July 5, 2022 • 53 mins
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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Hey everyone, Today we have a fun follow up
to last week's episode with Johnny Echoes from the band Love.
This week we'll hear Rick interview the last two living
members of The Doors, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore,
about coming up in the LA rock scene alongside Love,
(00:38):
who the Doors idolized and then later eclipsed. The Doors
formed in nineteen sixty five and burned white hot until
the death of their larger than life lead singer Jim Morrison.
They're released six albums in only five years, and then
that brief time as a band, The Doors quickly became
one of the biggest acts of the sixties. Their antiflower
(00:58):
power appeal was accentuated by Jim Morrison's brooding lyrics and
keyboardist Raymond zeris frenzied organ Lakes. On today's episode, Rick
Ruban talks to Robbie Krieger and John ends More about
their tumultuous history with Jim Morrison, who John refers to
as a Kama Kazi drunk. Both Robbie and John recall
LSD fueled stories from their early gigs with The Doors
(01:20):
and the role Acapulco Gold played in Jim Morrison's songwriting process.
This is broken record liner notes for the Digital Age.
I'm justin Mitchman. Here's Rick Rubin with doors, guitarist Robbie
Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Well, thank you so much
for doing this. I thought it would be interesting to
(01:42):
talk about the album Love Forever Changes, because I love
that album and it seems unusual. Yeah. It, first of all,
it doesn't sound like even Loves other records. The ones
that earlier were more rock, yeah, and then Forever Changes
was more acoustic, but classical as well. Yeah. They had
some good players on that right too. But you could
(02:05):
I mean that's when they were kind of started fighting
among them, so right, yeah, you could kind of tell that.
It's interesting also that the Beatles were sort of not
in a great place when they made the White album
with each other, and it's one of the best. There's
something about when there's friction in the band's something good.
(02:25):
That's why we are so big. Let me tell you,
Oh my god, I don't think you guys as having
friction again. I don't know anything. It was three against
one the whole time. It is Jim, what is he
going to do tonight? Oh my god, it's just craziness. Yeah. Yeah.
Was he being provocative for the sake of being provocative
(02:46):
or he was just being himself? All of the above, Yeah,
that was part of it. He liked to, you know,
get people's goats, but you guys as well or not
sure he would he would like yeah after a while winding.
He knew that it wouldn't work after a while with us,
but it didn't stop him from trying. I remember when
I met I met his sister, she said, you know,
(03:09):
my brother growing up was always pressing our buttons. Did
he do that to you guys? Testing Let's see what boundary?
Where the boundaries are or whatever? What would be an
example of something that would happen that would you would
find questionable. Let's see, he didn't have a phone, he
(03:31):
didn't have a car, so I had a car sometimes adventure,
but remember we crash it. We got an apartment, had
a place upstairs so he could be there, so we
could mind next door because he was on a rooftop
in Venice and we just have to drive down there
to get him, you know. And he would just stay
(03:52):
with different girlfriends every night, so you never knew where
he was. But finally we got this place there and
there was a place for him right next door that
he wasn't around there much. What's interesting also is that
both of your bands essentially had lead poets as opposed
to lead singers, which is unusual. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying
(04:17):
to recollect when I first saw love and I think
it was at Beato Lados and did we go together? Yeah? Yeah,
so what year was that, approximately sixty five sixty four?
Had they already put out records at that time or no, no, no, no,
we were rehearsing. Maybe we would just starting, maybe not
(04:39):
even with the doors yet. Maybe it was with Psychedelic
Rangers or something. Yeah, but we went out to this
club and it was cool because it was you didn't
have to be twenty one, because we could never get
in anywhere because we weren't twenty one. How old were
you at the time, You remember about the eighteen, eighteen,
seventeen or eighteen. So anyway, we walk in and their
(04:59):
playing and I had never heard a loud band before.
These were the loudest band I've ever heard. I mean
they had the big amps and shit, and before that
I'd only been to folk music, you know, Budding Travis,
Josh White Blues, you know, muddy water stuff. I had
never heard anything like this. I mean it was fucked,
(05:21):
you know, it was cranking and uh that just blew
me away. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was it obvious when you
saw them what their influences were. It was a culture
shock because here's this black lead singer who he's wearing
granny glasses like Roger mcgunn from the Birds psychedelic but
(05:44):
at the time, you know Afros and funk, you know,
so they're they're electrified folk rock with a black lead
singer singing this way out psychedelic reincarnation. It was mind
blowing anyway, So you know, this this world we walked
(06:05):
into and went wow, Johnny Johnny eccles had this double
neck guitar, which I'd never seen one of those before. Yeah,
that was incredible too. Well, you know, Okay, so we're
playing the London Fog a few doors down from the Whiskey,
This Dump and Love is at Whiskey and during the
(06:25):
break I go down there and stand outside and just
drool over being in that band, and I'm thinking I'm
better than that drummer. I think he's a sweet guyop Snoopy,
Yeah Snoopy, you know. And actually, eventually on Forever Changes
they had studio I think just for one or two songs,
(06:47):
because at least there's one one version of the story
where I think how Blaine played on just two songs. Yeah,
and then the band kind of decided we better get
serious otherwise we're not going to play again. I don't
know that that's the lords don't correct, that's correct, right? Yeah?
(07:08):
And Carol Kay played bass on on a couple too. Wow. Yeah,
you know. Dennis Wilson, he didn't mind how playing on
the stuff. He was cool with it, of course, yeah,
you know. And I was thinking, I'm as good as
these studio guys. Why am I not in love? Yeah?
And then Arthur, you know, told the head of Electra,
(07:29):
Jack Holsman, to see us, which was such a gracious
thing to do. And it was it Arthur or Ronnie
because Ronnie Harron always says it was her well that
she managed him. So and then we skyrocketed past the band.
Sorry guys, but that was so they were our idols. Yeah,
it's it's it's the reason I wanted to talk to you, guys,
(07:50):
is because most people know your band and many people
don't know them, and I thought it would be interesting
for you to talk about it, and it just gives
it gives people an understanding of what you guys saw
and the fact that you traveled the world and spread
the message of the doors everywhere whereas Love didn't really
do that for Love. I don't understand the details, but
(08:11):
I understand that Arthur didn't want to really leave Los
Angeles very much. I'll give you some details. He chained
smoke dope and forever. Changes was just huge in England.
It was like Sergeant Pepper time. And he would not
get on a plane across They did go over there
or one did they think later? I think Mayle, I
(08:33):
think when, maybe even when the band broke, may have
broken up by that. I think you're right, he might
have been doing the hard stuff too by that time.
I was afraid to go on the airplane. Yeah, yeah,
so yeah, his reluctance didn't help at all. When did
you first meet those guys? It's probably I mean, I
think I met Brian earlier, but mainly it was at
(08:55):
the Whiskey when we finally got the job at the
whiskey and they, Yeah, they used to have They were
the headline and every other group you ever heard of.
So how did that work? What does the house band
mean and what does the headliner mean? So we don't
have that anymore. We were. We would start off the night,
you know, eight o'clock when the place was half full.
(09:15):
So you played there every night or six nights, yea. Yeah,
we had to join the union. Remember, I think it
was nine. We started at nine, played the first set,
then the headliner played, then we played again, then they closed.
So it was like being an opening you'd be the
opening act, but you'd be the opening act for everybody
(09:38):
all the time. Yeah. For for about a year for
it was you just name them Captain Beefheart, the Birds,
Van Morrison, Frank and the first one we did was
them Van Morrison's band when he first had Gloria, and
we got to be friends with them, and last night
(10:00):
we got to play Gloria with them on stage, all
of us. Yeah, we left some pictures of that, and
that's when I thought his voice was the best ever.
You know, just man, Gloria, come on, wow. And then
you know when he came over him and played at
the whiskey. We got to know him, and he was
so shy. Man, he was like worse than Jim, you know.
(10:23):
And then one night at a party he came and
he was doing some of his new stuff and he
did a Brown Eyed Girl, remember, just him and a guitar.
He did snippets of astral Weeks too. I was thinking,
he's so shy, he can't even talk, but then he
grabs a guitar and wow. I would imagine by playing
(10:47):
every night the residency probably made you guys really good,
Like when you play together, you just get better. Yeah,
I was there, and in New York we did the
same thing at a place called on Dean's Club. Yeah,
fifty nine Street Bridge every night from ninetel two. And yeah,
Andy Warhol and all those giant people came later. They
(11:09):
remember we started eleven and we go till five whatever,
just five sets tonight. Amazing. Yeah, you get good. The
thing about practice, it really does go. Oh that's the
thing about today groups. They're lucky to get a gig
on a weekend. Yes, you know, how can you get
good like that? And it's also different practicing in front
of people versus playing in a room. It's a whole
(11:32):
different thing in front of people. Sure. Yeah, Well, then
there's electronics, Jim said a long time ago. Maybe in
the future music will be dismade by one guy with
a bunch of machines. Did you say that? Yeah? Incredible,
there it is. Yeah. And then Stevie Wondered came out
with Talking Book a couple of years later, and yeah,
and he played the drums on that as well as
(11:54):
other shit, Oh my god, amazing. Yeah, those were the
days at that time. Will you playing your own material?
Where you playing covers? Both in the London fog, We
learned Willie and Gloria and crap to get by, and
we'd sneak in our own stuff and if the whiskey,
(12:15):
i'd say, remember the first set when nobody was there,
we'd just do what we call it Latin bullshit number
two and we just jam on some Latin stuff and
then as people started coming in, we'd lay on them. Unfortunately,
the times had changed and you didn't have to do
rock hits and you could do your own stuff and
(12:38):
then we'd smack them with the end. Did you end
with the end every day? Yeah? Pretty much, wouldn't or
light my fire would end light my fire. Everybody be dancing,
and then the encore would be the end and people
would file out quietly, no applause. Holy shit, they were bludgeoned.
