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CBS News
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
"Break on Through": How The Doors began
"Break on Through": How The Doors began "Break on Through": How The Doors began "Break on Through": How The Doors began In 1967, this video introduced a new American band: The Doors, who would quickly light the music world on fire, with a sound hypnotic, mystical, and almost menacing: You know the day destroys the night Night divides the day Tried to run, tried to hide Break on through to the other side Break on through to the other side Break on through to the other side, yeah They came together 60 years ago in Venice, California: Jim Morrison, a poet in leather pants, backed by Ray Manzarek on keys, Robby Krieger on guitar, and John Densmore on drums. The Doors soon got their break, in May of '66, at London Fog, a tiny nightclub on the Sunset Strip. It's now a barber shop. "Oh, I need a haircut," laughed Densmore on a recent return visit. The barber shop's owner, Chad Oringer, an avid Doors fan, asked for a photo with Densmore and Krieger, the band's last surviving members. The Doors (from left, Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore) pose for a portrait in Los Angeles, c. 1966. MichaelThe Doors were fired by London Fog, but quickly got another gig just a few doors down Sunset, at the Whisky a Go Go. Playing there, said Krieger, was "the biggest deal in town." "It was Mecca," Densmore added. The room isn't much different from what it was back then. "The stage is lower," Densmore said. People would dance in front of the stage. "And they would just all be down there writhing around. Very inspirational!" he laughed. He described the improvisational attitude of the band: "Ray handed me a crumpled piece of paper and it said, 'Day destroys the night. Night divides the day. Try to run. Try to hide … Break on through.'" Morrison had never sung lead before, and Densmore wasn't sure about him at first: "He was so shy, it was ridiculous. And I thought, 'This is not the next Mick Jagger! But I love playing music, so I'll fool around here.'" I asked, "Why did you have confidence the band would work if he was so inexperienced as a singer?" "It was the words," Krieger said. "They were so different than anything that was out there." "Gifted," said Densmore. "'Let's swim to the moon. Let's climb through the tide… ' A psychedelic love song. Wow!" Correspondent Anthony Mason with John Densmore and Robby Krieger, back on stage at the Whisky a Go Go, where The Doors played in 1966. CBS News In 1967, Los Angeles DJ Dave Diamond began playing their records on his show, "The Diamond Mine." Krieger said, "And he would call us all the time and say, 'Hey, man. Every time I play 'Light My Fire,' people go nuts!'" "Light My Fire," written by Krieger, went to #1. But Morrison's troubles with alcohol and drugs were already apparent. Densmore said, "At first I remember we talked about, 'Oh, he's an Irish drunk. He'll live forever. But deep down, maybe he's just a shooting star that'll be a quick impact.'" "You knew that right away?" I asked. "Kinda sensed it." "Was that hard to accept?" "Yeah," Densmore said. "I mean, we miss his artistry like crazy. We don't miss his self-destruction." After Morrison's sudden death in Paris in 1971 at age 27, Densmore and Krieger didn't always agree with Manzarek about the band's legacy. "At times, I felt he was selling The Doors too much. It's for the critics to do that," Densmore said. Krieger said, "He would try to spread the rumor Jim's not really dead." Why? "He loved the mythology," Densmore replied. "He lived for The Doors," said Krieger. "I mean, that was his whole life, you know? And he didn't want it to be over." Genesis Publications Manzarek died in 2013. The band's 60th anniversary is celebrated in a new book "Night Divides the Day." To the end, The Doors were an improvisational group. One of their best-known songs grew out of another tune they were jamming on in a session. "We were goofing around," said Densmore, and "Ghost Riders in the Sky" morphed into "Riders on the Storm." It would be Morrison's final recording. At the Whisky a Go Go every month, Krieger (now 79) has been playing a Doors album in its entirety. Densmore (80) recently sat in on drums. "Well, these two geezers are still breathing," Densmore laughed. "Keith and Mick are 80 and they're out there pumpin'. There's other roads!" Robby Krieger (guitar) and John Densmore (on drums) perform The Doors album "L.A. Woman" at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. CBS News For more info: Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Joseph Frandino. See also:
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
John Densmore Talks 60 Years Of The Doors As Told In ‘Night Divides The Day' Book
American rock band The Doors pose for their first album cover, 1967. They are vocalist Jim Morrison, ... More keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. (Photo by Mark and) John Densmore, the legendary drummer for the Doors, recalls coming across a classic rock station one night that bragged about a contest on who currently has the most money in rock and roll. It made Densmore think about his band's early years. 'In the '60s for a few years there — '65 to '67 — we were making music with not the primary motive of getting rich,' he says. 'We wanted to say something about society and make a bunch of money if we could?' 