How about the Doors??

Following on from the Beatle question...did anyone here see the original Doors in concert?? I'd love to hear what that was like!! I love watching the Hollywood Bowl show on tape. Wish I'd been there.

There seems to be such a mystique about certain bands/artists from that era (Beatles, Doors, Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Nick Drake.). I don't see that at all anymore, not even in the best modern bands. Maybe because there's too much media. We know too much about everybody. No mystery and magic anymore.

 

yeah i agree. i guess since we can access any sort of information on anybody, i guess it's not much private in anybody who is famous. the doors are an amazing band and i wish i saw them live. im sure that was a surreal experience all in its own.

 

The Doors are really awesome, i am reading this book calle "light my fire" by Ray Manzarek the keyboard player from the doors, its him telling some of his life and how he met jim morrison, and the other band members, how the group got formed and what they went through and everything, it's pretty good, im actualy almost done, i usually never finish books!

 

I'm starting to get into the Doors. Those bands were a lot more melodic than most music now n' days. Damn hooligans!

 

You should read "Wild Child" by Linda Ashcroft,

a woman who claims to have had a several-year long
affair with Morrison. The other members of the band claim
the book is mostly bs, but it is a great read.
I actually started to write a screenplay from it, but
got distracted and gave up.

 

i agree completely, i think it's not only because of the media's envolvement in shows, but it's also the reason behind the shows. bands used to play to get out a message, be envolved with their fans, and get fucked up. Now a days bands only put on good shows to make cash, and that pisses me off. If i was famous, i would be thrilled enough by the experience, fuck the money. Not only that, but you're right about the fact that we already know too mucha bout every body. Back in the day bands weren't posted everywhere, and on every tv show, and every teeny bopper magazine. basically the only way to see pictures of them was to buy the album. remember, video killed the radio star, and it sux. there's no magic left to live shows anymore. god i wish i could go back...

 

I guy I used to work with worked at a club in New York where the Doors played once with Janis Joplin....he said Jim was a jerk, which I figured, even though I'm in love with him, but Janis was the sweetest person he's ever met in his life. He said Jim was knocking over trash cans and yelling in tongues or something. He was my hero.

 

I totally aggree with you, damn media. I hate it. But I love The Doors!!

 

Too young to see either the Beatles or the Doors of old. But I am going to see Paul McCartney at Glastonbury, and then am seeing the Doors in July, minus Jim of course....

 

i used to be really into the doors. but now I mostly listen to the moody blues, traffic, vanilla fudge, IB, steve miller, of course still the beatles as always.. and i cant wait till the dead show coming august.. and the phish are probably gonna be around too

but doors i only occasionally listen to.. been looking for a vinyl lately tho

 

I have also purchased and read "Wild Child". I heard it was mostly BS as well, but I couldn't help but be mesmerized by it.

 

Im not sure the exact year but my Dad was at some outdoor festival in San Francisco and met a lady named Mama Cass.
They were talking about this guy who had just come off stage (actually a Gazebo) and was being mobbed by fans.
Jim Morrison.

My Dad remembers trying to make way as Morrison pushed by him.. said women were literally locking on to him and trying to grab his hair and everything.
Mama Cass made some comments like 'can you believe this?.. he is gonna be huge'.

Now try to understand that my Dad did his fair share of weed back then (and LSD and probably other things) and at one point this story took place in a park off Younge street instead of Haight Ashbury.

Now here is the wierdish twist .....

Years after Morrison died, my Dad recieved an album which was recorded by some 'unknown' singer.
Anyone who had listened to it will swear on their graves it is the voice of Jim Morrison.
Supposedly only 14,000 copies of this album were ever made and no one ever found out the secret identity of the singer.

I know Dad was offered huge money from collectors but he never sold it.

Do you think I can remember the name of the 'Mystery singer'?
Its on the tip of my tongue.. sorry... cant think of it.

Well.. thats all I can do for ya.

 

Hah, this is funny. I feel very old seeing you all talk about your PARENT'S experiences. But, the fact is I was AT the Doors Hollywood Bowl show mentioned in the original post. I was in the 8th grade, and my girlfriend's parents took us there and dropped us off. While we went to the show, they went and saw The Planet Of the Apes which had just opened that week!

