Podcast appearances and mentions of John Densmore

American drummer and songwriter

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John Densmore

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Best podcasts about John Densmore

Latest podcast episodes about John Densmore

Profiles With Maggie LePique
Robby Krieger Discusses The 60th Anniversary Of The Doors in 2025 + A Series Of Whisky a Go Go Shows!

Profiles With Maggie LePique

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2025 43:22


Maggie speaks with legendary guitarist, songwriter and founded member of The Doors about The Doors 60th Anniversary this year (2025) and all the exciting events and releases that are happening and will be happening. Robby Krieger is the guitarist for the legendary rock band The Doors and the songwriter behind some of the band's biggest hits, including “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me,” “Love Her Madly,” and their #1 smash, “Light My Fire.” The Doors have sold over a hundred million albums worldwide, inspired a major feature film, been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy®, and been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Robby, meanwhile, has also become a Grammy®-nominated solo artist, and was listed among the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” by Rolling Stone. He is also an accomplished painter and the co-founder of the annual Medlock-Krieger Rock & Roll Golf Classic & All-Star Concert.Source: https://robbykrieger.com/#x-content-band-3Source: https://whiskyagogo.com/calendar/Source: https://thedoors.com/Source: https://www.artforacause.net/Source: https://www.genesis-publications.com/book/9781905662883/night-divides-the-dayHost Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Send us a textSupport the show@profileswithmaggielepique@maggielepique

30 Albums For 30 Years (1964-1994)
The Doors-Strange Days

30 Albums For 30 Years (1964-1994)

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2025 10:22


(S4 Ep25) The Doors - Strange Days Released September 25, 1967, Recorded between May-August 1967 (Elektra) Strange Days, The Doors' ambitious sophomore album, blends dark, poetic themes with groundbreaking production. Opening with the eerie Moog-driven title track—one of rock's earliest uses of the synthesizer—the album dives into surrealism, alienation, and existential dread. Highlights include hits like “People Are Strange” and “Love Me Two Times,” the experimental “Horse Latitudes,” and the 11-minute epic “When the Music's Over.” Jim Morrison's lyrics, often lifted from his notebooks, showcase a maturing vocal performance. At the same time, Ray Manzarek's keyboards, Robby Krieger's inventive guitar, and John Densmore's jazz-inflected drumming create a rich sonic palette. Despite a mixed initial reception, Strange Days is now regarded as a milestone in psychedelic rock, influencing subsequent genres such as gothic and post-punk. The album's avant-garde cover, atmospheric production by Bruce Botnick, and dense, evocative songwriting confirm The Doors as one of America's most innovative 1960s bands, far more than just Morrison's myth.Signature Songs: "Love Me Two Times,"  "People Are Strange,"   "When The Music's Over"Full Album:  YouTube   Spotify Playlist” YouTube Spotify

Disco prestado
(2/6) 'The Doors' de The Doors, con Arecio Smith | DISCO PRESTADO

Disco prestado

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2025 46:24


Charlamos sobre el disco 'The Doors' (1967) con Arecio Smith (teclista y organista) como invitado. Entre otras cosas comentamos: El sonido, la música, la letra y el videoclip de la primera canción del disco: «Break On Through (to the Other Side)». El sonido general del disco y su grabación en cuatro pistas. Los orígenes del nombre 'The Doors'. Cosas que salen en la película 'The Doors' de Oliver Stone pero no son ciertas. La demanda cruzada de Ray Manzarek y Robby Krieger contra John Densmore. El contexto histórico y cultural de EE UU a finales de los sesenta. La actitud política de Jim Morrison. Además, Arecio y yo ilustramos la chara con nuestros instrumentos: él al teclado, y yo a la guitarra. Si quieres participar en la elección de los discos que tratamos en el podcast, ¡visita discoprestado.com y date de alta en mi lista de correo! La música original de 'Disco prestado' forma parte de mi EP 'The Entertainer', disponible en todas las plataformas y marcaliana.com/musica Contacto: discoprestado@proton.me ¡Salud y buena música! Marc Aliana marcaliana.com

The Record Store Day Podcast with Paul Myers
CLIP SHOW - The First Record I Ever Bought, pt. 2.

The Record Store Day Podcast with Paul Myers

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2025 34:43


While we're on a brief hiatus from making all-new episodes, we thought it would be fun to compile all the moments where Paul asks his guests "What Was The First Record You Ever Bought?" and put them in a couple of "clip shows." Last week was part one, so here's part two, featuring Shannon Shaw (from Shannon & The Clams), Joey Santiago (from Pixies), Julian Lage, Steve Perry, Slash, The Heavy Heavy, Ben Folds, John Densmore (The Doors), and bass ace Tony Levin (King Crimson, John Lennon and more). The Record Store Day Podcast is a weekly music chat show written, produced, engineered and hosted by Paul Myers, who also composed the theme music and selected interstitial music.  Executive Producers (for Record Store Day) Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton. Record Store Day 2025 is April 12th. For the most up-to-date news about all things RSD, including The List, visit RecordStoreDay.com) Please consider subscribing to our podcast wherever you get podcasts, and tell your friends, we're here every week and we love making new friends.  

Journal du Rock
Paul McCartney ; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ; Kaiser Chiefs et Sylvie Kreusch ; David Coverdale de Whitesnake ; INXS ; Krieger et Densmond des Doors

Journal du Rock

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2025 3:04


Tickets de concert à des prix de plus en plus élevés : Paul McCartney a mis à disposition des places à 50 dollars pour assister à l'un de ses shows à New York. Les White Stripes, Soundgarden, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, Joe Cocker, Chubby Checker, Bad Company, Oasis et The Black Crowes apparaissent dans la liste des nommés de cette nouvelle édition du Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Deux nouveaux noms sont maintenant confirmés pour le dimanche 3 août 2025 à Ronquières : Kaiser Chiefs et l'artiste belge Sylvie Kreusch. David Coverdale, chanteur du groupe, a adressé un message au monde entier à l'occasion de la St Valentin, fête des amoureux. INXS, le groupe australien a annoncé la sortie d'une version de luxe pour le 40e anniversaire de l'album de 1985, ‘'Listen Like Thieves''. Dans une nouvelle interview, Robbie Krieger, guitariste des Doors, et John Densmore, le batteur, se souviennent de l'émotion qu'ils ont ressentie lorsqu'on leur a proposé de participer à l'émission télé, le Ed Sullivan Show. Mots-Clés : salle, guichet, Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan, photos, site, Classic 21.be, Mariah Carey, Mana, OutKast, Phish, classe, Liam Gallagher, nomination, ironie, institution, mépris, récompense, programmation, Jean-Louis Aubert, Clara Luciani, Kavinsky, Pierre Garnier, The Libertines, festival, spéciale, metal, filmé, bouquet de roses, ballon, Is This Love, fond sonore, versions, LP, CD, mixage, Giles Martin, Paul Hicks, extraits inédits, démo, interview, écrivain, Paul Sexton, sélection, faces B, remixes, enregistrement, live, BBC Live From The Royal Albert Hall, London, 1986, Elvis, les Beatles, producteur, show, paroles explicites, drogues, invités. --- Classic 21 vous informe des dernières actualités du rock, en Belgique et partout ailleurs. Le Journal du Rock, en direct chaque jour à 7h30 et 18h30 sur votre radio rock'n'pop. Merci pour votre écoute Plus de contenus de Classic 21 sur www.rtbf.be/classic21 Ecoutez-nous en live ici: https://www.rtbf.be/radio/liveradio/classic21 ou sur l'app Radioplayer BelgiqueRetrouvez l'ensemble des contenus de la RTBF sur notre plateforme Auvio.be Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement. Découvrez nos autres podcasts : Le journal du Rock : https://audmns.com/VCRYfsPComic Street (BD) https://audmns.com/oIcpwibLa chronique économique : https://audmns.com/NXWNCrAHey Teacher : https://audmns.com/CIeSInQHistoires sombres du rock : https://audmns.com/ebcGgvkCollection 21 : https://audmns.com/AUdgDqHMystères et Rock'n Roll : https://audmns.com/pCrZihuLa mauvaise oreille de Freddy Tougaux : https://audmns.com/PlXQOEJRock&Sciences : https://audmns.com/lQLdKWRCook as You Are: https://audmns.com/MrmqALPNobody Knows : https://audmns.com/pnuJUlDPlein Ecran : https://audmns.com/gEmXiKzRadio Caroline : https://audmns.com/WccemSkAinsi que nos séries :Rock Icons : https://audmns.com/pcmKXZHRock'n Roll Heroes: https://audmns.com/bXtHJucFever (Erotique) : https://audmns.com/MEWEOLpEt découvrez nos animateurs dans cette série Close to You : https://audmns.com/QfFankx

All Time Top Ten
Episode 655 - Top Ten University High Alumni Part 2 w/Morty Coyle & Jordan Summers

All Time Top Ten

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2025 69:23


We told you! University High School in West Los Angeles is a legendary place for a reason. The phrase "only in LA" comes to mind when you take a look at a list of the incredibly talented superstars - from film, music and elsewhere - that have attended this hallowed schoolhouse. Our pals Morty Coyle and Jordan Summers are also incredibly talented superstars in their own right, and they have wonderful stories to tell as they are amongst the subjects of this week's topic - Top Ten University High Alumni. Picks 5-1 are featured here in Part 2.If you missed Part 1, go back and check it out on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yours:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-654-top-ten-university-high-alumni-part-1-w/id573735994?i=1000688509246What a wealth of amazing talent! Hear every song heard in Parts 1 & 2 at the official Top Ten University High Alumni Spotify playlist:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1AH2XMLvTRJWEln0eQ3Y4A?si=970268aac0a24340Morty and Jordan make great music as members of LA stalwarts All Day Sucker. Explore their catalog at their websitehttps://www.alldaysucker.net/We've lowered our prices, but not our standards over at the ATTT Patreon! Those who are kindly contributing $2 a month are receiving an exclusive monthly Emergency Pod episode featuring our favorite guests and utilizing our patent-pending improv format in which we miraculously pull a playlist out of thin air. It's the long-awaited return of Chrissy Olsen, in an all new episode, out February 1st! Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/c/alltimetopten

Profiles With Maggie LePique
Micah Nelson AKA Particle Kid, On Willie Nelson's Latest Recording Last Leaf On The Tree

Profiles With Maggie LePique

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2025 29:17


Maggie speaks with Willie Nelson's youngest son Micah Nelson also known as "Particle Kid" about his latest collaboration with his Father. Willie's 76th studio album and 153rd album overall as he celebrates his 91st year.  Willie Nelson is now in his 7th decade as a songwriter, performer and recording artist, but one of his most underrated talents is song interpretation. Over his career he has tackled songs from across the world of music, making each his own. Willie turns his gaze to a collection of songs by rock legends, idiosyncratic singer songwriters, alt-rock heroes, and indie folk artists. The result is a gorgeously cohesive rumination on loss, love, and world-weary hope, perfectly complemented by spare and spooky musical production. Lovingly curated and produced by his son Micah Nelson, Last Leaf On The Tree finds Willie covering songs from moody indie rock (Beck), psych alt-pop (The Flaming Lips) and punk-informed folk (Sunny War, Micah's Particle Kid) to thought-provoking soul jazz (Nina Simone) and lesser-known gems from legends like Tom Waits, Neil Young, Keith Richards, and Warren Zevon. In addition, the album features new takes on one of Willie's oldest songs (“The Ghost” from 1962) plus a new one penned with Micah (“The Color Of Sound”) that joins Willie's collection of Zen-soaked classics. In addition to producing, Micah Nelson plays many of the instruments and even designed the album cover. He is joined by a host of celebrated musicians plus guest spots from legendary producer and musician Daniel Lanois, John Densmore of The Doors and harmonica master Mickey Raphael, who has played alongside Willie for over 50 years.Source: https://legacyrecordings.medium.com/willie-nelson-the-last-leaf-on-the-tree-d94188f65739Source: https://www.sonymusic.com/legacy/legacy-recordings-releases-willie-nelson-last-leaf-on-the-tree-track/Source: https://willienelson.com/Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Send us a textSupport the show@profileswithmaggielepique@maggielepique

REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE
'THE DOORS' w/ Sean Nelson

REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2025 77:38


This week we are joined by superforce musician, actor, writer & podcaster SEAN NELSON (Harvey Danger, The Wonder Of It All) to discuss one of the most divisive music biopics of all time, Oliver Stone's THE DOORS. We delve into seeing the film in the theater when it first came out in 1991 and how it was wiped off the culutral map shortly after its release, the divisiveness of The Doors' music, how this was the peak of Oliver Stone's power after just winning an oscar, DePalma's proposed version of the film, the strange casting choices for Jim Morrison before landing on Val Kilmer, how the surviving members of The Doors were split on their support of the film, outgrowing certain types of music, the great 90s indie film boom, how in Stone's eyes Morrison could do no wrong, how the film is intellectualy lazy but visually majestic, Crispin Glover as Andy Warhol, Val Kilmer going method on the set of the film, Joan Didion in the studio with The Doors, being superstars at the age of 21, Val Kilmer's butt double, Ed Sullivan impersonators, Stone's disrespect for Warhol's Factory, Kevin Dillon's narc energy in the film and who should have played drummer John Densmore instead, the story behind who played ‘Death' in the film, Hammer Of The Gods & No One Gets Out Alive being essential teenager reads, how the last line of the film is one of the greatest throw away lines of all time & so much more…So let's swim to the moon (or not) on this week's episode of Revolutions Per Movie!!!SEAN NELSON:The Wonder Of It All: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu_AhsJQirp3LaDyH2J0JO_BboEpmaP0Q@actualseannelson REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods.Revolutions Per Movies releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon. If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Click here to get EXCLUSIVE BONUS WEEKLY Revolutions Per Movie content on our Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

30 Albums For 30 Years (1964-1994)
The Doors -Self-Titled

30 Albums For 30 Years (1964-1994)

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2024 18:16


S4-Ep.1 The Doors-Self-Titled Release (Elektra) Released January 4, 1967, Recorded August of 1966 Elektra Records  The Doors is a groundbreaking debut album that blends rock, blues, jazz, and psychedelia with a unique poetic sensibility, largely driven by Jim Morrison's dark, introspective lyrics. Recorded in just six days, the album features a distinctive sound, notably Ray Manzarek's Vox Continental organ, Robby Krieger's flamenco-inspired guitar work, and John Densmore's jazzy drum style. Key tracks like "Light My Fire," with its iconic organ riff and extended solos, and "Break On Through (To the Other Side)," with its rebellious energy, set the stage for the band's rise to fame. The album's fusion of musical styles, alongside Morrison's mysticism and philosophical themes, made it an instant classic, peaking at #2 on the U.S. charts. While not all tracks are equally memorable, The Doors established the band as one of rock music's most innovative and influential forces during the 1960s. Signature Tracks Discussed "Light My Fire," "Break On Through (To The Other Side)"   "The End"  Playlists: YouTube Playlist, Spotify Playlist 

The Record Store Day Podcast with Paul Myers
RSD BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL, Pt. 2, The Edge (U2), John Densmore (The Doors), Julian Lage

The Record Store Day Podcast with Paul Myers

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2024 92:50


Record Store Day Black Friday is November 29, and as we ramp up to the big day we offer the first of two specials. Pt. 2 features The Edge from U2 discussing their RSD Exclusive How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb. Plus, The Doors' John Densmore on the 4 LP set, The Doors: Live In Detroit. And, Jazz guitarist Julian Lage on his Live In Los Angeles EP.  For more information about Record Store Day Black Friday (November 29) visit RecordStoreDay.com The Record Store Day Podcast is a weekly music chat show written, produced, engineered and hosted by Paul Myers, who also composed the theme music and selected interstitial music.  Executive Producers (for Record Store Day) Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton. For the most up-to-date news about all things RSD, visit RecordStoreDay.com)   Sponsored by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (dogfish.com), Tito's Handmade Vodka (titosvodka.com), RSDMRKT.com, and Furnace Record Pressing, the official vinyl pressing plant of Record Store Day.   Please consider subscribing to our podcast wherever you get podcasts, and tell your friends, we're here every week and we love making new friends.

