>>>In honor of my 70th birthday (OK, no, not really ... but it DOES just happen to time out that way!) on Sunday, August 27th, “American Graffiti” returns to movie theaters across the country to celebrate the film’s 50th Anniversary. You can order your tickets NOW for this very special event here: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/American-Graffiti-50th-Anniversary?date=2023-08-27&utm_campaign=American%20Graffiti&utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Press%20Release&utm_content=2023_americangraffiti_fathom_press_release
(I’ve told the story before about how this film exposed me … in FINE fashion, I might add … to the early days of rock and roll. I bought the 2-LP soundtrack and played the heck out of it for years … making new discoveries along the way of all of the other great music that came along BEFORE my ears were captured by The British Invasion. I will be forever grateful!) kk
Seeing American Graffiti for the first time in 1973 inspired me to keep pursuing the radio dream. The first radio studio that I ever worked from resembled the building in the movie where Wolfman Jack performed. It was a little white building on the outskirts of town. I don't think a faulty freezer ever left me with a bunch of melting popsicles.
On September 2nd, I will be broadcasting my Those Were the Days radio show from the Starlite 14 Drive Inn in Richland Center, Wisconsin. We will spin tunes right up to America Graffiti. They will show the iconic movie at dusk in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
Phil Nee
Boy, talk about coming around full circle … that’s just AWESOME, Phil … wish I could be there to both check out your show AND the movie!!! (kk)
Some personal items belonging to late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts are going up for auction at the end of September and are expected to raise millions of dollars.
Charlie was kind of the “artsy” Stone … and among the items in his collection are a first edition, signed copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” as well as a first edition copy of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” The well-read Stone also owned a proof copy of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’ from 1944 as well as other first edition books from James Joyce and Agatha Christie, likely bought as investments along the way.
Quite the collector, Charlie also acquired suits worn by Edward VIII, a fleet of vintage cars (even through he never drove!) and a collection of original pressings of early jazz records from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Jelly Roll Morton on 78 rpm. Another prized possession was original scores by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
The items will be on display in Los Angeles (July 25th thru July 29th), New York (September 5th thru September 8th) and London (September 20th thru September 27th) before the auction is held for these (and many other goodies!) at Christie’s London on September 28th, 2023. (kk)
Loved The Monkees / Hendrix info ... great stuff!!! Thanks!!!!
DIS
For an incredibly in-depth and detailed review of the new Four Seasons career-spanning box set we keep telling you about, check out Joe Marchese’s assessment here: https://theseconddisc.com/2023/07/10/review-frankie-valli-and-the-four-seasons-working-our-way-back-to-you-the-ultimate-collection/
A great Sunday afternoon at The Acorn Theatre in Three Oaks, MI. The SW Michigan preview of The Dick Biondi Film was met by a lot of emotion, due to his recent death. There were many memories shared by Producer Pam Pulice, John Landecker, and other people in attendance. It was enlightening to see Dick Biondi fans from all over gathering to remember his career, and what it meant to those who listened to him over so many years.
The Dick Biondi Rewound Hall of Fame airs this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time / 11 am Central Time for six hours. We will be featuring a sampling of his career with airchecks from a variety of stations, including our “World Premiere” exhibit from KRLA in Southern California. This aircheck comes to us courtesy of Bill Shannon, from the original collection of Mort Crowley. The 60 year old reel to reel tape was so brittle that it took 15 splice repairs to get it to play. But … it is all pieced together for nearly 50 minutes of continuous entertainment.
It is thrilling to have heard from people coast to coast who are excited to hear this audio exhibit … including one of our very good friends, Chuck Buell.
https://app.box.com/s/euglh5s5z2yhds83czj5c034ufkdb5ny
Hope you can join us on Saturday on Rewound Radio as we remember The Wild I-Tralian on The DJ Hall of Fame.
Ted Gorden Smucker, Bill Shannon and Steve Brelsford
We’ll be listening! And we’re even running a special “rebroadcast” of our very own on Friday … when Forgotten Hits reprints our landmark article “Who Was The Very Radio Station To Play A Beatles Record In America?”
