I'm very surprised one hasn't been made already, so here it is... I want to post a few past threads to be a part of this, and hope you do, too.. Instead of starting a thread (or not starting one thinking its not appropriate) for a small topic, why not put it here? If you get a thought, want to post an article, etc., here's the place. There's obviously a lot of interest. For instance, the first link (Jim's lyrics) is quite popular, on page three, despite it starting a couple of hours ago. Interviews, concerts, etc., - there are always new videos uploaded that I never saw, but many times I don't want to start en entirely new topic just for a 5-minute video, so to avoid clutter, why not post it here? Hell, it doesn't even have to be about music. You can talk about them as people, one guy or the entire group, how they're portrayed in the media, ANYTHING! Jim Morrison (The Doors) - where does he stand lyrically? The Doors And Their Many Different Rhythms Here's one I would like to add to, since I'm constantly searching for the newest uploads. Please post some as well. If that thread gets more attention, I'll work harder. Even the "new" articles are sometimes duplicates, so it does take a LOT of time to avoid printing duplicates..... But MOST importantly, you can read about The Doors from the time an event happened, as opposed to all the historical revisionism that takes place over the years to fit a narrative. Sometimes memory is a problem. Robby Krieger himself has at least three stories about how he got his black eye, and it changes over time. Jim Morrison Newspaper Clippings
It seems nowadays the band and especially Jim Morrison are judged by their FANS, usually the extreme things being said. I would urge everyone, especially new fans to go to the source -- THE DOORS.... Find video, audio interviews, text before delving into inaccurate stuff. Here's my favorite interview with Jim... I'm glad he was interviewed by an older, intelligent man so it would be that kind of interview.. Jim talks about the present and the future.
Maybe i can share some things that ive found on the net. (i already posted some of it on this forum, but what the hell...). mostly positive, but maybe some negative accounts may drop here inevitably.
YOU MAY HAD SEEN THIS NEIL YOUNG QUOTE: We followed the Doors into a club called Ondine's or something, just off the 59th Street Bridge. The New York scene was pretty intimidating to us and the Doors were a good match with New York; they were like God here and then when we got there, we weren't like God so it was a little different. We were more or less on an equal footing with them in LA where we were the house band at the Whisky a Go Go but Buffalo Springfield was more of a country-folk rock band and that didn't have roots here in New York as much as the poet, psychedelia thing which Jim [Morrison] and Robby [Krieger] were doing. It was a cool thing they were doing and they all came from Venice, where we'd come from all over the place to make it and we lived in the Hollywood Hills.'
And speaking of robby krieger`s black eye, i swear there`s an interview where he admits the reason for his black eye was indeed a traffic accident, its just that he lies about it because people expect crazy jimbo stories from him and he reigned in. i cant find it anymore
This pic will be on the new Jim Morrison book coming out in June..... He definitely looks just like his mom. "Mother.... I want to..... say Happy Mother's Day!"
Robby once said he and Jim got beat up by bikers.. He once said he ran into a door. Here's an interview from 1986 where he says Jim punched him, fighting over what to play.
His father advanced far in his career which must have been demanding on the family, and if you know the history, been disorienting for a son coming of age in the late 60s.
At last, a Doors thread with a perimeter to keep the sappers out. They will just have to read and seethe and yell "F You G.I." all night from the jungle beyond the coils, razor wire, cheap megaphone lifted from a Hanoi wheelbarrow, betel nuts burning hollow guts . . . The Doors have survived my many merciless classic-rock bridge burnings , there have been years where I thought I was over them, and really sick of Morrison - only to have it return with more ferocity. Lately have followed Morrison's trail to Rimbaud - there is more going on there than ever met my eye. The legacy yet unfoldds. Fantastic band.