The Podcast With A Thousand Faces
EP 28: John Densmore & Tyler Lapkin

The Podcast With A Thousand Faces

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2024 51:09


In this episode, we're joined by the legendary John Densmore, the rhythmic force behind one of the most iconic bands in rock history, The Doors. From his early days as a young musician in Southern California, John has always been captivated by the primal call of the drum—a heartbeat that transcends time and culture. John's journey with The Doors, from their groundbreaking debut album in 1967 to Jim Morrison's untimely passing in 1971, cemented his place in music history. His dynamic approach to drumming, influenced by his love of jazz and global rhythms, set the band apart and helped define their dark, sonically diverse sound. After Morrison's death, John continued to explore new musical territories, from reggae with The Butts Band to jazz fusion with Tribaljazz.Beyond music, John is also an accomplished writer and has authored several books, including the best-seller Riders on the Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and The Doors. His latest work, The Seekers: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians, reflects his enduring curiosity and desire to learn from the artists who have influenced him throughout his life. One of those influencers was Joseph Campbell, with whom John studied at the Esalen Institute and the Jung center. Campbell's teachings had a profound impact on John's artistic philosophy, and he dedicated a chapter to Campbell in The Seekers.In this conversation we discuss his relationship with Joseph Campbell, and explore his deep connections to music, spirituality, and the creative process that has fueled his remarkable career.Learn more about John: https://www.johndensmore.com/ For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org. To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribeThe Podcast With A Thousand Faces is hosted by Tyler Lapkin and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, John Bucher. Audio mixing and editing by Charles Mallett.All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

Double Threat with Julie Klausner & Tom Scharpling

Tom and Julie experience the religiosity of Russell Brand, the hot new Halloween song "Get Down Goblin," the world's biggest Michael McDonald fan, and Doors drummer John Densmore on The Dennis Miller Show. Plus Tom tells Julie and Brett about his new friend Steve. SUPPORT DOUBLE THREAT ON PATREON  Weekly Bonus Episodes, Monthly Livestreams, Video Episodes, and More! https://www.patreon.com/DoubleThreatPod   WATCH VIDEO CLIPS OF DOUBLE THREAT  https://www.youtube.com/@doublethreatpod   JOIN THE DOUBLE THREAT FAN GROUPS  *Discord https://discord.com/invite/PrcwsbuaJx  *Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/doublethreatfriends  *Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/doublethreatfriends   DOUBLE THREAT MERCH https://www.teepublic.com/stores/double-threat   TOTALLY EFFED UP T-SHIRTS  https://www.teepublic.com/user/dttfu   SEND SUBMISSIONS TO  DoubleThreatPod@gmail.com   FOLLOW DOUBLE THREAT  https://twitter.com/doublethreatpod  https://www.instagram.com/doublethreatpod   DOUBLE THREAT IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/double-threat   Theme song by Mike Krol  Artwork by Michael Kupperman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Samuel Andreyev Podcast
John Densmore: My Life with The Doors

The Samuel Andreyev Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2024 46:52


Composer Samuel Andreyev interviews drummer, actor and author John Densmore of The Doors.==PRIVATE LESSONS IN COMPOSITION AND ANALYSISContact me via samuel.andreyev (at) gmail (dot) comSUPPORT THIS PODCASTPatreonDonorboxSAMUEL ANDREYEV'S NEW ALBUMhttps://divineartrecords.com/recording/samuel-andreyev-in-glow-of-like-seclusion/LINKSYouTube channelOfficial WebsiteTwitterInstagramEdition Impronta, publisher of Samuel Andreyev's scoresEPISODE CREDITSPost production: Arkadiusz BuchalaPodcast artwork photograph © 2019 Philippe StirnweissSupport the Show.

Drum History
A Look at Alex Van Halen's Gear (Part 2) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2024 104:11


(Part 2 Covers 1985-2015) Alex Van Halen is responsible for inspiring a generation of young drummers to pick up drumsticks because of his virtuosic playing and HUGE drum sets. Kurt Ekstrom joins us on the podcast to guide us through each and every one of Alex's iconic drum sets and all the accessories and details that make them absolutely one of a kind works of art! Alex Van Halen's drum sets feature 4 bass drums, fire extinguishers, gas masks, exhaust pipes, and rubber tubes connecting everything together. Does it get any cooler than that? In this episode, Kurt takes us through all the iconic kits that AVH used with Sammy Haggar in the mid 80's including the iconic 5150 set and his Simmons drum sets, through the 90's with Gary Cherone and up to his final performance in 2015. Alex will always be one of the greatest drummers in the world and his drum sets have inspired millions of musicians around the world. You can check out this series on YouTube if you would like to see the visuals we discuss: www.youtube.com/@DrumHistoryPodcast Thanks for listening/watching! Here are links to Kurt's other episodes of Drum History: The Gear of John Densmore - https://youtu.be/1d_Vm9x4LNA?si=hUGccRZk0dXOsukQ The History of WFL Drums - https://youtu.be/9QEJket9eTA?si=cfjq7MDGbqNeD0nz **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **I record interviews with Riverside.FM - I highly recommend it. use code DRUM to save 15%*** https://riverside.fm/?via=bart-vanderzee

Drum History
A Look at Alex Van Halen's Gear (Part 2) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2024 104:11


(Part 2 Covers 1985-2015) Alex Van Halen is responsible for inspiring a generation of young drummers to pick up drumsticks because of his virtuosic playing and HUGE drum sets. Kurt Ekstrom joins us on the podcast to guide us through each and every one of Alex's iconic drum sets and all the accessories and details that make them absolutely one of a kind works of art! Alex Van Halen's drum sets feature 4 bass drums, fire extinguishers, gas masks, exhaust pipes, and rubber tubes connecting everything together. Does it get any cooler than that? In this episode, Kurt takes us through all the iconic kits that AVH used with Sammy Haggar in the mid 80's including the iconic 5150 set and his Simmons drum sets, through the 90's with Gary Cherone and up to his final performance in 2015. Alex will always be one of the greatest drummers in the world and his drum sets have inspired millions of musicians around the world. You can check out this series on YouTube if you would like to see the visuals we discuss: www.youtube.com/@DrumHistoryPodcast Thanks for listening/watching! Here are links to Kurt's other episodes of Drum History: The Gear of John Densmore - https://youtu.be/1d_Vm9x4LNA?si=hUGccRZk0dXOsukQ The History of WFL Drums - https://youtu.be/9QEJket9eTA?si=cfjq7MDGbqNeD0nz **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **I record interviews with Riverside.FM - I highly recommend it. use code DRUM to save 15%*** https://riverside.fm/?via=bart-vanderzee

Drum History
A Look at Alex Van Halen's Gear (Part 1) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2024 134:03


Alex Van Halen is responsible for inspiring a generation of young drummers to pick up drumsticks because of his virtuosic playing and HUGE drum sets. Kurt Ekstrom joins us on the podcast to guide us through each and every one of Alex's iconic drum sets and all the accessories and details that make them absolutely one of a kind works of art! Alex Van Halen's drum sets feature 4 bass drums, fire extinguishers, gas masks, exhaust pipes, and rubber tubes connecting everything together. Does it get any cooler than that? In this episode, Kurt takes us through all the iconic kits that AVH used from his childhood drum set up to the mid-1980s at the last show that Van Halen played with David Lee Roth. Part 2 will pick things up from the mid 80's up to 2015 when Alex hung up his sticks. Here are links to Kurt's other episodes of Drum History: The Gear of John Densmore - https://youtu.be/1d_Vm9x4LNA?si=hUGccRZk0dXOsukQ The History of WFL Drums - https://youtu.be/9QEJket9eTA?si=cfjq7MDGbqNeD0nz **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **I record interviews with Riverside.FM - I highly recommend it. use code DRUM to save 15%*** https://riverside.fm/?via=bart-vanderzee

Drum History
A Look at Alex Van Halen's Gear (Part 1) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2024 134:03


(Part 1 covers 1964-1984) Alex Van Halen is responsible for inspiring a generation of young drummers to pick up drumsticks because of his virtuosic playing and HUGE drum sets. Kurt Ekstrom joins us on the podcast to guide us through each and every one of Alex's iconic drum sets and all the accessories and details that make them absolutely one of a kind works of art! Alex Van Halen's drum sets feature 4 bass drums, fire extinguishers, gas masks, exhaust pipes, and rubber tubes connecting everything together. Does it get any cooler than that? In this episode, Kurt takes us through all the iconic kits that AVH used from his childhood drum set up to the mid-1980s at the last show that Van Halen played with David Lee Roth. Part 2 will pick things up from the mid 80's up to 2015 when Alex hung up his sticks. Here are links to Kurt's other episodes of Drum History: The Gear of John Densmore - https://youtu.be/1d_Vm9x4LNA?si=hUGccRZk0dXOsukQ The History of WFL Drums - https://youtu.be/9QEJket9eTA?si=cfjq7MDGbqNeD0nz You can check out this series on YouTube if you would like to see the visuals we discuss: www.youtube.com/@DrumHistoryPodcast Thanks for listening/watching! **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **I record interviews with Riverside.FM - I highly recommend it. use code DRUM to save 15%*** https://riverside.fm/?via=bart-vanderzee

The Vinyl Guide
Ep433: John Densmore of The Doors

The Vinyl Guide

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2024 59:17 Very Popular


50+ years after the passing of Jim Morrison, John Densmore of The Doors continues to honour the wishes of his bandmate when it comes to the commercialism of the music of The Doors. John discusses that journey and many other fascinating memories of the legacy of The Doors. Meet Mr Blue Hair A moment with John Coltrane & Elvin Jones Not selling out the Doors legacy Defending the wishes of Jim Morrison Visiting Jim Morrison's grave Was there a funeral for Jim? Being aware of the “Jim is Alive” rumours Evolving perspective of substance abuse Last conversation with Jim and his state All Doors except Jim participated in mixdowns Jim's behaviour in the studio John's impression of punk early on Did Jim dabble in hard drugs? How much of LA Woman was played live? Multiple live Doors shows being made available The live performance that best represents The Doors at their peak Memories and recordings of the final Doors show Recording of Jimbo and Jimi Hendrix John's upcoming projects with Chuck D and Adam Holzman Memories of the original Doors demo acetates Signing to Columbia – appearing on the “drop list” Arrangements for Doors music after John passes Involvement with Jim's family after his passing The journey of Jim's father John's comparison of political environment then and now Did John get negative PR from the trial? The story of the Buick commercial What circumstance or situation would John consider approving Doors music to be made available commercially? John was uncomfortable being the centrepiece of the band? Bands reforming and touring in the modern era Jim's relationship with money After Jim passes, was there any closure? Names that were floated as potential replacements for Jim Is John comfortable with The Doors music so closely associated with Vietnam? Preparing for a potential draft and conflict We need to find moments and try to be grateful when you can Interview wrap up The book "The Doors Unhinged" available here. Extended, Commercial-Free & High Resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0 Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8

SWR1 Meilensteine - Alben die Geschichte machten
Blues, Hard Rock, Psychedelic und Seemannslieder – "Morrison Hotel" von The Doors