'For example,' he later says, 'when we had our first giant concert riot where people went crazy, [our singer Jim Morrison] went backstage after and said, 'Wow, that was great. All right, let's go to an island and start over.' In other words, his artistic spirit was so pure, [it] practically killed him.' Cover of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors. Sixty years after the band formed in Los Angeles — and nearly 54 years since the death of Morrison — the Doors' legacy and influence continue through reissues of their classic albums, previously unreleased live recordings, documentaries and memoirs by the band members. Coinciding with the band's 60th anniversary this year, Genesis Publications recently released the book Night Divides the Day: The Doors Anthology, a dazzling and lavish visual history of the band featuring new interviews with surviving members Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger and archival commentary from the late Morrison and keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Among the book's highlights are rare and previously unseen photos; memorabilia such as ticket stubs, show posters and Elektra Records publicity material; and a complete discography and tour history. In between ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic's foreword and Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel's afterword is guest commentary from Patti Smith, Simple Minds' Jim Kerr, Van Morrison, Nile Rodgers, Nancy Sinatra and others. 'They're just beautiful,' Densmore says of Genesis Publications' previous music titles. 'I was aware of Genesis. I had been given a couple of the books and was duly impressed. And then this came around, and, of course, we would do this. It's the highest quality you can get.' The new book provides another opportunity for Densmore to revisit his time with the band, which he previously addressed in his three books, including Riders on the Storm. His involvement in the Doors began in 1965 when he and his friend Krieger first met Manzarek at a transcendental meditation course. Inner spread of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors 'Robby and I were friends in high school,' says Densmore, 'and we were experimenting with then-legal psychedelics, but thought, 'Well, you know there's always danger around knowledge.' So meditation would be a less shattering route. We went to this meditation, and there was Ray saying, 'I hear you're a drummer.' 'I always wanted to play music,' he continues. 'I never thought I'd make a living at it, but I loved jamming. So I went to Ray's garage, and there was Jim, who'd never sung. I thought, 'He's not the next Mick Jagger.' But Ray handed me [Jim's] lyrics: 'You know, the day destroys the night/Night divides the day/Tried to run, tried to hide/Break on through to the other side.' Wow, that's percussive. I thought I'd follow this lead for a while. I'm still following it.' Morrison's reputation as a charismatic and extroverted performer has since become legend, but at the time of the band's formation, he was very shy. 'So shy,' adds Densmore, 'that he wouldn't even sing. He didn't have that deep baritone in the garage. He never sang, so he was shy. And over time, he turned into the Lizard King.' Morrison, Manzarek and Densmore were members of the group Rick and the Ravens, along with Manzarek's two brothers. 'The chemistry between me and Ray was immediate because, eventually, his left hand became the bass player,' Densmore recalls. 'But the chemistry with his two brothers wasn't there. They didn't realize [Jim's] lyrics are so brilliant. What a concept — poetry and rock and roll. 'So they went by the wayside and I brought Robby. I asked him to play bottleneck, which had not been done electrically. Robby did it at his audition, and Ray and Jim wanted it on every song, which meant he was in the band. That was when the chemistry hit. The four Doors were born.' Inner spread of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors. As chronicled in the new book, the Doors' early performances in Los Angeles, first at the London Fog and then later at the Whisky a Go Go, were crucial to the band's development and led to their signing with Elektra Records in 1966. 'We rehearsed for about a year,' Densmore says, 'but until you stand up in front of people, you haven't upped the ante,' he says. 'It makes you really listen to each other, which is the key to an ensemble becoming more than its parts. [At] the London Fog, Jim was so nervous. At least he was singing now. He would face us like in the rehearsal. And then slowly at the Whisky, he started to turn around and look at the audience and realize he had some power and developed.' Released in 1967, the group's classic self-titled album was a major critical and commercial success thanks to such memorable songs as 'Break on Through,' 'Soul Kitchen,' the haunting epic 'The End' and their band's first number one hit 'Light My Fire.' Densmore considers that record and 1971's L.A. Woman as his favorites. 'The two of them are sort of like bookends to our career,' he says. 'I like them all. Strange Days was fun. The studio became the fifth Door, in a way.' Musically and lyrically, the Doors were the moody opposite of the hippie, peace-and-love artists coming out of Los Angeles and San Francisco during the mid to late 1960s. 'Jim's lyrics were darker,' says Densmore. 'It was kind of like we were the underbelly of the undeclared Vietnam War. And so at first, I thought, 'This is dark.' But now I'm very grateful because Jim's looking at stuff that people try to hide." The photographs in Night Divides the Days capture the excitement and aura of the Doors onstage, especially through Morrison; certain gigs and tours are referenced in the book, including the infamous 1967 show at the New Haven Arena, where the singer was arrested. 'It was like walking the razor's edge,' Densmore says. 