We forget the Beatles were a band. Of twentysomethings. United by the music. Which they loved playing.
I don’t know if your inbox has been blowing up with this, but mine certainly has. Showing the power of virality. It seeps through society, slowly, and when it hits you and you click and you start to smile you feel both an individual and part of something greater than yourself, that was the power of the Beatles, that is the power of music.
Too much of the internet is about manipulation. Those with the greatest power are the worst. Just try to delete your account on Facebook. Purveyors are constantly shoving stuff down our throats. First, with a scorched earth publicity campaign, followed up by all kinds of online shenanigans, trying to enlist the hoi polloi to spread the word, to the point where most people ignore hype these days. Talk about being out of touch with the public, did you see the “Wonder Woman” theatrical grosses in Europe? A pittance! No one wants to go to the damn movie theatre, except those not wearing masks who believe they’re immune, and there are not enough of those people to sustain all these businesses bitching that they’re being hobbled by the government. So, you’ve got the movie business trying to hold back the sands of time, trying to keep windows in force when you’re lucky if anyone is paying attention at all, when you need to hoover up the cash immediately, legs are shorter than ever, get it now, do it now. And chances are your project is a stiff, most are. The key is to get right back in the game, as opposed to promoting that which people do not want. You’re a hit or a zit in internet culture, and almost nothing is a hit, and too many substandard products are vying for attention, and then you come across this clip from Peter Jackson’s Beatles movie.
I’ll admit, I didn’t immediately click. I’m jaded. Is there anything new under the sun? The Beatles have been ravaging and raping their past for far too long. The insidious remixes, momentary dashes for cash…what I’m worried about in the future is these third-class takes will become the standard, the ones everybody knows, and they’re tripe. Do you have any idea what makes a record a hit? Change one little element and oftentimes you ruin it. To create a hit, everything’s got to line up…the song, the playing, the singing, the engineering, the mix… And Geoff Emerick was one of the greats, he had history with the band to boot. Do you think he mixed these records willy-nilly? Of course not, he even told me face to face that the stereo mix of “Sgt. Pepper” was not an afterthought, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
And film is truth. Image is truth. You believe what your eyes see. Well, you used to, before manipulation, but I didn’t see any here, watching on my 5k iMac I felt like the sixties were happening right now, it wasn’t nostalgia, the Beatles were positively alive, as a group, and I was in the studio with them!
Now the great thing about this clip is the lack of flourish, the lack of seasoning, the lack of shining up. Now, in this all too fake culture, we appreciate, cling to, honesty, directness. When Peter Jackson looks into the camera and talks…you feel like he’s speaking directly to you, as if you were in the cutting room and he was setting you up to watch footage on a computer monitor. And he didn’t don makeup, he was wearing shorts, he was a creator, not a star, someone like you and me but with a hell of a lot more on his resumé.
Then you see all the guitars. People today have no idea what gearheads we were back then. In an era where electronic gear was not de rigueur, all we had were transistor radios and record players. Guitars were exotic. We learned all the brand names, we could tell what was what by its shape, and it started with the Beatles…a Rickenbacker?
Ringo Starr is still alive, spry and active. We’ve forgotten that he was once just a young man, barely out of boyhood.
And then when we see/hear John Lennon reading from the paper in that voice, the one we know so well from the intro to “Two of Us”…WHEW, the record comes alive! We’ve been accustomed to the records for so long we’ve forgotten that human beings made them, with a hell of a lot less sophisticated equipment than today, and that they were inventing it as they went, there were not well-worn footsteps to follow.
And they’re having so much FUN!
And then they’re playing together as a BAND! For decades the focus has been on the breakup, the feuds, but here they are all together, SMILING!
And playing. They know how to do it, they’ve been doing it for years!
And then Lennon tapping his hand on the strings of his guitar…
Then the studio equipment, how ancient, but they got this sound down.
And then Linda and Yoko are so YOUNG, and so ALIVE! You can see the appeal of each of them, before they were dragged through the mud.
Then the band listening to the playback… The dream used to be to be in the studio, you needed access, you had none, that’s where the magic was created!
And Billy Preston and George Martin, both so young, both now dead.
But the revelation is John Lennon. His reputation has been dragged through the mud, he’s seen now as an angry young man, oftentimes dour, in competition with Paul. But here he’s jumping around and smiling and involved, not detached, he’s totally different from the legend that’s been established, he’s once again a musician, a creator, an experimenter, who’s also sometimes an imp, the mischievous one who refused to follow norms, who questioned authority. WHEW!
And now you can see why the sixties were so great. It was about liberation! Today too many want to bring us back to a theoretical past that never existed. Where we were all prim and proper, obeyed the rules and were good citizens. But that’s not how it WAS! We were testing limits, and we were led first and foremost by the Beatles, who kept pushing the envelope, getting us to question who we were, what we believed, how we dressed, everything was up for grabs, the sky was the limit.
Today “musicians” are “brands.” In many cases literally, their music/fame is just a jumping off point to sell you crap. Not only perfume and apparel, but multiple album covers and merchandise, they can’t stop milking fans, meanwhile the media doubles down and says it’s all right, but let’s not forget in the sixties the media was CLUELESS! In order to know what was going on you had to tune in to the radio and listen to the music. There was something happening there, and it certainly wasn’t exactly clear.