SWR1 Meilensteine - Alben die Geschichte machten

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2024 37:47


"Morrison Hotel" von The Doors erschien im Februar 1970. Es war das fünfte Album der Doors und ist – wie es sich für einen richtigen Meilensteine-Klassiker gehört – kaum gealtert. Die Erstsendung des Meilensteins zu "Morrison Hotel" lief Ende Januar 2020 zum damaligen 50. Jubiläum des Albums. Das Album verkaufte sich in weniger als drei Tagen bereits mehr als eine Million Mal und gilt als eines der größten Rockalben aller Zeiten. "Blues, Hard Rock, Psychedelic und Seemannslieder, eine verrückte und wilde Mischung, depressiv, mystisch oder albern verrückt – so wie die Doors halt waren." (SWR1 Musikredakteur Frank König) Wer sich als Doors-Fan vor 50 Jahren diese Scheibe gekauft und aufgelegt hat, der war womöglich erleichtert über den bluesigen Sound. Das war ein echtes Comeback, was da passiert ist! Das Vorgängeralbum "The Soft Parade" fiel unter anderem durch sehr viele orchestrale Einsätze aus dem normalen Door-Sound raus – und das kam bei den Fans und Presse nicht so gut an. Mit "Morrison Hotel" sind sie zurückgegangen zu ihren Wurzeln, zu richtigem Blues. Man könnte denken, es wäre ein Blues Klassiker, ist es aber nicht. "Ich glaube, es ist das Erfolgsgeheimnis dieses Albums, dass die Fans wieder gespürt haben, sie sind zurück bei ihren Blues-Wurzeln gelandet." (SWR1 Musikredakteurin Katharina Heinius über "Morrison Hotel" von The Doors) Der besondere Doors-Sound auf "Morrison Hotel" Die Doors machen mit ihrer Musik musikalisch Räume auf. Sie erweitern den Blues in dem Sinn, dass sie für große Instrumentalflächen in ihren Songs Platz lassen. Der Hörer muss sich nicht zwangsläufig immer mit dem Text beschäftigen, er kann sich auch einfach in die Musik fallen nd sich von ihr treiben lassen. Für ihre Vorgängeralben haben sich The Doors immer wieder Session-Musiker mit ins Studio geholt, da war immer viel los. Das haben sie jetzt für dieses Album tatsächlich weniger gemacht. Sie haben die Songs vor allem mit Jim Morrisons Gesang, Gitarre, Bass und Orgel aufgenommen. Bei manchen Songs sind dennoch Session-Musiker reingekommen, wie beispielsweise bei "Roadhouse Blues". The Doors sind eine der wenigen Bands, die keinen Bassisten haben, so haben sie sich für diesen Song Lonnie Mack zum jammen eingeladen, er war einer der großen Bassisten in dieser Zeit in Hollywood. Im November 1969 haben The Doors im Elektra Sound Recording Studio, einem Studio in West Hollywood, angefangen "Morrison Hotel" aufzunehmen. Letztlich wurde "You Make Me Real" dann die erste Single-Auskopplung von "Morrison Hotel" – und war nicht besonders erfolgreich. Jim Morrison hat in einem Interview mal gesagt, dass sie sich fast immer für die vermeintlich falsche Single auf ihren Alben entschieden haben, wenn es darum geht, wie erfolgreich der Song im Anschluss wurde. Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Doors Ray Manzarek und Jim Morrison haben sich im Studium kennengelernt und sich später irgendwann wiedergetroffen. Manzarek, der selbst Keyboard spielte, war sofort begeistert von Morrisons Stimme und seinen Texten, am Strand haben die beiden The Doors gegründet. Sie machten sich auf die Suche nach passenden Musikern und fanden Robby Krieger und John Densmore, die Gitarre und Schlagzeug spielten. Jim Morrison – Versoffener Poet & "Rock-Schamane" Morrison war bekannt dafür, dass er sehr gerne auf Blues-Nummern gesungen hat, wenn er alkoholisiert war – und das war in dieser Zeit bei diesen Aufnahmen ein großes Problem, denn sein Alkoholkonsum war erheblich. "Ja, er war schlicht und ergreifend ein versoffener Poet, oder? Ja, das kann man so sagen. Es war ja auch Teil seiner Kunst (…) diese Provokation alles zu zerstören oder dieses selbstzerstörerische Element. Er war so ein Grenzgänger, der wollte das auch ausprobieren." (SWR1 Musikredakteur Frank König über Jim Morrison) Morrison hatte reichlich Probleme dadurch, viele Prozesse am Hals und auch die öffentliche Stimmung kippte dadurch bei den Doors. Sie durften in manchen Bundesstaaten nicht mehr öffentlich auftreten. Morrison war auf der Bühne unter Alkoholeinfluss unkalkulierbar. Als die Polizei auf die Bühne kam und ihn mitgenommen hat, sind die Fans völlig ausgerastet und wenn er auf der Bühne die Besinnung verloren hat, hat er sich auch mal nackig gemacht. Jim Morrison war nicht von vornherein so auf der Bühne. Als die Doors 1965 angefangen haben Gigs zu spielen, stand er zunächst mit dem Rücken zum Publikum auf der Bühne. Erst später hat er sich eine künstlerische Figur zugelegt und seine düstere Seite kam mit dazu. Ray Manzarek hat diese Seite an ihm immer "Jimbo" genannt. Diese exzentrische, düstere Seite war dann auch jene, die auf der Bühne ausgebrochen ist – und das hat er irgendwann nicht mehr abschalten können. Irgendwann war diese Figur größer als er selbst. Morrison hat sich viel mit Literatur beschäftigt und wollte ein authentischer Poet sein. Für sein Verständnis, musste ein Poet leiden oder Leid erlebt haben. Auf diesem Selbstverständnis basierend hat er viele Gedichte geschrieben. Außerdem war Morrison sehr interessiert an indianischer Kultur, hat auch länger bei Indianern gelebt. Der Mann, der sich selber einen "Rock-Schamanen" nannte, hat in seiner Kindheit eine starke traumatische Erfahrung mit Indianern gemacht. Er wurde als kleiner 4-jähriger Junge Zeuge eines schweren Verkehrsunfalls, bei dem etliche indianische Wanderarbeiter ums Leben gekommen sind und hat dieses Trauma in seinen Songs und Gedichten verarbeitet. Zum Beispiel auch in dem Gedichtband "An American Prayer“. Er wurde 78 auf dem gleichnamigen Doors Album veröffentlicht. In "Dawn's Highway" erzählt Jim Morrison sehr detailliert von diesem grauenhaften Ereignis und beschreibt, wie die Seelen der toten Indianer seine Seele besetzen, die Zeit seines Lebens in ihm wirken sollen. Doch Morrisons Vater soll ihm gesagt haben, dass er das alles so nicht erlebt habe, ja nur geträumt hätte. Für ein Kind unverständlich – die Ebenen der Realität und des Traums können so durcheinandergeraten sein. Im Song "Peace Frog" thematisiert er diese traumatische Kindheitserinnerung. "Für mein Gefühl hat diese Geschichte sein Lebensthema ausgelöst, dass er immer wieder betrachtet. Es gibt ganz viele Songs der Doors oder Gedichte, die Jim Morrison geschrieben hat, die sich mit diesem Thema beschäftigen und immer ist der Grundtenor Leid." (SWR1 Musikredakteurin Katharina Heinius über Jim Morrisons Kindheitstrauma) Morrisons früher Tod Morrison stirbt mit 27 Jahren in Paris im Jahr 1971, seine damalige Freundin Pamela Courson findet ihn in der Badewanne. Er ist auf dem Friedhof Père Lachaise beigesetzt worden. Es gab nie eine Obduktion, letztlich ist demnach nicht bekannt, was die tatsächliche Todesursache ist. Der Arzt hat damals den Herzstillstand als Todesursache vermerkt. Doch Courson und Morrison unterliegen beide einem exzessiven Drogenkonsum. Auch sie stirbt 3 Jahre später in Kalifornien im Alter von 27 Jahren an einer Überdosis Heroin. "Morrison Hotel" – Ein Meilenstein der Musikgeschichte Was 1969 zum Streit zwischen John Lennon und den Doors geführt hat, die Entstehungsgeschichte der Band und ihres dazugehörigen Bandnamens, was es damit auf sich hat, dass die Doors für das Platten-Cover von "Morrison Hotel" verklagt wurden und $1000 Strafe zahlen mussten – darüber und mehr, wird in dieser Epidsode gesprochen. __________ Über diese Songs vom Album "Morrison Hotel" wird im Podcast gesprochen (03:24) – "Roadhouse Blues"(16:14) – "Waiting for the Sun"(22:27) – "Peace Frog"(26:30) – "You Make Me Real"(32:02) – "Queen of the Highway"(37:15) – "Land Ho!"__________ Über diese Songs wird außerdem im Podcast gesprochen (13:55) – "Roadhouse Blues"-Cover von Status Quo (Klaus Doldinger) von Udo Lindenberg __________ Shownotes The Doors - Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/100950-000-A/the-doors-live-at-the-isle-of-wight-festival-1970/ Jim Morrison: Die letzten Tage in Paris: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/100171-000-A/jim-morrison-die-letzten-tage-in-paris/ Trailer zu Classic Albums "Morrison Hotel" auf dem YouTube-Kanal der Doors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxSTucTLo8w __________ Buchtipps "Die Doors, Jim Morrison und ich" von Ray Manzarek, Kirsten Borchardt (Übersetzung): http://www.hannibal-verlag.de/cgi-bin/WebObjects/TXTSVHannibal2.woa/640/wo/CULgQtJHNIi32bw00RW1A2yJwkg/2.0.SuperPage.11.1.5.1.1.11.1.1.1.0.BoxArticleSmall.1.13.0 "Mein Leben mit Jim Morrison und den Doors" von John Densmore, Rainer Moddemann (Übersetzung): http://www.hannibal-verlag.de/cgi-bin/WebObjects/TXTSVHannibal2.woa/640/wo/CULgQtJHNIi32bw00RW1A2yJwkg/5.0.SuperPage.11.1.5.1.1.11.1.1.1.0.BoxArticleSmall.1.1.0 __________ Ihr wollt mehr Podcasts wie diesen? Abonniert die SWR1 Meilensteine! Fragen, Kritik, Anregungen? Schreibt uns an: meilensteine@swr.de

Life is Short with Justin Long
John Densmore

Life is Short with Justin Long

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2023 87:02 Very Popular


John Densmore (The Doors) and Justin talk about what it was like to be part of an iconic rock band, how they coped after Jim Morrison's sudden death, how he had to sue his own band members to avoid selling out and they share a mutual appreciation for Bernie Sanders. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

1080 KYMN Radio - Northfield Minnesota
The Weekly List – The Doors Show 11/30/23

1080 KYMN Radio - Northfield Minnesota

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2023


Commemorating what would have been Jim Morrison’s 80th Birthday on December 8th, Rich and Danny spend some time in the world of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore. While Danny revels in this time with the Doors, Rich is forced to come to terms with the fact that, despite the fact he […]

1991 Movie Rewind
Episode 139 - The Doors

1991 Movie Rewind

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2023 68:14


0:00 - Intro & Summary2:00 - Movie Discussion41:29 - Cast & Crew/Awards51:55  - Pop Culture1:02:03 -  Rankings & Ratings To see a full list of movies we will be watching and shows notes, please follow our website: https://www.1991movierewind.com/Follow us!https://linktr.ee/1991movierewind Theme: "sunrise-cardio," Jeremy Dinegan (via Storyblocks)Don't forget to rate/review/subscribe/tell your friends to listen to us!

Cleveland's Morning News with Wills and Snyder
Wills & Snyder: THE DOORS UNHINGED: The Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial - John Densmore

Cleveland's Morning News with Wills and Snyder

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 16, 2023 4:44


Legendary drummer and founding member of The Doors John Densmore spoke to Bill about his book THE DOORS UNHINGED: The Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial - This is the gripping account of the legal battle to control The Doors' artistic destiny - deeply principled middle finger to greed.

Pete McMurray Show
The Doors John Densmore on why he's holding out the Doors legacy by not using it commercially "Jim (Morrison) lived in a motel, he didn't care about money at all. He cared about his music. I'm sticking with that!"

Pete McMurray Show

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2023 7:00


The Doors John Densmore remains true to himself by not selling outJohn stalks:-Life after Jim Morrison's death-Why he hasn't sold the Doors songs for commercial use-Would he sell to s Super Bowl advertiser -Will he and Robbie Krieger play again livePhoto Courtesy: Modern Drummer  

Greg & The Morning Buzz
JOHN DENSMORE-DRUMMER FOR THE DOORS. 11/10

Greg & The Morning Buzz

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2023 11:54


JOHN DENSMORE DRUMMER FROM THE DOORS BOOK- THE DOORS- UNHINGED: JIM MORRISONS LEGACY GOES ON TRIAL.

Airtalk
AirTalk Episode Wednesday November 8, 2023

Airtalk

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2023 99:30


Today on AirTalk, new research from UCLA examines the conditions of young California workers. Also on the show, how deepfake AI pornography is influencing your life; an interview with The Doors drummer John Densmore on his new book ; Veteran Series: understanding VA benefits and more. Young People In California Are Working A Lot. But Many Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet (00:17) Deepfake AI Pornography Is Exploding Online, What Can Be Done To Prevent Its Spread? (23:18) 'The Doors' Drummer John Densmore Flips The Bird To Greed In New Book 'The Doors Unhinged' (31:08) Veterans Series: Getting Into The Impact Of VA Benefits, G.I. Bills, Healthcare & Predatory Companies (51:15) SAG Strike Update: AI Protections Still Needing To Be Ironed Out Following Long Days Of Negotiating This Week (1:34:22)

KQ Morning Show
November 7, 2023

KQ Morning Show

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2023 95:25


Originally aired on November 7, 2023: We speak to John Densmore, legendary drummer of The Doors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Big 550 KTRS
CarneyShow 11.07.23 John Densmore, Chirco's Pizza, George Mahe, Alex Stone

The Big 550 KTRS

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2023 123:22


CarneyShow 11.07.23 John Densmore, Chirco's Pizza, George Mahe, Alex Stone by

Profiles With Maggie LePique
John Densmore Discusses His Book; The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes On Trial

Profiles With Maggie LePique

Play Episode Play 59 sec Highlight Listen Later Nov 3, 2023 32:50


In The Doors Unhinged, New York Times bestselling author and legendary Doors drummer John Densmore offers a powerful exploration of the “greed gene”—that part of the human psyche that propels us toward the accumulation of more and more wealth, even at the expense of our principles, friendships, and the well-being of society. This is the gripping account of the legal battle to control The Doors's artistic destiny. In it, Densmore looks at his conflict with his bandmates over the right to use The Doors's name, revealing the ways in which this struggle mirrors and reflects a much larger societal issue: that no amount of money seems to be enough for even the wealthiest people.The Doors continue to attract new generations of fans, with more than one hundred million albums sold worldwide and counting, and nearly twenty million followers to the band's social media accounts. As such, Densmore occupies a rarefied space in popular culture. He's beloved by artists across the decades for his fierce, uncompromising dedication to art. His writing consistently earns accolades and has appeared in a range of publications, such as the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. As his friend and American novelist Tom Robbins recently said to him, “If you keep writing like this, I'll have to get a drum set.”This is an incredibly timely and important volume in a contemporary world that is increasingly consumed by an insatiable profit motive. John Densmore has given us a blueprint for an approach to life and culture that is not driven by greed.Source: https://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/doors-unhinged/Source: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-presents-John-Densmore-with-Fred-Armisen-discussing-The-Doors-UnhingedHost Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Support the show

Greater LA
Electric v. gas cars: Strong opinions fuel CA drivers

Greater LA

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2023 32:12


One in four cars sold in California is now electric. EV drivers say switching saves money and the planet. Gas drivers are worried about running out of power. John Densmore, known as the Doors' drummer, is out with a new book called The Doors: Unhinged Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial. Amateur perfumers and nature lovers Jack Kelly and Natalie Coffen lead “scent saunters” through Griffith Park and Franklin Canyon Park. Enjoy the wild smells of LA!