(12:58):
So great, so great, But you know, I want to
jump for a second. I'm thinking of the parallel between
Arthur and Jim. I have this theory that a great
song it is a wedding between the way the lyrics
fit with the melody. And damn, those two guys not
only had these incredible words, they're they're stitched to gorgeous melodies. Yes,
(13:24):
you know Arthur and Jim. And Jim couldn't play a
chord on any instrument, but had he said he thought
of melodies to remember the words, Oh my God? And
you know roadhouse blues, that's not a difficult melody. But
now I'm going to prove why I'm the drummer and
not the singer. Before you slip into unconsciousness. That's some
(13:51):
hard chord changes. That's not you know, it's like Jazzy
and he had it in his head, gifted, yeah, and
and he just you know, it's not like he sat
down at the piano and picked out the notes. He
actually would do a little capoolko gold, and he said
he heard a concert in his head. Wow, all he
(14:13):
had to do is remember it. Wow. And would those
would those melodies always come after hearing the music, or
might he sing you a melody and then you'd figure
out what the song was? Well, in those early days,
it was, you know, he would have the melody in
his head, and before I was even in the band,
Ray would help him, you know, pick out the drive
(14:36):
kind of was etched out before yea, even Hello I
Love You was kind of like but when Robbie came
along with the band was formed, and then Jim would
just sing a cappella and we'd wait, wait, hold it
f sharp, okay, go on. And even in the songs
that I wrote, he would often change that melody. He couldn't,
(14:58):
you know. I would say, okay, sing it like this,
you know, and he couldn't do it. You know, he
wasn't a musician, so he would do something a little
different and it was usually better than what I had
thought of. He just naturally had a s and yeah, yeah,
like on light my Fire, you know, my my first
melody was more like, uh, you know that it will be,
(15:20):
but he, you know, he simplified it a little bit
and it actually was better. Amazing, And you know, in
the very beginning he didn't have that deep baritone. He
was so shy, wouldn't face the audience. But eventually, Wow,
And you think about other singers who blew their chords
and had to have operations and stuff. And Jim could
(15:44):
scream from the bowels like he was ripping his throat out. Yeah,
but he never had. He did it for five years.
If he had continued, I'm sure he never did while
we were with him. Never, never, He never lost his choice.
I've had so many singers that I've played with over
(16:04):
the years who you know, couldn't make it through a
whole show. Yeah, especially Doors songs, the keys they're in,
they're meant for Jim's his octave range was incredible. It's
an interesting thing about there are certain bands, like the Beatles.
A lot of people cover Beatles songs. Not a lot
of people covered Doors songs so much. But I think
(16:27):
it has to do with the nature of the band
is so unique that the sound of it is as
important as the song. It's like the whole thing is
one and if you take you guys out of it,
the song doesn't have the same life. Yeah, if you
(16:47):
go see these doors cover bands I've never done, that's interest. Well,
it's it's it's intimidating filling Jim's leather pants. No, I mean,
I mean, okay, so I did La Woman with the
La Philharmonic and Chris Martin from cole Play. Yes, and
(17:07):
he was He said to me, oh, man, how can
I feel Jim's vocal cords? And I don't, don't try
or whatever. Yeah, isn't that amazing that he you know,
no vocal coaching, nothing, it never sung before us, never
wrote a song before us. Yeah, I mean he had
(17:28):
the most incredible vocal range and he was always on pitch. Yeah,
never had to wait, never sharp or flat. Do you
know what singers he liked? Like? Who would you say?
He was inspired? Man? Like Delve Like Sinatra? That makes
sense though, Like he sings more like Sinatra than most
(17:50):
rock singers. You know, he really sang in that the
crooner Yeah, the crooner style. Yeah. And you know like
Willie Nelson has it too. Yeah, there's a sense of
phrasing where you sense the singer is so relaxed and
it's effortless, and it is Willie's obsessed with Frank as well. Sure,
(18:11):
and it's so identifiable. You hear two bars of Willie
or Merle or Jim and you go, that's them. It's
nobody else. Now, what was Arthur's influences? Yeah, that's a
good any ideas, I don't know. Well, he must have
liked the birds because of the glasses things. Arthur was
(18:33):
still here, Yeah, and Brian and Jim. Do you know
anything about what their relationship was like? Uh? It was
got more strange, yes, as time went on. I think, yeah,
a songwriter competition kind of thing. Brian had the big hit,
but Arthur had all this gorgeous deep stuff, and I
(18:57):
think there was some jealousy. They were sure unique group.
How the hell did they get together? I wonder how
God knows? And they call themselves love incredible. Isn't that beautiful?
Really a collectic group of people, you know, And it
wasn't a stereotype then you know, the peace sign and
(19:18):
love and it was before it was the real deal.
You know, it was so ahead of the curve. The
people are still catching up. Yeah, you know, like we
were on the shoulders of the beat Nicks and then
the punks are on the shoulders of the hippies and
the Grunges on the shoulders of the punks. So I
mean you could say love was a little bit punk,
(19:40):
a little you know, you'd also makes sense when you
say that you were on the shoulders of the beat
Nicks and that both bands had poets. Yeah, that makes sense,
like if we keep in mind that the Beatnick era
was just sort of what was what had just been
going on in the culture. Yeah, so you know, you
sense a new wave and and I think Jim said
(20:03):
each generation wants to be different from the one before.
And so the punks came along and dissed us for
burning out, and they were right, but the message was there,
the love thing, you know, so I get pissed off
one night. You know, people dissed the sixties is failing hold.
(20:24):
Civil rights, peace movement, feminism are all seeds planted in
the sixties. They're big seeds, so maybe they take hundreds
of years for full fruition. So shut up and get
out your watering can. And also the soap box. Clearly
the world is a different place than it was before
(20:44):
the sixties, Like, yeah, that was the turning point. You
can you can say what you want about the sixties,
not accomplishing all that it meant to do. Yet the
world was transformed in the sixties. There's no question we
live in a different culture that was all the seeds
of the sixties, right, like a renaissance time like the
(21:07):
twenties or what I would saying, as you'd think we
would have learned. We need another sixties right now, So yeah,
it may happen. Yeah, because music is the only thing
that we all agree on. Yeah, I love so let's
use it to try to patch this mess up. Huh.
(21:32):
Going to pause for a quick break, but we'll be
back with the doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. We're
back with Rick Rubens. Conversation with Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
What was the first gig that you did where you
were in the band? Your first gig, first gig was
that Hughes Aircraft. It was don't remember Ray's mom worked
(22:02):
at Hughes Aircraft or his dad. So they needed a
band for some Okay, you know, so well together and
we we I can't remember the bass player, but he
only had one string on his back. And then Ray
was on acid and totally freaked out. He was on
a bummer acid trip. I don't know how he even played.
(22:25):
I don't remember the gig. You don't remember, no, you
black remember? I remember the big warehouse. Yeah, yeah, well
the gig was was pretty weird. We played some mingus
I think, uh, and Jim tried to sing a couple
of things he didn't. We didn't really have any songs
(22:45):
worked up, you know, so Jim and I both took speed.
I remember that, Oh my god, drug addict. Really the
London fog was the first. No, no, no, remember the
party were played at my parents, so there was party,
but still that counts. Yeah, it's fun of people party
(23:05):
at the Isaacson's house near UCLA, and we actually played
a set and that was pretty good. Were you on
that gig that gay house boat party out of Marina
or someone pedrew? I think? And I know on the
invitation it said, uh, please remember the band is not
(23:28):
part of our group. Don't come onto the band and
we're playing and uh, I remember we got the nerve
to play a ballad and then everybody started kind of
getting close and there was a lot of shuffling down
below in the boat, and I remember Ray daring me
to go downstairs. Early Doris gigs. Yeah, and then we
(23:53):
played a gig for Moonfire. Remember what's Moonfire a gig? Yeah,
we played a gig. He had a party down right
near where you live, and the uplifters. Well, no, he
was up to pag I know he was. But he
rented this place right near your house. Moon Fire. Was
this heir to something. Yeah, he had a lot of
(24:15):
money and he had a huge place up into Panga
and he let all the hippies stay there and hang
out and stuff. And he was a militant vegetarian. And
when we played Miami over right, he brought a lamb
on stage, a little little cute little lamb lam and
gave it to Jim. Gave it and Jim Jim said,
(24:38):
he said, if it weren't so young, I fuck it. Oh.
I was gonna say, don't say that, Robbie, but go
he did, okay? Or did he really say that or
was that just in the movie a joke? Yeah, it
was a joke. It's not in the movie. He would
say that. I think it is in the movie. I
believe me he would really. Wasn't it in the movie.
I don't think so. I've seen the movie and I
(24:59):
don't remember that line. Well, it's a real quick line,
and yeah, if you go check it out again, you
hear it. A lot of it's entric folk around. What
was the idea of bringing the lamb on stage? Was
so cute? Don't eat meat? Yeah? Yeah, he was a vegetarian.
Wait before vegetarian? Is it's cool? Yeah? It was kind
(25:23):
of a cool guy. Anyway, We played a party for him,
and that was pretty early. That was one of our
first gigs. I remember having to drag my big standale
amp up there. Yeah, we had a VW bus, we
slept all the stuff, so we would just get gigs
however we could get them, you know. I mean we
(25:43):
used to go to all the clubs and beg them
to let us play there. I remember, you know, Ray
was with Dorothy and in the beach House and Jim
and I maybe you tagged along. We'd go to these
bars on Hollywood Boulevard that would never have a band anyway,
and we'd go in there. Can we play? Would you?