Same deal today. No one knows what’s really going on. Let’s start at the top, with the presidential election, the pollsters got it so wrong that they’re not even weighing in on the Georgia senatorial elections, we’ve learned not to trust them.
The only way you know what is going on is by firing up your computer, whether it be a desktop, laptop or the phone in your hand. Meanwhile, the oldsters can’t stop decrying them, lauding physical books, like you can’t read on a screen, which people are doing all day, saying we’re spending too much time in front of screens when the truth is THAT IS WHERE IT’S HAPPENING! It’s akin to the parents of the sixties telling their kids to turn off that damn music, the music that’s still alive today.
Most definitely in this clip.
These are real human beings, who followed the sound, for years before they got any recognition. And when they finally got in the studio they kept expanding the boundaries, they did not want to be in stasis, do what was expected of them, they wanted to get turned on themselves, they knew the result would turn on their audience.
They may not have gone on tour, but they still loved to play. And create. That was the essence. They were still musicians, they were still a band, that came first, the pronouncements, the controversies, those were all secondary to the music.
And this clip is evidence. Show it to youngsters and they’ll feel it, show it to ANYBODY and they’ll feel it. That was the power, that was the draw, who in hell could be exposed to the Beatles and want to work at a bank, play it safe? Never forget, Steve Jobs was a big Beatles fan.
But Steve Jobs is already fading into history. But not the Beatles. Music is set in amber, it cannot be superseded with a faster chip, get it right and it lasts. But, more than five decades later we’ve forgotten the genesis, we’re so detached from what once was that we’re influenced by the penumbra as opposed to the essence. But Peter Jackson’s film brings us right back.
I was in college at Cal State Long Beach when my best buddy invited me to go to San Francisco with him to do the equipment for the doors at the Avalon. I was going to college for one reason, to avoid the draft. That weekend the doors offered me a summer job to be their roadie. I accepted. At the end of the summer I tried to quit in order to stay in college but they convinced me that they would only work weekends and I could do both. I ended up dropping nine units and getting a D and an F in the other six.
Rich Linnell and I promoted our first concert of the doors at Long Beach State in the gym. In order to get a venue on campus we had to affiliate with an on-campus organization. We chose the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and paid them 5% of the gross. We held the record for paying the doors the most money for at least the next six months when their career was exploding.
Three weeks later they offered me the job of being the manager and I said I could only do it if I could find a way to beat the draft. They agreed to pay all the expenses so I went to the woman we worked with at SNCC, and she referred me to a William Smith draft lawyer specialist.
Long story short, it worked. But I really thought I was a conscientious objector and spent months agonizing over whether I would return to Canada in order to not have to go kill people.
Cut to 11 years later when George Steele and I go to San Francisco to see a rough cut of “Apocalypse now” at Francis Ford Coppola’s house in San Francisco. I was completely destroyed by the film and how it resonated with the choices I’ve made in my life.I could barely walk out of the screening room. Luckily they provided a barrel tasting of Mr. Coppola’s new venture in making wine. It was a turning point for me, and I have to agree with you it was a turning point for the doors.
Bill Siddons
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Loved your latest, about THE DOORS & MORRISON. I too, am a first generation DOORS fanatic. (Bill Mumy sent me your article. I’m his partner “Artie Barnes”, from our duo Barnes & Barnes).
Mumy & I saw The Doors live 3 times, once in the front row of the L.A. Aquarius Theatre show #1, 1969. Ahhh, sweet youth. Jim looked into our eyes. That’s burned into my soul forever… Like I just told Mumy, I knew the Doors were special and eternal then, in 1967, and it has stayed true for the last 53 years. And now as I’m getting “old”, and when I’m gone, like you say, the Doors will still be entrancing generations to come. Jim was a “God”…. Mumy talked to him in an elevator in 1970, as I’m sure he’s told you. I’m STILL jealous! Thru my being in the music biz, I became friendly with Manzarek. He was always nice to me, even as a 19 year old pimple faced kid, when I would run into him around town. Then we got friendly, and it was a true treat to have known him better. I went to his house, he was supposed to come over to my house, ‘cuz I might have been able to get him a record deal in 1991, but I chickened out in making that happen….. That’s something I regret not pushing harder to happen… My wife was a Sr. VP at a few major labels back in the day..
Anyway, just thought I’d say hi, well done on your story. The Doors have been with me daily since 1967, influencing my keyboard playing, songwriting styles, and much of our Barnes & Barnes work. And basically, an influence in my whole lifestyle.
All the best,
Robert Haimer
Barnes & Barnes / Mumy’s friend….
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For a few days in the summer of 1967, Dak To airport in South Vietnam’s highlands was the busiest airport in the world with hundreds of Army helicopters and Air Force transports landing and departing during raging battles. Our newest pilot arrived into this chaos aboard a C-130. As I helped him with his duffle bag, we walked to our tents and he opened his bag and pulled out the Doors album. It became a revelation, maybe a reason to be there. I don’t know. Each night after flying combat missions all day and in between fending off attacks, we listened to all the songs on that album. Start to finish on each side and then repeating. The Doors formed a bridge for us from the jungle back to LA and the world.