Profiles With Maggie LePique
Robby Krieger On Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters With Maggie LePique

Profiles With Maggie LePique

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2023 41:35


Robby Krieger On Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original MastersThe Doors were a few months away from stardom in March 1967 when they played five sparsely attended shows at a small club in San Francisco called The Matrix. These uninhibited performances would have been fleeting if not for Peter Abram, who co-owned  the pizza parlor-turned-nightclub with Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin. An avid recordist, Abram taped concerts at The Matrix regularly and his recordings of The Doors, made between March 7-11, 1967, spawned one of the band's most storied bootlegs.  At long last, all known Matrix recordings, sourced entirely from Abram's original master recordings, will be released on September 8.Bootlegs of The Matrix shows have circulated among fans for years and were popular despite the poor audio quality of most copies. The sound began improving in 1997 when the first two songs from The Matrix shows were officially released on The Doors: Box Set. Even more performances followed in 2008 on Live at the Matrix 1967; regrettably, it was discovered soon after that all the recordings were sourced from third-generation tapes, not the originals. Today, Abram's original recordings have been remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors' longtime engineer/mixer, for official release. The vinyl version of LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS includes all 37 songs from the shows sourced from the master tapes. Except for 15 songs released in 2017 and 2018 as Record Store Day exclusives, most of the newly upgraded live recordings are making their debut in the collection, including eight that have never been featured on any of the previous Matrix releases.It's easy to understand the enduring appeal of these vintage performances by Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. Recorded only a few months before “Light My Fire” propelled the band to worldwide success, the tapes capture The Doors playing a wide range of songs, including several from their self-titled debut, like “Break On Through,” “Soul Kitchen,” and “The End.” They also performed half the songs destined for the group's soon-to-be-recorded second album, Strange Days, including early performances of “Moonlight Drive” and “People Are Strange.” 15 Sets of music over five nights at The Matrix gave the band time to indulge its love of the blues with extended covers of “I'm A King Bee” and “Crawling King Snake.” The Doors even delivered an instrumental version of “Summertime.” These special moments all contribute to making Live at The Matrix, 1967all the more fascinating and important, as it showcases The Doors as the nascent struggling young band they were. Let's get deeper inside this box set's music, shall we?Source: https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/artiHost Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Support the show

Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature | Bioneers Radio Series
Art As Social Change: Birthing the Dawn Of A New Day | John Densmore & Climbing PoeTree

Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature | Bioneers Radio Series

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2023 29:14


“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” (Bertolt Brecht). John Densmore, legendary drummer of the Doors, joins visionary spoken word duo Climbing PoeTree in an exploration of creativity and social change. This episode of the Bioneers features exclusive interviews with the artists and a special Bioneers performance of Jim Morrison's poem, “American Prayer”.

Jagbags
You Know The Day Destroys The Night, Night Divides The Day: The Music of the Doors

Jagbags

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2023 46:27


The L.A. band the Doors continue to inspire strong opinions, even in 2023, and Beave and Len talk through the band's music in detail. Will their popularity come roaring back yet again, or has their time passed at last? Was Jim Morrison the first art rock poet, or was he a drunken fraud? Does the music hold up 50 years later? What was the secret of the band's appeal (make no mistake, at their zenith they were as big as anyone)? Tune in for some strange days.

The Big Interview with Dan Rather
The Big Interview with The Doors

The Big Interview with Dan Rather

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2023 43:04


The two surviving members of The Doors, John Densmore and Robby Krieger, reminisce about their music, the sixties, and the life and death of Jim Morrison.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working Drummer
426 - Dr. Charlie Kautz and Dr. Shayan Ghaffari: The Fine Tune Clinic, Parallels Between Athletes and Musicians, Using Education to Solve Physical Issues

Working Drummer

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2023 84:18


At the Fine Tune Clinic, Dr. Charlie Kautz and Dr. Shayan Ghaffari are a licensed Chiropractors providing state-of-the-art techniques that directly treat specific muscles to relieve pain symptoms and improve range of motion. After years of observing and working with musicians, they provide a unique combination of advanced myofascial and Chiropractic techniques to address underlying causes of repetitive stress injurys. In this episode, Dr. Charlie Kautz & Dr. Shayan Ghaffari talk about:    Parallels between athletes and musicians    Matt's personal work with Dr. Shayan    Dr. Charlie meeting John Densmore, drummer for the Doors    Active Release Technique (ART)    Problems with “drummers posture”    Using education to solve physical issues    Things that we do that sabotages our health and mobility    How supplements optimize recovery

The ALL NEW Big Wakeup Call with Ryan Gatenby

Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer John Desmore, legendary drummer for The Doors, joined me for a discussion about his book THE SEEKERS: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians (and Other Artists): John Densmore, drummer of The Doors and bestselling author, reveals his personal creative journey and spiritual path alongside some of the iconic people he has known.Whether it's the curiosity that blossoms after we listen to our favorite band's newest record, or the sheer admiration we feel after watching a knockout performance or reading a masterpiece, many of us have experienced art so pure - so innovative - that we can't help but wonder afterwards: "How did they do that?" And yet, few of us are in a position to be able to ask those memorable legends where their inspiration comes from and how they translated it into something fresh and new. Fortunately, THE SEEKERS: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians (and Other Artists) is here to offer us a bridge.John Densmore digs deep into his own process and draws upon his access to fellow artists, performers, and writers - including Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, and Robert Bly - in order to explore the origins of creativity itself. Inspired by the classic spiritual memoir, Meetings with Remarkable Men by G.I. Gurdjieff and weaving together anecdotes from the author's personal notebooks and experiences over the past 50 years - from the impact of his artistic mother, to his first impression of Jim Morrison, to meeting the Dalai Lama and Ram Dass - this book takes readers on a rich, thought-provoking, spiritual journey into the soul of the artist."On the back cover of my first book, Riders on the Storm, Oliver Stone called me a "survivor and a seeker." I am still on that road. In fact, we all are, whether it's a freeway or a dirt trail, our experience is the same; we have embarked on a journey of spirit in our human bodies as we proceed down our path on Planet Earth. And music is a candle, lighting the way along the road toward the art of living." -John DensmoreUltimately, the result is not only a look into the hearts and minds of some of the most important artists and iconic people of the past century, but a way for readers to identify and ignite their own creative spark and light their own fire. By understanding creativity's roots, Densmoreultimately introduces us to the realm of everyday inspirations that imbue our lives with meaning.THE SEEKERS is available in hardcover, e-book, and audio formats. The book's cover art is by famed artist Shepard Fairey. "All creative people have inspirations that become part of their DNA," says Fairey. "John Densmore not only acknowledges his inspirations, but beautifully, powerfully, and lovingly celebrates mentors, heroes, and peers who have impacted his life's journey and become part of his DNA. For the cover, I envisioned a tapestry with multiple epic figures whose threads are intertwined with John Densmore himself, the central beating heart and storyteller."

Drum History
A look at John Densmore's Gear (The Doors) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 115:55


John Densmore of The Doors is truly a drumming icon of the 1960's and his Ludwig Mod Orange Drum Set is just as important in the history of Rock and Roll. My guest is Kurt Ekstrom who is a diehard fan of Densmore and also extremely passionate and knowledgable about Mod Orange drums. This episode is both a look at John Densmore's life and career with The Doors and a deep dive into his drum gear. We talk various drum kits, cymbals, hardware, heads and everything along the way including Kurts hunt for what happened to the famous Mod Orange drum set! Did you know John Densmore never changed his Mod Orange floor tom head throughout his entire career!? Here is Kurts article for Not So Modern Drummer about the hunt for the kit: https://www.notsomoderndrummer.com/not-so-modern-drummer/tag/Ludwig+Mod+Orange Thanks to GM Designs Cymbals for sponsoring this episode: https://gmdcymbals.com/ **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast

Drum History
A look at John Densmore's Gear (The Doors) with Kurt Ekstrom

Drum History

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2023 115:55


John Densmore of The Doors is truly a drumming icon of the 1960's and his Ludwig Mod Orange Drum Set is just as important in the history of Rock and Roll. My guest is Kurt Ekstrom who is a diehard fan of Densmore and also extremely passionate and knowledgable about Mod Orange drums. This episode is both a look at John Densmore's life and career with The Doors and a deep dive into his drum gear. We talk various drum kits, cymbals, hardware, heads and everything along the way including Kurts hunt for what happened to the famous Mod Orange drum set! Did you know John Densmore never changed his Mod Orange floor tom head throughout his entire career!? Here is Kurts article for Not So Modern Drummer about the hunt for the kit: https://www.notsomoderndrummer.com/not-so-modern-drummer/tag/Ludwig+Mod+Orange Thanks to GM Designs Cymbals for sponsoring this episode: https://gmdcymbals.com/ **DRUM HISTORY MERCH** https://www.teepublic.com/stores/drum-history-podcast?ref_id=26024 ** CHECK OUT MY GEAR ON SWEETWATER ** https://imp.i114863.net/yRYRGN ** 30 DAY FREE DRUMEO TRIAL ** https://drumeo.pxf.io/c/3607735/1268414/14652 **JOIN PATREON** https://www.patreon.com/drumhistorypodcast

Darik Podcast
Музикална история еп. 27: „Light My Fire“ на „The Doors“

Darik Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2023 15:00


Песента е описана като съвместно дело на цялата група, но истината е по-различна. В началото на 1966 година почти никой не познава „The Doors“ („Дъ Дорс“). Бандата е на няколко месеца и има малко фенове в Лос Анджелис. „Light My Fire“ (в превод „Запали ми огъня“) е песента, дала известност на групата. През тези първи месеци основен автор на песните е вокалистът Jim Morrison (Джим Морисън). Един ден групата открива, че вече няма мелодии и Морисън приканва и останалите да напишат по нещо, за да не свирят кавъри пред публиката. Китаристът Robby Krieger (Роби Крийгър) го пита за какво да пише, а той му отговаря: Пиши за нещо универсално. Нещо, което няма да изчезне след две години. Нещо, което хората могат сами да интерпретират.“ Едва двадесетгодишният тогава Крийгър се прибира в дома на родителите си в Пасифик Палисейдс, Лос Анджелис, и решава да пише за някой от четирите елемента - огън, вода, земя, въздух. Избира огъня, вдъхновен от „Play With Fire“ (Игра с огъня) на „The Rolling Stones“. Огънят стопля, но и изгаря. Това е метафора как градивната любов може да се превърне в унищожителна страст. След куплет в стил фолкрок, песента се развива стихийно. Същата вечер Крийгър е готов с идеята си. За музиката е вдъхновен от хита на Jimi Hendrix (Джими Хендрикс) „Hey Joe“. На следващата им репетиция Крийгър представя новата композиция. Барабанистът John Densmore (Джон Денсмор) предлага куплетите да са с латино ритъм, а Морисън дописва текста, добавяйки и елемент за погребална клада (funeral pyre). Крийгър е против такава препратка към смъртта, но това е любима тема на Морисън и той държи на нея. Така вторият куплет става еталон за поетичния талант на Морисън. Крийгър предлага последната реплика да е „Come on baby light my fire.“ („Хайде, скъпа, запали ми огъня.“). Но Морисън настоява за по-поетичното и провокативно „Try to set the night on fire.“ (Да опитаме да запалим нощта.). По-късно Крийгър открива, че цитатът е от стихотворение на Морисън от тетрадка, писана в ученическите му години. Четвъртият в групата Ray Manzarek (Рей Манзарек), свирещ на клавишни, предлага началото, повлияно от фугите на Йохан Себастиан Бах, което усъвършенства в месеците след това. Органът му „Вокс Континентал“ е същият вид, какъвто ползва Alan Price (Алън Прайс) в „The House Of The Rising Sun“ на „The Animals“, за която вече сме говорили. Продуцентът Paul A. Rothchild (Пол А. Родшийлд) предлага началото да стане и финал. Солото по средата е чиста импровизация, каквито много са обичали да правят, докато свирят в популярния холивудски клуб „Whisky a Go Go“. По-късно Крийгър се дразни от това колко малко се знае, че той е основен автор на песента. Дотогава всяка от песните на групата е била конструирана върху три акорда, а на него му се е искало да направи нещо по-разчупено. През април „The Doors“ вече изпълняват „Light My Fire“ в концерти, разширявайки я постепенно с импровизации. В това им помага и познаването от Крийгър на фламенко стила и лекото му приплъзване по струните на китарата „Gibson SG“. Използват модерната за жанра полиритмия. При нея ударните и солото са в два различни ритъма, застъпващи се на определени интервали. А Манзарек свири в концертите с лява ръка на „Fender Rhodes“, а с дясната солира на органа. При студийната версия продуцентът Пол. А. Родшийлд) привиква басиста Larry Knechtel (Лари Кнехтел) да дублира бас линията върху тази на клавишните. Има предположения, че баскитарата е изсвирена от Carol Kaye (Каръл Кей), основани на нейни думи, но те не са потвърдени. Песента е записана през август 1966 година в „Sunset Sound Studios“ в Холивуд, Лос Анджелис, Калифорния. Тя е над седем минути, а средищната част от над четири минути е от сола на Манзарек - на органа и Крийгър - на китарата. Концертните версии понякога са по 14 минути. Това е смятаната за първа рок песен с инструментална част от електрическа китара и клавишни. Жанрът на „Light My Fire“ е психеделичен рок, но това не изчерпва стила на „The Doors“.

Expediente Sonar con Alfredo Lewin
The Doors y "The End": El comienzo es el final

Expediente Sonar con Alfredo Lewin

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2023 21:24


Alfredo Lewin ahonda en el origen de la banda de Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger y John Densmore, en medio de la meca de la cultura hippie: La California de finales de los sesenta.

The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Podcast - Music For People Who Are Serious About Music

NEW FOR MARCH 1, 2023 Any way the wind blows . . . Winter Surprise - The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Vol. 454 1. Crosseyed and Painless (live) - Talking Heads 2. On The Edge Again - Tom Tom Club 3. Rev It Up - Jerry Harrison 4. Neil and Jack and Me (live) - King Crimson 5. And So To F . . . (live) - Brand X 6. The Court - Peter Gabriel 7. Ghosts Again - Depeche Mode 8. Dancing Barefoot (live) - Simple Minds 9. Perfect Kiss - New Order 10. Suedehead - Morrissey 11. Can't Find My Way Home (live) - Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George 12. Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (live) - Dave Mason w/ Steve Cropper's Rock and Soul Revue 13. Light Up Or Leave Me Alone (early) - Traffic 14. One Way Out (live) - Robbie Krieger and John Densmore w/ Duane Betts 15. Born Under A Bad Sign (live) - Melissa Etheridge 16. Blues On A Borrowed Guitar - Snowy White 17. Red House (live) - Toto 18. Jumping Jack Flash / Youngblood (live) - Leon Russell w/ George Harrison et al 19. King Selassie (live) - Black Uhuru The Best Radio You Have Never Heard. Sharing an uncertain planet. Accept No Substitute. Click to join the conversation on the Facebook page.