It’ll hit the site on Friday, along with a Listen Live link to listen along to Saturday’s Rewound Radio tribute. (kk)
A CORRECTION:
Hi Kent:
I’m not sure who supplied you with the information that Frankie Valli joined Chicago on the Fourth of July this year on PBS-TV from DC ...
But the video you posted was not from earlier this month, but from the Fourth of July broadcast of 2014.
Presumably, Frankie, who was married again a few weeks ago, was still on his honeymoon on the 4th of July, 2023!
-Tom Cuddy
Frankie’s been a busy guy of late … but I guess just not THAT busy!!! (Hey, I was only off by nine years!)
Meanwhile, Frankie WILL be taking up residency at the Las Vegas Westgate Resort and Casino beginning this October. It’s a yearlong gig, during which time he'll turn 90!
(Now THAT would be cool to see … Frankie Valli playing Vegas!) kk
I had the chance to see John Fogerty at Ravinia Sunday Night ... what a great show.
This guy is a TRUE legend ... EVERY song is a classic. (How many artists can take the stage and have the audience sing along with every word of every song.) That's how big an impact he had on our lives growing up. His music is timeless and has touched millions.
And I'm not just talking about the Creedence stuff (although that had the crowd up on their feet for nearly the entire show.)
Believe it or not, the biggest reaction and ovation he got all night was when he whipped out his "baseball bat" guitar and sang Centerfield.
This guy still looks and sounds great ... and he's got two of his kids playing with him now as part of his band.
This man is 78 years old and he pranced around the entire stage the whole night ... two hours of nothing but the hits and he never let up one bit. (I work out five or six times a week, am HALF his age, and don't think I could have put in that many steps in a two hour show!)
If you have the chance to see, do it. This man IS the American Songbook for our generation.
Sean Roberts
You're talking to a MAJOR, first generation Creedence fan here ... even got to see the band (as a trio) back in the day ... 1971 ... and have seen John solo a few times, too ... and you're right ... he still looks and sounds the same. (Ironically, AXS TV ran a John Fogerty concert Saturday Night ... I just happened to catch it as I was flipping through the channels ... and ended up watching it for over an hour!)
Fogerty's music is part of our DNA ... and to think he actually walked away from it for awhile ... that's what getting ripped off by your record company will do to ya!
You might like our special Creedence Clearwater Revival piece from a few years back, now fully restored on the other Forgotten Hits website. (Yep, we got all our stuff back ... it was an ordeal, let me tell you ... and frustrating as hell that I can't update it or add to it unless I'm willing to start over from scratch. But after fighting to get it all back, I have a greater appreciation now for how much time, effort and energy went into all this work in the first place ... and can say that I am proud to share it all with you, even 25 years later, as my labor of love!) kk
Check out CCR here:
http://forgottenhits.com/creedence_clearwater_revival
And some of the feedback and comments we got after this piece first ran some TWENTY YEARS AGO!!!
http://forgottenhits.com/ccr_feedback
Ozzy Osbourne has backed out of his scheduled appearance at Power Trip, a series of hard-rock concert events scheduled for early October.
It would have been the rock legend’s first live appearance in nearly five years, who announced earlier this year that he was retiring from touring due to various medical issues.
In a statement, Ozzy said:
As painful as this is, I’ve had to make the decision to bow out of performing on Power Trip in October. My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward.
Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed.
The band that will be replacing me on Power Trip will be announced shortly. They are personal friends of mine and I can promise that you will not be disappointed.
Above all, I want to thank my fans, my band, and my crew for their unconditional loyalty and continual support. I love you all and I will see you soon.
Still scheduled to perform are Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden on Friday, October 6th, AC/DC and now, TBD (aka “Friends of Ozzy”) on Saturday, October 7th, and Metallica and Tool, appearing on Sunday, October 8th. (kk)
This was nice to read, after years of hearing nothing but “Radio Is Dead” …
So is it true that over 50 years after Nilsson sang "Can’t live if living is without you?" that NEILSEN says radio is topping TV in the entertainment ratings medium?
Many AM radio stations have been celebrating 100 year anniversaries in the past three years, with many more to come -- hopefully! Car companies are pondering dropping AM radios from their new cars, but does it mean AM is dead? It sounds like with internet/iphone/car listening, radio has once again gained a foothold and, as TV writers and actors continue their strikes and no new TV is entertaining us (was it in May, even?), maybe my beloved medium of radio is coming back? Well, it could be!