Regards
Steve Greene
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I was in the third row at the New Haven Arena the infamous night Jim was arrested onstage 5 songs into the Doors’ performance. Jim had been accosted backstage by a New Haven cop who found him in the bathroom with a girl and wound up getting maced. Once onstage Jim berated the “little blue men in their little blue suits” repeatedly until they literally escorted him off the stage. The only video of the arrest was shot by my best friend sitting next to me with his 8mm camera and can be found here: . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHmK9ERyBOw&ab_channel=JesusDerasAlvarez. Ray Manzarek’s telling of the tale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPf-OeepYn4&ab_channel=bignz721
And of course, the scene was re-created in Oliver Stone’s film “The Doors”
Dick Wingate
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Bob, amazing how I relate to your experiences growing up.
(we are about the same age)
The one and only 8 track tape I ever had was the Doors. The only 8 track tape player I had was in my ski boat.
Great memories of taking my (first) girl out in the boat, after dark to wear out that tape. Anytime I hear the doors now, I think of that girl (and many other times too :- )
My family had a cabin on Mission Lake in Northern MN. I can imagine it must have irritated a lot of neighbors along the lakeshore.
I met my girl first year at U of MN. She had a summer camp counselor job near our cabin. :- )
John Dresser
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When at high school, in my final year, I was told one day to give a short lesson to the chapel which used to sit every Sunday with about 200 boarders.
I decided to read out the opening statement from The Soft Parade. When I got to the line You Can NOT Petition the Lord with Prayer, there was this audible gasp around the attendees.
I was summoned by the headmaster after the service ,and told that I was “gated” till the end of term! “Gated” meant I was not allowed to leave the school grounds!
Richard Griffiths
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Nice piece, Bob. Not a big fan of the Doors but do love the debut. I don’t think there’s a better first track on a debut album than Break On Through.
Michael Craig
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Many thanks for giving The Crystal Ship it’s due! I too felt mystical romance in that song in my teen years – still do. The Doors will always be magic to me.
You know that Ray Manzarek produced X’s first 5 albums and played on many. Their cover of The Crystal Ship for the X-Files movie is worth a listen. Gets better as you get into it, with Billy Zoom’s guitar solo, into X’s trademark John Doe and Exene harmonies – true to the original song’s ending.
When we get back, I’ll drop a line.
Jim Mulhern
Detroit
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I was 13 years old in 1966- my favorite band was Them- “Mystic Eyes,” “Gloria,” “Baby Please Don’t Go.” They had a matinee at the Whiskey- all ages- this was my first concert. I asked a guy who this cool opening band was. He said “The Doors.” Van and Jim. The Morrison Brothers. My rock and roll baptism.
Six months later the first LP was announced by the first billboard on Sunset Strip to advertise a rock band.
Mike Minky
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When I got back to college from holiday break, first week of January
1967, I went to Korvette’s looking for albums to buy. I saw The Doors
first LP, liked the cover photo, kinda Stones, and I liked the fact
that it was on Elektra. From Tim Buckley to Butterfield and Love,
Elektra was credible.
At that moment, the cultural shift, lack of inhibition, freedom for
invention, was only known by the few devotees.
Had a smoke, put on side one “Break On Through” to “Light My Fire”,
extraordinary. Side two, not as strong but still riveting. Then “The
End” – there had been no warning, nothing about this band in print, or
on radio.
Just over 5 minutes in, over the slinky, sexy music … “the killer
awoke before dawn” … where are they going? Then they went as far
as anyone would ever go with ‘popular’ music.
A crystalized cultural signpost
Paul Zullo
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I used to go see the Doors play at Bito Lido’s on Cosmo St in Hollywood around the corner from The Sound Factory where I started.
They were making $15.00 a night and it’s also where Ronnie Haran first saw the Doors and got them to Jack Holtzman and where Arthur Lee & love first started playing.
Val Garay
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Thanks Bob,that was great.I remember skateboarding to downtown Stamford to go to a dive bar.They let us kids in to play the jukebox.We played both sides of all the Doors singles.Same thing at a pizza parlor in Springdale.Maybe get a slice,but spend everything on the Jukebox.Thanks,Stay Safe,Ted Keane
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Long time reader, first time commenter. It took your essay on the Doors to nudge me off the dime.
The fact that you labeled it “Crystal Ship” got me right away. It was one of my favorite songs off their album as well. I first played the album in the fall of ’67, my sophomore year in college, a buddy introduced me to them. After hearing that song, Whiskey Bar, Light My Fire and, of course, The End. that was it for me, they were and still are a huge influence on my life. Later in early 70’s when I was in Thailand flying gunships, we would land, go downtown and there would always be a bar with a Philipino band (they were all very good!) that liked to play Doors music. It didn’t really sound like the Doors but they were so enthusiastic that you could still get into it.
And you are right about their other albums – there was something to love on everyone, little secret ones like the spoken Horse Latitudes on 2nd album, 5 to 1 on Waiting for the Sun and I really did like Soft Parade. Oddly, I never met a woman who really liked the Doors – despite the god-like beauty of the early Jim Morrison.