'Some nights, he was in a trance. Some nights, he was too drunk. And that part of him increased, which was really unfortunate. But self-destruction and creativity sometimes come in the same package and they certainly did with Jim.' Morrison's unpredictable behavior due to his drinking grated on Densmore, which he later detailed in his 1989 memoir Riders on the Storm. 'I threw my sticks down and said 'I quit' in the middle of recording Waiting for the Sun. And I came back the next day. How am I supposed to give up a life in playing music? Yeah, we had a wild man as a lead singer, but I was so blessed to be able to make a living at something I loved.' Inner spread of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors. More success followed for the Doors with 1967's Strange Days and 1968's Waiting for the Sun albums (which collectively yielded such popular songs as 'People Are Strange,' 'Love Me Two Times' and 'Hello I Love You'). In 1969, the group released the controversial The Soft Parade, which expanded the band's sonic palette by incorporating strings and brass. 'Ray and I had talked about jazz when we first met,' Densmore says. 'We were aware of Miles [Davis] and [John] Coltrane, and we got some sax solos on the album. We wanted to experiment with that. And the critics didn't like us changing our precious Doors now. But 'Touch Me' was number one, so take that! That's what an artist does — you try stuff and some of it sticks to the wall, some doesn't.' The group returned to its blues roots on the next record, 1970's Morrison Hotel, which was considered their comeback and contained another Doors classic, 'Roadhouse Blues.' That was followed a year later with L.A. Woman, which turned out to be the band's final recording with Morrison. It was a critical and commercial success whose highlights included the driving title song, 'Love Her Madly' and 'Riders on the Storm,' the latter showcasing Densmore's jazz chops. Of his memories of recording 'Riders on the Storm,' Denmore says: 'When we overdubbed the thunder and rain, it was like playing God. We had the tape machines queued up to various thunderclaps. And then we could just drop one in wherever we wanted, like after a guitar solo or something. So it was really fun creating the sonic natural atmosphere of nature.' The album was recorded at a time when Morrison was mired in legal turmoil following the band's 1969 show in Miami in which he allegedly exposed himself. Asked whether the incident may have been a foreshadowing of the end of Morrison — who died on July 3, 1971, in Paris at the age of 27 — Densmore responds: 'The razor's edge again. I thought, "Oh my God, this guy's going to self-destruct in a minute.' 'Oh, no, maybe he's going to live to be an 80-year-old drunk.' I don't know. I knew Miami was trouble. 'Somebody said to me, 'Hey, if Jim hadn't met you three guys, maybe he would have died sooner.' I thought, 'Oh, my God, what a thought.' He had this creative energy and he really needed to get it out. He heard a concert in his head, and we helped him manufacture that.' Inner spread of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors. The book covers the post-Morrison Doors, with Manzarek and Krieger taking up the vocal duties; the trio lineup lasted two albums. 'We didn't want to give up the musical synchronicity the trio had developed, being Jim's sonic mattress that he lay on top of,' says Densmore. 'Ray and Robby tried to sing. I mean, they're fine, but it wasn't Jim. And so after a couple of albums, we're like, 'Okay.' Our focal point is gone, and we had other solo projects in mind, so it was over.' The surviving members briefly reunited to record new music to accompany Morrison's spoken word poetry for the An American Prayer album, released in 1978. Over the next decades, the Doors' popularity grew with the inclusion of 'The End' in the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola movie Apocalypse Now; releases of Doors compilations and live recordings; the 1991 biopic movie directed by Oliver Stone; and the memoirs penned by Densmore, Manzarek and Krieger. Today, Densmore remains active in music with his projects, including one with keyboardist Adam Holzman, who had previously played with Miles Davis (His father is Jac Holzman, the Elektra Records founder who signed the Doors in 1966). Densmore's other project is an 'alt-hip-hop' collaboration with Public Enemy's Chuck D as doPE, an amalgam of the two artists' respective bands' names. As the two remaining members of the band, Densmore and Krieger are keeping the band's legacy alive not only through this new book but also in public — with Densmore recently guesting with Krieger's solo band at the Whisky, where they have been performing Doors music on a monthly residency. 'It was really a brilliant idea [by Robby's band] to do an entire album each month,' Densmore says. 'And so I sat in. I wanted to play 'Riders' and the one before that is 'The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat).' It's very difficult rhythmically. So I said to the audience, 'I've never played this song live. Wish me luck.' And we got through it.' Inner spread of 'Night Divides the Day' by the Doors. On this 60th anniversary year – amid the release of Night Divides the Day and an upcoming screening of the band documentary When You're Strange in New York City — interest in the Doors shows no sign of waning. Asked about people's continued fascination with the Doors, Densmore breaks it down to the core components of the band. 'You got this Adonis-looking Michelangelo's 'David,' who's full of brilliant poetry, and we just worked real hard to support his vision and get that concert out of his head," he says. "It's Ray's classical and Chicago blues, Robby's flamenco, my jazz and Jim's words that made this mixture.' .Night Divides the Day: The Doors Anthology is now available through Genesis Publications.