I don't read poetry, so could you tell me about this trail to Rimbaud? I know he stopped writing poetry at 19 and became a gun-runner, at least that's what I read. At first, I was thinking of Artaud, who was attributed with the "theater of confrontation" much like "The Living Theatre" (Jim bought everyone tickets, but was the only one to go to every single show, and then Miami happened, and he even mentions them, just not in name) "I used to think the whole thing was a joke..... But then I saw some people who were doing something, and I wanna get on that trip" (paraphrase)
Huge labyrinth rabbit hole, the Rimbaud connection, there is an uncanny echo of Rimbaud in Morrison, most likely affected, but strong enough for an 86 year old French Lit professor (who translated Rimbaud in the 1940s had never heard the Doors until the mid 1980s) to write a book about it . . . best to check this other thread where it came up. Neat story, how Morrison connected with Fowlie. cut and paste from other thread Folks love to tear down Morrison's poetry, see it here all the time. I really like it. He was a protégé of Rimbaud, who I never would have read if not for following Morrison's work. On Morrison's recommend - Just picked up a copy of Rimbaud's Complete Works translated by Wallace Fowlie - Morrison carried this book with him wherever he went. In 1968 he wrote to Fowlie, by then sixty years old, a French professor, head of the dept at Duke University, personally thanking him for the book. In the 1980s the elderly Fowlie heard the Doors for the first time and was struck by the astonishing similarity between Morrison and Rimbaud. A casual glance at any page of Rimbaud and Morrison leaps out through it - so, if Morrison's poetry grabs you, check out Rimbaud! Here is a random sample of Rimbaud : Yet this is the watch by night. Let us all accept new strength, and real tenderness. And at dawn, armed with glowing patience, we will enter the cities of glory Sound familiar? Eternity. It is the sea mingled with the sun
Something I found recently. (and a little more) Bill: Yeah, Vince Trenor is the genius of the industry. At every gig we’ve ever played, promoters come up and say, “Where’d you get that guy?” He fixed Robby’s amp a few fays ago. I didn’t know what was wrong with it, but all of those little things in the back that are wired together were all over the florr. Vince wsa working in darkness with just his hands when, all of sudden, buzzt! It’s on. He’s one of those people who just knows everything. Q: When you write a song, Jim, do you just write a bunch of words at length and then sort them out later, or do you sit down and write a specific song? Jim: It happens both ways-and a lot of other ways, too. Once a song is there, it’s always hard to remember how it got there. The ideas come from everywhere. Actually, once an idea comes, it becomes a song pretty fast. It just takes a few times. Q: Do you have an idea for the melody when you write the words? Jim: Sometimes. Actually, I did most of my writing in a short burst a few years ago. I haven’t written too many songs since then. Robby is starting to do a lot of the writing now. Q (to Robby): Do you write both the words and melody? Robby: I usually start with a melody and then get the words. Or I take some of Jim’s words and make up a melody for them. Q: On paper, “Not to Touch the Earth” looks almost formless. But when you hear it, the structure is nice, and everything flows together. Jim: Usually, songs like “The End”, and “When the Music’s Over,” “Not to Touch the Earth,” and “Five to One” are built like a building. All of the lyrics aren’t there at the beginning, and there’s no song. Instead, there’s just a kind of start, and then it builds. Q: When do you find time to put new material together? Do you rehearse much when you’re not touring? Jim: We don’t rehearse that much. John: But we did for the new album. Bill: They’ve prepared for this album a lot better than they did for previous ones. We’ve got a duplex office and the downstairs area can be used for practice. There’s been a lot more work toward getting it together before going into the studio this time. John: Right. Before, instead of wasting all that time in there. Jim: You see, when we were playing clubs, we could write songs while we were playing, but now we can’t do that as well, now we have to rehearse. Q: When I was playing regularly with Dave Ray, We’d start a song, and he’d say, “Okay-E.” We’d start playing some worse would come out, and I’d remember the best ones and tell him later. The next night, he’d use those words and the melody in a different way. Eventually, It would evolve into a song. John: That’s just what we used to do. That’s how our whole first album evolved. Robby: The second album, too. Q: How much of “The End” was complete when you went into the studio? Jim: “The End” is one of those songs which has a basic framework. A skeleton is there. But we do it differently every time. When we recorded it, that was just our version of it at that time. Robby: It’s still changing, really. I think it’s a lot better now than it was then. John: When we play it, we good around a lot. We improvise with the music and the lyrics.