Today, the actual FM dial is filled with lots of junk and AM is mostly talk/politics, but there ARE good shows, both on over air AND more likely internet sources. It is HARD to find your fave music on over air, but your iphone or car or internet can find what most are searching for in alternatives.
According to the news release below, there looks to be a trend towards radio being a way to combat stale TV as well as the politics and war on TV so much today. The escape to radio is what people are seeking again. Radio lets one imagine!
I was so happy to do a Neilsen ratings book in April this year and hope I made a .00001 dent in boosting my fave medium.
Below was one of my busier days. I DID listen to what I listed below, but am not quite so involved weekly like I was that week.
BUT, I had to help the stations I love to listen to and did so, supporting local, internet, and actual AM DXing, which is still my fave way to listen when I can pick up stations.
Clark Besch
More from Clark …
Kent,
This whole Eagles thing grates at me. YES, they were a cool 70's band, but I am so sick of them. I keep several songs as fave 45s, but do not play them. You talk about Michael McDonald over saturation, but I don't mind him at all. I do NOT hear MANY of his big hits like I do the Eagles or ABBA. I hear people say they hate the Michael McDonald Doobies or the David Clayton Thomas BS&T. WHY? I love both versions of these bands. Just because the bigger hits (mostly) were by the later star singer?
Prayers to Jack Levin for recovery. Hoping the Biondi show gets to PBS soon. Love to Chuck Buell for reigning in AI. Looking forward to Ron Riley's documentary. AND congrats to Jim Peterik for a great Chicago Streetwise cover story two weeks ago! As Jimbo would say, "Rock On, Kent!"
Clark
I heard “Lucretia MacEvil the other night and boy, it sure sounded great! (That’s a Forgotten Hit for sure … you NEVER hear this one!)
If you’ve never seen The Eagles live, you owe yourself the chance to do so while the opportunity still exists … you’ll be blown away by how perfectly they can duplicate their sound in concert. (kk)
Madonna has finally issued a statement regarding her current health situation. (She was rushed to the hospital a few weeks ago with a serious virus infection, postponing her Celebration tour … but now she says she’s on the mend.)
She’s now hoping to be back on the road again (in Europe) in October. (Hey, maybe she can fill in for Ozzy Osbourne at Power Trip!)
In a statement released on Tuesday (July 11th), Madonna said:
Thank you for your positive energy. Prayers and words of healing and encouragement. I have felt your love. I’m on the road to recovery and incredibly grateful for all the blessings in my life.
My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children. My second thought was that I did not want to disappoint anyone who bought tickets for my tour. I also didn’t want to let down the people who worked tirelessly with me over the last few months to create my show. I hate to disappoint anyone.
My focus now is my health and getting stronger and I assure you, I’ll be back with you as soon as I can! The current plan is to reschedule the North American leg of the tour and to begin the tour in Europe. I couldn’t be more grateful for your care and support.
Love, M.
So now it’s come to this …
You can buy a 10% stake in Led Zeppelin! (Crazy but true … but pretty crappy when you strip things down to the circumstances!) And pretty remarkable in a day and age when classic artists are selling the rights to their catalog of work on a nearly daily basis! (kk)
And classic Doors fans will be thrilled to be able to pick up one of their vintage concerts from 1967 (the year they broke on thru from the other side in a VERY big way with their #1 Summer Classic, “Light My Fire.”)
Harvey Kubernik tells us more …
LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS will be available on September 8 as 3-CD:
Harvey Kubernik on The Doors 1966-1967
Marty Balin on the Matrix Club; Kubernik Interview with John Densmore
"You forget in the Summer of Love there is the Vietnam War on everyone’s mind. San Francisco was quiet. They stared at us like we were from Mars. We knew that was making an impact." --John Densmore, 2007 interview with Harvey Kubernik.
The Doors were a few months away from stardom in March 1967 when they played five sparsely attended shows at a small club in San Francisco called The Matrix. These uninhibited performances would have been fleeting if not for Peter Abram, who co-owned the pizza parlor-turned-nightclub with Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin.
