Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / The Doors: Robby Krieger and John Densmore

Transcript

The Doors: Robby Krieger and John Densmore · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, Today we have a fun follow up
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to last week's episode with Johnny Echoes from the band Love.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: This week we'll hear Rick interview the last two living
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: members of The Doors, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: about coming up in the LA rock scene alongside Love,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: who the Doors idolized and then later eclipsed. The Doors
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: formed in nineteen sixty five and burned white hot until
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the death of their larger than life lead singer Jim Morrison.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: They're released six albums in only five years, and then
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that brief time as a band, The Doors quickly became
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest acts of the sixties. Their antiflower
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: power appeal was accentuated by Jim Morrison's brooding lyrics and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: keyboardist Raymond zeris frenzied organ Lakes. On today's episode, Rick
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Ruban talks to Robbie Krieger and John ends More about
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: their tumultuous history with Jim Morrison, who John refers to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: as a Kama Kazi drunk. Both Robbie and John recall
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: LSD fueled stories from their early gigs with The Doors
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and the role Acapulco Gold played in Jim Morrison's songwriting process.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: This is broken record liner notes for the Digital Age.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I'm justin Mitchman. Here's Rick Rubin with doors, guitarist Robbie
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Well, thank you so much
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: for doing this. I thought it would be interesting to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: talk about the album Love Forever Changes, because I love
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: that album and it seems unusual. Yeah. It, first of all,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like even Loves other records. The ones
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that earlier were more rock, yeah, and then Forever Changes
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: was more acoustic, but classical as well. Yeah. They had
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: some good players on that right too. But you could
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I mean that's when they were kind of started fighting
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: among them, so right, yeah, you could kind of tell that.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: It's interesting also that the Beatles were sort of not
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in a great place when they made the White album
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: with each other, and it's one of the best. There's
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: something about when there's friction in the band's something good.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: That's why we are so big. Let me tell you,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't think you guys as having
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: friction again. I don't know anything. It was three against
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: one the whole time. It is Jim, what is he
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: going to do tonight? Oh my god, it's just craziness. Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Was he being provocative for the sake of being provocative
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: or he was just being himself? All of the above, Yeah,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: that was part of it. He liked to, you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: get people's goats, but you guys as well or not
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: sure he would he would like yeah after a while winding.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: He knew that it wouldn't work after a while with us,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: but it didn't stop him from trying. I remember when
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I met I met his sister, she said, you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: my brother growing up was always pressing our buttons. Did
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: he do that to you guys? Testing Let's see what boundary?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Where the boundaries are or whatever? What would be an
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: example of something that would happen that would you would
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: find questionable. Let's see, he didn't have a phone, he
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: didn't have a car, so I had a car sometimes adventure,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: but remember we crash it. We got an apartment, had
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a place upstairs so he could be there, so we
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: could mind next door because he was on a rooftop
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: in Venice and we just have to drive down there
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to get him, you know. And he would just stay
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: with different girlfriends every night, so you never knew where
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: he was. But finally we got this place there and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: there was a place for him right next door that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: he wasn't around there much. What's interesting also is that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: both of your bands essentially had lead poets as opposed
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to lead singers, which is unusual. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to recollect when I first saw love and I think
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it was at Beato Lados and did we go together? Yeah? Yeah,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: so what year was that, approximately sixty five sixty four?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Had they already put out records at that time or no, no, no, no,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: we were rehearsing. Maybe we would just starting, maybe not
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: even with the doors yet. Maybe it was with Psychedelic
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Rangers or something. Yeah, but we went out to this
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: club and it was cool because it was you didn't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: have to be twenty one, because we could never get
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: in anywhere because we weren't twenty one. How old were
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you at the time, You remember about the eighteen, eighteen,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: seventeen or eighteen. So anyway, we walk in and their
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: playing and I had never heard a loud band before.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: These were the loudest band I've ever heard. I mean
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: they had the big amps and shit, and before that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I'd only been to folk music, you know, Budding Travis,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Josh White Blues, you know, muddy water stuff. I had
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: never heard anything like this. I mean it was fucked,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: you know, it was cranking and uh that just blew
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: me away. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was it obvious when you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: saw them what their influences were. It was a culture
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: shock because here's this black lead singer who he's wearing
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: granny glasses like Roger mcgunn from the Birds psychedelic but
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: at the time, you know Afros and funk, you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: so they're they're electrified folk rock with a black lead
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: singer singing this way out psychedelic reincarnation. It was mind
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: blowing anyway, So you know, this this world we walked
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: into and went wow, Johnny Johnny eccles had this double
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: neck guitar, which I'd never seen one of those before. Yeah,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that was incredible too. Well, you know, Okay, so we're
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: playing the London Fog a few doors down from the Whiskey,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: This Dump and Love is at Whiskey and during the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: break I go down there and stand outside and just
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: drool over being in that band, and I'm thinking I'm
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: better than that drummer. I think he's a sweet guyop Snoopy,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah Snoopy, you know. And actually, eventually on Forever Changes
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: they had studio I think just for one or two songs,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: because at least there's one one version of the story
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: where I think how Blaine played on just two songs. Yeah,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: and then the band kind of decided we better get
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: serious otherwise we're not going to play again. I don't
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: know that that's the lords don't correct, that's correct, right? Yeah?