Another one thing that im going to repost: some early gig accounts Me and three colleagues subwayed up there (ondine`s club, NY) and bingo — we were blown the **** away. Material that on record had seemed wooden and stage-set now had the existential oompah of a scream. What transpired on stage had this aura of DELIRIOUS BOMBAST the likes of which I hadn’t witnessed in even wrestling or monster movies (it certainly had no precursor in rock, which today people imagine as the fount of all bombast). It was as madly bracing as a cocktail of vodka and, I dunno, napalm. (Richard Meltzer) "He's going through all this whole number [onstage] for the kids, very nice, very religious rock & roll" (Lou Reed, before nico falled in love with jim and then hated him ever since) He was really raw. He knew what he was doing and could do it very well. One thing that surprised me in their set was that Kurt Weill song [“Alabama Song”]. Nobody thought of doing that then. (Van Morrison) The Doors were two things -- John Lee Hooker and John Coltrane" "They were the most mystical and mysterious band"(Carlos santana, who saw them open for "the rascals" in early 1967) "the Doors. We used to play with them all the time at the Whiskey. For weeks on end. Play every night. Crowds would come. The Doors were ****in' great! (Neil young)
Ah..... so that's why... I have an obsession organizing and reading things chronologically, and see how/why opinions change. Maybe Jim had sex with David Crosby's girlfriend, too?
When I was just entering my teens in the early eighties I discovered the Doors. I loved them, and the hype in the eighties about Morrison made me just about obsessive about him and the band. I still love those albums, but I'm pleased I won't be making any more trips to hospital in alcohol induced comas lol
Musically no one held a candle to John Densmore. One of the most musical drummers I've ever heard in rock. Brought so many different flavors.
I was listening to the bands first 2 albums today and that was my main take away. What an amazing drummer, the others are pulling him in all kinds of directions but he stays rock solid throughout. Other than that 'strange days' is such a superb piece of work. Probably the bands best for me.
It is sad that he didn't live long enough to ever reconcile with his parents. He was still young when he passed away, and it is quite possible that with the passage of time and adult perspective and maturity that he may have reconciled with them at some point.
That picture made me think of that very same thing you described. It really is an incredible photo. This video, if you haven't seen it already, is quite touching too.
Yes! He's never mentioned among drummers. Maybe overshadowed by Jim Morrison, but shouldn't leave him out of the equation. Robby is another underrated guitarist who came up with some great stuff, "The End", etc.. I made a thread about the rhythms, but I'll post some of the many different flavors. Break on Through (Bossanova) Light My Fire (Latin) Moonlight Drive (Tango) Cars Hiss By My Window (Blues) Love Her Madly (Rock) Wintertime Love (Jazz) Roadhouse Blues (Shuffle) Strange Days (Tribal) The WASP (Military cadence?) Spanish Caravan (consistent pounding 2nd verse) Alabama Song (oompah) Land Ho! (gallop) Five To One (sounds SO much better than the first live recording, when it was just a straight rock 4/4 beat) But the guy had dynamics, when many rock drummers didn't. Going from quiet to loud (crescendo) is sometimes the extent of many drummers.... John did an amazing job communicating with Jim. I always think of the loud snare to tom move (after playing the beat quietly) right before the last verse on "The End"... His drumming on "When The Music's Over" is another great example. He just seemed to hit the right buttons at the right time at the right volume. I love his beats, fills, accents/ghost notes, etc.. The only interview with father and sister.. There's a very short clip of Andy on YouTube, talking about how their friends never came to birthday parties, that it was reserved only for the family.. I can't wait to read the foreword from Ann. I was actually working on a book about Jim, and had her number, but I didn't wanna bother her. I can't believe his father can't name one of Jim's songs! He said the only one he knew was "Light My Fire" (Robby's) which everyone already knew.. Why not try to understand your dead son? It's the only communication possible.