(26:05):
Could we? But we wanted to do something, even though
it seemed fruitless, and it was a twenty four hour,
seven day a week campaign. You know how it is
to launch anything creative. Yes, whether it's a book or
a movie or what, it's a herculean to sell the damna. Absolutely, absolutely,
(26:26):
it's very hard to break through. We didn't even have
a manager, I think, until my fire. Yeah, amazing, and
it's been downhill ever since. It's also funny that in
today's world we don't think of a band of the
stature of the Doors playing at house party. It's just
fascinating to imagine that world because now when young artists start,
(26:52):
the mechanisms are in place for finding an audience and
then finding gigs. There's like an industry around it now,
whereas then it really was a clean slate. And I
remember seeing old film of you guys playing where the
sounds it seemed like the sound system wouldn't even fill
the places you were, you know, tiny little samp for
(27:15):
a vocal mic, you know. Yeah, it's always always hard
to hear the vocals. Poor Jim, you know, he never
had monitors testament to what a good singer he was.
If he could sing like that without hearing himself, I
guess they had him at the whiskey. But yeah, I
mean I think that was good for building his Yeah,
(27:36):
he'd have to something the Beatles talk about was that
they would sing their harmonies, going from gig to gig
in the van and practice singing, and they were so
good at it that they didn't have to hear each other.
They'd be able to sing in a harmony because they
could never hear each other when they were performing, no kidding. Yeah, wow,
And now we have any ear monitors. Different world, you know,
(28:01):
I I changed my answer to the question. For years,
people would say, well, if Jim was around now, would
he be clean and sober? And I go, nah, kama
kazi drunk. And now the last few years I've thought
about Clapton and M and M and and it's a
different time. Yeah. Sure, why if he was alive, he'd
(28:22):
have to be sober. Yeah yeah, otherwise he wouldn't be alive.
But so Yeah, I like saying that because it's different. Yeah. Well,
unfortunately we don't get to have him around anymore. Would
be great. Absolutely, we didn't know him and we miss them. Yeah.
(28:48):
I mean, you know, you see the Stone still playing
and stuff. I get really jealous when I see that.
You know, how quickly did it change from being the
house band to things getting big? For you guys? It
was pretty quick. I mean it was you know, when
light My Fire came into that was that was the
whole game change. Because before that we put out break
(29:12):
on Through as the first single and it didn't do
very much. We called up a lot, this is Fred Schwartz,
would you please play that break on and then they
got on to us. All of our friends would be
calling there, because that's how you got on the radio before.
You know, you have to have an audience calling in.
(29:34):
It's interesting how that song is so admired now. Yes,
and then it was a struggle to get it out
there because it was just so different. You know, I
don't know what starts off with the Bossonova drums, so
I mean, nobody's ever done that since Steven. I think
(29:55):
Forever Changes might have a Bosonova on it. I think
so yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know the way he
played Bossonova, no rock drummers even today can do that. Also,
I think that the fact that you had a classically
trained pianist in the group really separated you from everyone else.
(30:16):
It's true, it's a very one of a kind sound.
I think the same holds true for maybe the Zombies.
You know, I don't want not that I relate the
zombies in the doors, but both of you don't sound
like anyone else, mainly because of the keyboards. I'm such
a featured instrument because like the Rolling Stones usually had
someone playing piano in the group more often than not,
(30:38):
but it wasn't as much of a focus. It was
more of a support instrument. Yes, they had that as well.
And then the raised genius of these licks d D WHOA,
that's itched on all our brains. Yeah, and it sounds
like what are you just saying? That sounds like bach?
(31:00):
It is? It isn't. Yeah, I had the chords, these
these kind of weird chords, and he just naturally just
came up with the with the box to go over it. Yeah, yeah,
it is. That was pretty pretty amazing really, And you know,
Riders in the Storm do you listen to that solo?
(31:22):
It's genius. You know. I've had so many keyboard players
that play with me to play Ray stuff, and a
lot of them know it like my fire and writers
note for note, and but it still never quite sounds
like Ray. You know. It's the feel. Yeah, But the
(31:42):
funny thing is Ray never played those solos alike the
same every night. It was just an improve there was
an improvisation, Yeah, it was you know when we recorded
that stuff, it was one take and that's just how
it was that night. So in addition to the solos
being different, how free were the arrangements like might a
(32:03):
song go longer live or dependent on the song? The
epics and when the music's over. They had big sections
where we'd vamp and they would be different every night,
and the length would go fuck around with any poem
he wanted to, you know, see we'd chase him around.
I mean those kind of songs that they would grow
every night, you know, because it started off real short,
(32:26):
like the end was just a two minute love song
when it started, and then as time went on it
got longer and longer. And but you know, Robbie and
I went to Robbie Shankar's Kanara School of Indian Music
and got heavily influenced by that. So the end got
this droning. This was even that back then you did this,
(32:48):
yeah amazing. Yeah, So that's where that raga had influence came.
I actually had a sitar that a traditional city and
John had the tambo drums. Wow, And we actually went
to the school that Canara School that Robbie Shankar started. Yeah. Actually,
Robbie came and gave a lecture to us one time, amazing,
(33:10):
and we're in our twenties and he says, you should
channel your sexual energy into playing your instrument. What. Yeah,
And later I found out that he really didn't keep
to that well very well, and so there was enough
left over after putting it in the music we can
(33:31):
still use. I'll RockA too. He was the ladies. Well
he liked the whiskey too. Oh yeah, yeah, amazing. So
you're saying he was a human being yea, yeah, yeah,
kind of like MYHRESHI right, he liked Some of your
band members met each other at TM is that? Yeah,
(33:53):
that's true. That's where we met. Tell me the story.
Robbie and I are fooling around with legal psychedelics and
and then Robbie says, there's this Indian sage coming to town.
And I'm thinking, yeah, well, meditation might be a little
less shattering on the nervous system. And this is before
(34:13):
the Beatles a year or two, I don't know got
onto Mahureshi. Yeah, because we were doing it pretty much
every weekend, and uh, and we were doing I was turning, yes,
I was turning all my friends onto it. And so
in this one guy had a bad reaction many you know, yeah,
well did you douse him or yeah? I think I
(34:33):
gave him a little speed with it or something extra
to boost it. But anyway, he had a bad reaction,
and I felt horrible, you know, and so I said, shit,
there's got to be a better way to do this,
you know. So my buddy, who had been to India
met Mahishi and talked him into coming back here, Peter Wallace,
(34:57):
and so his brother and I were buddies, Keith. So
the first Mahishi meeting was at his house, and that's
where Ray and John Ray happened to be there, all right,
and John, John and I knew each other already. But
so Ray came up to me and said, I hear
(35:17):
you're a drummer. You want to be in a band,
and I will I'm a professional. I don't know, I'll
come down and jam and uh. Then, as I said later,
Ray's brothers dropped out, Robbie came in. Was Jim already
in the band? All yeah? I mean, you know, he
stood in the corner with his back to us, so
(35:38):
shy he couldn't. It was like, and we say, already
in the band it means you know. Was actually it
was Rick and the Ravens was the band, and this
Ray's Brothers band at that point. And Jim used to
sing Louie Louie once in a while, right, And then
they started and then Jim came up with these couple
of songs it's the words, and said he wants to
(36:01):
call at the doors. And then that's when John I
met and I met Ray, so I thought, Okay, he's
not the next Mick Jagger. But these words, man, I
want a drum to these words. They're so wild. We'll
be right back with more from Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
After a quick break, we're back with the rest of
(36:25):
Rick's conversation with the Doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
Anything more about love, that's a little more to talk about,
not the doors, right. Oh yeah, we got all the way.
We think you can go wherever you're comfortable going. This
final we got self centered. Well anyway, like I said,
I kind of met Brian earlier on and I used
(36:47):
to see him play and stuff, and he looked kind
of like Brian Jones, you know, had that nice hair
due and stuff. So I decided I wanted my hair
to look like that, and so I get this hair straightener,
you know, because I had I had the real afro
hair and back now so Man, Billy Wolf, we both
(37:09):
had the afron kind of hair, Jewish kink and yeah,
we got this stuff. I figure what it was called.
But it really worked on me. Man, I looked like
fucking Brian. You know. Even Wolf said, hey, Man, you
look like that jerk Brian. Uh, my client. And so
(37:31):
that's right before I met the Doors, before I tried
out for the Doors. So I had the good hair, man,
I think that's why I got the job. And then
a couple of months later when it grew back out,
and I remember Jim going, what happened to your hair?
But by that time they needed me. Why did Why
(37:54):
did your friend refer to him as a jerk? Brian? Oh,
it was just a friend, Leaf saying he was a
competitive guitar player. Yeah. Yeah, we were jealous of him
because he he was in a big group. You know.
It's interesting long hair during that time, on the both coasts,
(38:15):
there were long hairs but in the middle of the country.
And one time after a New York gig, Ray and
I and his girlfriend Dorothy drove across the country because
we had no money, and so we got a car
we could deliver as long as we paid the gas.
And we stopped at a diner in Ohio. Ray and
(38:39):
I had long hair and Dorothy's Japanese. We go in
and holy shit, there's these guys at the counter with
red paint on the back of their necks and they're
scowling at us, and it was scary. I mean, even
in La at that time, we were like the only
long hairs around pretty much. I mean, I remember one
(39:01):
time me and Jim went to eat at Ships. I
think it was remember Ships, Yeah, I think you were
there coffee shop in Westwood. Yeah, And we we started,
you know, sat down ordering stuff and there was some
marines next to us, and they started giving us ship
all right, and so we kind of got started giving
(39:23):
them ship back and were you there? And so finally
we started to leave and they came out and grabbed
us and the one guy was meant beating Jim with
a whoa the pay phone, you know, and Jim, Jim
was just laughing, he goes call the cops. Ha ha ha.
(39:45):
You know he didn't mind being beat up. Remember I
wasn't there, but it's reminded me of these these guys
in Ohio were like saying to the waitress, Shureley, you
got a scissors. Some of these girls need a hair. Yeah.