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: And Carol Kay played bass on on a couple too. Wow. Yeah,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: you know. Dennis Wilson, he didn't mind how playing on
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the stuff. He was cool with it, of course, yeah,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: you know. And I was thinking, I'm as good as
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: these studio guys. Why am I not in love? Yeah?
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And then Arthur, you know, told the head of Electra,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Jack Holsman, to see us, which was such a gracious
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: thing to do. And it was it Arthur or Ronnie
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: because Ronnie Harron always says it was her well that
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: she managed him. So and then we skyrocketed past the band.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Sorry guys, but that was so they were our idols. Yeah,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's the reason I wanted to talk to you, guys,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: is because most people know your band and many people
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: don't know them, and I thought it would be interesting
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: for you to talk about it, and it just gives
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: it gives people an understanding of what you guys saw
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and the fact that you traveled the world and spread
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the message of the doors everywhere whereas Love didn't really
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: do that for Love. I don't understand the details, but
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I understand that Arthur didn't want to really leave Los
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Angeles very much. I'll give you some details. He chained
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: smoke dope and forever. Changes was just huge in England.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: It was like Sergeant Pepper time. And he would not
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: get on a plane across They did go over there
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: or one did they think later? I think Mayle, I
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: think when, maybe even when the band broke, may have
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: broken up by that. I think you're right, he might
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: have been doing the hard stuff too by that time.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I was afraid to go on the airplane. Yeah, yeah,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: so yeah, his reluctance didn't help at all. When did
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you first meet those guys? It's probably I mean, I
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: think I met Brian earlier, but mainly it was at
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the Whiskey when we finally got the job at the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: whiskey and they, Yeah, they used to have They were
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the headline and every other group you ever heard of.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: So how did that work? What does the house band
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: mean and what does the headliner mean? So we don't
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: have that anymore. We were. We would start off the night,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: you know, eight o'clock when the place was half full.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So you played there every night or six nights, yea. Yeah,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: we had to join the union. Remember, I think it
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was nine. We started at nine, played the first set,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: then the headliner played, then we played again, then they closed.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: So it was like being an opening you'd be the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: opening act, but you'd be the opening act for everybody
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah. For for about a year for
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it was you just name them Captain Beefheart, the Birds,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Van Morrison, Frank and the first one we did was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: them Van Morrison's band when he first had Gloria, and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: we got to be friends with them, and last night
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: we got to play Gloria with them on stage, all
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of us. Yeah, we left some pictures of that, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that's when I thought his voice was the best ever.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: You know, just man, Gloria, come on, wow. And then
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you know when he came over him and played at
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the whiskey. We got to know him, and he was
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: so shy. Man, he was like worse than Jim, you know.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And then one night at a party he came and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: he was doing some of his new stuff and he
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: did a Brown Eyed Girl, remember, just him and a guitar.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: He did snippets of astral Weeks too. I was thinking,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: he's so shy, he can't even talk, but then he
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: grabs a guitar and wow. I would imagine by playing
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: every night the residency probably made you guys really good,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Like when you play together, you just get better. Yeah,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I was there, and in New York we did the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: same thing at a place called on Dean's Club. Yeah,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: fifty nine Street Bridge every night from ninetel two. And yeah,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Andy Warhol and all those giant people came later. They
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: remember we started eleven and we go till five whatever,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: just five sets tonight. Amazing. Yeah, you get good. The
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: thing about practice, it really does go. Oh that's the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: thing about today groups. They're lucky to get a gig
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on a weekend. Yes, you know, how can you get
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: good like that? And it's also different practicing in front
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: of people versus playing in a room. It's a whole
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: different thing in front of people. Sure. Yeah, Well, then
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: there's electronics, Jim said a long time ago. Maybe in
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the future music will be dismade by one guy with
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: a bunch of machines. Did you say that? Yeah? Incredible,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: there it is. Yeah. And then Stevie Wondered came out
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: with Talking Book a couple of years later, and yeah,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and he played the drums on that as well as
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: other shit, Oh my god, amazing. Yeah, those were the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: days at that time. Will you playing your own material?