Anyway, thanks for refreshing my memories and recognizing the genius of the Doors.
D Roger Pederson
Minneapolis MN
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Thank you for the spectacular Doors Tribute.
At a number of spots you refer to how the great sound of those records captured your imagination.
But you neglect to mention the genius Recording Engineer/Mixer of all the Doors records: Bruce Botnick.
(Bruce also produced the LA Women album, with Riders on the Storm).
The sound Bruce got on those albums goes a long way to explaining why they are still played on radio today.
While all their most brilliant peers (Beach Boys, Byrds, SF Bands) are relegated to the 60’s channels, and Oldies stations.
The Doors records have a sound that is totally contemporary, courtesy of Bruce Botnick.
The Doors first album was recorded in LA in August 1966 by Bruce, age 21.
Nothing else from LA, NY or Nashville sounded that good in ’66.
In April of ’66 Geoff Emerick (age 20) started work as the Beatles engineer on what would become Revolver.
Glyn Johns (age 24) is recording Between the Buttons with the Stones in ’66, and then Satanic.
The Doors recording is a full year before Glyn Johns recorded the magnificent Beggars Banquet in London, with Jimmy Miller producing.
And two years before Glyn recorded the first Led Zep album, where new technology, and new tools were making a dramatic difference.
Where the power of a drummer like John Bonham could actually be captured for the first time.
Which is all to underscore the genius of Bruce Botnick, and what he (and Paul Rothchild) did that late summer of ’66 for The Doors.
And continued to do on all their albums.
Paul Rothchild reported that they recorded for one week, and mixed for six weeks!
Reminding us that really transcendent recording, mixing and sound can contribute to an album living forever.
Big thanks,
Hank Neuberger
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Two other factors that weigh into the Doors revival: The American Prayer album by Jim Morrison which came out in November 1978, and the Jerry Hopkins book “No One Here Gets Out Alive” that came out in 1980.
The Morrison album was a dud, except for a blistering live version of Roadhouse Blues with the Soft Parade intro.
Jeff Horowitz
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Many psychedelic experiences watching the sun rise while listening to the Doors! Jim Morrison was the ultimate bad ass rock star!
Harvey Leeds
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Bob, it’s funny you should write this because, to this day, I remember that the first music video I ever
saw was “Break on Through”.
It was shown on my local weekday after-school “American Bandstand” -style TV show, and it made quite
an impression on this 16 year old, both the music and the video!
Loved reading your memories of The Doors.
Best wishes,
David Hendley
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The Doors – The Crystal Ship / Dick Clark Interview / Light My Fire: https://bit.ly/34CHo1d
Don Huber
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The Doors were so influential on bands like Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen and there will always be Americans who look to England for their cultural touchstones, even if they lead back to the states. Cool discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/8qxd1f/the_doors_and_their_influence_on_postpunk_and
Carl P. Lavin
P.S. Also, when you quote “The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills” without the follow up line of “a million ways to spend your time” it leaves out that 1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000 and all that comes along with the suggestion of that equation.
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Superb piece, Bob! The Doors’s music is timeless and continues to “swim in mystery” (“Unhappy Gil”) and enchant millions.
Two stories:
Shortly after the late producer Hal Willner brought the 24 year-old Jeff Buckley and I together to collaborate for Hal’s Tribute to Tim Buckley at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn in spring 1’91, Jeff came over to my apartment in the West Village to work up one of his father’s songs. We clicked, you could say—and afterwards I invited Jeff to lunch at my local, the White Horse Tavern (where Dylan Thomas famously drank himself to death). Over lunch, as musicians often do when they first get together, we began to sniff each other out regarding our favorite music—and we quickly agreed on a short list of The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and The Smiths. I was looking for a lead singer then for my band Gods and Monsters, and hearing the name of my band immediately sealed the deal with Jeff. Why? Because in the Oliver Stone film “The Doors”, Jim’s witchy girlfriend
rock writer Patricia Kenneally (played by Kathleen Quinlan) becomes impregnated by Mr. Mojo Risin’, who urges abortion, and Patricia / Kathleen, who wants to keep their baby, retorts: “Knowing you, it would either be a God or a Monster.” Which nearly caused me to jump out of my seat in the theater seeing the film the first time (I’d already had my group going under that name for several years). Jeff dug that film and quickly recalled that line of dialogue, and said to meL “I love that name!” So he was in.
Some years later I was in Paris working with French star Elli Medeiros, who lived near Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Jim is buried there along with Chopin and Oscar Wilde. I went over there one day there to pay my respects and a swarm of hundreds of young people excitedly whizzed by me at the entrance. Sure enough, they were also in search of Morrison’s grave– so I followed them to the gravesite, which was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape—the night before someone had stolen the bust of Jim Morrison which normally perched over his grave (this was not the first time that had happened). The kicker is, those hundreds of kids crowding Jim’s grave were young Polish Catholic believers who had flown in with the then Polish Pope that morning—he was due to deliver a nationwide address in a stadium in Paris that evening. The first item on these kids’ agenda though was to visit the grave of the Lizard King himself, Jim Morrison. The power of Jim compels thee!
all the best
Gary Lucas
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In July of 1971 me and a friend were on the back end of a motorcycle trip from DC to Nova Scotia. We took the ferry from Yarmouth to Bangor and after a very long inspection by Customs we rode into town and checked into a hotel in downtown.
