Doors flung open 40 years on

He was The Lizard King. He “could do anything”. He was Mr Mojo Risin’ (an anagram of Jim Morrison which he later used in the song L.A. Woman).

The Doors were flung open and, in the words of their debut album’s opening blast, they were ready to “break on through to the other side”.

With equal doses of gentle croons and primal screams, of summery psychedelia and bone-chilling menace, they produced an LP that still stands tall next to that year’s Sgt Pepper by The Beatles and The Velvet Underground’s “banana” album.

Most students of rock history are familiar with how Jim’s vivid story unfolded. A mere four-and-a-half years later, the bloated, bearded singer came to a sad end in a bath in Paris on July 3, 1971.

One of rock’s most outrageously brilliant frontmen was gone at 27. A slave to alcohol, he’d still found time to lead his band on a merry dance through six fine studio albums and a host of incandescent live performances. Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of his death.

But what was it like knowing and working with Jim and being a member of The Doors?

To celebrate the release of the definitive Doors boxset, Perception, SFTW reunited

the band’s three surviving members to find out.

Ray Manzarek (keyboards), Robby Krieger (guitar) and John Densmore (drums) speak with huge affection about their late, great singer.

They talk about how they formed the band, about the high points such as the overwhelming reaction to Light My Fire and low points such

as Jim’s rap for indecent exposure at a Miami gig.

And, as we discover, there was a lot more to The Doors than Jim Morrison. Four talented people with a shared, daring musical vision.

Perception brings together studio albums The Doors, Strange Days (1967), Waiting For The Sun (1968), The Soft Parade (1969), Morrison Hotel (1970) and L.A. Woman (1971). Each has fascinating bonus tracks and on six accompanying DVDs you can hear the albums as never before in surround sound and watch promotional and live footage.

Of the newly released material, most interesting are early takes of pivotal songs Moonlight Drive and Indian Summer, a jazzy version of Queen Of The Highway and some great work-in-progress takes of Not To Touch The Earth and Roadhouse Blues.

The slow, bar-room blues of Orange County Suite, a stunning out-take from L.A. Woman, points to a bright future Jim was never to have.

AS Riders On The Storm, Krieger and Manzarek are joined by The Cult’s Ian Astbury for a short UK tour celebrating The Doors. The shows are at Clyde

Auditorium, Glasgow (Dec 29); The Roundhouse, London (Dec 30); The Roundhouse, London (Dec 31); Civic, Wolverhampton (Jan 2); The Apollo, Manchester (Jan 3). The Roundhouse in Camden was the setting for The Doors’ legendary gig in 1968, their only UK performance aside from the Isle Of Wight Festival.

HERE Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore tell SFTW about their lives less ordinary in The Doors:

DESCRIBE the moment you joined the band.

Ray: Jim and I conceived The Doors on the beach of Venice, California, in the summer of 1965. We were recent graduates of the UCLA film school where we were classmates and formed a bond of friendship centring around film, music — jazz, blues and rock — and marijuana.

Jim was a poet and I was a musician. He sang me a few songs (that day on the beach) that he had been working on and I could hear the music in my head that would support his marvellous, psychedelic lyrics. Moonlight Drive was the first song he did.

Also: My Eyes Have Seen You and Summers Almost Gone. I said: “Brilliant! Let’s get a rock and roll band together.” He said, “Ray, that’s exactly what I had in mind”.

Robby: At our first rehearsal, the first song we did was Moonlight Drive. By the time the song ended, I knew I was in The Doors!

John: I was at Ray’s parents’ Manhattan Beach garage when I met Jim and we jammed on Moonlight Drive and I knew there was magic in the air.

WHAT sort of life were you living?

John: I was a college student, frustrated by getting Cs in everything but music and sports (for which I got As). I was also a professional drummer, playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and bars.

Robby: I was going to UCLA, living at home with the family, doing lots of acid (not in school. Well, sometimes).

Ray: Starving student artist.

CAN you describe the spirit of Doors music?

Robby: We had an intense desire to get to the other side and Break On Through captured it.

Ray: Freedom, exploration, danger, no fear!

John: The Doors music was about transcendence, freedom, but inner freedom.

JIM once yelled to an audience: “I wanna change the world!” Do you think he and you as a band did?

Ray: Yes, and for the better. You can dare to be free! Free of the rigidity of church, school and politics. With the ingestion of certain hallucinogenic substances, one can open the doors of perception and perceive things as they truly are — infinite. And that vision will create the new man on planet Earth.

John: We helped nudge along the anti-war movement during Vietnam and were sympathetic to civil rights and the women’s movement.

POET, musician, sex-god, friend etc – what was Jim’s best quality?

John: All of the above.

Ray: Poet, friend.

Robby: Jim had the ability to bond with people, not just in person but over the radio and TV as well. A very rare quality.