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Where you playing covers? Both in the London fog, We
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: learned Willie and Gloria and crap to get by, and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: we'd sneak in our own stuff and if the whiskey,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: i'd say, remember the first set when nobody was there,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: we'd just do what we call it Latin bullshit number
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: two and we just jam on some Latin stuff and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: then as people started coming in, we'd lay on them. Unfortunately,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the times had changed and you didn't have to do
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: rock hits and you could do your own stuff and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: then we'd smack them with the end. Did you end
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: with the end every day? Yeah? Pretty much, wouldn't or
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: light my fire would end light my fire. Everybody be dancing,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: and then the encore would be the end and people
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: would file out quietly, no applause. Holy shit, they were bludgeoned.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: So great, so great, But you know, I want to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: jump for a second. I'm thinking of the parallel between
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Arthur and Jim. I have this theory that a great
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: song it is a wedding between the way the lyrics
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: fit with the melody. And damn, those two guys not
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: only had these incredible words, they're they're stitched to gorgeous melodies. Yes,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: you know Arthur and Jim. And Jim couldn't play a
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: chord on any instrument, but had he said he thought
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of melodies to remember the words, Oh my God? And
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you know roadhouse blues, that's not a difficult melody. But
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: now I'm going to prove why I'm the drummer and
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: not the singer. Before you slip into unconsciousness. That's some
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: hard chord changes. That's not you know, it's like Jazzy
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and he had it in his head, gifted, yeah, and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and he just you know, it's not like he sat
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: down at the piano and picked out the notes. He
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: actually would do a little capoolko gold, and he said
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: he heard a concert in his head. Wow, all he
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: had to do is remember it. Wow. And would those
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: would those melodies always come after hearing the music, or
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: might he sing you a melody and then you'd figure
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: out what the song was? Well, in those early days,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: it was, you know, he would have the melody in
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: his head, and before I was even in the band,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Ray would help him, you know, pick out the drive
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: kind of was etched out before yea, even Hello I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Love You was kind of like but when Robbie came
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: along with the band was formed, and then Jim would
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: just sing a cappella and we'd wait, wait, hold it
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: f sharp, okay, go on. And even in the songs
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that I wrote, he would often change that melody. He couldn't,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: you know. I would say, okay, sing it like this,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: you know, and he couldn't do it. You know, he
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't a musician, so he would do something a little
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: different and it was usually better than what I had
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: thought of. He just naturally had a s and yeah, yeah,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: like on light my Fire, you know, my my first
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: melody was more like, uh, you know that it will be,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: but he, you know, he simplified it a little bit
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and it actually was better. Amazing, And you know, in
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the very beginning he didn't have that deep baritone. He
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: was so shy, wouldn't face the audience. But eventually, Wow,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And you think about other singers who blew their chords
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and had to have operations and stuff. And Jim could
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: scream from the bowels like he was ripping his throat out. Yeah,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: but he never had. He did it for five years.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: If he had continued, I'm sure he never did while
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: we were with him. Never, never, He never lost his choice.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I've had so many singers that I've played with over
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the years who you know, couldn't make it through a
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: whole show. Yeah, especially Doors songs, the keys they're in,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: they're meant for Jim's his octave range was incredible. It's
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: an interesting thing about there are certain bands, like the Beatles.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: A lot of people cover Beatles songs. Not a lot
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: of people covered Doors songs so much. But I think
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: it has to do with the nature of the band
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: is so unique that the sound of it is as
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: important as the song. It's like the whole thing is
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: one and if you take you guys out of it,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the song doesn't have the same life. Yeah, if you
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: go see these doors cover bands I've never done, that's interest. Well,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's intimidating filling Jim's leather pants. No, I mean,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, okay, so I did La Woman with the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: La Philharmonic and Chris Martin from cole Play. Yes, and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: he was He said to me, oh, man, how can
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I feel Jim's vocal cords? And I don't, don't try
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Yeah, isn't that amazing that he you know,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: no vocal coaching, nothing, it never sung before us, never
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: wrote a song before us. Yeah, I mean he had
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the most incredible vocal range and he was always on pitch. Yeah,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: never had to wait, never sharp or flat. Do you
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: know what singers he liked? Like? Who would you say?
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He was inspired? Man? Like Delve Like Sinatra? That makes
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: sense though, Like he sings more like Sinatra than most
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: rock singers. You know, he really sang in that the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: crooner Yeah, the crooner style. Yeah. And you know like
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Willie Nelson has it too. Yeah, there's a sense of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: phrasing where you sense the singer is so relaxed and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: it's effortless, and it is Willie's obsessed with Frank as well. Sure,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and it's so identifiable. You hear two bars of Willie
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: or Merle or Jim and you go, that's them. It's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: nobody else. Now, what was Arthur's influences? Yeah, that's a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: good any ideas, I don't know. Well, he must have
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: liked the birds because of the glasses things. Arthur was
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: still here, Yeah, and Brian and Jim. Do you know
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: anything about what their relationship was like? Uh? It was
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: got more strange, yes, as time went on. I think, yeah,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a songwriter competition kind of thing. Brian had the big hit,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: but Arthur had all this gorgeous deep stuff, and I
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: think there was some jealousy. They were sure unique group.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: How the hell did they get together? I wonder how
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: God knows? And they call themselves love incredible. Isn't that beautiful?
