John Riolo on THE DOORS & John Denismore & The Doors

"In about 1967 when the Doors came out, a respected but non-musician friend
of mine thought they were the cat's pajamas. Out of sheer rebillion and my
superiority complex as a "musician" I took a tough stand against them and
decided to think
they were the shits. My buddies and I saw them perform at least 15 times
at the Original Filmore in San Francisco, Winterland, and Festivals around
the Bay Area, because for a while there they were the opening act for almost
everybody else before "Light My Fire" thrusted them into Superstardom.

At first though we used to like Jim Morrison because he humped the
microphone stand and we thought that was real cool. He certainly had a
commanding presence and was captivating to watch, although I actually threw
one of the FREE apple's you received from the Filmore and Bill Graham at him
once to get attention from my friends, luckily I missed.. what an *** I
was!


You might want to note also that Jim and Ray were UCLA University Boys who
were studiying film and Drama and the ideals and ideas from school crept
into their consiciousness and work as musicians and artist. They were no
street punks from East LA or hayseeds from Oklahoma or something, if you can
imagine what I mean. They were what might be referred to as "Upper Class"
or fairly well to do having come from families that gave piano lessons to
the kids or that Admirals in the Navy.

As time went on and I heard the hits and their albums the music grew on
me and has stood the test of time and Stayed with me. "Light My Fire" is
a monster, what a great instrumental, vocal, theme, and content in that
song... pure genius. "When the Music''s Over" another Dramatic Classic
containing elements of Egyptian and Greek Tragedy too awesome to even
comment on here and a monumental attempt at bring something new to Rock and
Roll besides "I Love You Baby" and "DOOO Wop Wop". "Soul Kitchen" and
"Break on Through" are some classic cuts too, great drumming to say the very
least. Ray and Robbie are extraodinary musicians and for two guys created
alot of moods with just the two of them providing chords and notes.


Then there is the later stuff like "Moonlight Drive" the vocal on that
is to die for and so is Robbies Slide Playing. "Riders on the Storm", "Love
Her Madly", "Touch Me" stand up today to anything else in Rock and Roll and
possible above much of it.
As I said, I saw the Doors many times and they were always a very tight
band and their presentation was completely professional. Jim Morrison was
the king of punks, threatening, obsessive, whatever, but I never saw him out
of control or drunk, he WAS IN CONTROL, and Ruled the audience! Perhaps
what was portrayed on film happened toward the end of their career or
something, but I never saw that and it was not the General Rule.


The Doors are Intellectuals, Artist, Rebels, Freedom Fighters, Clowns,
Dramatist, Shamans, Priest of Rock and Roll, and four young men trying to
have fun and make a living and name for themselves. Something Children
and Squares never got and never will get!"

John Riolo
___________________________





By John Densmore



John Densmore discusses the remarkable story behind the music of the
legendary band .







Dread ripples through me as I listen to a phone message from our manager
saying that we (The Doors) have another offer of huge amounts of money if we
would just allow one of our songs to be used as the background for a
commercial. They don't give up! I guess it's hard to imagine that everybody
doesn't have a price. Maybe 'cause, as the cement heads try to pave the
entire world, they're paving their inner world as well. No imagination left
upstairs.

Apple Computer called on a Tuesday - they already had the audacity to spend
money to cut "When the Music's Over" into an ad for their new cube computer
software. They want to air it the next weekend, and will give us a million
and a half dollars! a million and a half dollars! Apple is a pretty hip
company ... we use computers ... Dammit! Why did Jim (Morrison) have to have
such integrity?

I'm pretty clear that we shouldn't do it. We don't need the money. But I get
such pressure from one particular bandmate (the one who wears glasses and
plays keyboards).

"Commercials will give us more exposure," he says. I ask him, "so you're not
for it because of the money?" He says "no," but his first question is always
"how much?" when we get one of these offers, and he always says he's for it.
He never suggests we play Robin Hood, either. If I learned anything from
Jim, it's respect for what we created. I have to pass. Thank God, back in
1965 Jim said we should split everything, and everyone has veto power. Of
course, every time I pass, they double the offer!