An avid recordist, Abram taped concerts at The Matrix regularly and his recordings of The Doors, made between March 7-11, 1967, spawned one of the band's most storied bootlegs. At long last, all known Matrix recordings, sourced entirely from Abram's original master recordings, will be released on September 8.
LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS will be available on September 8 as 3-CD ($29.98) and 5-LP ($124.98) sets. Production of the vinyl version is limited to 14,000 numbered (CD 21,000) copies worldwide. The band's March 7 performance of the jazz instrumental "Bag's Groove" is exclusive to the vinyl set and comes on a 7" single. "Bag's Groove" is one of two never-before-heard recordings.
Bootlegs of The Matrix shows have circulated among fans for years and were popular despite the poor audio quality of most copies. The sound began improving in 1997 when the first two songs from The Matrix shows were officially released on The Doors: Box Set. Even more performances followed in 2008 on Live at the Matrix 1967; regrettably, it was discovered soon after that all the recordings were sourced from third-generation tapes, not the originals.
Today, Abram's original recordings have been remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors’ longtime engineer/mixer, for official release. The vinyl version of LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS includes all 37 songs from the shows sourced from the master tapes. Except for 15 songs released in 2017 and 2018 as Record Store Day exclusives, most of the newly upgraded live recordings are making their debut in the collection, including eight that have never been featured on any of the previous Matrix releases.
It's easy to understand the enduring appeal of these vintage performances by Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. Recorded only a few months before "Light My Fire" propelled the band to worldwide success, the tapes capture The Doors playing a wide range of songs, including several from their self-titled debut, like "Break On Through," "Soul Kitchen," and "The End."
They also performed half the songs destined for the group's soon-to-be-recorded second album, Strange Days, including early performances of "Moonlight Drive" and "People Are Strange." 15 Sets of music over five nights at The Matrix gave the band time to indulge its love of the blues with extended covers of "I'm A King Bee" and "Crawling King Snake." The Doors even delivered an instrumental version of "Summertime."
Joel Selvin writes in the collection's liner notes: "They were young, fresh, and uninhibited, spreading their wings to fly. The tapes are raw, savage, rough around the edges. This is pure Doors: unselfconscious and unspoiled."
LIVE AT THE MATRIX 1967: THE ORIGINAL MASTERS
5-LP Track Listing
LP One: Side One
(March 7, 1967) First Set
1. “Back Door Man”
2. “My Eyes Have Seen You” *
3. “Soul Kitchen”
4. “All Blues” – Instrumental *
Side Two
1. “Get Out Of My Life Woman” **
2. “When The Music’s Over” *
LP Two: Side One
(March 7, 1967) Second Set
1. “Close To You” **
2. “Crawling King Snake” **
3. “I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind”
4. “People Are Strange”
5. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)”
Side Two
1. “Crystal Ship”
2. “Twentieth Century Fox”
Third Set
3. “Moonlight Drive”
4. “Summer’s Almost Gone” *
5. “Unhappy Girl”
LP Three: Side One
(March 7, 1967) Third Set
1. “Woman Is A Devil/Rock Me Baby” **
2. “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” **
3. “Light My Fire”
Side Two
1. “The End”
2. “The End” (Partial) / Let’s Feed Ice Cream To The Rats (from March 8 or 9, 1967)
LP Four: Side One
(March 10, 1967) First Set
1. “My Eyes Have Seen You”
2. “Soul Kitchen” **
3. “I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind” **
4. “People Are Strange” **
Side Two
1. “When The Music’s Over”
Second Set
2. “Money” **
3. “Who Do You Love” **
LP Five: Side One
(March 10, 1967) Second Set
1. “Moonlight Drive” *
2. “Summer’s Almost Gone”
3. “I’m A King Bee” **
4. “Gloria” **
Side Two
1. “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” *
Third Set
2. “Summertime” – Instrumental **
3. “Back Door Man “**
4. “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” *
7” Single
March 7, 1967 (First Set)
“Bag’s Groove” – Instrumental *
*Previously Unreleased
**First Time Released From Original Master Tapes
During early 1966 I was at my friend David Wolfe’s house in Culver City California on Selmarine Drive when Jim Morrison of a new band called the Doors appeared on 90 minute 10:00 pm talk television The Joe Pyne Show on KTTV channel 11. We both remember the confrontational host in a heated argument with Morrison in Pyne’s Beef Box.