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Really a collectic group of people, you know, And it
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't a stereotype then you know, the peace sign and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: love and it was before it was the real deal.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: You know, it was so ahead of the curve. The
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: people are still catching up. Yeah, you know, like we
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: were on the shoulders of the beat Nicks and then
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the punks are on the shoulders of the hippies and
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the Grunges on the shoulders of the punks. So I
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: mean you could say love was a little bit punk,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a little you know, you'd also makes sense when you
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: say that you were on the shoulders of the beat
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Nicks and that both bands had poets. Yeah, that makes sense,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: like if we keep in mind that the Beatnick era
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: was just sort of what was what had just been
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: going on in the culture. Yeah, so you know, you
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: sense a new wave and and I think Jim said
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: each generation wants to be different from the one before.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: And so the punks came along and dissed us for
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: burning out, and they were right, but the message was there,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the love thing, you know, so I get pissed off
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: one night. You know, people dissed the sixties is failing hold.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Civil rights, peace movement, feminism are all seeds planted in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the sixties. They're big seeds, so maybe they take hundreds
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: of years for full fruition. So shut up and get
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: out your watering can. And also the soap box. Clearly
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the world is a different place than it was before
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the sixties, Like, yeah, that was the turning point. You
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: can you can say what you want about the sixties,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: not accomplishing all that it meant to do. Yet the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: world was transformed in the sixties. There's no question we
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: live in a different culture that was all the seeds
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: of the sixties, right, like a renaissance time like the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: twenties or what I would saying, as you'd think we
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: would have learned. We need another sixties right now, So yeah,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: it may happen. Yeah, because music is the only thing
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: that we all agree on. Yeah, I love so let's
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: use it to try to patch this mess up. Huh.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Going to pause for a quick break, but we'll be
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: back with the doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. We're
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: back with Rick Rubens. Conversation with Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: What was the first gig that you did where you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: were in the band? Your first gig, first gig was
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: that Hughes Aircraft. It was don't remember Ray's mom worked
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: at Hughes Aircraft or his dad. So they needed a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: band for some Okay, you know, so well together and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: we we I can't remember the bass player, but he
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: only had one string on his back. And then Ray
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: was on acid and totally freaked out. He was on
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a bummer acid trip. I don't know how he even played.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the gig. You don't remember, no, you
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: black remember? I remember the big warehouse. Yeah, yeah, well
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the gig was was pretty weird. We played some mingus
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I think, uh, and Jim tried to sing a couple
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of things he didn't. We didn't really have any songs
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: worked up, you know, so Jim and I both took speed.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I remember that, Oh my god, drug addict. Really the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: London fog was the first. No, no, no, remember the
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: party were played at my parents, so there was party,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: but still that counts. Yeah, it's fun of people party
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: at the Isaacson's house near UCLA, and we actually played
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a set and that was pretty good. Were you on
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: that gig that gay house boat party out of Marina
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: or someone pedrew? I think? And I know on the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: invitation it said, uh, please remember the band is not
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: part of our group. Don't come onto the band and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: we're playing and uh, I remember we got the nerve
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to play a ballad and then everybody started kind of
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: getting close and there was a lot of shuffling down
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: below in the boat, and I remember Ray daring me
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: to go downstairs. Early Doris gigs. Yeah, and then we
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: played a gig for Moonfire. Remember what's Moonfire a gig? Yeah,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: we played a gig. He had a party down right
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: near where you live, and the uplifters. Well, no, he
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was up to pag I know he was. But he
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: rented this place right near your house. Moon Fire. Was
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: this heir to something. Yeah, he had a lot of
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: money and he had a huge place up into Panga
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and he let all the hippies stay there and hang
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: out and stuff. And he was a militant vegetarian. And
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: when we played Miami over right, he brought a lamb
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: on stage, a little little cute little lamb lam and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: gave it to Jim. Gave it and Jim Jim said,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: he said, if it weren't so young, I fuck it. Oh.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, don't say that, Robbie, but go
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: he did, okay? Or did he really say that or
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: was that just in the movie a joke? Yeah, it
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: was a joke. It's not in the movie. He would
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: say that. I think it is in the movie. I
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: believe me he would really. Wasn't it in the movie.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. I've seen the movie and I
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: don't remember that line. Well, it's a real quick line,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and yeah, if you go check it out again, you
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: hear it. A lot of it's entric folk around. What
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: was the idea of bringing the lamb on stage? Was
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: so cute? Don't eat meat? Yeah? Yeah, he was a vegetarian.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Wait before vegetarian? Is it's cool? Yeah? It was kind
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of a cool guy. Anyway, We played a party for him,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and that was pretty early. That was one of our
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: first gigs. I remember having to drag my big standale
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: amp up there. Yeah, we had a VW bus, we
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: slept all the stuff, so we would just get gigs
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: however we could get them, you know. I mean we
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: used to go to all the clubs and beg them
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: to let us play there. I remember, you know, Ray
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: was with Dorothy and in the beach House and Jim
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and I maybe you tagged along. We'd go to these
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: bars on Hollywood Boulevard that would never have a band anyway,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and we'd go in there. Can we play? Would you?