I remember quite a few times that uppen And it's
(40:07):
interesting now you know, then the punks I'm along to
shave their heads and so now whatever anything's cool, I
like it. There's a liberation. I bet either are still
places you could find in the United States where you
could go and not feel welcome. I'd say it's a
big country. It's a big country. There's still plenty of place.
(40:30):
So would you say that spirituality played a role in
the doors definitely, Yeah, definitely wasn't talked about as much
as Jim tried to squash. Well. I think he was
a searcher. Yeah, we were meditating. He was trying to
(40:51):
find out what was inside in his own way. You know,
it's all different versions of we could call it self
medicating in the case that TM it turns out to
be healthier for you than let's say alcohol. Yeah, but
it's definitely dealing with our inner self, trying to find something,
something more? What else is there? You know? So did
you guys practice TM? Oh yeah, I still do. We
(41:15):
did TM. We did TM for like the whole career.
Twice a day. We go, okay, we're going in the
vocal booth for twenty minutes. Do what you guys got
to do, and Robbie and I'd go meditate. Yeah, maybe
that's what grounded us through that crazy so amazing, I'd say, amazing.
(41:35):
And we actually took Jim to meet Maharishi one time. Wow,
how's that didn't turn out? That one? Okay? What happened? Him?
Didn't sign up? But I do remember him saying he
wanted to look in his eyes and see if he
had any knowledge, and he said he did, but he's
not going to meditate. Yeah okay, Yeah. By that time
(41:57):
it was bigger. The Beatles had started doing it. And
after the lecture and we brought Jim up to real
close to Maisie and tried to introduce him. I do remember,
you know, I was raised Catholic. I'm now a renegade,
of course, but I remember first time being in Mahaishi's
(42:19):
presence and feeling a love vibe like I did not
get this from those priests and the black tourniquets. Wow,
I want this. Yeah, you know, I never got to
meet Mahaishi. I learned TM when I was fourteen, and
like you guys, it has I realized that it had
(42:41):
a big impact on my life. Yeah, I noticed how
you're sitting, no question, no question. I include that as
part of who I am. You know, I don't think
I would be the same person without that. I think
of Maharishi as kind of jump starting this whole thing.
(43:03):
Indian music, Robbie Shankar, the whole culture, Hindu culture at all,
got a big push from him, really and is still
here absolutely in various forms, and what a gift. Yeah.
You know what's interesting is in the sixties there was
no Internet, and wow, the Beatles happened to be experimenting
(43:26):
with psychedelics like we were. The Beatles happened at our
musicians over there all kind of got into meditation like
we were. What's going on here? Carl Jung's archetypal undercurrents
across the globe to get cosmic. But yeah, something going on,
you know. Yeah, And it wasn't people imitating each other.
(43:48):
It was just it was blossoming in the culture. The
Beatles did imitate us. We were meditating before they were. Yeah, right,
so we get technical amount it. And you were taking
acid before them too. Probably. Actually, when I was in college,
I had real Sando acid. Yeah, that was the stuff
(44:11):
they Who was the guy that was doing those? Leary Albert?
Who's later round us? Right, who's the guy who made it?
The guy in San Francis. So Alsley comes to one
of our gigs and he comes backstage and he says,
(44:33):
you guys need a bass player. Man, there's a hole
in your sound, you know. And he leaves and I
said to Ray, Wow, we're making the King of Acid nervous.
I think we're on the right track. Yeah, how did
it work out that you decided not to have a
bass player? It's interesting. We tried. We had a girl
(44:53):
bass player for a minute. We sounded like the Stones,
some white blues man or something. We tried a few
bass players, and we always had a bass pretty much
on the records. Yeah, well that was to make up
for there was no mood synthesizers. So raised keyboard. Ray
found this keyboard bass and then we, ah, that's it.
We don't need a basic business but recording it worked
(45:16):
on some songs like break on Through that's just like
yboard in the end, and control of other ones, but
other ones that needed that plucking from a string with
various bass players over dubbed raised lines and actually on
Backdoorman and Soul Kitchen was me overdooming the bass. Oh,
(45:38):
there was again a rumor that John Sebastian played bass
on one of your albums, Play Atlantic Harmonica on Roadhouse.
Really okay, so you'll notice that John Sebastian, the hard
player credited on Roadhouse is ge Pool Yayzy, which was
a synonym for John Sebastian. Then that was his real name.
(46:02):
What is his real name? That's his real name, Giovanni
Pool Glacie is his real name? Really? Yeah, I think
that would sound good as right, I thought he but
I had heard that he didn't want to be associated
with the Doors. It was his record company didn't want
his attempt to use his name, right, But also the Doors,
(46:22):
you know, I mean, there's this wonderful flower power thing
with the birds and all the mamas and papa's in it.
We loved it, but we were the underbelly the undeclared
Vietnam War, the shadows, and people did not like us.
Some they it made them nervous to be associated with
(46:44):
us because we were dark. I don't think that was it.
Well good, I'm glad we disagree now. I heard just
a little earlier from a moderator that tension create is creativity.
How fuck you? Well, fuck you? So good? Okay, so
I see the TM's been working. Okay. Was it when
(47:11):
you got to play at the Hollywood Bowl? Did that
feel like a big deal at the time? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
sure sure. Did anythink we were one of the first
Did the Beatles play there? Yeah? I think the only
the Beatles had played? But of course, you know, they
made us have a decibel limit in that ruin. Yeah,
(47:33):
and we had. That was the first time that we
actually brought real cameras and movie cameras and stuff to
film the show. So it looks real good. But uh,
and Jim took acid and didn't tell us. Yeah, great,
well why would he tell us? And it was fine,
but there was something just wasn't a good show. I
(47:53):
remember saying to you coming off stage, Robbie, what what?
And he you said, he took assid just so he
got and sometimes when he asked he was great, but
at this time he got real introverted and he kind
of just didn't move around. He saw a moth on
the astro turf and picked it up and was examining it.
(48:15):
And then it didn't help that his girlfriend Pam was
sitting with Mick Jagger right in the front row, right
because Jagger went out to dinner with us before and
we wanted to be really good for him, and damn it,
I mean, it's good. What did he What did he say?
Somebody asked him about that. He said it was in
Melody Maker. The doors are nice, chaps, but they went
(48:37):
on a bit long. But I mean, it looks great,
it looks good. Who was the last show you guys
did New Orleans? I was trying to forget about. That
was a bad one. Yeah. The night before was Dallas
(48:58):
and we were trying out Riders Live Riders on the
Storm and we were kind of wow, maybe we could
kind of be a jazz rock thing. Maybe we got
it's going to be different. And the next night Jim
was drunk too drunk, Yeah, sat on the on the
drum riser in the middle, just his head down the
(49:19):
middle of the show, I walk around and sit next
to him. Hey, man, what do you want to play next? Hello?
And isn't that when Ray said he saw jim soul
leave his body or something like Race said he saw
his spirit exit? Ah, it was the last show we attempted. Yeah,
(49:41):
I was lobbying for a year to get off the
road because in the studio, if he's too messed up,
we go home. But in front of ten thousand people,
and we were really good live in the beginning, just
pin dropped home. You think do you think success played
a role in his destruction self destruction? Some probably, it's
(50:03):
not just that. I think it would have happened anyway,
you do. Yeah, here's a line someone said to me,
blew my mind. Maybe if Jim hadn't met you guys,
he would have died sooner. Interesting who interesting? Thought? Yeah? Yeah,
because at least he had something to do he channeled. Yeah,
(50:23):
I mean he lived to be on stage. Yeah, he
enjoyed performing. Oh yeah's interesting. I wouldn't I wouldn't have
known that if you didn't say it. No, we're kidding.
Wouldn't have known that well, because he seemed so scary
and serious and dark and weird, but he knew. When
you're performing, you can feel if the audience is a
Madison Square garden or a club, that's one person and
(50:48):
the performer is a duet or an orchestra, that's the
other person, and the two of you are going to
dance tonight, and the mystery and excitement is what is
it going to be? A waltz, a salsa, a riot?
You know, And that's what's so kinetic about Energetically you
feel that interaction. Yeah, and maybe that's why bands like
(51:10):
your band, bands like Love, bands like The Grateful Dead
for that matter. There Today there seems to be more
and more artists who just are putting on a show
and people are watching this thing, but there's very little interaction,
you know, like the show is the same every night. Yeah,
Whereas you guys would change according to what you were
(51:34):
feeling that some song, like some songs would have long
parts that got longer if it felt good that night.
It wasn't so scripted. Yeah, But you guys also were
influenced by jazz, and it wouldn't be unusual to have
a long song in jazz, so bringing that bringing that
(51:55):
jazz sensibility into popular music super cool and Robbie Genkar,
I mean, yeah, we sat next to the man and
ragas are fifteen minutes. Yes, and Robbie, Robbie was like,
you know, yeah, you in America want a climax too soon,
you know, take your time with the four play metaphorical. Yes.
(52:16):
And we were steeped in that. Yes. When I first
met Ray, he played me Robbie Shankar's theme from Panther
Panchali and it had jazz guys on jazz and raga.
It's like, wow, let's soak up this amazing. Yeah, cool,
what a pleasure. Thank you and talking about this guy. Yeah.
(52:42):
Thanks to Robbie Krieger and John Densmore for sharing so
many incredible stories about Jim Morrison and the Doors. You
can hear all of our favorite Doors songs on my
playlist at broken record podcast dot com. Be sure to
subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of our
new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record.
(53:05):
Broken Record is produced help from Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel, Vantaliday,
Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick
Chaffey Our executive producer is Mia Lobell. Broken Record is
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content an
(53:27):
uninterrupted ad free listening for four ninety nine a month.
Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts subscriptions, and if
you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and
review us on your podcast app. Or the musics by
Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richard.
