I spent a nice day into night with Ray and Robby recently before watching the new Doors doc with them - (which is great)

Here is some of our conversation

[www.spinner.com]

hi hbwriter - how fun! when does the doc come out?

- swiss

The Doors - In a word, pretentious 6th form poesy.

Great record. My favourite Doors album. The undiscovered song is nothing special, but there are some nice alternate takes on the new bonus disc.

Krieger's right about the title song being the best track on the record. I'd go even further and say its the best song they ever made.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-17 01:21 by Gazza.

Thanks for posting. Last week I got the new "L.A. Woman" double-CD reissue and the DVD of the new "L.A. Woman" documentary at the same time (from Amazon) and really like both.

The new interviews (and other stuff) on the DVD with the surviving Doors are great and the outtakes on the 2nd "L.A. Woman" CD are great. I especially like the alternate takes of "Love Her Madly" and "L.A. Woman."

Frankly, I wish the recent SOME GIRLS reissue was more like this "L.A. Woman" reissue!

The new DVD and the double-CD set are special enough I'm surprised I haven't seen big Doors stories (maybe even cover stories) in ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE and MOJO MAGAZINE and such mags. So I'm pleased to finally see some press about the new releases with your interview.

agree- the bonus disc is nice in that it presents those alt. versions - warts and all - in full bodied versions. we forget how well we know those originals the doc, to my knowledge, is out on dvd- i have two of them sitting here

tom-if you want to bash them, at least spell 'poetry' right - and it's four words you used for 'in a word'

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Title5Take1
Thanks for posting. Last week I got the new "L.A. Woman" double-CD reissue and the DVD of the new "L.A. Woman" documentary at the same time (from Amazon) and really like both.

The new interviews (and other stuff) on the DVD with the surviving Doors are great and the outtakes on the 2nd "L.A. Woman" CD are great. I especially like the alternate takes of "Love Her Madly" and "L.A. Woman."

Frankly, I wish the recent SOME GIRLS reissue was more like this "L.A. Woman" reissue!

The new DVD and the double-CD set are special enough I'm surprised I haven't seen big Doors stories (maybe even cover stories) in ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE and MOJO MAGAZINE and such mags. So I'm pleased to finally see some press about the new releases with your interview.

Title- could not agree more on all points- and the dearth of coverage surprises me, too - what does it take to get noticed these days?

fyi, my son took an interesting shot of the guys after the conversation - he was a bit nervous - he's 18 and a big Doors fan- Ray was especially nice - "Direct us, kid, this is YOUR image and you need to direct the way you want it to look!"

[www.flickr.com]

i love the doors

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hbwriter
fyi, my son took an interesting shot of the guys after the conversation - he was a bit nervous - he's 18 and a big Doors fan- Ray was especially nice - "Direct us, kid, this is YOUR image and you need to direct the way you want it to look!"

[www.flickr.com]

haha I can see Ray saying that.

tell ya - for 72 years young the guy is amazing - boundless, energetic - just bursting with anecdotes and expressions

we're all just riders on the storm...

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hbwriter
tell ya - for 72 years young the guy is amazing - boundless, energetic - just bursting with anecdotes and expressions

Absolutely...to see/hear him in that documentary do "Riders On The Storm" all by himself and to know each part, when each instrument comes in, how they sounded and recite the elements of the song...very very cool...and yes, ESPECIALLY great at his age.

Great stuff, hbwriter. Thanks for sharing.

It's too bad that there was no mention of John Densmore. I know that he & Ray have had some kind of falling out over the last 10 years or so, and it's a shame the 3 of them can't get together for this type of retrospective. They sounded great in the VH1 Storytellers special several years back!

what's funny, Densmore just spoke in my son's class at USC - and he didn't mention those guys! clearly, there is a divide

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-17 19:59 by misterfrias.

the great LA DJ Jim Ladd was with us for the latter part of the night - what an amazing guy - this is the guy who toured with Roger Waters - the Doors guys clearly love him and the banter was fascinating to listen to

Is there more to the interview? Do you film the interview? What about recording? What kind of recorder do you use?

i have a ton of audio from this day - lots of rambling and assorted storytelling - i think i used an olympus digital recorder on this day -

p



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-17 19:59 by misterfrias.

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tomcasagranda
The Doors - In a word, pretentious 6th form poesy.

That would be in four words actually. Ahem.