I first heard the Doors at Fairfax High School in West Hollywood on Burbank-based AM radio station KBLA during deejay Dave Diamond’s Diamond Mine shift. He constantly spun the acetate of their debut long player in late December 1966 before the official January ’67 album retail release.
The erudite radio broadcaster explained the origin of their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, derived from a line in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
I loved Diamond seguing from “Soul Kitchen” to “Twentieth Century Fox.” Some of it sounded like music they had on KGFJ-AM, my R&B channel, and KBCA-FM, the jazz station. “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” reminded me of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” from the 1963 Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Smith jazz arrangement recording of his tune on the Verve label.
I purchased The Doors in monaural on the Elektra label that January of 1967 at The Frigate record shop on Crescent Heights and Third Street. I had no idea as a teenager that The Frigate was literally right near the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-founded Third Street Meditation Center where Ray Manzarek initially met John Densmore and Robby Krieger in 1965, then introducing the duo to his buddy Jim Morrison.
I then saw the Doors in January 1967 on the Casey Kasem-hosted afternoon television show Shebang! In July I caught the Doors on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. I danced occasionally on both Hollywood-based programs 1966-1967.
On April 9, 1967 my cousin Sheila Kubernick telephoned me very late at night. She had just returned from The Cheetah club in Venice and witnessed the Doors in person. Sheila, a Cher-lookalike at the time, was still in a trance, courtesy of Jim Morrison. Shelia later drove my brother Kenny and I to the Valley Music Center for a concert by the Seeds still reminiscing about the Doors. I later saw the band in Inglewood at the Forum in 1968.
On July 10, 2017 I was at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Library & Archives where I was invited to be a guest speaker in their Author Series in Cleveland, Ohio.
Before my appearance, one of the curatorial assistants took me into the private air-conditioned storage locker room not open to the viewing public. “We knew you were coming today and pulled out some specific items we wanted you to see.”
I was handed an envelope containing Jim Morrison’s diploma from UCLA.
The late singer and songwriter Marty Balin, the founder of Jefferson Airplane, hit maker of the Jefferson Starship group, and a well-received solo career, was at the epicenter of the emerging and nascent San Francisco musical community in 1965. The regional buzz on Jefferson Airplane in 1966 yielded their debut LP Jefferson Airplane Take Off issued by RCA Records in August 1966.
Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 30, 1942, Balin moved to the Bay area at age four by parents Joe and Jean Buchwald. Joe was a lithographer, and printed more than 200 different posters for music shows at the Matrix club, the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms. He briefly attended San Francisco State University; initially pursuing a career as a painter.
He then turned to music with the encouragement of his good friend Ralph Mathis, brother of singer Johnny Mathis.
In 1962 Marty renamed himself Marty Balin and began recording with Challenge Records, recording at the legendary Gold Star studios in Hollywood with the area’s top session players. “Nobody But You” and “I Specialize in Love.”
He subsequently became lead singer of a folk music quartet called the Town Criers, followed by a brief stint with the Gateway Singers in 1965.
Marty then mulled over an electric folk sound. “I wanted to play with electric guitars and drums, but when I mentioned that notion in clubs that I played, the owners would say, ‘We wouldn’t have you play here. Not with drums and electricity. This is a folk club.’ So I decided to open my own club.”
Balin opened the Matrix on August 13th 1965 featuring his new band Jefferson Airplane. Over the next two years, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the War Locks, and the Doors would play inside his venue.
Initially a folk-rock venture, Jefferson Airplane came to epitomize the psychedelic scene that was reflected in their 1967 second album, Surrealistic Pillow. But Jefferson Airplane Takes Off was a delightful audio appetizer.
During 2015 I interviewed Marty about Jefferson Airplane.
Q: Living in San Francisco in the fifties and sixties, you saw a lot of local music before Jefferson Airplane really started flying.