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Could we? But we wanted to do something, even though
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: it seemed fruitless, and it was a twenty four hour,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: seven day a week campaign. You know how it is
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: to launch anything creative. Yes, whether it's a book or
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: a movie or what, it's a herculean to sell the damna. Absolutely, absolutely,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: it's very hard to break through. We didn't even have
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a manager, I think, until my fire. Yeah, amazing, and
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: it's been downhill ever since. It's also funny that in
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: today's world we don't think of a band of the
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: stature of the Doors playing at house party. It's just
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: fascinating to imagine that world because now when young artists start,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the mechanisms are in place for finding an audience and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: then finding gigs. There's like an industry around it now,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: whereas then it really was a clean slate. And I
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: remember seeing old film of you guys playing where the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: sounds it seemed like the sound system wouldn't even fill
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the places you were, you know, tiny little samp for
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: a vocal mic, you know. Yeah, it's always always hard
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: to hear the vocals. Poor Jim, you know, he never
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: had monitors testament to what a good singer he was.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: If he could sing like that without hearing himself, I
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: guess they had him at the whiskey. But yeah, I
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: mean I think that was good for building his Yeah,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: he'd have to something the Beatles talk about was that
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: they would sing their harmonies, going from gig to gig
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: in the van and practice singing, and they were so
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: good at it that they didn't have to hear each other.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: They'd be able to sing in a harmony because they
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: could never hear each other when they were performing, no kidding. Yeah, wow,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: And now we have any ear monitors. Different world, you know,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I I changed my answer to the question. For years,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: people would say, well, if Jim was around now, would
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he be clean and sober? And I go, nah, kama
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: kazi drunk. And now the last few years I've thought
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: about Clapton and M and M and and it's a
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: different time. Yeah. Sure, why if he was alive, he'd
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: have to be sober. Yeah yeah, otherwise he wouldn't be alive.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: But so Yeah, I like saying that because it's different. Yeah. Well,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: unfortunately we don't get to have him around anymore. Would
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: be great. Absolutely, we didn't know him and we miss them. Yeah.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you see the Stone still playing
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and stuff. I get really jealous when I see that.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: You know, how quickly did it change from being the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: house band to things getting big? For you guys? It
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: was pretty quick. I mean it was you know, when
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: light My Fire came into that was that was the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: whole game change. Because before that we put out break
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: on Through as the first single and it didn't do
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: very much. We called up a lot, this is Fred Schwartz,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: would you please play that break on and then they
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: got on to us. All of our friends would be
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: calling there, because that's how you got on the radio before.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: You know, you have to have an audience calling in.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: It's interesting how that song is so admired now. Yes,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and then it was a struggle to get it out
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: there because it was just so different. You know, I
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: don't know what starts off with the Bossonova drums, so
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, nobody's ever done that since Steven. I think
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Forever Changes might have a Bosonova on it. I think
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: so yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know the way he
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: played Bossonova, no rock drummers even today can do that. Also,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I think that the fact that you had a classically
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: trained pianist in the group really separated you from everyone else.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: It's true, it's a very one of a kind sound.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I think the same holds true for maybe the Zombies.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't want not that I relate the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: zombies in the doors, but both of you don't sound
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: like anyone else, mainly because of the keyboards. I'm such
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a featured instrument because like the Rolling Stones usually had
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: someone playing piano in the group more often than not,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't as much of a focus. It was
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: more of a support instrument. Yes, they had that as well.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: And then the raised genius of these licks d D WHOA,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: that's itched on all our brains. Yeah, and it sounds
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: like what are you just saying? That sounds like bach?
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: It is? It isn't. Yeah, I had the chords, these
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: these kind of weird chords, and he just naturally just
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: came up with the with the box to go over it. Yeah, yeah,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: it is. That was pretty pretty amazing really, And you know,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Riders in the Storm do you listen to that solo?