I was/am a big Doors fan. I particularly am fond of the last two LPs, "Morrison Hotel" and "LA Woman." As they were becoming more blues based, their sound and playing got tighter -- I see them as becoming the American Stones at this point as much as you can say that about anyone. There is some parallel with these records and "Beggars Banquet" and Let it Bleed" -- back to the roots, a more "American" sound and imagery, and to address the lyric issue, the songs were becoming leaner in words and music but still edgy. The only aspect of the band that wasn't peaking in my opinion was Morrison's (amazing) baritone, but in a way that served this music as well.

"I woke up this morning and got myself a beer!" Nothing 6th form about that to my mind, and some of the best lyrics ever written!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-17 05:08 by Wry Cooter.

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Wry Cooter

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tomcasagranda
The Doors - In a word, pretentious 6th form poesy.

That would be in four words actually. Ahem.

I was/am a big Doors fan. I particularly am fond of the last two LPs, "Morrison Hotel" and "LA Woman." As they were becoming more blues based, their sound and playing got tighter -- I see them as becoming the American Stones at this point as much as you can say that about anyone. There is some parallel with these records and "Beggars Banquet" and Let it Bleed" -- back to the roots, a more "American" sound and imagery, and to address the lyric issue, the songs were becoming leaner in words and music but still edgy. The only aspect of the band that wasn't peaking in my opinion was Morrison's (amazing) baritone, but in a way that served this music as well.

"I woke up this morning and got myself a beer!" Nothing 6th form about that to my mind, and some of the best lyrics ever written!

And then some...
Your ballroom days are over, baby
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening crawl across the years
You walk across the floor with a flower in your hand
Trying to tell me no one understands
Trade in your hours for a handful of dimes
Gonna make it baby, in our prime

Let it roll baby, roll...
YEAH...Love the Doors...

It's surprising to me that when I talk to young guys about bands I saw back in the day, they are generally far more impressed that I saw the Doors once, than the fact I 've seen the Stones several times.....

I liked the Doors when I was younger, but not anymore, however I'm a big fan of LA Woman, that's a terrific album, so I think I'll pick up this new release. Didn't know about thhis re-release before seeing this thread



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-02-17 11:43 by Erik_Snow.

OK.

I used to like the Doors, and listened to Morrison a great deal at university, but Morrison is not a poet, much as he loved to assume that mantle. If Morrison was still alive, I could easily see him descend into sub-Sinatra, sub-Stewart parody, crooning the great American song-book.

I used 4 words to describe The Doors.

Maybe I could describe them thus: "Below par Jimmy Smithesque organ, sub-Bloomfield blues licks, meets pretentious pseudo-poetry".

What has also upset me re: the Doors is that they never seem to go away: they are always there, whether it's An American Night, Live at The Hollywood Bowl, covers of People Are Strange from The Lost Boys, the Oliver Stone film, the box set, the Rhino reissue campaign, the Rhinohandmade concerts on cd, and posters of Jim Morrison in student digs.

I would add that I feel rhino, and rhinohandmade.com, could be far better utilised in reissuing other artists (not the Monkees, though). What about deluxe editions of Now Look and I've Got My Own Album by Ronnie Wood ?

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tomscasagranda
What about deluxe editions of Now Look and I've Got My Own Album by Ronnie Wood ?

As much as I love Ronnie, I doubt he's as big as The Doors by himself. My two cents.

Yes.

My argument is that reissue companies, such as rhinohandmade, would be better suited to reissuing, albeit in limited quantities, artists that there is no saturation of. Wouldn't the serious collector be more interested in a rare version of I Can Feel The Fire, or Small Town Talk by Bobby Charles ?

The Doors are endlessly recycled, almost to the point that Lance Armstrong would cycle less than them. Can't we not get just one little break from re-cycling, re-marketing, and re-inventing them for a generation ?

I`ve got a book on The Doors called "The Doors - Artistic Vision" by Doug Sundling, issued in 1990. Pretentious 6th form indeed.

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tomcasagranda
Yes.

The Doors are endlessly recycled, almost to the point that Lance Armstrong would cycle less than them. Can't we not get just one little break from re-cycling, re-marketing, and re-inventing them for a generation ?

Well they got to keep the money coming in. The Stones have done it, Zep etc.

I should have the LA Women reissue this weekend. I like all their studio albums (even Soft Parade) but find some of the live stuff a bit tough going, guess you had to there. I mean 22 minutes of Mystery Train !