Take the Cannoli: The Godfather Podcast
"Take the Cannoli: The Godfather Podcast" - Episode 8: Best Godfather Quotes and Looking at Loyalty

Take the Cannoli: The Godfather Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2023 8:37


Vivendi recently reported that a whopping 77% of brands could disappear tomorrow and no one would care. Customer disloyalty is the new normal. How can you and your business gain and retain new clients, customers, and even employees in this uncertain, post-pandemic world? (Without using fear and intimidation like the Mafia?) The answer is loyalty. And the proof comes from an unlikely source: The Godfather. In this episode of The Godfather Podcast, we look at the theme of "loyalty," and what it means not only in The Godfather, but also in business today. I'll explain why "Loyalty is the New Currency," and how you can build a "wall of friendship" just like Don Vito Corleone. We'll also look at some of the best and most repeated quotes from The Godfather! ============================================================= Lou Bortone is a writer, producer and speaker who keeps his friends close and his enemies closer. Lou is also a ghostwriter, author, and Consigliere to some of the best and brightest minds in digital marketing. Lou's brushes with fame include getting drum lessons from Doors drummer John Densmore, and standing up to “Sonny Corleone” when he refused to re-write a promo script for James Caan while working at E! Entertainment Television. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/godfather1/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/godfather1/support

Let's Keep It Real
Loyalty is the New Currency: Leadership Secrets of The Godfather

Let's Keep It Real

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2022 63:51


Lou Bortone is a writer, producer and speaker who keeps his friends close and his enemies closer. Lou is also a ghostwriter, author, and Consigliere to some of the best and brightest minds in digital marketing. Lou's brushes with fame include getting drum lessons from Doors drummer John Densmore, and standing up to “Sonny Corleone” when he refused to re-write a promo script for James Caan while working at E! Entertainment Television. Lou is a father to twins, a rescuer of Pugs, and an expert at Italian curses. He's also the author of “Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli: Leadership Lessons of The Godfather.” Lou is a stand up guy who never rats on his friends, and always keeps his mouth shut... except for today when he's agreed to talk with you! To learn more about Lou, check out the following links: Lou's Video Marketing Website: https://loubortone.lpages.co Lou's Keynote and Speaking Page: https://www.digibrand.online/speaker-page/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lou.bortone Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loubortone/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loubortone/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/loubortone YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LouBortoneVideo

Every Album Ever with Mike Mansour & Alex Volz

Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code EAE at MANSCAPED.com! #ad #manscapedpodThis week we're discussing every album by The Doors. Or, more accurately, all the albums with Jim Morrison. This band needs no introduction—Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, and John Densmore completed the original lineup of one of the most famous bands of all time. Everyone knows the hits, but how well do their full albums hold up?Closing track: “You're Lost Little Girl” from Strange Days (1967)Spotify episode playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/user/motherpuncherincPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/everyalbumeverMerchhttps://pandermonkey.creator-spring.com/Mike's EP:Pander Monkey on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple,Instagram:Mike @pandermonkeyAlex @everyalbumalexHistory Tom's stuff:Debut album on Bandcamp, Spotify, AppleSubstackInstagramTwitterFacebookMike and Alex's Picks:Strange Days (1967) — Best Album, Personal FavoriteMorrison Hotel (1970) — Worst Album, Least FavoriteAlbums we discussed this episode…The Doors (1967)Strange Days (1967)Waiting for the Sun (1968)The Soft Parade (1969)Morrison Hotel (1970)L.A. Woman (1971)

Profiles With Maggie LePique
Maggie Revisits Robby Krieger's Memoir: Set The Night On Fire: Living, Dying, And Playing Guitar With The Doors Now Available In Paperback

Profiles With Maggie LePique

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2022 29:34


Maggie and Robby sit down and revisit his 2021 Memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With The Doors Now Available In Paperback and play a few clips from the audiobook. In his tell-all, legendary Doors guitarist, Robby Krieger, one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," opens up about his band's meteoric career, his own darkest moments, and the most famous black eye in rock 'n' roll.​Few bands are as shrouded in the murky haze of rock mythology as The Doors, and parsing fact from fiction has been a virtually impossible task. But now, after fifty years, The Doors' notoriously quiet guitarist is finally breaking his silence to set the record straight. Through a series of vignettes, Robby Krieger takes readers back to where it all happened: the pawn shop where he bought his first guitar; the jail cell he was tossed into after a teenage drug bust; his parents' living room where his first songwriting sessions with Jim Morrison took place; the empty bars and backyard parties where The Doors played their first awkward gigs; the studios where their iconic songs were recorded; and the many concert venues that erupted into historic riots. Set the Night on Fire is packed with never-before-told stories from The Doors' most vital years, and offers a fresh perspective on the most infamous moments of the band's career. Krieger also goes into heartbreaking detail about his life's most difficult struggles, ranging from drug addiction to cancer, but he balances out the sorrow with humorous anecdotes about run-ins with unstable fans, famous musicians, and one really angry monk.  Set the Night on Fire is at once an insightful time capsule of the '60s counterculture, a moving reflection on what it means to find oneself as a musician, and a touching tale of a life lived non-traditionally. It's not only a must-read for Doors fans, but an essential volume of American pop culture history.Source: https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/robby-krieger/set-the-night-on-fire/9780316243445/Source: https://store.thedoors.com/products/robby-krieger-set-the-night-on-fire-living-dying-and-playing-guitar-with-the-doors-soft-cover-bookThis episode is from an archive from the KPFK program Profiles adapted for podcast.Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.Support the show

Stephanie & Stephanie Talk Tunes
The Doors, "People Are Strange" | Episode 37

Stephanie & Stephanie Talk Tunes

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2022 34:04


The Doors know that people are indeed strange. In this episode, we talk about the song,  the surprisingly early-era music video, Jim Morrison's mental health struggles, our memories that we associate with The Doors, the experience of having a front-row seat to see Robby Krieger play, and the mark The Doors left on all aspects of pop culture. On the way, we talk about great new music documentaries, including "Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story."Enjoying the show? Tell us what you think on the socials at @stephaniestalktunes/@stephaniestalk, or give us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts or Goodpods! Proud member of Pantheon Podcasts. 

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond
The Doors: Robby Krieger and John Densmore

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2022 53:38 Very Popular


Today we have a fun follow-up to last week's episode with Johnny Echols from the band Love. This week we'll hear Rick interview the last two living members of The Doors—guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore—about coming up in the LA rock scene alongside the band Love, who The Doors idolized and then later eclipsed. The Doors formed in 1965 and burned white-hot, releasing six albums in five years, until the death of their larger than life lead singer, Jim Morrison. In their brief time as a band, The Doors quickly became one of the biggest acts of the late 60s. Their anti flower-power appeal was accentuated by Jim Morrison's heavy, brooding lyrics, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek's frenzied organ licks. On today's episode Rick Rubin talks to Robby Krieger and John Densmore about their tumultuous history with Jim Morrison—who John refers to as a “Kamikaze drunk.” Both Robbie and John recall LSD-fueled stories from their early gigs with The Doors. And the role Acapulco Gold played in Jim Morrison's songwriting process. Hear a playlist of all of our favorite Doors songs HERE. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Podcast - Music For People Who Are Serious About Music
Arriving Platform X - The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Vol. 434

The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Podcast - Music For People Who Are Serious About Music

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2022


NEW FOR MAY 1, 2022 Music from destination unknown . . . Arriving Platform X - The Best Radio You Have Never Heard Vol. 434 1. Five Years - Cowboy Junkies 2. Moonage Daydream / John, I'm Only Dancing (live) - David Bowie 3. Diamond In The Cold - 3rd Secret 4. Sweet Jane (live) - Lou Reed 5. Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me) - Steely Dan 6. Rollercoasters - Aimee Mann 7. Black Summer - Red Hot Chili Peppers 8. Madman Across The Water (live) - Elton John 9. Waiting For The Big One - Peter Gabriel 10. Born Under A Bad Sign - Melissa Etheridge 11. One Way Out (live) - Robby Krieger and John Densmore w/ Duane Betts 12. The Thrill Is Gone (live) - Muddy Waters w/ B.B. King 13. Machine - CoMMoVe 14. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here - Porcupine Tree 15. Harold Land - Yes 16. Narnia - Steve Hackett 17. Bold As Love (alt) - Jimi Hendrix 18. Tight Turn - The Raybeats The Best Radio You Have Never Heard. Steam and nuclear powered. Accept No Substitute. Click to join the conversation on the Facebook page.

A History Of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs
Episode 148: “Light My Fire” by the Doors