My room had a bed with a huge headboard which had a radio embedded in the middle of it, something I didn’t notice until the next morning when it turned itself on. I was awoken out of a deep sleep by this ghostly voice somewhere above my head announcing that Jim Morrison had died in Paris, one of the more surreal moments in my life.
As a Vietnam vet I appreciated the mood captured in Apocalypse Now. And yes, The End was the perfect song for that moment. The younger me liked Crystal Ship, but the older me loves LA Woman. (For my money, the TV show China Beach best captured the totality of the Vietnam experience.)
George Laugelli
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Great remembrance. I saw Apocalypse Now at the Cinerama dome too. It was billed as a work in progress and I still have the booklet with the credits they gave out. I had never heard The Doors so loud. I remember “Saigon. Shit. I’m still in Saigon.” rattling my innards.
Before COVID I had a 4 night a week piano bar gig at two different restaurants. Dear John’s in Culver City and Casa Ado n Marina del Rey. I always hoped you would catch me sometimes. I do many strange thematic medleys. Plus the first side of The Doors.
Hope to meet you someday at The Next Whisky Bar.
Zimmy del Rey
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It’s that feeling of wrapping her in your arms with your hands touching her chest and breathing into the soft hair between her neck and ear.
This song is the audio version of Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” …
The pallette and canvas is your mind… infinitely far more colors to choose from…
Ray Manzarek always said Jim was a genius … Thanks for writing about this song…
Keith Miller
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Bob, not only is Crystal Ship also my favorite Doors song, it’s in the top 5 of my favorites of ALL songs. Long story short, Ray Manzarek once loaned me his ID, (because I was19 at the time), to come in and see The Doors when they were playing at the London Fog, around late1966. And Morrison loaned his ID to my friend. When we went inside, there were only 3 people in the club, (rainy Tuesday night I believe). Can’t remember much about the band except they were playing on a high stage at the rear of the long skinny club, and we gave their IDs back to them when they finished their set..
Several years later, (1972) I was singing in a covers/original band and we did a bunch of Doors tunes, but never did Crystal Ship. We had a great keyboardist with a Farfisa who played just like Manzarek.
In November of 2019 I celebrated the 50th anniversary of my business. I rented a hall in Glendale and invited 100 guests, and my old band from 1972, (4 out of 5 original guys), played a set. We did Light My Fire & 20th Century Fox and, finally……Crystal Ship.
Sterling Howard
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You hit a sentimental note when you wrote about The Doors. Its funny when I hear Howard Stern claims they were overrated… No way…. Maybe it’s an East Coast vs. the West Coast thing? The Doors were the quintessential rock band that wrote songs about the dark side of Los Angeles.. Their debut lp was the first record “I” bought with my allowance! It saved me from the rigors of trying to be “cool” and being misunderstood by the world.. No matter what I did I was never goin’ to be cool!
The Doors played at my high school and they were awful… none of the songs sounded like the record.. The headline band was Jefferson Airplane and they kicked ass…
I still listen to The Doors on Spotify… and songs like, “Moonlight Drive”.. “Summers Almost Gone” segueing into “Wintertime Love” is true artistry… shit I can go on and on… Again, when folks say The Doors were overrated I’m just dumbfounded…Perhaps the greatest L.A. rock band ever!
Jeff Laufer
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Thanks Bob! You’re writing about powerful years in our culture that nobody understands.
My wife & I are your age … and we were with our sons and their wives tonight … talking about movies … while our daughter-in-law was playing multiple Doors albums … vinyl … not cds.
We were all talking about how terrible movies have been for many years. My wife & I watched “Harper” last night … the fun 1966 Paul Newman movie … after we’d tried a bunch of recent, unwatchable movies.
The joke between us all is my assertion that the “music died in 1973” … I knew it then.
It really never got past 1971:
LA Woman – the Doors
Who’s Next – The Who
Aqualung – Jethro Tull
Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin
Allman Bros at Fillmore East – Allman Bros
The Yes Album – Yes
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor – Moody Blues
Sticky Fingers – Rolling Stones
Think about it … music crashed and burned in 1973.
And movies … yes “Godfather II” was the best. And, “Clockwork Orange” and “2001”.
I couldn’t watch the so-called “blockbusters”.
Thanks for the flashbacks … we need more understanding of those years … why the artistry died … and how corporate rock and blockbuster movies took over.
Tom Abts
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Good to see some of these deeper cuts getting the attention they deserve. Yep The Doors are renowned for pushing boundaries and for lengthy psychedelic explorations but the sensitive (sappy?) side of The Doors & Jim hardly ever gets mentioned. The Crystal Ship and Love Street also are just 2 great examples of this sensitive side, they are songs that you could play to someone who is only passingly familiar with the music of The Doors and you would probably get some kind of response akin to “I didn’t know they were capable to of this”
Chris Xynos
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you are missing the best song on the Apocalypse Now score and that is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings
Nathan Mann
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Thanks, Bob! Love it! I’ve still not forgiven my parents for not taking me to the Phx. show when I was seven years old; they should have known by then what to expect. From hearing that first album, I was way in. I used to wear a People are strange button. Had my first car accident while blasting Alabama Song. There was a girl in my high school named Crystal Shipp, and we thought that was about the coolest name ever.