A: I grew up and got to see all the beatniks and all the jazz cats in the clubs. I was a friend of Ralph Mathis, Johnny Mathis’ brother. They had a house in San Francisco. I’d go over with Ralph and Johnny would have Erroll Garner in there. Nancy Wilson, the Jazz Crusaders. And they’d just perform. And then Ralph and I would go downtown, ‘cause he was Johnny Mathis’ brother, we could get into any club. I saw John Coltrane. Man, I saw Miles Davis. I saw Thelonious Monk. Plus, I saw all the great writers and poets. This is a world before 1967 and the Summer of Love. It started with the beatniks and poets.
I think San Francisco was full of all these people who were talented and who were expressing themselves or their rights or playing music. And I think San Francisco has a lot to do with that. I don’t know if it’s the geomagnetic forces of the earth and the ocean but something went on there. It’s a lot different than the rest of the world.
In a 1966 interview with Hollywood-based Radio station KFWB Hitline magazine, Balin mentioned that “Haight Street is just like [London’s] Carnaby Street. Long hair, boutiques, ice-cream parlors, band sessions and plays in the park, pie fights-it’s just great.”
Q: Tell me about the Matrix Club.
A: I opened the Matrix Club in 1965 in San Francisco. Booked bands in 1966 and ’67. As a solo performer in 1964, ’65, I started to use a 12-string guitar with a pickup on it and wanted to use drums. I had played the Hungry I, The Purple Onion, The Jazz Workshop as a folk band group. I went back to get some jobs and no one would hire me because I was too loud. So after being turned down by everybody, I was playing a folk club.
In the evening I would perform and these four nurses used to come who liked me. Then they started coming with their boyfriends and during the break I was sitting and talking to their boyfriends and they were all talking about investing this money they had together and didn’t know what to do with it. So I said, “Well give it to me.” And I said, ‘I’ll build a nightclub and I’ll put a band in it and you can have the night club and you can have the band.’ ‘OK.’
I roamed around and went into this bar down on Fillmore that looked empty on a Friday night. Not many people in it. So, I came back Saturday night and there were very few people in the bar. So I went and told these guys I thought we could get that bar because it’s not doing great biz. So they went and they got the license from that guy and we started fixing it up and making it into the Matrix. As we were doing that people, you know, people were comin’ in lookin’ for places to play. The infamous Warlocks. Janis [Joplin]. All these other people were looking for places to play, too. So I had an immediate influx. And besides that, I had jazz guys playing, there, blues guys, cats from The Committee. They would do stand up. It took off right off the bat.
I didn’t see the Doors at the Matrix Club but saw them many times. We worked and played with them many times in 1967 and ’68. We did some high school and college shows together and toured Europe.
I loved the Doors. Oh my God! I thought Jim Morrison was fantastic. I fortunately became a friend and hung out and got to drink with him. He’d read me his poems all the time. I thought that was funny. I thought Jim was great as an artist. Who knows? He would have probably gone into film and done movies. The guy was a good lookin’ dude, man. I’d go out with him and try and pick up chicks and I was like invisible.
John Densmore and Harvey Kubernik 2007 Interview
Q: The 1967 Summer of love.
A: “Light My Fire” hit number one in July, our album went gold in September, and we did more gigs in Las Vegas, and the Cheetah on the Santa Monica Pier in Venice.
I had to work harder on the tempo because Ray’s left hand was the bass. And when he took a solo he’d get excited and speed up. “Hold it back. Hold it back.” But, without a separate guy doing bass line runs and grooves there are holes. “OK. I’m going in.” Sometimes I didn’t do anything. That was my territory between the beats.
During band rehearsals or just before we recorded, mainly I heard Jim’s words live and by himself in the garage, or Ray would hand me a slip of paper and they were pulsating rhythms of words. Because Jim was a poet they were edited. Like, “Break On Through” was so percussive. When we were recording and locked in, I was in it. We were just so in it. We were lost. Playing live there were big sections on “The End” or “When The Music’s Over” when we would vamp, and Jim would throw in anything. And then, “Oh yeah? I’ll throw that back at you. Check this out.”
Q: But, when your first album was high on the charts that Summer of Love, and all through your Doors’ career, where did you learn to be both a support and lead musician?