A History Of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2022


Episode one hundred and forty-eight of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Light My Fire" by the Doors, the history of cool jazz, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "My Friend Jack" by the Smoke. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've put together a Mixcloud mix containing all the music excerpted in this episode and the shorter spoken-word tracks. Information on Dick Bock, World Pacific, and Ravi Shankar came from Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar by Oliver Craske. Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger have all released autobiographies. Densmore's is out of print, but I referred to Manzarek's and Krieger's here. Of the two Krieger's is vastly more reliable. I also used Mick Wall's book on the Doors and Stephen Davis' biography of Jim Morrison. Information about Elektra Records came from Follow the Music by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws, which is available as a free PDF download on Elektra's website. Biographical information on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi comes from this book, written by one of his followers. The Doors' complete studio albums can be bought as MP3s for £14. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript There are two big problems that arise for anyone trying to get an accurate picture of history, and which have certainly arisen for me during the course of this podcast -- things which make sources unreliable enough that you feel you have to caveat everything you say on a subject. One of those is hagiography, and the converse desire to tear heroes down. No matter what one wants to say on, say, the subjects of Jesus or Mohammed or Joseph Smith, the only sources we have for their lives are written either by people who want to present them as unblemished paragons of virtue, or by people who want to destroy that portrayal -- we know that any source is written by someone with a bias, and it might be a bias we agree with, but it's still a bias. The other, related, problem, is deliberate disinformation. This comes up especially for people dealing with military history -- during conflicts, governments obviously don't want their opponents to know when their attacks have caused damage, or to know what their own plans are, and after a war has concluded the belligerent parties want to cover up their own mistakes and war crimes. We're sadly seeing that at the moment in the situation in Ukraine -- depending on one's media diet, one could get radically different ideas of what is actually going on in that terrible conflict. But it happens all the time, in all wars, and on all sides. Take the Vietnam War. While the US was involved on the side of the South Vietnamese government from the start of that conflict, it was in a very minor way, mostly just providing supplies and training. Most historians look at the real start of US involvement in that war as having been in August 1964. President Johnson had been wanting, since assuming the Presidency in November 1963 after the death of John F Kennedy, to get further into the war, but had needed an excuse to do so. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident provided him with that excuse. On August the second, a fleet of US warships entered into what the North Vietnamese considered their territorial waters -- they used a different distance from shore to mark their territorial waters than most other countries used, and one which wasn't generally accepted, but which they considered important. Because of this, some North Vietnamese ships started following the American ones. The American ships, who thought they weren't doing anything wrong, set off what they considered to be warning shots, and the North Vietnamese ships fired back, which to the American ships was considered them attacking. Some fire was exchanged, but not much happened. Two days later, the American ships believed they were getting attacked again, and spent several hours firing at what they believed were North Vietnamese submarines. It was later revealed that this was just the American sonar systems playing up, and that they were almost certainly firing at nothing at all, and some even suspected that at the time -- President Johnson apparently told other people in confidence that in his opinion they'd been firing at stray dolphins. But that second "attack", however flimsy the evidence, was enough that Johnson could tell Congress and the nation that an American fleet had been attacked by the North Vietnamese, and use that as justification to get Congress to authorise him sending huge numbers of troops to Vietnam, and getting America thoroughly embroiled in a war that would cost innumerable lives and billions of dollars for what turned out to be no benefit at all to anyone. The commander of the US fleet involved in the Gulf of Tonkin operation was then-Captain, later Rear Admiral, Steve Morrison: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] We've talked a bit in this podcast previously about the development of jazz in the forties, fifties, and early sixties -- there was a lot of back and forth influence in those days between jazz, blues, R&B, country, and rock and roll, far more than one might imagine looking at the popular histories of these genres, and so we've looked at swing, bebop, and modal jazz before now. But one style of music we haven't touched on is the type that was arguably the most popular and influential style of jazz in the fifties, even though we've mentioned several of the people involved in it. We've never yet had a proper look at Cool Jazz. Cool Jazz, as its name suggests, is a style of music that was more laid back than the more frenetic bebop or hard-edged modal jazz. It was a style that sounded sophisticated, that sounded relaxed, that prized melody and melodic invention over super-fast technical wizardry, and that produced much of what we now think of when we think of "jazz" as a popular style of music. The records of Dave Brubeck, for example, arguably the most popular fifties jazz musician, are very much in the "cool jazz" mode: [Excerpt: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, "Take Five"] And we have mentioned on several occasions the Modern Jazz Quartet, who were cited as influences by everyone from Ray Charles to the Kinks to the Modern Folk Quartet: [Excerpt: The Modern Jazz Quartet, "Regret?"] We have also occasionally mentioned people like Mose Allison, who occasionally worked in the Cool Jazz mode. But we've never really looked at it as a unified thing. Cool Jazz, like several of the other developments in jazz we've looked at, owes its existence to the work of the trumpeter Miles Davis, who was one of the early greats of bop and who later pioneered modal jazz. In 1948, in between his bop and modal periods, Davis put together a short-lived nine-piece group, the Miles Davis Nonette, who performed together for a couple of weeks in late 1948, and who recorded three sessions in 1949 and 1950, but who otherwise didn't perform much. Each of those sessions had a slightly different lineup, but key people involved in the recordings were Davis himself, arranger Gil Evans, piano player John Lewis, who would later go on to become the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and baritone sax player Gerry Mulligan. Mulligan and Evans, and the group's alto player Lee Konitz, had all been working for the big band Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, a band which along with the conventional swing instruments also had a French horn player and a tuba player, and which had recorded soft, mellow, relaxing music: [Excerpt: Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, "To Each His Own"] The Davis Nonette also included French horn and tuba, and was explicitly modelled on Thornhill's style, but in a stripped-down version. They used the style of playing that Thornhill preferred, with no vibrato, and with his emphasis on unison playing, with different instruments doubling each other playing the melody, rather than call-and response riffing: [Excerpt: The Miles Davis Nonette, "Venus De Milo"] Those recordings were released as singles in 1949 and 1950, and were later reissued in 1957 as an album titled "Birth of the Cool", by which point Cool Jazz had become an established style, though Davis himself had long since moved on in other musical directions. After the Birth of the Cool sessions, Gerry Mulligan had recorded an album as a bandleader himself, and then had moved to the West Coast, where he'd started writing arrangements for Stan Kenton, one of the more progressive big band leaders of the period: [Excerpt: Stan Kenton, "Young Blood"] While working for Kenton, Mulligan had started playing dates at a club called the Haig, where the headliner was the vibraphone player Red Norvo. While Norvo had started out as a big-band musician, playing with people like Benny Goodman, he had recently started working in a trio, with just a guitarist, initially Tal Farlowe, and bass player, initially Charles Mingus: [Excerpt: Red Norvo, "This Can't Be Love"] By 1952 Mingus had left Norvo's group, but they were still using the trio format, and that meant there was no piano at the venue, which meant that Mulligan had to form a band that didn't rely on the chordal structures that a piano would provide -- the idea of a group with a rhythm section that *didn't* have a piano was quite an innovation in jazz at this time, and freeing themselves from that standard instrument ended up opening up extra possibilities. His group consisted of himself on saxophone, Chet Baker on trumpet, Bob Whitlock on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums. They made music in much the same loose, casual, style as the recordings Mulligan had made with Davis, but in a much smaller group with the emphasis being on the interplay between Mulligan and Baker. And this group were the first group to record on a new label, Pacific Jazz, founded by Dick Bock. Bock had served in the Navy during World War II, and had come back from the South Pacific with two tastes -- a taste for hashish, and for music that was outside the conventional American pop mould. Bock *loved* the Mulligan Quartet, and in partnership with his friend Roy Harte, a notable jazz drummer, he raised three hundred and fifty dollars to record the first album by Mulligan's new group: [Excerpt: Gerry Mulligan Quartet, "Aren't You Glad You're You?"] Pacific Jazz, the label Bock and Harte founded, soon became *the* dominant label for Cool Jazz, which also became known as the West Coast Sound.  The early releases on the label were almost entirely by the Mulligan Quartet, released either under Mulligan's name, as by Chet Baker, or as "Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet" when Mulligan's old bandmate Konitz joined them. These records became big hits, at least in the world of jazz. But both Mulligan and Baker were heroin addicts, and in 1953 Mulligan got arrested and spent six months in prison. And while he was there, Chet Baker made some recordings in his own right and became a bona fide star. Not only was Baker a great jazz trumpet player, he was also very good looking, and it turned out he could sing too. The Mulligan group had made the song "My Funny Valentine" one of the highlights of its live shows, with Baker taking a trumpet solo: [Excerpt: Gerry Mulligan Quartet, "My Funny Valentine"] But when Baker recorded a vocal version, for his album Chet Baker Sings, it made Baker famous: [Excerpt: Chet Baker, "My Funny Valentine"] When Mulligan got out of prison, he wanted to rehire Baker, but Baker was now topping the popularity polls in all the jazz magazines, and was the biggest breakout jazz star of the early fifties. But Mulligan formed a new group, and this just meant that Pacific Jazz had *two* of the biggest acts in jazz on its books now, rather than just one. But while Bock loved jazz, he was also fascinated by other kinds of music, and while he was in New York at the beginning of 1956 he was invited by his friend George Avakian, a producer who had worked with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and others, to come and see a performance by an Indian musician he was working with. Avakian was just about to produce Ravi Shankar's first American album, The Sounds of India, for Columbia Records. But Columbia didn't think that there was much of a market for Shankar's music -- they were putting it out as a speciality release rather than something that would appeal to the general public -- and so they were happy for Bock to sign Shankar to his own label. Bock renamed the company World Pacific, to signify that it was now going to be putting out music from all over the world, not just jazz, though he kept the Pacific Jazz label for its jazz releases, and he produced Shankar's next album,  India's Master Musician: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Raga Charu Keshi"] Most of Shankar's recordings for the next decade would be produced by Bock, and Bock would also try to find ways to combine Shankar's music with jazz, though Shankar tried to keep a distinction between the two. But for example on Shankar's next album for World Pacific, Improvisations and Theme from Pather Panchali, he was joined by a group of West Coast jazz musicians including Bud Shank (who we'll hear about again in a future episode) on flute: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Improvisation on the Theme From Pather Panchali"] But World Pacific weren't just putting out music. They also put out spoken-word records. Some of those were things that would appeal to their jazz audience, like the comedy of Lord Buckley: [Excerpt: Lord Buckley, "Willy the Shake"] But they also put out spoken-word albums that appealed to Bock's interest in spirituality and philosophy, like an album by Gerald Heard. Heard had previously written the liner notes for Chet Baker Sings!, but as well as being a jazz fan Heard was very connected in the world of the arts -- he was a very close friend with Aldous Huxley -- and was also interested in various forms of non-Western spirituality. He practiced yoga, and was also fascinated by Buddhism, Vedanta, and Taoism: [Excerpt: Gerald Heard, "Paraphrased from the Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu"] We've come across Heard before, in passing, in the episode on "Tomorrow Never Knows", when Ralph Mentzner said of his experiments with Timothy Leary and Ram Dass "At the suggestion of Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard we began using the Bardo Thödol ( Tibetan Book of the Dead) as a guide to psychedelic sessions" -- Heard was friends with both Huxley and Humphrey Osmond, and in fact had been invited by them to take part in the mescaline trip that Huxley wrote about in his book The Doors of Perception, the book that popularised psychedelic drug use, though Heard was unable to attend at that time. Heard was a huge influence on the early psychedelic movement -- though he always advised Leary and his associates not to be so public with their advocacy, and just to keep it to a small enlightened circle rather than risk the wrath of the establishment -- and he's cited by almost everyone in Leary's circle as having been the person who, more than anything else, inspired them to investigate both psychedelic drugs and mysticism. He's the person who connected Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous with Osmond and got him advocating LSD use. It was Heard's books that made Huston Smith, the great scholar of comparative religions and associate of Leary, interested in mysticism and religions outside his own Christianity, and Heard was one of the people who gave Leary advice during his early experiments. So it's not surprising that Bock also became interested in Leary's ideas before they became mainstream. Indeed, in 1964 he got Shankar to do the music for a short film based on The Psychedelic Experience, which Shankar did as a favour for his friend even though Shankar didn't approve of drug use. The film won an award in 1965, but quickly disappeared from circulation as its ideas were too controversial: [Excerpt: The Psychedelic Experience (film)] And Heard introduced Bock to other ideas around philosophy and non-Western religions. In particular, Bock became an advocate for a little-known Hindu mystic who had visited the US in 1959 teaching a new style of meditation which he called Transcendental Meditation. A lot is unclear about the early life of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, even his birth name -- both "Maharishi" and "Yogi" are honorifics rather than names as such, though he later took on both as part of his official name, and in this and future episodes I'll refer to him as "the Maharishi". What we do know is that he was born in India, and had attained a degree in physics before going off to study with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, a teacher of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism. Now, I am not a Hindu, and only have a passing knowledge of Hindu theology and traditions, and from what I can gather getting a proper understanding requires a level of cultural understanding I don't have, and in particular a knowledge of the Sanskrit language, so my deepest apologies for any mangling I do of these beliefs in trying to talk about them as they pertain to mid-sixties psychedelic rock. I hope my ignorance is forgivable, and seen as what it is rather than malice. But the teachings of this school as I understand them seem to centre around an idea of non-separation -- that God is in all things, and is all things, and that there is no separation between different things, and that you merely have to gain a deep realisation of this. The Maharishi later encapsulated this in the phrase "I am that, thou art that, all this is that", which much later the Beach Boys, several of whom were followers of the Maharishi, would turn into a song: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "All This is That"] The other phrase they're singing there, "Jai Guru Dev" is also a phrase from the Maharishi, and refers to his teacher Brahmananda Saraswati -- it means "all hail the divine teacher" or "glory to the heavenly one", and "guru dev" or "guru deva" was the name the Maharishi would use for Saraswati after his death, as the Maharishi believed that Saraswati was an actual incarnation of God. It's that phrase that John Lennon is singing in "Across the Universe" as well, another song later inspired by the Maharishi's teachings: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The Maharishi became, by his own account, Saraswati's closest disciple, advisor, and right-hand man, and was privy to his innermost thoughts. However, on Saraswati's death the leadership of the monastery he led became deeply contested, with two different rivals to the position, and the Maharishi was neither -- the rules of the monastery said that only people born into the Brahmin caste could reach the highest positions in the monastery's structure, and the Maharishi was not a Brahmin. So instead of remaining in the monastery, the Maharishi went out into the world to teach a new form of meditation which he claimed he had learned from Guru Dev, a technique which became known as transcendental meditation. The Maharishi would, for the rest of his life, always claim that the system he taught was Guru Dev's teaching for the world, not his own, though the other people who had been at the monastery with him said different things about what Saraswati had taught -- but of course it's perfectly possible for a spiritual leader to have had multiple ideas and given different people different tasks. The crucial thing about the Maharishi's teaching, the way it differed from everything else in the history of Hindu monasticism (as best I understand this) is that all previous teachers of meditation had taught that to get the benefit of the techniques one had to be a renunciate -- you should go off and become a monk and give up all worldly pleasures and devote your life to prayer and meditation. Traditionally, Hinduism has taught that there are four stages of life -- the student, the householder or married person with a family, the retired person, and the Sanyasi, or renunciate, but that you could skip straight from being a student to being a Sanyasi and spend your life as a monk. The Maharishi, though, said: "Obviously enough there are two ways of life: the way of the Sanyasi and the way of life of a householder. One is quite opposed to the other. A Sanyasi renounces everything of the world, whereas a householder needs and accumulates everything. The one realises, through renunciation and detachment, while the other goes through all attachments and accumulation of all that is needed for physical life." What the Maharishi taught was that there are some people who achieve the greatest state of happiness by giving up all the pleasures of the senses, eating the plainest possible food, having no sexual, familial, or romantic connections with anyone else, and having no possessions, while there are other people who achieve the greatest state of happiness by being really rich and having a lot of nice stuff and loads of friends and generally enjoying the pleasures of the flesh -- and that just as there are types of meditation that can help the first group reach enlightenment, there are also types of meditation that will fit into the latter kind of lifestyle, and will help those people reach oneness with God but without having to give up their cars and houses and money. And indeed, he taught that by following his teachings you could get *more* of those worldly pleasures. All you had to do, according to his teaching, was to sit still for fifteen to twenty minutes, twice a day, and concentrate on a single Sanskrit word or phrase, a mantra, which you would be given after going through a short course of teaching. There was nothing else to it, and you would eventually reach the same levels of enlightenment as the ascetics who spent seventy years living in a cave and eating only rice -- and you'd end up richer, too. The appeal of this particular school is, of course, immediately apparent, and Bock became a big advocate of the Maharishi, and put out three albums of his lectures: [Excerpt: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, "Deep Meditation"] Bock even met his second wife at one of the Maharishi's lectures, in 1961. In the early sixties, World Pacific got bought up by Liberty Records, the label for which Jan and Dean and others recorded, but Bock remained in charge of the label, and expanded it, adding another subsidiary, Aura Records, to put out rock and roll singles. Aura was much less successful than the other World Pacific labels. The first record the label put out was a girl-group record, "Shooby Dooby", by the Lewis Sisters, two jazz-singing white schoolteachers from Michigan who would later go on to have a brief career at Motown: [Excerpt: The Lewis Sisters, "Shooby Dooby"] The most successful act that Aura ever had was Sonny Knight, an R&B singer who had had a top twenty hit in 1956 with "Confidential", a song he'd recorded on Specialty Records with Bumps Blackwell, and which had been written by Dorinda Morgan: [Excerpt: Sonny Knight, "Confidential"] But Knight's biggest hit on Aura, "If You Want This Love", only made number seventy-one on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Sonny Knight, "If You Want This Love"] Knight would later go on to write a novel, The Day the Music Died, which Greil Marcus described as "the bitterest book ever written about how rock'n'roll came to be and what it turned into". Marcus said it was about "how a rich version of American black culture is transformed into a horrible, enormously profitable white parody of itself: as white labels sign black artists only to ensure their oblivion and keep those blacks they can't control penned up in the ghetto of the black charts; as white America, faced with something good, responds with a poison that will ultimately ruin even honest men". Given that Knight was the artist who did the *best* out of Aura Records, that says a great deal about the label. But one of the bands that Aura signed, who did absolutely nothing on the charts, was a group called Rick and the Ravens, led by a singer called Screamin' Ray Daniels. They were an LA club band who played a mixture of the surf music which the audiences wanted and covers of blues songs which Daniels preferred to sing. They put out two singles on Aura, "Henrietta": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Henrietta"] and "Soul Train": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Soul Train"] Ray Daniels was a stage name -- his birth name was Ray Manzarek, and he would later return to that name -- and the core of the band was Ray on vocals and his brothers Rick on guitar and Jim on harmonica. Manzarek thought of himself as a pretty decent singer, but they were just a bar band, and music wasn't really his ideal career.  