Pushkin. Hey everyone, Today we have a fun follow up
to last week's episode with Johnny Echoes from the band Love.
This week we'll hear Rick interview the last two living
members of The Doors, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore,
about coming up in the LA rock scene alongside Love,
(00:38):
who the Doors idolized and then later eclipsed. The Doors
formed in nineteen sixty five and burned white hot until
the death of their larger than life lead singer Jim Morrison.
They're released six albums in only five years, and then
that brief time as a band, The Doors quickly became
one of the biggest acts of the sixties. Their antiflower
(00:58):
power appeal was accentuated by Jim Morrison's brooding lyrics and
keyboardist Raymond zeris frenzied organ Lakes. On today's episode, Rick
Ruban talks to Robbie Krieger and John ends More about
their tumultuous history with Jim Morrison, who John refers to
as a Kama Kazi drunk. Both Robbie and John recall
LSD fueled stories from their early gigs with The Doors
(01:20):
and the role Acapulco Gold played in Jim Morrison's songwriting process.
This is broken record liner notes for the Digital Age.
I'm justin Mitchman. Here's Rick Rubin with doors, guitarist Robbie
Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Well, thank you so much
for doing this. I thought it would be interesting to
(01:42):
talk about the album Love Forever Changes, because I love
that album and it seems unusual. Yeah. It, first of all,
it doesn't sound like even Loves other records. The ones
that earlier were more rock, yeah, and then Forever Changes
was more acoustic, but classical as well. Yeah. They had
some good players on that right too. But you could
(02:05):
I mean that's when they were kind of started fighting
among them, so right, yeah, you could kind of tell that.
It's interesting also that the Beatles were sort of not
in a great place when they made the White album
with each other, and it's one of the best. There's
something about when there's friction in the band's something good.
(02:25):
That's why we are so big. Let me tell you,
Oh my god, I don't think you guys as having
friction again. I don't know anything. It was three against
one the whole time. It is Jim, what is he
going to do tonight? Oh my god, it's just craziness. Yeah. Yeah.
Was he being provocative for the sake of being provocative
(02:46):
or he was just being himself? All of the above, Yeah,
that was part of it. He liked to, you know,
get people's goats, but you guys as well or not
sure he would he would like yeah after a while winding.
He knew that it wouldn't work after a while with us,
but it didn't stop him from trying. I remember when
I met I met his sister, she said, you know,
(03:09):
my brother growing up was always pressing our buttons. Did
he do that to you guys? Testing Let's see what boundary?
Where the boundaries are or whatever? What would be an
example of something that would happen that would you would
find questionable. Let's see, he didn't have a phone, he
(03:31):
didn't have a car, so I had a car sometimes adventure,
but remember we crash it. We got an apartment, had
a place upstairs so he could be there, so we
could mind next door because he was on a rooftop
in Venice and we just have to drive down there
to get him, you know. And he would just stay
(03:52):
with different girlfriends every night, so you never knew where
he was. But finally we got this place there and
there was a place for him right next door that
he wasn't around there much. What's interesting also is that
both of your bands essentially had lead poets as opposed
to lead singers, which is unusual. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying
(04:17):
to recollect when I first saw love and I think
it was at Beato Lados and did we go together? Yeah? Yeah,
so what year was that, approximately sixty five sixty four?
Had they already put out records at that time or no, no, no, no,
we were rehearsing. Maybe we would just starting, maybe not
(04:39):
even with the doors yet. Maybe it was with Psychedelic
Rangers or something. Yeah, but we went out to this
club and it was cool because it was you didn't
have to be twenty one, because we could never get
in anywhere because we weren't twenty one. How old were
you at the time, You remember about the eighteen, eighteen,
seventeen or eighteen. So anyway, we walk in and their
(04:59):
playing and I had never heard a loud band before.
These were the loudest band I've ever heard. I mean
they had the big amps and shit, and before that
I'd only been to folk music, you know, Budding Travis,
Josh White Blues, you know, muddy water stuff. I had
never heard anything like this. I mean it was fucked,
(05:21):
you know, it was cranking and uh that just blew
me away. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was it obvious when you
saw them what their influences were. It was a culture
shock because here's this black lead singer who he's wearing
granny glasses like Roger mcgunn from the Birds psychedelic but
(05:44):
at the time, you know Afros and funk, you know,
so they're they're electrified folk rock with a black lead
singer singing this way out psychedelic reincarnation. It was mind
blowing anyway, So you know, this this world we walked
(06:05):
into and went wow, Johnny Johnny eccles had this double
neck guitar, which I'd never seen one of those before. Yeah,
that was incredible too. Well, you know, Okay, so we're
playing the London Fog a few doors down from the Whiskey,
This Dump and Love is at Whiskey and during the
(06:25):
break I go down there and stand outside and just
drool over being in that band, and I'm thinking I'm
better than that drummer. I think he's a sweet guyop Snoopy,
Yeah Snoopy, you know. And actually, eventually on Forever Changes
they had studio I think just for one or two songs,
(06:47):
because at least there's one one version of the story
where I think how Blaine played on just two songs. Yeah,
and then the band kind of decided we better get
serious otherwise we're not going to play again. I don't
know that that's the lords don't correct, that's correct, right? Yeah?
(07:08):
And Carol Kay played bass on on a couple too. Wow. Yeah,
you know. Dennis Wilson, he didn't mind how playing on
the stuff. He was cool with it, of course, yeah,
you know. And I was thinking, I'm as good as
these studio guys. Why am I not in love? Yeah?
And then Arthur, you know, told the head of Electra,
(07:29):
Jack Holsman, to see us, which was such a gracious
thing to do. And it was it Arthur or Ronnie
because Ronnie Harron always says it was her well that
she managed him. So and then we skyrocketed past the band.
Sorry guys, but that was so they were our idols. Yeah,
it's it's it's the reason I wanted to talk to you, guys,
(07:50):
is because most people know your band and many people
don't know them, and I thought it would be interesting
for you to talk about it, and it just gives
it gives people an understanding of what you guys saw
and the fact that you traveled the world and spread
the message of the doors everywhere whereas Love didn't really
do that for Love. I don't understand the details, but
(08:11):
I understand that Arthur didn't want to really leave Los
Angeles very much. I'll give you some details. He chained
smoke dope and forever. Changes was just huge in England.
It was like Sergeant Pepper time. And he would not
get on a plane across They did go over there
or one did they think later? I think Mayle, I
(08:33):
think when, maybe even when the band broke, may have
broken up by that. I think you're right, he might
have been doing the hard stuff too by that time.
I was afraid to go on the airplane. Yeah, yeah,
so yeah, his reluctance didn't help at all. When did
you first meet those guys? It's probably I mean, I
think I met Brian earlier, but mainly it was at
(08:55):
the Whiskey when we finally got the job at the
whiskey and they, Yeah, they used to have They were
the headline and every other group you ever heard of.
So how did that work? What does the house band
mean and what does the headliner mean? So we don't
have that anymore. We were. We would start off the night,
you know, eight o'clock when the place was half full.
(09:15):
So you played there every night or six nights, yea. Yeah,
we had to join the union. Remember, I think it
was nine. We started at nine, played the first set,
then the headliner played, then we played again, then they closed.
So it was like being an opening you'd be the
opening act, but you'd be the opening act for everybody
(09:38):
all the time. Yeah. For for about a year for
it was you just name them Captain Beefheart, the Birds,
Van Morrison, Frank and the first one we did was
them Van Morrison's band when he first had Gloria, and
we got to be friends with them, and last night
(10:00):
we got to play Gloria with them on stage, all
of us. Yeah, we left some pictures of that, and
that's when I thought his voice was the best ever.
You know, just man, Gloria, come on, wow. And then
you know when he came over him and played at
the whiskey. We got to know him, and he was
so shy. Man, he was like worse than Jim, you know.
(10:23):
And then one night at a party he came and
he was doing some of his new stuff and he
did a Brown Eyed Girl, remember, just him and a guitar.
He did snippets of astral Weeks too. I was thinking,
he's so shy, he can't even talk, but then he
grabs a guitar and wow. I would imagine by playing
(10:47):
every night the residency probably made you guys really good,
Like when you play together, you just get better. Yeah,
I was there, and in New York we did the
same thing at a place called on Dean's Club. Yeah,
fifty nine Street Bridge every night from ninetel two. And yeah,
Andy Warhol and all those giant people came later. They
(11:09):
remember we started eleven and we go till five whatever,
just five sets tonight. Amazing. Yeah, you get good. The
thing about practice, it really does go. Oh that's the
thing about today groups. They're lucky to get a gig
on a weekend. Yes, you know, how can you get
good like that? And it's also different practicing in front
of people versus playing in a room. It's a whole
(11:32):
different thing in front of people. Sure. Yeah, Well, then
there's electronics, Jim said a long time ago. Maybe in
the future music will be dismade by one guy with
a bunch of machines. Did you say that? Yeah? Incredible,
there it is. Yeah. And then Stevie Wondered came out
with Talking Book a couple of years later, and yeah,
and he played the drums on that as well as
(11:54):
other shit, Oh my god, amazing. Yeah, those were the
days at that time. Will you playing your own material?
Where you playing covers? Both in the London fog, We
learned Willie and Gloria and crap to get by, and
we'd sneak in our own stuff and if the whiskey,
(12:15):
i'd say, remember the first set when nobody was there,
we'd just do what we call it Latin bullshit number
two and we just jam on some Latin stuff and
then as people started coming in, we'd lay on them. Unfortunately,
the times had changed and you didn't have to do
rock hits and you could do your own stuff and
(12:38):
then we'd smack them with the end. Did you end
with the end every day? Yeah? Pretty much, wouldn't or
light my fire would end light my fire. Everybody be dancing,
and then the encore would be the end and people
would file out quietly, no applause. Holy shit, they were bludgeoned.