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: It's genius. You know. I've had so many keyboard players
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: that play with me to play Ray stuff, and a
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: lot of them know it like my fire and writers
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: note for note, and but it still never quite sounds
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: like Ray. You know. It's the feel. Yeah, But the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: funny thing is Ray never played those solos alike the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: same every night. It was just an improve there was
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: an improvisation, Yeah, it was you know when we recorded
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: that stuff, it was one take and that's just how
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it was that night. So in addition to the solos
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: being different, how free were the arrangements like might a
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: song go longer live or dependent on the song? The
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: epics and when the music's over. They had big sections
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: where we'd vamp and they would be different every night,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: and the length would go fuck around with any poem
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: he wanted to, you know, see we'd chase him around.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I mean those kind of songs that they would grow
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: every night, you know, because it started off real short,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: like the end was just a two minute love song
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: when it started, and then as time went on it
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: got longer and longer. And but you know, Robbie and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I went to Robbie Shankar's Kanara School of Indian Music
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and got heavily influenced by that. So the end got
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: this droning. This was even that back then you did this,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: yeah amazing. Yeah, So that's where that raga had influence came.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I actually had a sitar that a traditional city and
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: John had the tambo drums. Wow, And we actually went
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to the school that Canara School that Robbie Shankar started. Yeah. Actually,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Robbie came and gave a lecture to us one time, amazing,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: and we're in our twenties and he says, you should
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: channel your sexual energy into playing your instrument. What. Yeah,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: And later I found out that he really didn't keep
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: to that well very well, and so there was enough
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: left over after putting it in the music we can
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: still use. I'll RockA too. He was the ladies. Well
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: he liked the whiskey too. Oh yeah, yeah, amazing. So
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: you're saying he was a human being yea, yeah, yeah,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: kind of like MYHRESHI right, he liked Some of your
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: band members met each other at TM is that? Yeah,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: that's true. That's where we met. Tell me the story.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Robbie and I are fooling around with legal psychedelics and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and then Robbie says, there's this Indian sage coming to town.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, yeah, well, meditation might be a little
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: less shattering on the nervous system. And this is before
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the Beatles a year or two, I don't know got
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: onto Mahureshi. Yeah, because we were doing it pretty much
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: every weekend, and uh, and we were doing I was turning, yes,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I was turning all my friends onto it. And so
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: in this one guy had a bad reaction many you know, yeah,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: well did you douse him or yeah? I think I
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: gave him a little speed with it or something extra
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: to boost it. But anyway, he had a bad reaction,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and I felt horrible, you know, and so I said, shit,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: there's got to be a better way to do this,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you know. So my buddy, who had been to India
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: met Mahishi and talked him into coming back here, Peter Wallace,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: and so his brother and I were buddies, Keith. So
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the first Mahishi meeting was at his house, and that's
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: where Ray and John Ray happened to be there, all right,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and John, John and I knew each other already. But
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: so Ray came up to me and said, I hear
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: you're a drummer. You want to be in a band,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and I will I'm a professional. I don't know, I'll
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: come down and jam and uh. Then, as I said later,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Ray's brothers dropped out, Robbie came in. Was Jim already
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: in the band? All yeah? I mean, you know, he
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: stood in the corner with his back to us, so
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: shy he couldn't. It was like, and we say, already
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: in the band it means you know. Was actually it
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: was Rick and the Ravens was the band, and this
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Ray's Brothers band at that point. And Jim used to
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: sing Louie Louie once in a while, right, And then
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: they started and then Jim came up with these couple
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: of songs it's the words, and said he wants to
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: call at the doors. And then that's when John I
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: met and I met Ray, so I thought, Okay, he's
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: not the next Mick Jagger. But these words, man, I
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: want a drum to these words. They're so wild. We'll
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: be right back with more from Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: After a quick break, we're back with the rest of
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Rick's conversation with the Doors. Robbie Krieger and John Densmore.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Anything more about love, that's a little more to talk about,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: not the doors, right. Oh yeah, we got all the way.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: We think you can go wherever you're comfortable going. This
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: final we got self centered. Well anyway, like I said,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of met Brian earlier on and I used
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: to see him play and stuff, and he looked kind
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of like Brian Jones, you know, had that nice hair
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: due and stuff. So I decided I wanted my hair
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: to look like that, and so I get this hair straightener,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: you know, because I had I had the real afro
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: hair and back now so Man, Billy Wolf, we both
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: had the afron kind of hair, Jewish kink and yeah,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: we got this stuff. I figure what it was called.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: But it really worked on me. Man, I looked like
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: fucking Brian. You know. Even Wolf said, hey, Man, you
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: look like that jerk Brian. Uh, my client. And so
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: that's right before I met the Doors, before I tried
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: out for the Doors. So I had the good hair, man,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I think that's why I got the job. And then
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: a couple of months later when it grew back out,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: and I remember Jim going, what happened to your hair?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: But by that time they needed me. Why did Why
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: did your friend refer to him as a jerk? Brian? Oh,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it was just a friend, Leaf saying he was a
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: competitive guitar player. Yeah. Yeah, we were jealous of him
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: because he he was in a big group. You know.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: It's interesting long hair during that time, on the both coasts,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: there were long hairs but in the middle of the country.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: And one time after a New York gig, Ray and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: I and his girlfriend Dorothy drove across the country because
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: we had no money, and so we got a car
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: we could deliver as long as we paid the gas.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: And we stopped at a diner in Ohio. Ray and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I had long hair and Dorothy's Japanese. We go in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: and holy shit, there's these guys at the counter with
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: red paint on the back of their necks and they're
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: scowling at us, and it was scary. I mean, even
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: in La at that time, we were like the only
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: long hairs around pretty much. I mean, I remember one
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: time me and Jim went to eat at Ships. I
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: think it was remember Ships, Yeah, I think you were
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: there coffee shop in Westwood. Yeah, And we we started,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: you know, sat down ordering stuff and there was some
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: marines next to us, and they started giving us ship
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: all right, and so we kind of got started giving
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: them ship back and were you there? And so finally
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: we started to leave and they came out and grabbed
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: us and the one guy was meant beating Jim with
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: a whoa the pay phone, you know, and Jim, Jim
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: was just laughing, he goes call the cops. Ha ha ha.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: You know he didn't mind being beat up. Remember I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't there, but it's reminded me of these these guys
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: in Ohio were like saying to the waitress, Shureley, you
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: got a scissors. Some of these girls need a hair. Yeah.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I remember quite a few times that uppen And it's
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: interesting now you know, then the punks I'm along to
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: shave their heads and so now whatever anything's cool, I
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: like it. There's a liberation. I bet either are still
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: places you could find in the United States where you
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: could go and not feel welcome. I'd say it's a
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: big country. It's a big country. There's still plenty of place.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: So would you say that spirituality played a role in
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the doors definitely, Yeah, definitely wasn't talked about as much
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: as Jim tried to squash. Well. I think he was
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: a searcher. Yeah, we were meditating. He was trying to
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: find out what was inside in his own way. You know,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: it's all different versions of we could call it self
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: medicating in the case that TM it turns out to
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: be healthier for you than let's say alcohol. Yeah, but
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: it's definitely dealing with our inner self, trying to find something,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: something more? What else is there? You know? So did
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: you guys practice TM? Oh yeah, I still do. We
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: did TM. We did TM for like the whole career.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Twice a day. We go, okay, we're going in the
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: vocal booth for twenty minutes. Do what you guys got
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to do, and Robbie and I'd go meditate. Yeah, maybe
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: that's what grounded us through that crazy so amazing, I'd say, amazing.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: And we actually took Jim to meet Maharishi one time. Wow,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: how's that didn't turn out? That one? Okay? What happened? Him?