Manzarek had been sent to college by his solidly lower-middle-class Chicago family in the hope that he would become a lawyer, but after getting a degree in economics and a brief stint in the army, which he'd signed up for to avoid getting drafted in the same way people like Dean Torrence did, he'd gone off to UCLA to study film, with the intention of becoming a filmmaker. His family had followed him to California, and he'd joined his brothers' band as a way of making a little extra money on the side, rather than as a way to become a serious musician. Manzarek liked the blues songs they performed, and wasn't particularly keen on the surf music, but thought it was OK. What he really liked, though, was jazz -- he was a particular fan of McCoy Tyner, the pianist on all the great John Coltrane records: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] Manzarek was a piano player himself, though he didn't play much with the Ravens, and he wanted more than anything to be able to play like Tyner, and so when Rick and the Ravens got signed to Aura Records, he of course became friendly with Dick Bock, who had produced so many great jazz records and worked with so many of the greats of the genre. But Manzarek was also having some problems in his life. He'd started taking LSD, which was still legal, and been fascinated by its effects, but worried that he couldn't control them -- he couldn't tell whether he was going to have a good trip or a bad one. He was wondering if there was a way he could have the same kind of revelatory mystical experience but in a more controlled manner. When he mentioned this to Bock, Bock told him that the best method he knew for doing that was transcendental meditation. Bock gave him a copy of one of the Maharishi's albums, and told him to go to a lecture on transcendental meditation, run by the head of the Maharishi's west-coast organisation, as by this point the Maharishi's organisation, known as Spiritual Regeneration, had an international infrastructure, though it was still nowhere near as big as it would soon become. At the lecture, Manzarek got talking to one of the other audience members, a younger man named John Densmore. Densmore had come to the lecture with his friend Robby Krieger, and both had come for the same reason that Manzarek had -- they'd been having bad trips and so had become a little disillusioned with acid. Krieger had been the one who'd heard about transcendental meditation, while he was studying the sitar and sarod at UCLA -- though Krieger would later always say that his real major had been in "not joining the Army". UCLA had one of the few courses in Indian music available in the US at the time, as thanks in part to Bock California had become the centre of American interest in music from India -- so much so that in 1967 Ravi Shankar would open up a branch of his own Kinnara Music School there. (And you can get an idea of how difficult it is to separate fact from fiction when researching this episode that one of the biographies I've used for the Doors says that Krieger heard about the Maharishi while studying at the Kinnara school. As the only branch of the Kinnara school that was open at this point was in Mumbai, it's safe to say that unless Krieger had a *really* long commute he wasn't studying there at this point.) Densmore and Manzarek got talking, and they found that they shared a lot of the same tastes in jazz -- just as Manzarek was a fan of McCoy Tyner, so Densmore was a fan of Elvin Jones, the drummer on those Coltrane records, and they both loved the interplay of the two musicians: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] Manzarek was starting to play a bit more keyboards with the Ravens, and he was also getting annoyed with the Ravens' drummer, who had started missing rehearsals -- he'd turn up only for the shows themselves. He thought it might be an idea to get Densmore to join the group, and Densmore agreed to come along for a rehearsal. That initial rehearsal Densmore attended had Manzarek and his brothers, and may have had a bass player named Patricia Hansen, who was playing with the group from time to time around this point, though she was mostly playing with a different bar band, Patty and the Esquires. But as well as the normal group members, there was someone else there, a friend of Manzarek's from film school named Jim Morrison. Morrison was someone who, by Manzarek's later accounts, had been very close to Manzarek at university, and who Manzarek had regarded as a genius, with a vast knowledge of beat poetry and European art film, but who had been regarded by most of the other students and the lecturers as being a disruptive influence. Morrison had been a fat, asthmatic, introverted kid -- he'd had health problems as a child, including a bout of rheumatic fever which might have weakened his heart, and he'd also been prone to playing the kind of "practical jokes" which can often be a cover for deeper problems. For example, as a child he was apparently fond of playing dead -- lying in the corridors at school and being completely unresponsive for long periods no matter what anyone did to move him, then suddenly getting up and laughing at anyone who had been concerned and telling them it was a joke. Given how frequently Morrison would actually pass out in later life, often after having taken some substance or other, at least one biographer has suggested that he might have had undiagnosed epilepsy (or epilepsy that was diagnosed but which he chose to keep a secret) and have been having absence seizures and covering for them with the jokes. Robby Krieger also says in his own autobiography that he used to have the same doctor as Morrison, and the doctor once made an offhand comment about Morrison having severe health problems, "as if it was common knowledge". His health difficulties, his weight, his introversion, and the experience of moving home constantly as a kid because of his father's career in the Navy, had combined to give him a different attitude to most of his fellow students, and in particular a feeling of rootlessness -- he never owned or even rented his own home in later years, just moving in with friends or girlfriends -- and a lack of sense of his own identity, which would often lead to him making up lies about his life and acting as if he believed them. In particular, he would usually claim to friends that his parents were dead, or that he had no contact with them, even though his family have always said he was in at least semi-regular contact. At university, Morrison had been a big fan of Rick and the Ravens, and had gone to see them perform regularly, but would always disrupt the shows -- he was, by all accounts, a lovely person when sober but an aggressive boor when drunk -- by shouting out for them to play "Louie Louie", a song they didn't include in their sets. Eventually one of Ray's brothers had called his bluff and said they'd play the song, but only if Morrison got up on stage and sang it. He had -- the first time he'd ever performed live -- and had surprised everyone by being quite a good singer. After graduation, Morrison and Manzarek had gone their separate ways, with Morrison saying he was moving to New York. But a few weeks later they'd encountered each other on the beach -- Morrison had decided to stay in LA, and had been staying with a friend, mostly sleeping on the friend's rooftop. He'd been taking so much LSD he'd forgotten to eat for weeks at a time, and had lost a great deal of weight, and Manzarek properly realised for the first time that his friend was actually good-looking. Morrison also told Manzarek that he'd been writing songs -- this was summer 1965, and the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man", Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", and the Stones' "Satisfaction" had all shown him that there was potential for pop songs to have more interesting lyrical content than "Louie Louie". Manzarek asked him to sing some of the songs he'd been writing, and as Manzarek later put it "he began to sing, not in the booze voice he used at the Turkey Joint, but in a Chet Baker voice". The first song Morrison sang for Ray Manzarek was one of the songs that Rick and the Ravens would rehearse that first time with John Densmore, "Moonlight Drive": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Moonlight Drive"] Manzarek invited Morrison to move in with him and his girlfriend. Manzarek seems to have thought of himself as a mentor, a father figure, for Morrison, though whether that's how Morrison thought of him is impossible to say. Manzarek, who had a habit of choosing the myth over the truth, would later claim that he had immediately decided that he and Morrison were going to be a duo and find a whole new set of musicians, but all the evidence points to him just inviting Morrison to join the Ravens as the singer Certainly the first recordings this group made, a series of demos, were under Rick and the Ravens' name, and paid for by Aura Records. They're all of songs written by Morrison, and seem to be sung by Morrison and Manzarek in close harmony throughout. But the demos did not impress the head of Liberty Records, which now owned Aura, and who saw no commercial potential in them, even in one that later became a number one hit when rerecorded a couple of years later: [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Hello I Love You"] Although to be fair, that song is clearly the work of a beginning songwriter, as Morrison has just taken the riff to "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks, and stuck new words to it: [Excerpt: The Kinks, "All Day and All of the Night"] But it seems to have been the lack of success of these demos that convinced Manzarek's brothers and Patricia Hansen to quit the band. According to Manzarek, his brothers were not interested in what they saw as Morrison's pretensions towards poetry, and didn't think this person who seemed shy and introverted in rehearsals but who they otherwise knew as a loud annoying drunk in the audience would make a good frontman. So Rick and the Ravens were down to just Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, and John Densmore, but they continued shopping their demos around, and after being turned down by almost everyone they were signed by Columbia Records, specifically by Billy James, who they liked because he'd written the liner notes to a Byrds album, comparing them to Coltrane, and Manzarek liked the idea of working with an A&R man who knew Coltrane's work, though he wasn't impressed by the Byrds themselves, later writing "The Byrds were country, they didn't have any black in them at all. They couldn't play jazz. Hell, they probably didn't even know anything about jazz. They were folk-rock, for cri-sake. Country music. For whites only." (Ray Manzarek was white). They didn't get an advance from Columbia, but they did get free equipment -- Columbia had just bought Vox, who made amplifiers and musical instruments, and Manzarek in particular was very pleased to have a Vox organ, the same kind that the Animals and the Dave Clark Five used. But they needed a guitarist and a bass player. Manzarek claimed in his autobiography that he was thinking along the lines of a four-piece group even before he met Densmore, and that his thoughts had been "Someone has to be Thumper and someone has to be Les Paul/Chuck Berry by way of Charlie Christian. The guitar player will be a rocker who knows jazz. And the drummer will be a jazzer who can rock. These were my prerequisites. This is what I had to have to make the music I heard in my head." But whatever Manzarek was thinking, there were only two people who auditioned for the role of the guitar player in this new version of the band, both of them friends of Densmore, and in fact two people who had been best friends since high school -- Bill Wolff and Robby Krieger. Wolff and Krieger had both gone to private boarding school -- they had both originally gone to normal state schools, but their parents had independently decided they were bad influences on each other and sent them away to boarding school to get away from each other, but accidentally sent them to the same school -- and had also learned guitar together. They had both loved a record of flamenco guitar called Dos Flamencos by Jaime Grifo and Nino Marvino: [Excerpt: Jaime Grifo and Nino Marvino, "Caracolés"] And they'd decided they were going to become the new Dos Flamencos. They'd also regularly sneaked out of school to go and see a jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a band which featured Bob Weir, who was also at their school, along with Jerry Garcia and Pigpen McKernan. Krieger was also a big fan of folk and blues music, especially bluesy folk-revivalists like Spider John Koerner, and was a massive fan of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Krieger and Densmore had known each other before Krieger had been transferred to boarding school, and had met back up at university, where they would hang out together and go to see Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, and other jazz musicians. At this time Krieger had still been a folk and blues purist, but then he went to see Chuck Berry live, mostly because Skip James and Big Mama Thornton were also on the bill, and he had a Damascene conversion -- the next day he went to a music shop and traded in his acoustic for a red Gibson, as close to the one Chuck Berry played as he could find. Wolff, Densmore, Krieger, and piano player Grant Johnson had formed a band called the Psychedelic Rangers, and when the Ravens were looking for a new guitarist, it was natural that they tried the two guitarists from Densmore's other band. Krieger had the advantage over Wolff for two reasons -- one of which was actually partly Wolff's doing. To quote Krieger's autobiography: "A critic once said I had 'the worst hair in rock 'n' roll'. It stung pretty bad, but I can't say they were wrong. I always battled with my naturally frizzy, kinky, Jewfro, so one day my friend Bill Wolff and I experimented with Ultra Sheen, a hair relaxer marketed mainly to Black consumers. The results were remarkable. Wolff, as we all called him, said 'You're starting to look like that jerk Bryan MacLean'". According to Krieger, his new hairdo made him better looking than Wolff, at least until the straightener wore off, and this was one of the two things that made the group choose him over Wolff, who was a better technical player. The other was that Krieger played with a bottleneck, which astonished the other members. If you're unfamiliar with bottleneck playing, it's a common technique in the blues. You tune your guitar to an open chord, and then use a resonant tube -- these days usually a specially-made metal slide that goes on your finger, but for older blues musicians often an actual neck of a bottle, broken off and filed down -- to slide across the strings. Slide guitar is one of the most important styles in blues, especially electric blues, and you can hear it in the playing of greats like Elmore James: [Excerpt: Elmore James, "Dust My Broom"] But while the members of the group all claimed to be blues fans -- Manzarek talks in his autobiography about going to see Muddy Waters in a club in the South Side of Chicago where he and his friends were the only white faces in the audience -- none of them had any idea what bottleneck playing was, and Manzarek was worried when Krieger pulled it out that he was going to use it as a weapon, that being the only association he had with bottle necks. But once Krieger played with it, they were all convinced he had to be their guitarist, and Morrison said he wanted that sound on everything. Krieger joining seems to have changed the dynamic of the band enormously. Both Morrison and Densmore would independently refer to Krieger as their best friend in the band -- Manzarek said that having a best friend was a childish idea and he didn't have one. But where before this had been Manzarek's band with Morrison as the singer, it quickly became a band centred around the creative collaboration between Krieger and Morrison. Krieger seems to have been too likeable for Manzarek to dislike him, and indeed seems to have been the peacemaker in the band on many occasions, but Manzarek soon grew to resent Densmore, seemingly as the closeness he had felt to Morrison started to diminish, especially after Morrison moved out of Manzarek's house, apparently because Manzarek was starting to remind him of his father. The group soon changed their name from the Ravens to one inspired by Morrison's reading. Aldous Huxley's book on psychedelic drugs had been titled The Doors of Perception, and that title had in turn come from a quote from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by the great mystic poet and artist William Blake, who had written "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern" (Incidentally, in one of those weird coincidences that I like to note when they come up, Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell had also inspired the book The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, about the divorce of heaven and hell, and both Lewis and Huxley died on the same date, the twenty-second of November 1963, the same day John F. Kennedy died). Morrison decided that he wanted to rename the group The Doors, although none of the other group members were particularly keen on the idea -- Krieger said that he thought they should name the group Perception instead. Initially the group rehearsed only songs written by Morrison, along with a few cover versions. They worked up a version of Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man", originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Back Door Man"] And a version of "Alabama Song", a song written by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill, from the opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with English language lyrics by  Elisabeth Hauptmann. That song had originally been recorded by Lotte Lenya, and it was her version that the group based their version on, at the suggestion of Manzarek's girlfriend: [Excerpt: Lotte Lenya, "Alabama Song"] Though it's likely given their tastes in jazz that they were also aware of a recent recording of the song by Eric Dolphy and John Lewis: [Excerpt: Eric Dolphy and John Lewis, "Alabama Song"] But Morrison started to get a little dissatisfied with the fact that he was writing all the group's original material at this point, and he started to put pressure on the others to bring in songs. One of the first things they had agreed was that all band members would get equal credit and shares of the songwriting, so that nobody would have an incentive to push their own mediocre song at the expense of someone else's great one, but Morrison did want the others to start pulling their weight. As it would turn out, for the most part Manzarek and Densmore wouldn't bring in many song ideas, but Krieger would, and the first one he brought in would be the song that would make them into stars. The song Krieger brought in was one he called "Light My Fire", and at this point it only had one verse and a chorus. According to Manzarek, Densmore made fun of the song when it was initially brought in, saying "we're not a folk-rock band" and