Los Angeles Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The Doors at 60: Surviving members and famous fans break down the greatness of iconic L.A. band
Recently, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea selected punk rock icons X as his choice for greatest L.A. band. For X lead singer Exene Cervenka, her pick is an equally easy 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 might belong to the Beach Boys. But L.A. nightlife, the Sunset Strip, the avant-garde, the alternative world all come from the mighty shadow of the Doors. It began 60 years ago when Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore lit the world on fire. In the five albums and six years they existed as a quartet before Morrison died in Paris in 1971 at age 27, the Doors crafted a legacy that is not only a cornerstone of L.A. lore, but has traveled from the beaches of Venice, where they formed, the world over countless times. The myth and legend of the Doors continues to grow. To commemorate the milestone anniversary, we spoke to living Doors members Densmore and Krieger as well as 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 decades of the Doors. John Densmore: The songs have deepened for me. I'm still fathoming Jim's lyrics. I love his lyrics and I knew they were deep, but here and there, I'll pick up an obscure lyric and I'll just flip for it. 'No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.' What a brilliant line. The songs are creation. Creation didn't happen a long time ago and we're going to all go to heaven. Creation is ongoing. That's what we have to keep remembering in the face of all this darkness. I hope [the music's] always been an oasis, and healing. Jim wrote 'Unknown Soldier.' He didn't say Vietnam, but it was during those times that was clearly against that and all wars. I hoped I could pay the rent for 10 years and it's 60 or whatever it is. I love being complimented. But I'm more excited and interested in my jazz project. I also did an album with Chuck D. It's going to be alt hip-hop. And that's coming. And I have a poetry album. I'm not writing poetry, but I am reading and playing hand drums and reading, Jim and various poets. That's what turns me on and it's not going to be 'Light My Fire' and that's OK because it's been downhill ever since. That f—ing song was number one for 26 weeks. What do you do after that? It's very touching to hear people say the first time they ever made love or got high, or they got through the wars in the jungles of Vietnam with our help sonically. That pleases me greatly. Robby Krieger: I was amazed that we got on the radio in the first place, and played at places like the Whisky, much less 60 years later. No idea. I've been playing these songs forever and ever. There was a time, say 20 years, when I was just playing jazz and stuff like that. I was just through with the Doors. It's not that I hated the Doors or anything like that, I figured the Doors were done. Jim was gone. We had tried to get along without him for three or four years. We actually were doing pretty well. We played Carnegie Hall with just me, John and Ray. It was pretty amazing. So, we could've kept going as the Doors, but we couldn't get along. After Jim was gone, the three of us just couldn't get along with each other. The bond was broken. When the Oliver Stone movie came out, that really piqued the interest in the Doors again. So, when that happened we had so many requests to play those songs again. There were a lot of them that we really never played in person with Jim because once Miami happened we couldn't play hardly anywhere because they had this thing called the hall manager's association and they would not let us play it because they were afraid, 'Oh, we're going to pull it out.' That's why we did so many albums in such a short amount of time. We couldn't get any gigs. So, we ended up just recording a lot. Then once we recorded those songs they were in the can, but we didn't play them. So, it was weird, at the Whisky, we're playing every album in order. Last week we did the first album, every song in order, and then took a break, then we came back and did some other songs. So, when we started playing these Doors songs again, we said, 'Hey, why don't we do such and such a song that we've never done before in person?' There are so many of them and they're so much fun to play because A) we've never played them, and B) it's just cool to learn a brand-new song that you've never played before in person. Carlos Santana: Yes, [I saw them] at the Fillmore. I was quite mesmerized. I wasn't prepared because the Doors created this theater rock before Alice Cooper or anybody. The first thing that Jim Morrison said, 'Before we play any song, I want you to turn off all the lights, turn them off.' So, they turn off all the lights. All you can see was the exit sign. And I was like, 'Holy s—, man.' They went into the theater of it. He started singing, 'When the music's over.' I became transfixed with the Doors. So, they had a radio contest in San Francisco, the