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Didn't sign up? But I do remember him saying he
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: wanted to look in his eyes and see if he
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: had any knowledge, and he said he did, but he's
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: not going to meditate. Yeah okay, Yeah. By that time
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: it was bigger. The Beatles had started doing it. And
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: after the lecture and we brought Jim up to real
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: close to Maisie and tried to introduce him. I do remember,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you know, I was raised Catholic. I'm now a renegade,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: of course, but I remember first time being in Mahaishi's
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: presence and feeling a love vibe like I did not
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: get this from those priests and the black tourniquets. Wow,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I want this. Yeah, you know, I never got to
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: meet Mahaishi. I learned TM when I was fourteen, and
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: like you guys, it has I realized that it had
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: a big impact on my life. Yeah, I noticed how
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: you're sitting, no question, no question. I include that as
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: part of who I am. You know, I don't think
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I would be the same person without that. I think
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: of Maharishi as kind of jump starting this whole thing.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Indian music, Robbie Shankar, the whole culture, Hindu culture at all,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: got a big push from him, really and is still
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: here absolutely in various forms, and what a gift. Yeah.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: You know what's interesting is in the sixties there was
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: no Internet, and wow, the Beatles happened to be experimenting
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: with psychedelics like we were. The Beatles happened at our
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: musicians over there all kind of got into meditation like
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: we were. What's going on here? Carl Jung's archetypal undercurrents
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: across the globe to get cosmic. But yeah, something going on,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And it wasn't people imitating each other.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: It was just it was blossoming in the culture. The
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Beatles did imitate us. We were meditating before they were. Yeah, right,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: so we get technical amount it. And you were taking
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: acid before them too. Probably. Actually, when I was in college,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I had real Sando acid. Yeah, that was the stuff
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: they Who was the guy that was doing those? Leary Albert?
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Who's later round us? Right, who's the guy who made it?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: The guy in San Francis. So Alsley comes to one
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: of our gigs and he comes backstage and he says,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you guys need a bass player. Man, there's a hole
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: in your sound, you know. And he leaves and I
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: said to Ray, Wow, we're making the King of Acid nervous.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I think we're on the right track. Yeah, how did
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: it work out that you decided not to have a
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: bass player? It's interesting. We tried. We had a girl
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: bass player for a minute. We sounded like the Stones,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: some white blues man or something. We tried a few
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: bass players, and we always had a bass pretty much
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: on the records. Yeah, well that was to make up
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: for there was no mood synthesizers. So raised keyboard. Ray
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: found this keyboard bass and then we, ah, that's it.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: We don't need a basic business but recording it worked
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: on some songs like break on Through that's just like
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: yboard in the end, and control of other ones, but
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: other ones that needed that plucking from a string with
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: various bass players over dubbed raised lines and actually on
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Backdoorman and Soul Kitchen was me overdooming the bass. Oh,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: there was again a rumor that John Sebastian played bass
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: on one of your albums, Play Atlantic Harmonica on Roadhouse.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Really okay, so you'll notice that John Sebastian, the hard
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: player credited on Roadhouse is ge Pool Yayzy, which was
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a synonym for John Sebastian. Then that was his real name.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: What is his real name? That's his real name, Giovanni
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Pool Glacie is his real name? Really? Yeah, I think
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: that would sound good as right, I thought he but
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: I had heard that he didn't want to be associated
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: with the Doors. It was his record company didn't want
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: his attempt to use his name, right, But also the Doors,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, there's this wonderful flower power thing
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: with the birds and all the mamas and papa's in it.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: We loved it, but we were the underbelly the undeclared
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Vietnam War, the shadows, and people did not like us.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Some they it made them nervous to be associated with
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: us because we were dark. I don't think that was it.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Well good, I'm glad we disagree now. I heard just
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: a little earlier from a moderator that tension create is creativity.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: How fuck you? Well, fuck you? So good? Okay, so
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I see the TM's been working. Okay. Was it when
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: you got to play at the Hollywood Bowl? Did that
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: feel like a big deal at the time? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: sure sure. Did anythink we were one of the first
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Did the Beatles play there? Yeah? I think the only
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: the Beatles had played? But of course, you know, they
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: made us have a decibel limit in that ruin. Yeah,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: and we had. That was the first time that we
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: actually brought real cameras and movie cameras and stuff to
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: film the show. So it looks real good. But uh,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: and Jim took acid and didn't tell us. Yeah, great,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: well why would he tell us? And it was fine,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: but there was something just wasn't a good show. I
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: remember saying to you coming off stage, Robbie, what what?