suggesting that Krieger might try selling it to the Mamas and the Papas, but the other band members liked it -- but it's important to remember here that Manzarek and Densmore had huge grudges against each other for most of their lives, and that Manzarek is not generally known as an entirely reliable narrator. Now, I'm going to talk a lot about the influences that have been acknowledged for this song, but before I do there's one that I haven't seen mentioned much but which seems to me to be very likely to have at least been a subconscious influence -- "She's Not There" by the Zombies: [Excerpt: The Zombies, "She's Not There"] Now, there are several similarities to note about the Zombies record. First, like the Doors, the Zombies were a keyboard-driven band. Second, there's the dynamics of the songs -- both have soft, slightly jazzy verses and then a more straight-ahead rock chorus. And finally there's the verse chord sequence. The verse for "She's Not There" goes from Am to D repeatedly: [demonstrates] While the verse for "Light My Fire" goes from Am to F sharp minor -- and for those who don't know, the notes in a D chord are D, F sharp, and A, while the notes in an F sharp minor chord are F sharp, A, and C sharp -- they're very similar chords. So "She's Not There" is: [demonstrates] While "Light My Fire" is: [demonstrates] At least, that's what Manzarek plays. According to Krieger, he played an Asus2 chord rather than an A minor chord, but Manzarek heard it as an A minor and played that instead. Now again, I've not seen anyone acknowledge "She's Not There" as an influence, but given the other influences that they do acknowledge, and the music that was generally in the air at the time, it would not surprise me even the smallest amount if it was. But either way, what Krieger brought in was a simple verse and chorus: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] Incidentally, I've been talking about the song as having A minor chords, but you'll actually hear the song in two different keys during this episode, even though it's the same performance throughout, and sometimes it might not sound right to people familiar with a particular version of the record. The band played the song with the verse starting with A minor, and that's how the mono single mix was released, and I'll be using excerpts of that in general. But when the stereo version of the album was released, which had a longer instrumental break, the track was mastered about a semitone too slow, and that's what I'll be excerpting when talking about the solos -- and apparently that speed discrepancy has been fixed in more recent remasterings of the album than the one I'm using. So if you know the song and bits of what I play sound odd to you, that's why. Krieger didn't have a second verse, and so writing the second verse's lyrics was the next challenge. There was apparently some disagreement within the band about the lyrics that Morrison came up with, with their references to funeral pyres, but Morrison won the day, insisting that the song needed some darkness to go with the light of the first verse. Both verses would get repeated at the end of the song, in reverse order, rather than anyone writing a third or fourth verse. Morrison also changed the last line of the chorus -- in Krieger's original version, he'd sung "Come on baby, light my fire" three times, but Morrison changed the last line to "try to set the night on fire", which Krieger thought was a definite improvement. They then came up with an extended instrumental section for the band members to solo in. This was inspired by John Coltrane, though I have seen different people make different claims as to which particular Coltrane record it was inspired by. Many sources, including Krieger, say it was based on Coltrane's famous version of "My Favorite Things": [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] But Manzarek in his autobiography says it was inspired by Ole, the track that Coltrane recorded with Eric Dolphy: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "Ole"] Both are of course similar musical ideas, and either could have inspired the “Light My Fire” instrumental section, though none of the Doors are anything like as good or inventive on their instruments as Coltrane's group (and of course "Light My Fire" is in four-four rather than three-four): [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] So they had a basic verse-chorus song with a long instrumental jam session in the middle. Now comes the bit that there's some dispute over.  Both Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger agree that Manzarek came up with the melody used in the intro, but differ wildly over who came up with the chord sequence for it and when, and how it was put into the song. According to Manzarek, he came up with the whole thing as an intro for the song at that first rehearsal of it, and instructed the other band members what to do. According to Krieger, though, the story is rather different, and the evidence seems to be weighted in Krieger's favour. In early live performances of the song, they started the song with the Am-F sharp minor shifts that were used in the verse itself, and continued doing this even after the song was recorded: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire (live at the Matrix)"] But they needed a way to get back out of the solo section and into the third verse. To do this, Krieger came up with a sequence that starts with a change from G to D, then from D to F, before going into a circle of fifths -- not the ascending circle of fifths in songs like "Hey Joe", but a descending one, the same sequence as in "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" or "I Will Survive", ending on an A flat: [demonstrates] To get from the A flat to the A minor or Asus2 chord on which the verse starts, he simply then shifted up a semitone from A flat to A major for two bars: [demonstrates] Over the top of that chord sequence that Krieger had come up with, Manzarek put a melody line which was inspired by one of Bach's two-part inventions. The one that's commonly cited is Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779: [Excerpt: Glenn Gould, "Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779"] Though I don't believe Manzarek has ever stated directly which piece he was inspired by other than that it was one of the two-part inventions, and to be honest none of them sound very much like what he plays to my ears, and I think more than anything he was just going for a generalised baroque style rather than anything more specific. And there are certainly stylistic things in there that are suggestive of the baroque -- the stepwise movement, the sort of skipping triplets, and so on: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] But that was just to get out of the solo section and back into the verses. It was only when they finally took the song into the studio that Paul Rothchild, the producer who we will talk about more later, came up with the idea of giving the song more structure by both starting and ending with that sequence, and formalised it so that rather than just general noodling it was an integral part of the song. They now had at least one song that they thought had the potential to be a big hit. The problem was that they had not as yet played any gigs, and nor did they have a record deal, or a bass player. The lack of a record deal may sound surprising, but they were dropped by Columbia before ever recording for them. There are several different stories as to why. One biography I've read says that after they were signed, none of the label's staff producers wanted to work with them and so they were dropped -- though that goes against some of the other things I've read, which say that Terry Melcher was interested in producing them. Other sources say that Morrison went in for a meeting with some of the company executives while on acid, came out very pleased with himself at how well he'd talked to them because he'd been able to control their minds with his telepathic powers, and they were dropped shortly afterwards. And others say that they were dropped as part of a larger set of cutbacks the company was making, and that while Billy James fought to keep them at Columbia, he lost the fight. Either way, they were stuck without a deal, and without any proper gigs, though they started picking up the odd private party here and there -- Krieger's father was a wealthy aerospace engineer who did some work for Howard Hughes among others, and he got his son's group booked to play a set of jazz standards at a corporate event for Hughes, and they got a few more gigs of that nature, though the Hughes gig didn't exactly go well -- Manzarek was on acid, Krieger and Morrison were on speed, and the bass player they brought in for the gig managed to break two strings, something that would require an almost superhuman effort. That bass player didn't last long, and nor did the next -- they tried several, but found that the addition of a bass player made them sound less interesting, more like the Animals or the Rolling Stones than a group with their own character. But they needed something to hold down the low part, and it couldn't be Manzarek on the organ, as the Vox organ had a muddy sound when he tried to play too many notes at once. But that problem solved itself when they played one of their earliest gigs. There, Manzarek found that another band, who were regulars at the club, had left their Fender keyboard bass there, clipped to the top of the piano. Manzarek tried playing that, and found he could play basslines on that with his left hand and the main parts with his right hand. Krieger got his father to buy one for the group -- though Manzarek was upset that they bought the wrong colour -- and they were now able to perform without a bass player. Not only that, but it gave the group a distinctive sound quite unlike all the other bands. Manzarek couldn't play busy bass lines while also playing lead lines with his right hand, and so he ended up going for simple lines without a great deal of movement, which added to the hypnotic feel of the group's music – though on records they would often be supplemented by a session bass player to give them a fuller sound. While the group were still trying to get a record deal, they were also looking for regular gigs, and eventually they found one. The Sunset Strip was *the* place to be, and they wanted desperately to play one of the popular venues there like the Whisky A-Go-Go, but those venues only employed bands who already had record deals. They did, though, manage to get a residency at a tiny, unpopular, club on the strip called The London Fog, and they played there, often to only a handful of people, while slowly building in confidence as performers. At first, Morrison was so shy that Manzarek had to sing harmony with him throughout the sets, acting as joint frontman. Krieger later said "It's rarely talked about, but Ray was a natural born showman, and his knack for stirring drama would serve the Doors' legacy well in later years" But Morrison soon gained enough confidence to sing by himself. But they weren't bringing in any customers, and the London Fog told them that they were soon going to be dropped -- and the club itself shut not long after. But luckily for the group, just before the end of their booking, the booker for the Whisky A-Go-Go, Ronnie Haran walked in with a genuine pop star, Peter Asher, who as half of Peter & Gordon had had a hit with "A World Without Love", written by his sister's boyfriend, Paul McCartney: [Excerpt: Peter and Gordon, "A World Without Love"] Haran was impressed with the group, and they were impressed that she had brought in a real celebrity. She offered them a residency at the club, not as the headlining act -- that would always be a group that had records out -- but as the consistent support act for whichever big act they had booked. The group agreed -- after Morrison first tried to play it cool and told Haran they would have to consider it, to the consternation of his bandmates. They were thrilled, though, to discover that one of the first acts they supported at the Whisky would be Them, Van Morrison's group -- one of the cover versions they had been playing had been Them's "Gloria": [Excerpt: Them, "Gloria"] They supported Them for two weeks at the Whisky, and Jim Morrison watched Van Morrison intently. The two men had very similar personalities according to the other members of the Doors, and Morrison picked up a lot of his performing style from watching Van on stage every night. The last night Them played the venue, Morrison joined them on stage for an extended version of “Gloria” which everyone involved remembered as the highlight of their time there. Every major band on the LA scene played residencies at the Whisky, and over the summer of 1966 the Doors were the support act for the Mothers of Invention, the Byrds, the Turtles, the Buffalo Springfield, and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. This was a time when the Sunset Strip was the centre of Californian musical life, before that centre moved to San Francisco, and the Doors were right at the heart of it. Though it wasn't all great -- this was also the period when there were a series of riots around Sunset Strip, as immortalised in the American International Pictures film Riot on Sunset Strip, and its theme song, by the Standells: [Excerpt: The Standells, "Riot on Sunset Strip"] We'll look at those riots in more detail in a future episode, so I'll leave discussing them for now, but I just wanted to make sure they got mentioned. That Standells song, incidentally, was co-written by John Fleck, who under his old name of John Fleckenstein we saw last episode as the original bass player for Love. And it was Love who ensured that the Doors finally got the record deal they needed. The deal came at a perfect time for the Doors -- just like when they'd been picked up by the Whisky A Go-Go just as they were about to lose their job at the London Fog, so they got signed to a record deal just as they were about to lose their job at the Whisky. They lost that job because of a new song that Krieger and Morrison had written. "The End" had started out as Krieger's attempt at writing a raga in the style of Ravi Shankar, and he had brought it in to one of his increasingly frequent writing sessions with Morrison, where the two of them would work out songs without the rest of the band, and Morrison had added lyrics to it. Lyrics that were partly inspired by his own fraught relationship with his parents, and partly by Oedipus Rex: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] And in the live performance, Morrison had finished that phrase with the appropriate four-letter Oedipal payoff, much to the dismay of the owners of the Whisky A Go Go, who had told the group they would no longer be performing there. But three days before that, the group had signed a deal with Elektra Records. Elektra had for a long time been a folk specialist label, but they had recently branched out into other music, first with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a favourite of Robby Krieger's, and then with their first real rock signing, Love. And Love were playing a residency at the Whisky A Go Go, and Arthur Lee had encouraged Jac Holzman, the label's owner, to come and check out their support band, who he thought were definitely worth signing. The first time Holzman saw them he was unimpressed -- they sounded to him just like a bunch of other white blues bands -- but he trusted Arthur Lee's judgement and came back a couple more times. The third time, they performed their version of "Alabama Song", and everything clicked into place for Holzman. He immediately signed the group to a three-album deal with an option to extend it to seven. The group were thrilled -- Elektra wasn't a major label like Columbia, but they were a label that nurtured artists and wouldn't just toss them aside. They were even happier when soon after they signed to Elektra, the label signed up a new head of West Coast A&R -- Billy James, the man who had signed them to Columbia, and who they knew would be in their corner. Jac Holzman also had the perfect producer for the group, though he needed a little persuading. Paul Rothchild had made his name as the producer for the first couple of albums by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band: [Excerpt: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "Mary Mary"] They were Robby Krieger's favourite group, so it made sense to have Rothchild on that level. And while Rothchild had mostly worked in New York, he was in LA that summer, working on the debut album by another Elektra signing, Tim Buckley. The musicians on Buckley's album were almost all part of the same LA scene that the Doors were part of -- other than Buckley's normal guitarist Lee Underwood there was keyboard player Van Dyke Parks, bass player Jim Fielder, who had had a brief stint in the Mothers of Invention and was about to join Buffalo Springfield, and drummer Billy Mundi, who was about to join the Mothers of Invention. And Buckley himself sang in a crooning voice extremely similar to that of Morrison, though Buckley had a much larger range: [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Aren't You the Girl?"] There was one problem, though -- Rothchild didn't want to do it. He wasn't at all impressed with the band at first, and he wanted to sign a different band, managed by Albert Grossman, instead. But Holzman persuaded him because Rothchild owed him a favour -- Rothchild had just spent several months in prison after a drug bust, and while he was inside Holzman had given his wife a job so she would have an income, and Holzman also did all the paperwork with Rothchild's parole officer to allow him to leave the state. So with great reluctance Rothchild took the job, though he soon came to appreciate the group's music. He didn't appreciate their second session though. The first day, they'd tried recording a version of "The End", but it hadn't worked, so on the second night they tried recording it again, but this time Morrison was on acid and behaving rather oddly. The final version of "The End" had to be cut together from two takes, and the reason is that at the point we heard earlier: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] Morrison was whirling around, thrashing about, and knocked over a TV that the engineer, Bruce Botnick, had brought into the studio so he could watch the baseball game -- which Manzarek later exaggerated to Morrison throwing the TV through the plate glass window between the studio and the control room. According to everyone else, Morrison just knocked it over and they picked it up after the take finished and it still worked fine. But Morrison had taken a *lot* of acid, and on the way home after the session he became convinced that he had a psychic knowledge that the studio was on fire. He got his girlfriend to turn the car back around, drove back to the studio, climbed over the fence, saw the glowing red lightbulbs in the studio, became convinced that they were fires, and sprayed the entire place with the fire extinguisher, before leaving convinced he had saved the band's equipment -- and leaving telltale evidence as his boot got stuck in the fence on the way out and he just left it there. But despite that little hiccup, the sessions generally went well, and the group and label were pleased with the results. The first single released from the album, "Break on Through", didn't make the Hot One Hundred: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Break on Through"] But when the album came out in January 1967, Elektra put all its resources behind the album, and it started to get a bit of airplay as a result. In particular, one DJ on the new FM radio started playing "Light My Fire" -- at this time, FM had only just started, and while AM radio stuck to three-minute singles for the most part, FM stations would play a wider variety of music. Some of the AM DJs started telling Elektra that they would play the record, too, if it was the length of a normal single, and so Rothchild and Botnick went into the studio and edited the track down to half its previous seven-and-a-half-minute length. When the group were called in to hear the edit, they were initially quite excited to hear what kind of clever editing microsurgery had been done to bring the song down to the required length, but they were horrified when Rothchild actually played it for them. As far as the group were concerned, the heart of the song was the extended instrumental improvisation that took up the middle section: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] On the album version, that lasted over three minutes. Rothchild and Botnick cut that section down to just this: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire (single edit)"] The group were mortified -- what had been done to their song? That wasn't the sound of people trying to be McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, it was just... a pop song.  Rothchild explained that that was the point -- to get the song played on AM radio and get the group a hit. He pointed out how the Beatles records never had an instrumental section that lasted more than eight bars, and the group eventually talked them

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WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1180 - John Densmore

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 3, 2020 65:25


John Densmore was the drummer for one of the most influential bands of the ‘60s, The Doors, but he's always been on a quest to find truth through art and creativity. John explains to Marc that his love of jazz inspired a lot of the rock and roll he made and his latest book is an attempt to discover the inspirations of other artists. They also talk about how the drug scene spelled the end of the good times in 1960s Los Angeles, why he went to the mat against his bandmates over licensing The Doors music for commercials, and what Jim Morrison is like these days when he appears in John's dreams. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast.