Just lately, Purple Scorching Chili Peppers bassist Flea chosen punk rock icons X as his selection for best L.A. band. For X lead singer Exene Cervenka, her decide is an equally straightforward one. “It’s the Hollywood experience, the Walk of Fame, Lana Turner. The Doors are part of that, woven into that magic.”
The sand and surf would possibly belong to the Seashore Boys. However L.A. nightlife, the Sundown Strip, the avant-garde, the choice world all come from the mighty shadow of the Doorways. It started 60 years in the past when Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore lit the world on hearth.
Within the 5 albums and 6 years they existed as a quartet earlier than Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at age 27, the Doorways crafted a legacy that isn’t solely a cornerstone of L.A. lore, however has traveled from the seashores of Venice, the place they shaped, the world over numerous occasions. The parable and legend of the Doorways continues to develop.
To commemorate the milestone anniversary, we spoke to residing Doorways members Densmore and Krieger in addition to Carlos Santana, Bootsy Collins, Cervenka, Chuck D (Public Enemy), L.A. jazz musician José James, British icon Robyn Hitchcock and paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara of the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum in New Jersey — about six a long time of the Doorways.
Doorways members:
John Densmore: The songs have deepened for me. I’m nonetheless fathoming Jim’s lyrics. I really like his lyrics and I knew they had been deep, however right here and there, I’ll decide up an obscure lyric and I’ll simply flip for it. “No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.” What an excellent line. The songs are creation. Creation didn’t occur a very long time in the past and we’re going to all go to heaven. Creation is ongoing. That’s what we’ve got to maintain remembering within the face of all this darkness.
I hope [the music’s] all the time been an oasis, and therapeutic. Jim wrote “Unknown Soldier.” He didn’t say Vietnam, nevertheless it was throughout these occasions that was clearly in opposition to that and all wars.
I hoped I may pay the hire for 10 years and it’s 60 or no matter it’s. I really like being complimented. However I’m extra excited and desirous about my jazz undertaking. I additionally did an album with Chuck D. It’s going to be alt hip-hop. And that’s coming. And I’ve a poetry album. I’m not writing poetry, however I’m studying and enjoying hand drums and studying, Jim and numerous poets. That’s what turns me on and it’s not going to be “Light My Fire” and that’s OK as a result of it’s been downhill ever since. That f—ing music was primary for 26 weeks. What do you do after that?
It’s very touching to listen to folks say the primary time they ever made love or bought excessive, or they bought by way of the wars within the jungles of Vietnam with our assist sonically. That pleases me drastically.
The members of the Doorways are proven within the famed rock band’s glory days. From left, drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, singer/lyricist Jim Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Morrison died in France in 1971 on the age of 27. Manzarek died in Germany in 2013 on the age of 74.
(Photograph by Paul Ferrara/ © Doorways Property, LLC.)
Robby Krieger: I used to be amazed that we bought on the radio within the first place, and performed at locations just like the Whisky, a lot much less 60 years later. No concept.
I’ve been enjoying these songs without end and ever. There was a time, say 20 years, after I was simply enjoying jazz and stuff like that. I used to be simply by way of with the Doorways. It’s not that I hated the Doorways or something like that, I figured the Doorways had been finished. Jim was gone. We had tried to get alongside with out him for 3 or 4 years. We truly had been doing fairly nicely. We performed Carnegie Corridor with simply me, John and Ray. It was fairly wonderful. So, we may’ve stored going because the Doorways, however we couldn’t get alongside. After Jim was gone, the three of us simply couldn’t get together with one another. The bond was damaged.
When the Oliver Stone film got here out, that actually piqued the curiosity within the Doorways once more. So, when that occurred we had so many requests to play these songs once more.
There have been loads of them that we actually by no means performed in particular person with Jim as a result of as soon as Miami occurred we couldn’t play hardly anyplace as a result of that they had this factor referred to as the corridor supervisor’s affiliation and they might not allow us to play it as a result of they had been afraid, “Oh, we’re going to pull it out.” That’s why we did so many albums in such a brief period of time. We couldn’t get any gigs. So, we ended up simply recording so much. Then as soon as we recorded these songs they had been within the can, however we didn’t play them. So, it was bizarre, on the Whisky, we’re enjoying each album so as. Final week we did the primary album, each music so as, after which took a break, then we got here again and did another songs. So, after we began enjoying these Doorways songs once more, we mentioned, “Hey, why don’t we do such and such a song that we’ve never done before in person?” There are such a lot of of them and so they’re a lot enjoyable to play as a result of A) we’ve by no means performed them, and B) it’s simply cool to study a brand-new music that you just’ve by no means performed earlier than in particular person.
Panelists: 
Carlos Santana
(Marylene Eytier / Courtesy Jensen Communications)
Carlos Santana: Sure, [I saw them] on the Fillmore. I used to be fairly mesmerized. I wasn’t ready as a result of the Doorways created this theater rock earlier than Alice Cooper or anyone. The very first thing that Jim Morrison mentioned, “Before we play any song, I want you to turn off all the lights, turn them off.” So, they flip off all of the lights. All you may see was the exit signal. And I used to be like, “Holy s—, man.” They went into the theater of it. He began singing, “When the music’s over.” I grew to become transfixed with the Doorways.