LA Woman is my favorite, but I do contend that Roadhouse Blues is the greatest rock n roll song ever, the main reason being it captures it all in: I woke up this morning and got myself a beer / The future’s uncertain and the end is always near. That’s why rock n roll. I did get to see Robbie Krieger a year or two ago and he was great!
Steve Winter
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Loved the write up on The Doors. I was 13 in 1982. I knew “Light My Fire”, “Hello, I Love You”, and “Touch Me” from my radio listening (HCN in Hartford or PLR in New Haven). I had an Aunt who loved the Doors and after perusing her copy of “No One Here Gets Out Alive”, I decided to read it. Man……what a story! Especially the part about maybe he’s still alive!!!! Bogus for sure, but my 13 year old brain dug it! I decided to dive in. Got the 1980 Greatest Hits first. It was quite the revelation. And maybe the biggest take away from it, for me (being a drummer), was how great the drummer was! John Densmore is more like a jazz drummer to me than a rock drummer. I just loved what he played on everything. It was only a matter of time before I had all of the studio albums. I could go on and on about how cool it was to discover this music…….and in 1982!
Even though I wasn’t around for the first go ’round, I’m glad they eventually showed up on my radar. It’s an enjoyable body of work. The studio albums alone have been more than enough for me. I keep finding stuff to dig about it even now as a 51 year old. You have to hand it to the gatekeepers. There seems to have been some kind of Doors release every year for the last 30 years!
Ed Toth
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Great stuff Bob! I was slightly ahead of the Doors renaissance as a freshman in 1979; with thanks to my neighbor, while growing up in Livingston NJ, who was a fan and loved them when he was in college, in your old hood at Fairfield U, where I would eventually attend as well. I remember being told that the Doors are lame and suck inter Alia, but I said wait and see. By sophomore year almost everyone was in to them lol. Speaking of the Crystal Ship and I remember seeing the wonderful cover band ironically called the Crystal Ship at Morristown NJ’s rock club The Final Exam, sort of my first concert. My friends dad worked the food stand and got us “in” as we were underage. Met the band after the show and recall the lead singer telling me he went to South Carolina U on a football scholarship, busted his leg up and decided to become a rock n roller!
Years down the road was lucky to meet Ray M when I was at VH1 and we had a wonderful chat about their music, impact and his first band Rick and the Ravens.
In fact regaled him with a little story on how the Doors got me my first job out of college on Wall Street. After all the perfunctory interview questions, my interviewer asked me who my favorite bands were and we connected on the Doors. He asked me “why did u throw the jack of hearts away?” And as I am telling Ray this his eyes light up and he sings “cause it’s the only card in the deck that I had left to play.” He then told me that made his day…..mine as well. Here I am connecting with the guy who’s poster was in my bedroom years ago. Power of rock n roll:).
BTW I always thought when Jim sang “ride the Kings Highway baby” he was referring to our little road in Fairfield/Bridgeport lol…..maybe should have asked Ray that as well!
Happy holidays Bob
Gene Bolan
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I’ve always understood Jim Morrison through Kurt Cobain, and understood Kurt via Jim.
I started high school in 1990…the year that the Oliver Stone movie was released. The Doors became my gateway drug between radio music and real music. The Doors, via the film, led me to The Velvet Underground, and they’ve been opening (proverbial) doors for roughly 30 years. When I started hearing about Nirvana, I imagined a similar ethos. The ‘27 Club‘ connection was an unfortunate affirmation.
Heather Church
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Born in 1971, the Doors didn’t come to my attention until the summer of ’87 when Echo and the Bunnymen covered People Are Strange for The Lost Boys. I liked the song enough to look for it after the film and found the Doors.
My friends and I had been digging up our weird uncle’s records to hear more pot smoking music, having found Zep and Hendrix. The biography “No One Here Gets Out Alive” was the first rock bio I read. We grew up metal kids, but there was something otherwordly calling us from the older music. We were the kids who would end up crowding into the Dead lots to eat acid and commune with the aging freaks before turning to grunge and harder drugs.
But the Doors had a special place before it began to sound pretentious – mostly thanks to Oliver Stone’s movie. Suddenly everyone knew them and I had to walk away. Or maybe I just grew older. I think Jim and the boys still speak to the wild child in the hearts of 17 year olds. I still see the t-shirts on kids. I think that is a wonderful place for them to live forever.
Jeff Kinard
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Just this past week, there was a thread on Facebook about favorite Doors songs. The two most-mentioned were Crystal Ship and The End. My own two favorites are Crystal Ship and one that I’m surprised you didn’t even mention: When the Music’s Over. That one still hits hard when I hear it. And the story behind the recording of it is mind-blowing. Jim missed the recording session but the band had been playing it so much live that they were able to record the track without him and Jim came in and dubbed his part later. Wow.