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: And he you said, he took assid just so he
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: got and sometimes when he asked he was great, but
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: at this time he got real introverted and he kind
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of just didn't move around. He saw a moth on
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the astro turf and picked it up and was examining it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: And then it didn't help that his girlfriend Pam was
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: sitting with Mick Jagger right in the front row, right
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: because Jagger went out to dinner with us before and
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: we wanted to be really good for him, and damn it,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's good. What did he What did he say?
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Somebody asked him about that. He said it was in
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Melody Maker. The doors are nice, chaps, but they went
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: on a bit long. But I mean, it looks great,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: it looks good. Who was the last show you guys
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: did New Orleans? I was trying to forget about. That
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: was a bad one. Yeah. The night before was Dallas
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: and we were trying out Riders Live Riders on the
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Storm and we were kind of wow, maybe we could
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: kind of be a jazz rock thing. Maybe we got
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: it's going to be different. And the next night Jim
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: was drunk too drunk, Yeah, sat on the on the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: drum riser in the middle, just his head down the
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: middle of the show, I walk around and sit next
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: to him. Hey, man, what do you want to play next? Hello?
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: And isn't that when Ray said he saw jim soul
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: leave his body or something like Race said he saw
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: his spirit exit? Ah, it was the last show we attempted. Yeah,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: I was lobbying for a year to get off the
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: road because in the studio, if he's too messed up,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: we go home. But in front of ten thousand people,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: and we were really good live in the beginning, just
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: pin dropped home. You think do you think success played
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: a role in his destruction self destruction? Some probably, it's
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: not just that. I think it would have happened anyway,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: you do. Yeah, here's a line someone said to me,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: blew my mind. Maybe if Jim hadn't met you guys,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: he would have died sooner. Interesting who interesting? Thought? Yeah? Yeah,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: because at least he had something to do he channeled. Yeah,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: I mean he lived to be on stage. Yeah, he
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: enjoyed performing. Oh yeah's interesting. I wouldn't I wouldn't have
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: known that if you didn't say it. No, we're kidding.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't have known that well, because he seemed so scary
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and serious and dark and weird, but he knew. When
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: you're performing, you can feel if the audience is a
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Madison Square garden or a club, that's one person and
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the performer is a duet or an orchestra, that's the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: other person, and the two of you are going to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: dance tonight, and the mystery and excitement is what is
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: it going to be? A waltz, a salsa, a riot?
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: You know, And that's what's so kinetic about Energetically you
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: feel that interaction. Yeah, and maybe that's why bands like
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: your band, bands like Love, bands like The Grateful Dead
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: for that matter. There Today there seems to be more
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: and more artists who just are putting on a show
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: and people are watching this thing, but there's very little interaction,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: you know, like the show is the same every night. Yeah,
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Whereas you guys would change according to what you were
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: feeling that some song, like some songs would have long
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: parts that got longer if it felt good that night.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: It wasn't so scripted. Yeah, But you guys also were
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: influenced by jazz, and it wouldn't be unusual to have
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: a long song in jazz, so bringing that bringing that
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: jazz sensibility into popular music super cool and Robbie Genkar,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we sat next to the man and
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: ragas are fifteen minutes. Yes, and Robbie, Robbie was like,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, you in America want a climax too soon,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: you know, take your time with the four play metaphorical. Yes.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: And we were steeped in that. Yes. When I first
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: met Ray, he played me Robbie Shankar's theme from Panther
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Panchali and it had jazz guys on jazz and raga.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: It's like, wow, let's soak up this amazing. Yeah, cool,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: what a pleasure. Thank you and talking about this guy. Yeah.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Robbie Krieger and John Densmore for sharing so
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: many incredible stories about Jim Morrison and the Doors. You
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: can hear all of our favorite Doors songs on my
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: playlist at broken record podcast dot com. Be sure to
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of our
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Broken Record is produced help from Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel, Vantaliday,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Chaffey Our executive producer is Mia Lobell. Broken Record is
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like this show
• 53:20
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• 53:31
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• 53:35
  Speaker 1: you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: review us on your podcast app. Or the musics by
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richard.