It all started in 1967, when Buick proffered $75,000 to use "Light My Fire"
to hawk its new hot little offering - the Opel. As the story goes - which
everyone knows who's read my autobiography or seen Oliver Stone's movie -
Ray, Robby and John (that's me) OK'd it, while Jim was out of town. He came
back and went nuts. And it wasn't even his song (Robby primarily having
penned "LMF")! In retrospect, his calling up Buick and saying that if they
aired the ad, he'd smash an Opel on television with a sledgehammer was
fantastic! I guess that's one of the reasons I miss the guy.

It actually all really started back in '65, when we were a garage band and
Jim suggested sharing all the songwriting credits and money. Since he didn't
play an instrument - literally couldn't play one chord on piano or guitar,
but had lyrics and melodies coming out of his ears - the communal pot idea
felt like a love-in. Just so no one got too weird, he tagged that veto
thought on. Democracy in action ... only sometimes avenues between "Doors"
seem clogged with bureaucratic BS. In the past ten years it's definitely
intensified ... maybe we need a third party. What was that original intent?
Liberty and justice for all songs ... and the pursuit of happiness ... What
is happiness? More money? More fame? The Vietnamese believe that you're born
with happiness; you don't have to pursue it. We tried to bomb that out of
them back in my youth. From the looks of things, we might have succeeded.

This is sounding pretty depressing, John; where are you going here? The
whole world is hopefully heading toward democracy. That's a good thing, John
.... Oh, yeah: the greed gene. Vaclav Havel had it right when he took over as
president of Czechoslovakia, after the fall of Communism. He said, "We're
not going to rush into this too quickly, because I don't know if there's
that much difference between KGB and IBM."

Whoa! Here comes another one: "Dear John Densmore, this letter is an offer
of up to one million dollars for your celebrity endorsement of our product.
We have the best weight loss, diet and exercise program, far better than
anything on the market. The problem is the celebrity must be overweight.
Then the celebrity must use our product for four weeks, which will take off
up to 20 pounds of their excess body fat. If your endorsement works in the
focus group tests, you will immediately get $10,000.00 up front and more
money will start rolling in every month after that--up to a million dollars
or more." Wow! Let's see ... I've weighed 130 pounds for thirty-five years -
since my 20s ... I'll have to gain quite a bit ... sort of like a De Niro
thing ... he gained fifty pounds for Raging Bull - and won an Oscar! I'm an
artist, too, like him ...

We used to build our cities and towns around churches. Now banks are at the
centers of our densely populated areas. I know, it's the 1990s ... No, John,
it's the new millennium, you dinosaur. Rock dinosaur, that is. My hair isn't
as long as it used to be. I don't smoke much weed anymore, and I even have a
small bald spot. The dollar is almighty, and ads are kool, as cool as the
coolest rock videos.

Why did Jim have to say we were "erotic politicians"? If I had been the
drummer for the Grassroots, it probably wouldn't have cut me to the core
when I heard John Lennon's "Revolution" selling tennis shoes ... and Nikes,
to boot! That song was the soundtrack to part of my youth, when the streets
were filled with passionate citizens expressing their First Amendment right
to free speech. Hey ... the streets are filled again! Or were, before 9/11.
And they're protesting what I'm trying to wax on and on about here.
Corporate greed! Maybe I should stick to music. I guess that's why I hit the
streets with Bonnie Raitt during the 1996 Democratic National Convention. We
serenaded the troops. Bob Hope did it during World War II, only our troops
are those dressed in baggy Bermuda shorts, sporting dreadlocks. Some have
the shaved Army look, but they're always ready to fight against the
Orwellian nightmare. A woman activist friend of mine said that with the
networking of the Net, what's bubbling under this brave new world will make
the '60s unrest look like peanuts. I don't want "Anarchy, Now," a worn-out
hippie phrase, but I would like to see a middle class again in this country.