(12:58):
So great, so great, But you know, I want to
jump for a second. I'm thinking of the parallel between
Arthur and Jim. I have this theory that a great
song it is a wedding between the way the lyrics
fit with the melody. And damn, those two guys not
only had these incredible words, they're they're stitched to gorgeous melodies. Yes,
(13:24):
you know Arthur and Jim. And Jim couldn't play a
chord on any instrument, but had he said he thought
of melodies to remember the words, Oh my God? And
you know roadhouse blues, that's not a difficult melody. But
now I'm going to prove why I'm the drummer and
not the singer. Before you slip into unconsciousness. That's some
(13:51):
hard chord changes. That's not you know, it's like Jazzy
and he had it in his head, gifted, yeah, and
and he just you know, it's not like he sat
down at the piano and picked out the notes. He
actually would do a little capoolko gold, and he said
he heard a concert in his head. Wow, all he
(14:13):
had to do is remember it. Wow. And would those
would those melodies always come after hearing the music, or
might he sing you a melody and then you'd figure
out what the song was? Well, in those early days,
it was, you know, he would have the melody in
his head, and before I was even in the band,
Ray would help him, you know, pick out the drive
(14:36):
kind of was etched out before yea, even Hello I
Love You was kind of like but when Robbie came
along with the band was formed, and then Jim would
just sing a cappella and we'd wait, wait, hold it
f sharp, okay, go on. And even in the songs
that I wrote, he would often change that melody. He couldn't,
(14:58):
you know. I would say, okay, sing it like this,
you know, and he couldn't do it. You know, he
wasn't a musician, so he would do something a little
different and it was usually better than what I had
thought of. He just naturally had a s and yeah, yeah,
like on light my Fire, you know, my my first
melody was more like, uh, you know that it will be,
(15:20):
but he, you know, he simplified it a little bit
and it actually was better. Amazing, And you know, in
the very beginning he didn't have that deep baritone. He
was so shy, wouldn't face the audience. But eventually, Wow,
And you think about other singers who blew their chords
and had to have operations and stuff. And Jim could
(15:44):
scream from the bowels like he was ripping his throat out. Yeah,
but he never had. He did it for five years.
If he had continued, I'm sure he never did while
we were with him. Never, never, He never lost his choice.
I've had so many singers that I've played with over
(16:04):
the years who you know, couldn't make it through a
whole show. Yeah, especially Doors songs, the keys they're in,
they're meant for Jim's his octave range was incredible. It's
an interesting thing about there are certain bands, like the Beatles.
A lot of people cover Beatles songs. Not a lot
of people covered Doors songs so much. But I think
(16:27):
it has to do with the nature of the band
is so unique that the sound of it is as
important as the song. It's like the whole thing is
one and if you take you guys out of it,
the song doesn't have the same life. Yeah, if you
(16:47):
go see these doors cover bands I've never done, that's interest. Well,
it's it's it's intimidating filling Jim's leather pants. No, I mean,
I mean, okay, so I did La Woman with the
La Philharmonic and Chris Martin from cole Play. Yes, and
(17:07):
he was He said to me, oh, man, how can
I feel Jim's vocal cords? And I don't, don't try
or whatever. Yeah, isn't that amazing that he you know,
no vocal coaching, nothing, it never sung before us, never
wrote a song before us. Yeah, I mean he had
(17:28):
the most incredible vocal range and he was always on pitch. Yeah,
never had to wait, never sharp or flat. Do you
know what singers he liked? Like? Who would you say?
He was inspired? Man? Like Delve Like Sinatra? That makes
sense though, Like he sings more like Sinatra than most
(17:50):
rock singers. You know, he really sang in that the
crooner Yeah, the crooner style. Yeah. And you know like
Willie Nelson has it too. Yeah, there's a sense of
phrasing where you sense the singer is so relaxed and
it's effortless, and it is Willie's obsessed with Frank as well. Sure,
(18:11):
and it's so identifiable. You hear two bars of Willie
or Merle or Jim and you go, that's them. It's
nobody else. Now, what was Arthur's influences? Yeah, that's a
good any ideas, I don't know. Well, he must have
liked the birds because of the glasses things. Arthur was
(18:33):
still here, Yeah, and Brian and Jim. Do you know
anything about what their relationship was like? Uh? It was
got more strange, yes, as time went on. I think, yeah,
a songwriter competition kind of thing. Brian had the big hit,
but Arthur had all this gorgeous deep stuff, and I
(18:57):
think there was some jealousy. They were sure unique group.
How the hell did they get together? I wonder how
God knows? And they call themselves love incredible. Isn't that beautiful?
Really a collectic group of people, you know, And it
wasn't a stereotype then you know, the peace sign and
(19:18):
love and it was before it was the real deal.
You know, it was so ahead of the curve. The
people are still catching up. Yeah, you know, like we
were on the shoulders of the beat Nicks and then
the punks are on the shoulders of the hippies and
the Grunges on the shoulders of the punks. So I
mean you could say love was a little bit punk,
(19:40):
a little you know, you'd also makes sense when you
say that you were on the shoulders of the beat
Nicks and that both bands had poets. Yeah, that makes sense,
like if we keep in mind that the Beatnick era
was just sort of what was what had just been
going on in the culture. Yeah, so you know, you
sense a new wave and and I think Jim said
(20:03):
each generation wants to be different from the one before.
And so the punks came along and dissed us for
burning out, and they were right, but the message was there,
the love thing, you know, so I get pissed off
one night. You know, people dissed the sixties is failing hold.
(20:24):
Civil rights, peace movement, feminism are all seeds planted in
the sixties. They're big seeds, so maybe they take hundreds
of years for full fruition. So shut up and get
out your watering can. And also the soap box. Clearly
the world is a different place than it was before
(20:44):
the sixties, Like, yeah, that was the turning point. You
can you can say what you want about the sixties,
not accomplishing all that it meant to do. Yet the
world was transformed in the sixties. There's no question we
live in a different culture that was all the seeds
of the sixties, right, like a renaissance time like the
(21:07):
twenties or what I would saying, as you'd think we
would have learned. We need another sixties right now, So yeah,
it may happen. Yeah, because music is the only thing
that we all agree on. Yeah, I love so let's
use it to try to patch this mess up. Huh.
(21:32):
Going to pause for a quick break, but we'll be
back with the doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. We're
back with Rick Rubens. Conversation with Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
What was the first gig that you did where you
were in the band? Your first gig, first gig was
that Hughes Aircraft. It was don't remember Ray's mom worked
(22:02):
at Hughes Aircraft or his dad. So they needed a
band for some Okay, you know, so well together and
we we I can't remember the bass player, but he
only had one string on his back. And then Ray
was on acid and totally freaked out. He was on
a bummer acid trip. I don't know how he even played.
(22:25):
I don't remember the gig. You don't remember, no, you
black remember? I remember the big warehouse. Yeah, yeah, well
the gig was was pretty weird. We played some mingus
I think, uh, and Jim tried to sing a couple
of things he didn't. We didn't really have any songs
(22:45):
worked up, you know, so Jim and I both took speed.
I remember that, Oh my god, drug addict. Really the
London fog was the first. No, no, no, remember the
party were played at my parents, so there was party,
but still that counts. Yeah, it's fun of people party
(23:05):
at the Isaacson's house near UCLA, and we actually played
a set and that was pretty good. Were you on
that gig that gay house boat party out of Marina
or someone pedrew? I think? And I know on the
invitation it said, uh, please remember the band is not
(23:28):
part of our group. Don't come onto the band and
we're playing and uh, I remember we got the nerve
to play a ballad and then everybody started kind of
getting close and there was a lot of shuffling down
below in the boat, and I remember Ray daring me
to go downstairs. Early Doris gigs. Yeah, and then we
(23:53):
played a gig for Moonfire. Remember what's Moonfire a gig? Yeah,
we played a gig. He had a party down right
near where you live, and the uplifters. Well, no, he
was up to pag I know he was. But he
rented this place right near your house. Moon Fire. Was
this heir to something. Yeah, he had a lot of
(24:15):
money and he had a huge place up into Panga
and he let all the hippies stay there and hang
out and stuff. And he was a militant vegetarian. And
when we played Miami over right, he brought a lamb
on stage, a little little cute little lamb lam and
gave it to Jim. Gave it and Jim Jim said,
(24:38):
he said, if it weren't so young, I fuck it. Oh.
I was gonna say, don't say that, Robbie, but go
he did, okay? Or did he really say that or
was that just in the movie a joke? Yeah, it
was a joke. It's not in the movie. He would
say that. I think it is in the movie. I
believe me he would really. Wasn't it in the movie.
I don't think so. I've seen the movie and I
(24:59):
don't remember that line. Well, it's a real quick line,
and yeah, if you go check it out again, you
hear it. A lot of it's entric folk around. What
was the idea of bringing the lamb on stage? Was
so cute? Don't eat meat? Yeah? Yeah, he was a vegetarian.
Wait before vegetarian? Is it's cool? Yeah? It was kind
(25:23):
of a cool guy. Anyway, We played a party for him,
and that was pretty early. That was one of our
first gigs. I remember having to drag my big standale
amp up there. Yeah, we had a VW bus, we
slept all the stuff, so we would just get gigs
however we could get them, you know. I mean we
(25:43):
used to go to all the clubs and beg them
to let us play there. I remember, you know, Ray
was with Dorothy and in the beach House and Jim
and I maybe you tagged along. We'd go to these
bars on Hollywood Boulevard that would never have a band anyway,
and we'd go in there. Can we play? Would you?