A: I saw (drummer) Roy Haynes earlier this year. He’s 80, and he’s fuckin’ stronger than me at my peak. And, I said, “Roy. I know your secret. And, I’m into it too. Dynamics.” It pulls people in. It’s human. Very loud and very soft. Rather than one level. I didn’t know that. I just heard it. I saw Coltrane. Roy
Q: Yet, I know what kind of historic influence the Doors have had on culture and contemporary bands, let alone kick starting Acid Rock and later Goth. But your work with the band in the Summer of Love gigs and your first three seminal albums also reminded me that the bands Cream, the Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix Experience all had fellow jazz drummers playing rock ‘n’ roll.
A: That’s right. That’s good. I forget you’re a drummer. Ginger Baker. Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” was out and we’re in the studio, trying to play “Hello, I Love You,’ and we’re in the studio, and Robby says, “Why don’t you try and do that Cream beat where Baker sort of turns it around.” And I did. Two bars of Ginger Baker is in “Hello, I Love You.” (laughs). Ginger was in a trio with a lot of poly rhythm shit goin’ on. Like Elvin. Charlie Watts’s feel. He had the pocket. He got it from hearing all those jazz guys like Stan Levey and Chico Hamilton. I saw Chico at the Lighthouse and stole one of his cymbal things that I used in “The End.” Mitch Mitchell’s hands are really fast. More than Keith Moon. And, Mitch is fluid as hell. I actually did “Little Wing” on a Native American recording and did an instrumental version on a hand drum and still did Mitch’s fills. A little tip of the hat.
Q: What was the best record you heard in 1967?
A “Sgt Pepper’s” We were starting our second album, “Strange Days” when our engineer Bruce Botnick got an advance copy of “Sgt. Pepper’s” before it was released and played it for us. Oh what a challenge…OK…” So, “Strange Days” we were definitely more into experimental because of hearing that album, but we didn’t want to do horns and strings, but it was so wild. Ringo did 400 pounds of overdubs on that album. We weren’t in competition with the Beatles. When I think competition, it’s sonic competition. Lennon and McCartney then were more semi-traditional songwriters, and we were West Coast Acid heads. But sonically, we were challenged, and started to do backward piano tracks. “The recording studio is the 5th Door. Let’s experiment.” That’s what “Sgt. Pepper’s” did. We didn’t try and copy Lennon and McCartney.
Q: What did the Summer of Love achieve?
A: 1967, we were naïve, but felt, “we’re changing the world.” Their were long hairs in every city, not in the Midwest so much, and thought we were taking over. And, actually, it was just seeds being planted which are blooming and will bloom a hundred years from now. Civil rights, feminism, peace movement, ecology, Native American rights, all that was planted. I remember poet Gary Snyder on a cable TV show, and they were trying to pin him down, “You’re an ecological poet. You must be very depressed by the way the ecology environment is going and beaten up.” He replied, “I’m not gonna buy that. Maybe it will be 200 years before big blooms come out from the seeds.”
Q: Another thing about the Summer of Love, meditation started becoming more evident in popular culture and the media, but earlier in 1965, you and Robby met Ray Manczarek when you two went to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation Center in Los Angeles. You dudes were way early on this trip.
A: It’s good for you to bring that in. TM was definitely Summer of Love. For some damn reason in 1965…Well, Robby and I went because LSD was legal and we were quite interested in our nervous systems, and knew we had to do this TM thing slowly. We go over there and I meet this little guy, Maharishi, and the “Love Vibe” is very palpable. This is 30 people in a room. Then, a year or two later, I read that the Beatles are onto TM and our little secret is being spread worldwide. Great. I still meditate. The whole Eastern Indian thing, Ravi Shankar, via George Harrison and the Beatles saturated everything with paisley bedspreads sound wise. “The End” was a raga tune.
Robby and I went to Ravi Shankar’s Kinnara School of Indian Music. When you’re students at the Kinnara School of Music, you get to sit on stage with the master at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Later Robby and I go see Ravi play at the Hollywood Bowl, and George is on stage. Ravi didn’t teach at the school, but he’d drop in and give a little lecture on “Sublimating Your Sexual Drive Into Your Instrument.” Harrison was doing it in England. Later, George Harrison came to one of our recording sessions for “Soft Parade.” You hear the Indian thing in techno stuff now. That came in and it was deep and it’s still around. We need the East.