WHAT was he like to work with?

Robby: Unless he was drunk he was great at all times.

John: He was fantastic in the studio, very professional, unless he was drunk. On stage, he was more volatile, but that’s where the excitement lay. He was unpredictable.

Ray: A great deal of fun.

WHAT’S your fondest memory of Jim?

Ray: Walking along the beach with him and discussing man, God and the place of both in the universe.

John: Driving around in my VW Bug, talking about the future.

WERE you surprised by the reaction to Light My Fire?

John: Something in my bones told me Light My Fire was special. The transition from the verse into the chorus has some kind of intoxicating sound quality that seems to get everybody.

Ray: Not surprised, but extremely happy.

Robby: When we played it live, people went nuts every time, so we knew it was a hit song. If Feliciano hadn’t done it in a totally different arrangement, and very commercial too, not nearly so many people from all types of music would have covered it — so thank you Jose!

WHAT’S your proudest achievement as a member of The Doors?

Ray: Being IN the Doors.

John: My drumming on LA Woman.

Robby: Writing Light My Fire, Touch Me and others.

HOW did you manage to produce six albums in under five years?

Robby: After the first album, producer Paul Rothschild told Ray, John and I, “Boys, we better record as much as we can because Jim may not be with us too much longer”. A horrible thing to say, but true.

Ray: Hard work and concentration. But it was never gruelling. It was joyous! It was art.

John: It was 24/7, but extremely rewarding creatively.

WERE there any discoveries among the boxset’s bonus tracks that surprised you or are particular favourites?

John: I like the jazz version of Queen Of The Highway very much. There seems to be more stuff being found in our entrails.

Robby: Yes, thank God, the Roadhouse out-takes are very cool.

DOORS albums are beautifully structured with big setpieces like The End and When The Music’s Over as the final tracks.

Robby: We laboured over the order endlessly, but in reality most of the albums almost sequenced themselves. What else would open the first album but Break On Through?

What else would close it but The End?

HOW did you feel at the time about the notorious Miami incident (Jim’s rap for indecent exposure in 1969)?

John: I felt like it was a political evening, musically poor, but everyone went home laughing as if we’d had a good time. The lawsuit came much later due to the right wing trying to get us.

Ray: It was theatre of the absurd becomes reality.

Robby: It was a hatchet job by politicians running for office.

HOW do you remember the Isle Of Wight Festival?

Robby: It was a mess. Jim was in a daze because of the trial, Joni Mitchell was in tears about something, Hendrix was worried about where to score rather than his set — rock and roll as usual.

Ray: Vividly and with great fondness. Three quarters of a million English hippies! My God, what a sight. And what cool and fine vibrations. Peace and love — and now we have Iraq.

John: I was in awe watching The Who play Tommy but Jim was subdued because he was on trial.

DO you accept the criticism for The Soft Parade, generally regarded as the weakest Doors album with Jim?

Ray: Yes. It’s all my fault.

John: No. We talked about strings and horns before the first album. We were trying to make our Sgt. Pepper’s. Touch Me was No1 and the critics just didn’t get it.

Robby: I agree on the overproduction, but don’t consider it the weakest album by far. Touch Me, Wild Child and Soft Parade are some of our strongest songs.

YOU developed a much meatier sound for Morrison Hotel. Ray: Yes, we thought, “Let’s make it meaty, beaty, big, and bouncy”. I think we did.

John: After Soft Parade, we wanted to get back to our raw, original garage sound. if we hadn’t gone through Soft Parade, we wouldn’t have gotten back.

HOW were the recording sessions for L.A. Woman, the last time you guys saw Jim?

Robby: Those were the most fun sessions we ever did, mainly because we produced ourselves and recorded at our rehearsal place with a portable board.

Ray: Great sessions. Fast, hard and rocking. But cool and dark, too.

John: It was extremely relaxed, producing ourselves with our long-time engineer Bruce Botnick.

DO you have a favourite Doors album, one that brings back the best memories?

Robby: They were all memorable, but L.A. Woman was a true Doors album.

John: The second album Strange Days and the last L.A. Woman are my favourites.

Ray: No, love them all.

WHAT was it like collaborating again on this box set?

John: Every generation or so, technology improves the sound and it’s even better, plus the drums seem to be louder and clearer. I like that!

Robby: Remixing with Bruce Botnick in surround sound was great.

Do you hear The Doors legacy in today’s music?

Robby: It’s hard not to. Check out Stoned Immaculate, The Doors tribute album, you’ll get an idea.

WHAT do you imagine would have happened if Jim had lived?

John: Either he would be a drunk playing the blues in a club, or a vibrant, creative artist, clean and sober, like Eric Clapton.

Ray: Who knows? The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.

Robby: I have no idea. But I know it would have been a blast!