(26:05):
Could we? But we wanted to do something, even though
it seemed fruitless, and it was a twenty four hour,
seven day a week campaign. You know how it is
to launch anything creative. Yes, whether it's a book or
a movie or what, it's a herculean to sell the damna. Absolutely, absolutely,
(26:26):
it's very hard to break through. We didn't even have
a manager, I think, until my fire. Yeah, amazing, and
it's been downhill ever since. It's also funny that in
today's world we don't think of a band of the
stature of the Doors playing at house party. It's just
fascinating to imagine that world because now when young artists start,
(26:52):
the mechanisms are in place for finding an audience and
then finding gigs. There's like an industry around it now,
whereas then it really was a clean slate. And I
remember seeing old film of you guys playing where the
sounds it seemed like the sound system wouldn't even fill
the places you were, you know, tiny little samp for
(27:15):
a vocal mic, you know. Yeah, it's always always hard
to hear the vocals. Poor Jim, you know, he never
had monitors testament to what a good singer he was.
If he could sing like that without hearing himself, I
guess they had him at the whiskey. But yeah, I
mean I think that was good for building his Yeah,
(27:36):
he'd have to something the Beatles talk about was that
they would sing their harmonies, going from gig to gig
in the van and practice singing, and they were so
good at it that they didn't have to hear each other.
They'd be able to sing in a harmony because they
could never hear each other when they were performing, no kidding. Yeah, wow,
And now we have any ear monitors. Different world, you know,
(28:01):
I I changed my answer to the question. For years,
people would say, well, if Jim was around now, would
he be clean and sober? And I go, nah, kama
kazi drunk. And now the last few years I've thought
about Clapton and M and M and and it's a
different time. Yeah. Sure, why if he was alive, he'd
(28:22):
have to be sober. Yeah yeah, otherwise he wouldn't be alive.
But so Yeah, I like saying that because it's different. Yeah. Well,
unfortunately we don't get to have him around anymore. Would
be great. Absolutely, we didn't know him and we miss them. Yeah.
(28:48):
I mean, you know, you see the Stone still playing
and stuff. I get really jealous when I see that.
You know, how quickly did it change from being the
house band to things getting big? For you guys? It
was pretty quick. I mean it was you know, when
light My Fire came into that was that was the
whole game change. Because before that we put out break
(29:12):
on Through as the first single and it didn't do
very much. We called up a lot, this is Fred Schwartz,
would you please play that break on and then they
got on to us. All of our friends would be
calling there, because that's how you got on the radio before.
You know, you have to have an audience calling in.
(29:34):
It's interesting how that song is so admired now. Yes,
and then it was a struggle to get it out
there because it was just so different. You know, I
don't know what starts off with the Bossonova drums, so
I mean, nobody's ever done that since Steven. I think
(29:55):
Forever Changes might have a Bosonova on it. I think
so yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know the way he
played Bossonova, no rock drummers even today can do that. Also,
I think that the fact that you had a classically
trained pianist in the group really separated you from everyone else.
(30:16):
It's true, it's a very one of a kind sound.
I think the same holds true for maybe the Zombies.
You know, I don't want not that I relate the
zombies in the doors, but both of you don't sound
like anyone else, mainly because of the keyboards. I'm such
a featured instrument because like the Rolling Stones usually had
someone playing piano in the group more often than not,
(30:38):
but it wasn't as much of a focus. It was
more of a support instrument. Yes, they had that as well.
And then the raised genius of these licks d D WHOA,
that's itched on all our brains. Yeah, and it sounds
like what are you just saying? That sounds like bach?
(31:00):
It is? It isn't. Yeah, I had the chords, these
these kind of weird chords, and he just naturally just
came up with the with the box to go over it. Yeah, yeah,
it is. That was pretty pretty amazing really, And you know,
Riders in the Storm do you listen to that solo?
(31:22):
It's genius. You know. I've had so many keyboard players
that play with me to play Ray stuff, and a
lot of them know it like my fire and writers
note for note, and but it still never quite sounds
like Ray. You know. It's the feel. Yeah, But the
(31:42):
funny thing is Ray never played those solos alike the
same every night. It was just an improve there was
an improvisation, Yeah, it was you know when we recorded
that stuff, it was one take and that's just how
it was that night. So in addition to the solos
being different, how free were the arrangements like might a
(32:03):
song go longer live or dependent on the song? The
epics and when the music's over. They had big sections
where we'd vamp and they would be different every night,
and the length would go fuck around with any poem
he wanted to, you know, see we'd chase him around.
I mean those kind of songs that they would grow
every night, you know, because it started off real short,
(32:26):
like the end was just a two minute love song
when it started, and then as time went on it
got longer and longer. And but you know, Robbie and
I went to Robbie Shankar's Kanara School of Indian Music
and got heavily influenced by that. So the end got
this droning. This was even that back then you did this,
(32:48):
yeah amazing. Yeah, So that's where that raga had influence came.
I actually had a sitar that a traditional city and
John had the tambo drums. Wow, And we actually went
to the school that Canara School that Robbie Shankar started. Yeah. Actually,
Robbie came and gave a lecture to us one time, amazing,
(33:10):
and we're in our twenties and he says, you should
channel your sexual energy into playing your instrument. What. Yeah,
And later I found out that he really didn't keep
to that well very well, and so there was enough
left over after putting it in the music we can
(33:31):
still use. I'll RockA too. He was the ladies. Well
he liked the whiskey too. Oh yeah, yeah, amazing. So
you're saying he was a human being yea, yeah, yeah,
kind of like MYHRESHI right, he liked Some of your
band members met each other at TM is that? Yeah,
(33:53):
that's true. That's where we met. Tell me the story.
Robbie and I are fooling around with legal psychedelics and
and then Robbie says, there's this Indian sage coming to town.
And I'm thinking, yeah, well, meditation might be a little
less shattering on the nervous system. And this is before
(34:13):
the Beatles a year or two, I don't know got
onto Mahureshi. Yeah, because we were doing it pretty much
every weekend, and uh, and we were doing I was turning, yes,
I was turning all my friends onto it. And so
in this one guy had a bad reaction many you know, yeah,
well did you douse him or yeah? I think I
(34:33):
gave him a little speed with it or something extra
to boost it. But anyway, he had a bad reaction,
and I felt horrible, you know, and so I said, shit,
there's got to be a better way to do this,
you know. So my buddy, who had been to India
met Mahishi and talked him into coming back here, Peter Wallace,
(34:57):
and so his brother and I were buddies, Keith. So
the first Mahishi meeting was at his house, and that's
where Ray and John Ray happened to be there, all right,
and John, John and I knew each other already. But
so Ray came up to me and said, I hear
(35:17):
you're a drummer. You want to be in a band,
and I will I'm a professional. I don't know, I'll
come down and jam and uh. Then, as I said later,
Ray's brothers dropped out, Robbie came in. Was Jim already
in the band? All yeah? I mean, you know, he
stood in the corner with his back to us, so
(35:38):
shy he couldn't. It was like, and we say, already
in the band it means you know. Was actually it
was Rick and the Ravens was the band, and this
Ray's Brothers band at that point. And Jim used to
sing Louie Louie once in a while, right, And then
they started and then Jim came up with these couple
of songs it's the words, and said he wants to
(36:01):
call at the doors. And then that's when John I
met and I met Ray, so I thought, Okay, he's
not the next Mick Jagger. But these words, man, I
want a drum to these words. They're so wild. We'll
be right back with more from Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
After a quick break, we're back with the rest of
(36:25):
Rick's conversation with the Doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
Anything more about love, that's a little more to talk about,
not the doors, right. Oh yeah, we got all the way.
We think you can go wherever you're comfortable going. This
final we got self centered. Well anyway, like I said,
I kind of met Brian earlier on and I used
(36:47):
to see him play and stuff, and he looked kind
of like Brian Jones, you know, had that nice hair
due and stuff. So I decided I wanted my hair
to look like that, and so I get this hair straightener,
you know, because I had I had the real afro
hair and back now so Man, Billy Wolf, we both
(37:09):
had the afron kind of hair, Jewish kink and yeah,
we got this stuff. I figure what it was called.
But it really worked on me. Man, I looked like
fucking Brian. You know. Even Wolf said, hey, Man, you
look like that jerk Brian. Uh, my client. And so
(37:31):
that's right before I met the Doors, before I tried
out for the Doors. So I had the good hair, man,
I think that's why I got the job. And then
a couple of months later when it grew back out,
and I remember Jim going, what happened to your hair?
But by that time they needed me. Why did Why
(37:54):
did your friend refer to him as a jerk? Brian? Oh,
it was just a friend, Leaf saying he was a
competitive guitar player. Yeah. Yeah, we were jealous of him
because he he was in a big group. You know.
It's interesting long hair during that time, on the both coasts,
(38:15):
there were long hairs but in the middle of the country.
And one time after a New York gig, Ray and
I and his girlfriend Dorothy drove across the country because
we had no money, and so we got a car
we could deliver as long as we paid the gas.
And we stopped at a diner in Ohio. Ray and
(38:39):
I had long hair and Dorothy's Japanese. We go in
and holy shit, there's these guys at the counter with
red paint on the back of their necks and they're
scowling at us, and it was scary. I mean, even
in La at that time, we were like the only
long hairs around pretty much. I mean, I remember one
(39:01):
time me and Jim went to eat at Ships. I
think it was remember Ships, Yeah, I think you were
there coffee shop in Westwood. Yeah, And we we started,
you know, sat down ordering stuff and there was some
marines next to us, and they started giving us ship
all right, and so we kind of got started giving
(39:23):
them ship back and were you there? And so finally
we started to leave and they came out and grabbed
us and the one guy was meant beating Jim with
a whoa the pay phone, you know, and Jim, Jim
was just laughing, he goes call the cops. Ha ha ha.
(39:45):
You know he didn't mind being beat up. Remember I
wasn't there, but it's reminded me of these these guys
in Ohio were like saying to the waitress, Shureley, you
got a scissors. Some of these girls need a hair. Yeah.