Q: But the TM and Indian influence of 1967 still reverberates and initially the calming effect and the whole L.A. Pico, La Cienega, Robertson vibe reinforced your drum style. I know the Doors mixed theater, drama and psychedelic elements into the sound equation. I’ve always thought what you were playing on drums and percussion, especially in 1967 impacted a lot of rockers over the last four decades. Guitarists and singer/songwriters were aware of your drum work on the Doors’ recordings.
A: Let me tell you, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, (Bruce) Springsteen came up to me and said, “I like your drumming. It’s so quiet and then you drop a bomb.” Thank you, Boss. So maybe, 1966, 1967, I was noticing in the traditional Indian ragas you gotta wait for your climax. It’s not a quickie, you know. So that was the influence. Frankly, TM is the reason the Doors are together. TM. You could buy instant nirvana for $35.00 then. Now. It’s thousands of dollars.
And TM glued together myself, Ray, Robby and Jim. I don’t know if you know this story. Jim didn’t meditate, Robby and I went and Ray was there. That’s where we met. One time Jim came and he wanted to look into Maharishi’s eyes…and Jim later said, “Well, he’s got something. I’m not gonna meditate but he’s got something.” This was the first class in the country. We were two years ahead of the Beatles, thank you (laughs).
Ray had a previous relationship with World Pacific Records in 1965 when he was on the label with Rick and the Ravens and recorded for Dick Bock who owned the label, and released Ravi Shankar albums in the U.S. We got a couple hours of free studio time at World Pacific recording studios, and that’s when we got to make a demo in 1965. On the way into the studio Ravi Shankar is leaving with Alla Rakha, my idol, who I didn’t know was going to be my idol yet, was on the way out with these little tabla drums, which I soon find out by studying at the Kinnara School, are the most sophisticated drums in the world. I’m in awe of them. It’s the East! And, I’m just a surfer. Not literally, but from West L.A. The very first TM class was with Clint Eastwood and Paul Horn the year before me. Paul later was in India with the Beatles.
Q: In 1965, ’66, and maybe through 1967, there was a sense of community and brotherhood in the local Hollywood psychedelic musical world and throughout the Summer of Love.
A: In May of 1966 the Doors were at the London Fog and I would go right up the street to the Whisky and hear Love play. Arthur Lee told Jac Holzman of Elektra Records about us when we played the Whisky. That was an incredible sweet gesture, ya know. “Forever Changes” is a fuckin’ masterpiece. That’s all I can fuckin’ say, and it began in 1967. The first two albums they did in 1966 and ’67 blew my mind. Here’s this racially mixed group, not playing funk, playing electric folk. Ridiculous, with real tight pants! What!
It’s like when I saw Hendrix in 1967 at the Whisky just after the Monterey International Pop festival. God! We knew somebody was coming. A giant! It was just…I don’t have the words…He was like Coltrane on guitar, playing it upside down, without changing the strings. Forget it. I saw Coltrane many times. I was a jazz snob until I heard the mop tops music and I went, “They’re cute.” And then I got into rock ‘n’ roll. I saw every jazz great who ever came to town the first half of the 1960s. Les McCann at the Renaissance Club. Cannonball Adderly at Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse. Bill Evans five or six times at Shelley’s Manne Hole. I shook his hand.
I noticed with Elvin Jones and John Coltrane there was communication. So, I thought, “I’m gonna keep the beat. That’s our job as drummers. But, I’m gonna try and talk to Jim during the music.” Like, “When the Music’s Over.” “What have they done to the earth….” That’s Elvin. I knew I wasn’t playing jazz.
Q: Hey…There’s a riff nicked from Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” in “When The Music’s Over.” And, there is also the influence of film on your band mates, and you sorta were doing soundtrack coloring music in regards to your own playing.
A: I wasn’t thinking cinematic, but certainly Ray and Jim coming out of the UCLA Film School were cinematic dudes. That’s for sure. I mean, I hear the world. Filmmakers see it.
For the ultimate Doors reading experience, pick up a copy of Harvey Kubernik’s book
UPDATE: Word is that it'll be Judas Priest filling Ozzy's spot at the October 7th Power Trip performance. (Damn ... I was really pullin' for Madonna!!!) kk