Doors against the Rolling Stones. They played 'Light My Fire,' and then they played 'Satisfaction.' They had people vote, and the Doors won unanimously. The whole Bay Area said, 'We like the Rolling Stones, but the Doors' 'Light My Fire,' that's it. Dropped the mic.' Both incredible songs, but that's how big the Doors were. They were bigger than the Rolling Stones. Now, when you see Steven Tyler, from Aerosmith, and Mick Jagger, you can tell that they saw Jim Morrison and they wanted some of that because this guy was a rock star before the word 'rock star.' The way he carried himself on stage, it was just him and Jimi Hendrix who had that aura of rock stars. Chuck D: I happen to be old enough to be a kid at a very prime time of the Doors. And I was 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. They were Identifiable individually. They meshed together as far as cohesive force. And I think the sum of the parts — each part, I think, are individually great. But the sum of the parts together was very significant to me. I never got a chance to meet Manzarek. But he always seemed like a cool guy on the other side of the documentary screen. Exene Cervenka: It's timeless. Maybe it gets better over time, but it's always there waiting for you when you need it. If you need to hear 'Strange Days,' you really need to hear 'Strange Days' and it's there and I love that. The big thing about the Doors is you put the record on the turntable and sit down and listen to it. That's the Doors, it's not just like, '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 amazing because they were a great orchestral band. Their arrangements and their thoughts that went into everything. Here's my Doors experience. When I was 11 or 12, 'Light My Fire' came on the radio and it was this incredible song, but I was a little kid living in a very small town in the middle of nowhere in Illinois. Then one day the radio was playing, and the Doors came on and it was the long version. So, I'm sitting back there, I'm 12 years old, it's wintertime and I'm just sitting there listening to the song and all of a sudden it launches into that whole incredible musical passage. That changed me forever that moment. You're 12, you're going into puberty, you see Jim Morrison, you hear that song, it's the '60s, you're in the middle of nowhere in Catholic school. It's going to change you fundamentally for the rest of your life, just that moment. Just that five minutes. Robyn Hitchcock: I still feel the same way about the songs and about the performances and about Jim Morrison that I did when I first heard them in 1968. I still hear it through the emotional ears of a 15-year-old. But, having spent a lifetime as a musician, I do realize how good they were technically, how the landscape that particularly Ray Manzarek did, but I think all three of them, it was one of those very complementary collection of people like Led Zeppelin, there was no fat, there was no spare anything, the keyboard player had to play the bass with his feet the same way you know John Paul Jones did if he was playing keys in Led Zeppelin. But the key figure is still Jim Morrison for me. Kenneth Lacovara: One of the things is when I do fieldwork, like I spent five winters in southernmost Patagonia summers excavating a giant dinosaur that I later named Dreadnoughtus. Excavating is hard work. We were out there about 100 kilometers off the grid. I spent over a year of my life living in a tent next to this animal. And we would play music back then on my iPod hooked up to the pickup truck speakers. The Doors were one of our bands. I hired two gauchos, which are like South American cowboys, to work with us. We would use their horses to drag dinosaur bones out of the desert. And their favorite song was 'Riders on the Storm.' They would always ask for it. So, that became kind of the theme song of the Dreadnought excavation. That was our song. Now when I hear that song it takes me back 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 great musicians, they played really well together. What strikes me about it today listening as a musician is the looseness of the band, like the interplay. You can hear that jazz phrasing, in the drums in Densmore's playing. Behind the snare is hitting in a rock way but there is that wash that you only get from jazz training and listening to jazz. The dynamics of the band really are beautiful. They really took a song on a journey, which to me is such a jazz concept. They could rock, obviously, they could get all the way up their volume, but they could also really pull back and explore in these delicate contours, which is so unique in that genre. Musically they were so ahead of their time. Bootsy Collins: The stuff doesn't sound ingrained in the time. It still sounds like today. The combination of the music that they played and from the different backgrounds of music had a lot to do with the sound and the direction of the whole thing. They had a certain chemistry that would work with each other. They had that going on, whether consciously or not.