So, that they had a radio contest in San Francisco, the Doorways in opposition to the Rolling Stones. They performed “Light My Fire,” after which they performed “Satisfaction.” They’d folks vote, and the Doorways received unanimously. The entire Bay Space mentioned, “We like the Rolling Stones, but the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire,’ that’s it. Dropped the mic.” Each unbelievable songs, however that’s how large the Doorways had been. They had been larger than the Rolling Stones. Now, if you see Steven Tyler, from Aerosmith, and Mick Jagger, you may inform that they noticed Jim Morrison and so they needed a few of that as a result of this man was a rock star earlier than the phrase “rock star.” The best way he carried himself on stage, it was simply him and Jimi Hendrix who had that aura of rock stars.
Rapper Chuck D performs with Public Enemy Radio throughout a Bernie Sanders rally on the Los Angeles Conference Middle on March 1, 2020.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Chuck D: I occur to be sufficiently old to be a child at a really prime time of the Doorways. And I used to be 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
They had been Identifiable individually. They meshed collectively so far as cohesive drive. And I feel the sum of the components — every half, I feel, are individually nice. However the sum of the components collectively was very vital to me. I by no means bought an opportunity to fulfill Manzarek. However he all the time appeared like a cool man on the opposite aspect of the documentary display screen.
X vocalist Exene Cervenka at their recording studio in Eagle Rock on March 10, 2020. Ray Manzarek produced X’s first 4 albums.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Instances)
Exene Cervenka: It’s timeless. Perhaps it will get higher over time, nevertheless it’s all the time there ready for you if you want it. If it’s good to hear “Strange Days,” you really want to listen to “Strange Days” and it’s there and I really like that. The massive factor in regards to the Doorways is you set the document on the turntable and sit down and hearken to it. That’s the Doorways, it’s not identical to, “Oh it comes up every once in a while on your music feed at the gym or something.” It’s like “Go put ‘Strange Days’ on and just listen.” It’s wonderful as a result of they had been a terrific orchestral band. Their preparations and their ideas that went into all the pieces.
Right here’s my Doorways expertise. Once I was 11 or 12, “Light My Fire” got here on the radio and it was this unbelievable music, however I used to be just a little child residing in a really small city in the midst of nowhere in Illinois. Then in the future the radio was enjoying, and the Doorways got here on and it was the lengthy model. So, I’m sitting again there, I’m 12 years outdated, it’s wintertime and I’m simply sitting there listening to the music and abruptly it launches into that entire unbelievable musical passage. That modified me without end that second. You’re 12, you’re going into puberty, you see Jim Morrison, you hear that music, it’s the ‘60s, you’re in the midst of nowhere in Catholic faculty. It’s going to alter you essentially for the remainder of your life, simply that second. Simply that 5 minutes.
Robyn Hitchcock: I nonetheless really feel the identical method in regards to the songs and in regards to the performances and about Jim Morrison that I did after I first heard them in 1968. I nonetheless hear it by way of the emotional ears of a 15-year-old. However, having spent a lifetime as a musician, I do understand how good they had been technically, how the panorama that notably Ray Manzarek did, however I feel all three of them, it was a kind of very complementary assortment of individuals like Led Zeppelin, there was no fats, there was no spare something, the keyboard participant needed to play the bass along with his toes the identical method you recognize John Paul Jones did if he was enjoying keys in Led Zeppelin. However the important thing determine remains to be Jim Morrison for me.
Kenneth Lacovara: One of many issues is after I do fieldwork, like I spent 5 winters in southernmost Patagonia summers excavating a large dinosaur that I later named Dreadnoughtus. Excavating is difficult work. We had been on the market about 100 kilometers off the grid. I spent over a yr of my life residing in a tent subsequent to this animal. And we’d play music again then on my iPod hooked as much as the pickup truck audio system. The Doorways had been one in all our bands. I employed two gauchos, that are like South American cowboys, to work with us. We might use their horses to tug dinosaur bones out of the desert. And their favourite music was “Riders on the Storm.” They’d all the time ask for it. So, that grew to become sort of the theme music of the Dreadnought excavation. That was our music. Now after I hear that music it takes me again to that place in Patagonia.
José James: At their core they’re a band and that’s what makes the music so enduring. They’re nice musicians, they performed rather well collectively. What strikes me about it immediately listening as a musician is the looseness of the band, just like the interaction. You’ll be able to hear that jazz phrasing, within the drums in Densmore’s enjoying. Behind the snare is hitting in a rock method however there’s that wash that you just solely get from jazz coaching and listening to jazz. The dynamics of the band actually are lovely. They actually took a music on a journey, which to me is such a jazz idea. They might rock, clearly, they might get all the best way up their quantity, however they might additionally actually pull again and discover in these delicate contours, which is so distinctive in that style. Musically they had been so forward of their time.
Bootsy Collins: The stuff doesn’t sound ingrained within the time. It nonetheless appears like immediately.
The mix of the music that they performed and from the totally different backgrounds of music had so much to do with the sound and the route of the entire thing. They’d a sure chemistry that will work with one another. They’d that occurring, whether or not consciously or not.
