later confronting the band in a park…Jim mimed People Are Strange while RR&J stood about awkwardly, and Light My Fire was the soundtrack at the end. Totally Monkees!!!

This edit is all back to front in sequence, so is a tad
confusing to say the least!

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Yes, it’s very strange (to use a Doors term), and the reference to The Monkees is bang on (it’s not often that you’d put those two groups together, is it?).