The bill was:

Steppenwolf
The Chambers Brothers (Time!)
The Doors

It was a magical time back then, and drugs were a brand new thing. There were no strung out coke-fiends or crack heads like today, drug users actually were seen as cool by most of us. The smell of pot was everywhere, even though I had never smelt it before, it was obvious that's what it was.

As far as the Doors were concerned, I was a total music freak (and a budding keyboard player) and I absolutely LOVED the Doors music. I remember them coming out very late, and that Morrison was so stoned that he actually "performed" 90% of the set laying flat on the stage. At the time I thought it was so very cool. But now as I look back on it, I think he was a pretentious asshole. I'm sure it's because my view of the world has changed so much, but if someone came out on a stage today totally wasted, and just laid on the floor and gave a half-assed effort, I'd be pissed as hell.

All that being said, it's a night I'll never forget. Truly a landmark in the evolution of the psychedelic music movement.

 

hehe.. well I feel old myself trying to explain to an 18 year old just exactly what a 'Gowan' was or a 'Frankie goes to Hollywood' lol!

You will find the youth of today is suprisingly familiar with the older bands because of the little things called MP3's and file-sharing.

Yep, I think you must be right about those days being 'magical' and that sense of newness and excitement.
The way my Dad talks about The Mama's and the Papa's or Jim Morrison leads me to believe that things were spontaneous and cool was really cool.

He also knew Cheech and Chong when they started out in Calgary (yes honest to pete - they are a Canadian invention ... Alberta no less)
In those days (says Dad) you really did just meet these crazy weed-freaks and could end up at a party or just a group of singers, comedians etc getting together in a park.

They called these 'Happenings'.

Now its all pre-planned, contrived and pat.
Too bad.

Maybe the next revolution will go back to those kind of days?

 

I disagree. The beatles have been exploited over the last years with compilations, DVDs, t-shirts, concerts, but they still remain on top the of the totem pole.

What's wrong with today's rock bands is they're manufactured. Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison did it because it was their soul, they're life line.

They reached down to the pit of their soul and revealed in some of the best fucking music ever made, and by that were born new bands, and so on. They bore their souls on the microphone, screamed it out into the crowds and said god does exist.

The Beatles, Zeppelin, The who, The doors, they did it because they wanted, they were the kings and they knew it. Ever look at the old videos of them performing, practicing. They fucking rocked and they knew it and they weren't controlled by the media.

Simple plan, good charlotte, these are pussy boy bands dressed in a rock outfit, they're poseurs, they're pussy whipped pansies who know nothing about what rock and roll is.


These people I mentioned above were rock, the living embodiment of the soul and spirit of rock and roll, it's passion, and they commanded an army of followers.

These stupid bands all sound the same and they're tailored to sound like rock. They're artificial, they're bland, they're safe. You'll never see Zeppelin on Leno, You'll never see The Beatles on MTV, you'll never see The Who on TR--fucking L!! God, it makes me so hogwild!!

No one wants to be dangerous, no one wants to say "fuck you", and that's why there will never be another "Doors", "The Who", or "The Beatles".

I would lay down all my possessions to go back...god I'd love that.

 

My dad still carries around the ticket stub in his wallet for the Doors concert that he attended. He was in 8th grade so his father was with him (my grandfather), when he and and his dad where walking out of the pavillion, my grandpa said 'I liked the band, but that Morrison fellow is a little off-center.'

 

LOL (I was told I had to lengthen my post (LOL again.)

 

wow, marymicrogram the only ony in this doors thread over 20.........well there are a couple not telling, but yeah..the Doors are awesome if yer a teenager, moderately fun if yer older. Like many other bands, if they had come along any earlier or later they would be not even be footnote in musical history. anyone can use drugs. if that is all yer into, I recomend spaceman 3.

 

the doors are fun as long as you dont take it all incredibly seriously. i always thought of jim as a sort of drunken poet... he made no sense but somehow it all fit together perfectly...

ya hes pretty cool, i love his voice and he is not bad lookin, but the other guys dont get enough credit. i listen to the doors for the music more than jim morrison. and i feel bad because their the ones who make the music great and i dont even kno their names...

hahaha and when jim grows a beard he looks like charlie manson

 

Awwww! You don't know their names!? I'll help ya out there!

That never off beat drumming you hear, done by John Paul Densmore....


Amazing keyboard, done by Raymond Daniel Manzarek....



And the guitar playing I'll never be able to comprehend, done by Robert Alan Krieger....