'Break on Through' Doors open to the 21st
Century
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May 2, 2004
BY Ray Hogan
Staff Writer
Jim Morrison's legacy looms as large as that of any rock star who died too
young.
So when Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of The Doors announced they had
recruited The Cult's Ian Astbury and hit the road as The Doors of the 21st
Century last year, they knew it would be received with skepticism.
Despite continual rumors, Morrison died in 1971. Manzarek wants to make that
clear.
The keyboardist says, aside from the fact that they "really wanted to play
together one more time," the reason The Doors of the 21st Century (drummer John
Densmore has distanced himself from the group) are touring is because of the
current world condition.
"The 21st century, war, madness. There's a craziness out across the country
that's led by the wild man in The White House," he says. "It's time for an
alternative message about what's going on."
His rhetoric doesn't sound too different from that of the mid-1960s, when The
Doors emerged from Hollywood's Sunset Strip and quickly established themselves
as the hippie movement's dark underbelly.
"The Doors' music was very spontaneous. Like jazz musicians, we always
improvised," he says. "Perhaps rock music has lost its improvisatory nature and
has become too ordered and too stultified."
On Thursday, the band stops at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.
The Doors' legacy is particularly appealing because, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis
Joplin, the group achieved immortality in a very short time. The Doors'
eponymous debut was released in 1967 and the band left a staggering body of work
before Morrison's death in France four years later. Morrison signaled the
concept of the modern rock star in a manner that forever changed popular music.
After him, it became common for frontmen to be intelligent, dark, unpredictable
and dangerously entertaining. The band's catalog of songs lives in perpetuity on
classic rock radio. For every "Break On Through" and "Light My Fire" there are
sullen meditations such as "The Crystal Ship" and "The End," which Manzarek says
is the one song off-limits to the current band. " 'The End' is sacred to Jim
Morrison," he says.
The Doors of the 21st Century auditioned its new singer somewhat unknowingly.
In early 2001, VH1 spotlighted The Doors on its "Storytellers" series in which
artists talk about the origins of songs before performing them. The remaining
members of The Doors invited modern singers to add their own twists to classic
Morrison songs. Scott Stapp (Creed), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet
Revolver) and Travis Meeks (Day of the New) were among them. Astbury best
captured the spirit.
Astbury made a name for himself in The Cult, the highly underrated British band
that released the stellar "Love," "Electric" and "Sonic Temple" albums before
imploding in the early 1990s. That band's mixture of Led Zeppelin orchestration
and AC/DC three-chord punch was certainly heavier than The Doors' approach, but
the singer shared a life outlook with Morrison, namely a near obsession with
Native American mysticism.
"He was the one who most approximated the psychic side of Jim Morrison,"
Manzarek says. "Like Morrison, Ian is a Celtic Christian, a shaman, a Buddhist,
a practitioner of martial arts, and he comes from the same dark place that
Morrison also came from."
A recent show in Minneapolis featured such band staples as "Break On Through,"
"Love Me Two Times," "Touch Me" and "When the Music's Over."
Manzarek, Krieger and Astbury are in a convenient situation. Unlike other
reunited classic bands, The Doors of the 21st Century aren't playing solely to
their older fans. The Doors are continually discovered by teenagers. Drawn to
Morrison's Dionysian lifestyle and imagery-filled lyrics, high school and
college-aged students remain fascinated by the legend. Manzarek says the same
thing that attracted fans 30 years ago is still what attracts them now.
"The sense of freedom The Doors offer, perhaps the last gasp of freedom before
one puts on the yoke of conformity," Manzarek says. "You can be free and The
Doors offer one avenue toward freedom."
It's a concept he's not seeing too much of in modern music.
"There's always a quest for freedom on the part of artists," he says. "It's just
that today most artists will not stand up to the status quo, either political or
religious. ... The Doors stood for peace, love and potency."
*
The Doors of the 21st Century play Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday. Tickets cost $35 and $45. Call (800) 477-6849 or visit
www.mohegansun.com.
Copyright (c) 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/features/scn-sa-doors2may02,0,3229682.story
(thanks, Dan)
return to Ida's
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