I remember quite a few times that uppen And it's
(40:07):
interesting now you know, then the punks I'm along to
shave their heads and so now whatever anything's cool, I
like it. There's a liberation. I bet either are still
places you could find in the United States where you
could go and not feel welcome. I'd say it's a
big country. It's a big country. There's still plenty of place.
(40:30):
So would you say that spirituality played a role in
the doors definitely, Yeah, definitely wasn't talked about as much
as Jim tried to squash. Well. I think he was
a searcher. Yeah, we were meditating. He was trying to
(40:51):
find out what was inside in his own way. You know,
it's all different versions of we could call it self
medicating in the case that TM it turns out to
be healthier for you than let's say alcohol. Yeah, but
it's definitely dealing with our inner self, trying to find something,
something more? What else is there? You know? So did
you guys practice TM? Oh yeah, I still do. We
(41:15):
did TM. We did TM for like the whole career.
Twice a day. We go, okay, we're going in the
vocal booth for twenty minutes. Do what you guys got
to do, and Robbie and I'd go meditate. Yeah, maybe
that's what grounded us through that crazy so amazing, I'd say, amazing.
(41:35):
And we actually took Jim to meet Maharishi one time. Wow,
how's that didn't turn out? That one? Okay? What happened? Him?
Didn't sign up? But I do remember him saying he
wanted to look in his eyes and see if he
had any knowledge, and he said he did, but he's
not going to meditate. Yeah okay, Yeah. By that time
(41:57):
it was bigger. The Beatles had started doing it. And
after the lecture and we brought Jim up to real
close to Maisie and tried to introduce him. I do remember,
you know, I was raised Catholic. I'm now a renegade,
of course, but I remember first time being in Mahaishi's
(42:19):
presence and feeling a love vibe like I did not
get this from those priests and the black tourniquets. Wow,
I want this. Yeah, you know, I never got to
meet Mahaishi. I learned TM when I was fourteen, and
like you guys, it has I realized that it had
(42:41):
a big impact on my life. Yeah, I noticed how
you're sitting, no question, no question. I include that as
part of who I am. You know, I don't think
I would be the same person without that. I think
of Maharishi as kind of jump starting this whole thing.
(43:03):
Indian music, Robbie Shankar, the whole culture, Hindu culture at all,
got a big push from him, really and is still
here absolutely in various forms, and what a gift. Yeah.
You know what's interesting is in the sixties there was
no Internet, and wow, the Beatles happened to be experimenting
(43:26):
with psychedelics like we were. The Beatles happened at our
musicians over there all kind of got into meditation like
we were. What's going on here? Carl Jung's archetypal undercurrents
across the globe to get cosmic. But yeah, something going on,
you know. Yeah, And it wasn't people imitating each other.
(43:48):
It was just it was blossoming in the culture. The
Beatles did imitate us. We were meditating before they were. Yeah, right,
so we get technical amount it. And you were taking
acid before them too. Probably. Actually, when I was in college,
I had real Sando acid. Yeah, that was the stuff
(44:11):
they Who was the guy that was doing those? Leary Albert?
Who's later round us? Right, who's the guy who made it?
The guy in San Francis. So Alsley comes to one
of our gigs and he comes backstage and he says,
(44:33):
you guys need a bass player. Man, there's a hole
in your sound, you know. And he leaves and I
said to Ray, Wow, we're making the King of Acid nervous.
I think we're on the right track. Yeah, how did
it work out that you decided not to have a
bass player? It's interesting. We tried. We had a girl
(44:53):
bass player for a minute. We sounded like the Stones,
some white blues man or something. We tried a few
bass players, and we always had a bass pretty much
on the records. Yeah, well that was to make up
for there was no mood synthesizers. So raised keyboard. Ray
found this keyboard bass and then we, ah, that's it.
We don't need a basic business but recording it worked
(45:16):
on some songs like break on Through that's just like
yboard in the end, and control of other ones, but
other ones that needed that plucking from a string with
various bass players over dubbed raised lines and actually on
Backdoorman and Soul Kitchen was me overdooming the bass. Oh,
(45:38):
there was again a rumor that John Sebastian played bass
on one of your albums, Play Atlantic Harmonica on Roadhouse.
Really okay, so you'll notice that John Sebastian, the hard
player credited on Roadhouse is ge Pool Yayzy, which was
a synonym for John Sebastian. Then that was his real name.
(46:02):
What is his real name? That's his real name, Giovanni
Pool Glacie is his real name? Really? Yeah, I think
that would sound good as right, I thought he but
I had heard that he didn't want to be associated
with the Doors. It was his record company didn't want
his attempt to use his name, right, But also the Doors,
(46:22):
you know, I mean, there's this wonderful flower power thing
with the birds and all the mamas and papa's in it.
We loved it, but we were the underbelly the undeclared
Vietnam War, the shadows, and people did not like us.
Some they it made them nervous to be associated with
(46:44):
us because we were dark. I don't think that was it.
Well good, I'm glad we disagree now. I heard just
a little earlier from a moderator that tension create is creativity.
How fuck you? Well, fuck you? So good? Okay, so
I see the TM's been working. Okay. Was it when
(47:11):
you got to play at the Hollywood Bowl? Did that
feel like a big deal at the time? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
sure sure. Did anythink we were one of the first
Did the Beatles play there? Yeah? I think the only
the Beatles had played? But of course, you know, they
made us have a decibel limit in that ruin. Yeah,
(47:33):
and we had. That was the first time that we
actually brought real cameras and movie cameras and stuff to
film the show. So it looks real good. But uh,
and Jim took acid and didn't tell us. Yeah, great,
well why would he tell us? And it was fine,
but there was something just wasn't a good show. I
(47:53):
remember saying to you coming off stage, Robbie, what what?
And he you said, he took assid just so he
got and sometimes when he asked he was great, but
at this time he got real introverted and he kind
of just didn't move around. He saw a moth on
the astro turf and picked it up and was examining it.
(48:15):
And then it didn't help that his girlfriend Pam was
sitting with Mick Jagger right in the front row, right
because Jagger went out to dinner with us before and
we wanted to be really good for him, and damn it,
I mean, it's good. What did he What did he say?
Somebody asked him about that. He said it was in
Melody Maker. The doors are nice, chaps, but they went
(48:37):
on a bit long. But I mean, it looks great,
it looks good. Who was the last show you guys
did New Orleans? I was trying to forget about. That
was a bad one. Yeah. The night before was Dallas
(48:58):
and we were trying out Riders Live Riders on the
Storm and we were kind of wow, maybe we could
kind of be a jazz rock thing. Maybe we got
it's going to be different. And the next night Jim
was drunk too drunk, Yeah, sat on the on the
drum riser in the middle, just his head down the
(49:19):
middle of the show, I walk around and sit next
to him. Hey, man, what do you want to play next? Hello?
And isn't that when Ray said he saw jim soul
leave his body or something like Race said he saw
his spirit exit? Ah, it was the last show we attempted. Yeah,
(49:41):
I was lobbying for a year to get off the
road because in the studio, if he's too messed up,
we go home. But in front of ten thousand people,
and we were really good live in the beginning, just
pin dropped home. You think do you think success played
a role in his destruction self destruction? Some probably, it's
(50:03):
not just that. I think it would have happened anyway,
you do. Yeah, here's a line someone said to me,
blew my mind. Maybe if Jim hadn't met you guys,
he would have died sooner. Interesting who interesting? Thought? Yeah? Yeah,
because at least he had something to do he channeled. Yeah,
(50:23):
I mean he lived to be on stage. Yeah, he
enjoyed performing. Oh yeah's interesting. I wouldn't I wouldn't have
known that if you didn't say it. No, we're kidding.
Wouldn't have known that well, because he seemed so scary
and serious and dark and weird, but he knew. When
you're performing, you can feel if the audience is a
Madison Square garden or a club, that's one person and
(50:48):
the performer is a duet or an orchestra, that's the
other person, and the two of you are going to
dance tonight, and the mystery and excitement is what is
it going to be? A waltz, a salsa, a riot?
You know, And that's what's so kinetic about Energetically you
feel that interaction. Yeah, and maybe that's why bands like
(51:10):
your band, bands like Love, bands like The Grateful Dead
for that matter. There Today there seems to be more
and more artists who just are putting on a show
and people are watching this thing, but there's very little interaction,
you know, like the show is the same every night. Yeah,
Whereas you guys would change according to what you were
(51:34):
feeling that some song, like some songs would have long
parts that got longer if it felt good that night.
It wasn't so scripted. Yeah, But you guys also were
influenced by jazz, and it wouldn't be unusual to have
a long song in jazz, so bringing that bringing that
(51:55):
jazz sensibility into popular music super cool and Robbie Genkar,
I mean, yeah, we sat next to the man and
ragas are fifteen minutes. Yes, and Robbie, Robbie was like,
you know, yeah, you in America want a climax too soon,
you know, take your time with the four play metaphorical. Yes.
(52:16):
And we were steeped in that. Yes. When I first
met Ray, he played me Robbie Shankar's theme from Panther
Panchali and it had jazz guys on jazz and raga.
It's like, wow, let's soak up this amazing. Yeah, cool,
what a pleasure. Thank you and talking about this guy. Yeah.
(52:42):
Thanks to Robbie Krieger and John Densmore for sharing so
many incredible stories about Jim Morrison and the Doors. You
can hear all of our favorite Doors songs on my
playlist at broken record podcast dot com. Be sure to
subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of our
new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record.
(53:05):
Broken Record is produced help from Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel, Vantaliday,
Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick
Chaffey Our executive producer is Mia Lobell. Broken Record is
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content an
(53:27):
uninterrupted ad free listening for four ninety nine a month.
Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts subscriptions, and if
you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and
review us on your podcast app. Or the musics by
Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richard.
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