– Mark Towns
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I never really GOT the doors until Apocalypse Now.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any song fit so well in a film.
richard sales
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Born in 1961, I was too young to be a part of the first wave of The Doors. However, there were pockets of fans at Kenyon College in the early 1980s and I got hooked. Then, in 2003 at Boston’s Orpheum Theater, I saw Manzarek and Krieger reunited as “An Evening with The Doors of the 21st Century” with Stewart Copeland of The Police on drums and Ian Astbury of The Cult channeling Morrison. Many people hated the idea of this tour but I loved being able to squint and imagine what the late ’60s shows must have been like.
David Meerman Scott
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1990 and I’m in my second Freshman year of college. It’s a small college in Henniker, NH. I’ve made friends with the folks at the radio station and start helping out, part time DJ, sorting records and what-not. The radio has a broadcast range of probably 5 miles but it’s enough in pre-internet times – everyone listens to this station. In the bins I find “An American Prayer.” I have this album at home, I stole it from my cool uncle Tommy. I’ve listened to it and know it pretty much by heart. I make a joke at some point to my DJ friends about how we should never play that album on the air. They laugh. “How bad could it be?” They have no idea.
Few weeks later and my friends are drinking on a Saturday night and taking requests and playing whatever they feel like, the PD went home for the weekend and I hear them say why don’t we play that “American Prayer” album? I shudder, put my shoes on and start running to the basement of the library where the station is located.
We’ll get shut down. The FCC will terminate our license. Heads will roll. This will be bad.
The outside door is locked and they can’t hear me but I can hear what they are broadcasting through an external speaker by the door.
“Her cunt gripped him like a warm friendly hand.” ZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIpppppppppppppp The needle goes off the record. There is complete silence. One of them comes on the mic very nervously “ssssorrryy about that folks. We, uh, uh, we, didn’t, uh, know…” and then something by either the Trash Can Sinatras or Dee-Lite starts pumping through the radio.
They let me in.
“Why did you play that?”
“We had no idea that was on there.”
“I told you not to play that.”
“We thought you were joking about not liking the Doors and how you thought they were terrible.”
“I’m a fan of The Doors! I know that album!!”
People definitely heard it but not beyond Henniker. It is probably the only time that record received airplay.
We were so small there were no fines, no shut down by the FCC, nothing at all happened.
The waning days of college radio. It was *this* close to pirate radio at times. I loved it and I miss it.
Oh and why can’t we get Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine on cd or streaming sites yet? I really want to hear “You need meat!”
—
Bobbo
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It was 1968, I’m glad you too remember it so well. I was living back at home in Toronto with my Mom and two sisters after a nearly two year stint in LA where I escaped from a Toronto winter in 1966 to follow my heart and my 15 year old sweetheart whose parents had relocated there and wanted her back. But we had eloped to Ensenada Mexico and after a kerfuffle with her parents we were back home in Hog Town wondering what the hell to do about the dearth of the weekly doses of rock and roll we had become addicted to on the Sunset Strip while living first at her parents apartment and then my Hollywood pad after I got a job selling photocopy paper and started making gobs of money.
I mustered up some capital from a rich Uncle of a former school chum, got the CNE Coliseum from another friend’s dad who was the facility manager, and using a helpful information operator, (remember them) started phoning booking agents in New York and after I think only one other, Associated Booking, got Agency for The Performing Arts and asked for the agent for The Doors. Richard Loren came on the phone and for $10,000 US against 50% of the gross with a $5,000 deposit, I was sitting a week later with a contract for The Doors to play their first Candian gig April 20, 1968. I could and should write a book about the ensuing year or two but for this little story I will keep it short. Two limos were called for in the rider and Richard had instructed me to bring 6 beers for Jim who would ride in one alone, the band and manager would use the other. After the band departed I found myself at the curb with Morrison and we both got in and headed into the city. The six beers sat on the floor between us and Jim opened one (Heineken, I had been told no Budweiser, which were not even for sale in Canada at that time). He finished it and opened another and with a slight shift of the shoulder indicated for me to have one. I complied and began to sip as Jim enjoyed the others as he stared out the window at this new city. The limo pulled up to the curb in front of the hotel , the driver rushed out and around to open the door for Jim who stepped out and while with one foot still in the car turned to me and said, “Hey man, thanks for not talking.” I was too terrified to say a word and we had ridden into Toronto in silence. Loren told me the next day after they of course sold out, ” You did good man, Jim told me he likes the promoter.” The next year after what seemed a lifetime of promoting concerts and festivals, including being on stage most of Saturday and Sunday at Woodstock, I brought The Doors back despite furious opposition from my partners, to headline The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival in September ’69. This of course was after Miami and Jim’s felony charges, but it was The Doors and as a promoter the music meant more than any police-state misunderstanding of performance art. It took a surprise appearance by John Lennon and The Plastic Ono band to sell out the 20,000 seat stadium but after a brief discussion about who would/should close the show between Jim and John it was agreed as scheduled The Doors would close after John and Eric, Yoko, Klaus and Alan played. In one of the most electrifying performances of his career, Morrison, although no longer looking like the Lizard King of a year and a half before, gave testament to why your piece Crystal Ship has such meaning. And included in their spellbinding set, Robby Kreiger magically wove the melody to Eleanor Rigby into the guitar solo of Light My Fire. ( I have the bootleg). As was his wont, Jim most often began The End with a brief or longer recitation of his current observation of life and that night would be no different. I share them with you now.
“I can remember when Rock n’ Roll first came on the scene. And for me it was, uh, a very liberating experience because it burst open whole new strange catacombs of wisdom that I couldn’t remember about and didn’t know anything about and I couldn’t see any equivalent for in my surroundings. And that’s why for me this evening it has been such a great honor to perform on this stage with so many illustrious musical geniuses.”
Of course he was referring to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, and John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman and Alan White.
Long live Rock and Roll.
A night for the ages. Yeah, I think I’ll write that book.
John Brower
Toronto
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Well, you’re either on the ship or off the ship… as The Doors would(n’t) say.
I am a long time reader and I commend you for your effort in keeping everyone in this industry informed and inspired. My name is Vince Lawrence. I appeared in Frank Marshall’s Bee Gees film, discussing Disco Demolition from the perspective of a Black person who was actually in the stadium on that frightful day. I am also a writer and music producer credited for spearheading the House Music movement and remixing countless dance tracks.
I just read your commentary about the Bee Gees doc and appreciate the perspective. Of particular interest to me is your perception of the Disco Demolition event. You say, “Let’s go back to when this really happened. It wasn’t seen as racist or homophobic; the biggest story was THE WHITE SOX HAD TO FORFEIT THE GAME!” Bob!, I don’t remember it that way at all. When I “go back,” I remember that 1978 was barely ten years after the passage of the civil rights act and prior that the Jim Crow rule of law. Think about that; we had barely gotten past “whites only” restrooms and lunch counters and Black people relinquishing their seat on the bus. In 1976, Eric Clapton said ONSTAGE “I think we should send them all back and that England was in danger of becoming a “black colony”. If I “go back” Bob, I go back to the event with the context around it. In 1978, here and abroad, race relations were in crisis. Disco Demolition is just another example.
Bob, your a brilliant thinker who always stands up for the rights of others. I’m genuinely disappointed that you focused on the media not seeing the event as racist or homophobic. HELLO BOB! Every Black and Gay person in the world saw it as racist and homophobic! That was the point of that sequence in the film. I’m sorry, Bob, but that recollection makes you sound like a Trump loving white guy looking at all the “fun kids were having” with no consideration of whose expense.
One other thing, Did you ever hear the term “Disco Ni##3r”? Let’s face it; the antidisco movement was just another racist endeavor supported by many white men in the music and radio business. Bob its time we acknowledge our failings and stop gaslighting Black people by celebrating things that are clearly racist (or at best offensive).
The BLM movement has brought many issues of our past to the forefront of pop-culture. Discussing subjects like this out in the open is a great start. Perhaps it would be cool to have Steve Dahl and myself onto your SiriusXM radio show, given that we have such opposing views on this event. The audience, Steve, and even I would likely learn something.
Bob, one thing I’m working on, is to befriend as many smart people as possible. And when called for – offer my first hand perspective on what it is like to live in my shoes. Bob, consider me a friend. I know you one of the guys who could make a difference in this crazy fucked up world we live in.
Vince Lawrence
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Hey Bob,
Nice to see that you got it right! You may be the only one!! I am a friend
of Steve Dahl¹s, and the official photographer of Disco Demolition. When
we were at the stadium, out on the field, there was absolutely no thought
of racism and homophobia. It was never an issue. The story is:
Steve worked for a large rock station in Chicago, and was their
centerpiece. Around Christmas of 1978 (actually Christmas Eve) he was
broadcasting from the back of a truck on the street in front of the
station, doing a food drive dressed in a Santa Claus suit. When he was
done, he went upstairs to find out that the station was flipping formats
to Disco the following Monday and that he was no longer needed! So, he
drove home to his pregnant wife (in the Santa Claus suit) for a merry
Christmas of being unemployed!
He quickly found a new job in the new yearon WLUP (The Loop) another powerhouse rock station in town. He started noticing that whenever he looked at the Top 10 songs in America, 7 or 8 of them were disco songs, and there didn¹t seem to be much room for rock and roll anymore. So he started “blowing up” Disco records on the air (sound effect) and making appearances in public to destroy disco records to the amusement of an increasingly larger crowd each time.
Mike Veeck (Bill Veeck’s son) the marketing manager for the White Sox suggested that the station sponsor a “Teen night” and have an appearance by Steve between games of a double header. It kind of was too successful!!
Revisionist history soon made it a racist event, when in fact it was just rock and roll fans expressing their displeasure for their music being edged out. Steve continually does interviews and is always asked if it was a racist event. He always says no, but it is always written up as such. He and I, along with writer Dave Hoekstra collaborated on a book 3 years ago, and even the publicist for the project asked us as the book was being finished why we were doing a book on a racist event. I had to ask her if she was listening to Steve in 1979, to acquire that opinion and she admitted that she had not been born at that time.
Too other quick notes:
The Bee Gees were never a disco band- they were a pop band with great
songs and great harmonies.
Bill Veeck, the owner of the White Sox at the time, would never have stood for any kind of racist promotion. He actually marched with Martin Luther King, Jr, even though he only had one leg!!!