Europe seems saner right now. They are more green than us. They're paranoid
about our genetically altered food and they're trying to make NATO a little
more independent in case we get too zealous in our policing of the globe.
When The Doors made their first jaunt from the colonies to perform in the
mother country back in '67, the record companies seemed a little saner, too.
The retailers in England could order only what they thought they could sell;
no returns to the manufacturers. That eliminated the tremendous hype that
this country still produces, creating a buzz of "double platinum" sales, and
then having half of the CDs returned. Today, there is a time limit of three
to six months for the rackjobbers to get those duds back to the company.

Our band used to be on a small folk label. Judy Collins, Love and the
Butterfield Blues Band were our Elektra labelmates. We could call up the
president, Jac Holzman, and have a chat ... and this was before we made it.
Well, Jac sold out for $10 million back in '70, and we were now owned by a
corporation. Actually, today just five corps own almost the entire record
business, where numbers are the bottom line. At least we aren't on the one
owned by Seagram's! Wait a minute ... maybe we'd get free booze ... probably
not. Advances are always recoupable, booze probably is too.

Those impeccable English artists are falling prey as well. Pete Townshend
keeps fooling us again, selling Who songs to yuppies hungry for SUVs. I hope
Sting has given those Shaman chiefs he hangs out with from the rainforest a
ride in the back of that Jag he's advertising, 'cause as beautiful as the
burlwood interiors are, the car - named after an animal possibly facing
extinction - is a gas guzzler. If you knew me back in the '60s, you might
say that this rant - I mean, piece - now has a self-righteous ring to it, me
having had the name Jaguar John back then. I had the first XJ-6 when they
came out, long before the car became popular with accountants. That's when I
sold it for a Rolls Royce-looking Jag, the Mark IV, a super gas guzzler.
That was back when the first whiffs of rock stardom furled up my nose.
Hopefully, I've learned something since those heady times, like: "What good
is a used-up world?" Plus, it's not a given that one should do commercials
for the products one uses. The Brits might bust me here, having heard
"Riders on the Storm" during the '70s (in Britain only) pushing tires for
their roadsters, but our singer's ghost brought me to my senses and I gave
my portion to charity. I still don't think the Polish member of our band has
learned the lesson of the Opel, but I am now adamant that three commercials
and we're out of our singer's respect. "Jim's dead!" our piano player
responds to this line of thought. That is precisely why we should resist, in
my opinion. The late, transcendental George Harrison had something to say
about this issue. The Beatles "could have made millions of extra dollars
[doing commercials], but we thought it would belittle our image or our
songs," he said. "It would be real handy if we could talk to John [Lennon]
.... because that quarter of us is gone ... and yet it isn't, because Yoko's
there, Beatling more than ever." Was he talking about the Nike ad, or John
and Yoko's nude album cover shot now selling vodka?
__________________




Actually, it was John and Yoko who inspired me to start a 10 per cent tithe,
way back in the early '80s. In the Playboy interview, John mentioned that
they were doing the old tradition, and it stuck in my mind. If everybody
gave 10 per cent, this world might recapture a bit of balance. According to
my calculations, as one gets up into the multi category, you up the ante.
Last year I nervously committed to 15 per cent, and that old feeling rose
again: the greed gene. When you get to multi-multi, you should give away
half every year. Excuse me, Mr. Gates, but the concept of billionaire is
obscene. I know you give a lot away, and it's easy for me to mouth off, but
I do know something about it. During the Oliver Stone film on our band, the
record royalties tripled, and as I wrote those 10 per cent checks, my hand
was shaking. Why? It only meant that I was making much more for myself. It
was the hand of greed. I am reminded of the sound of greed, trying to talk
me into not vetoing a Doors song for a cigarette ad in Japan.

"It's the only way to get a hit over there, John. They love commercials.
It's the new thing!"

"What about encouraging kids to smoke, Ray?"

"You always have to be PC, don't you, John?" I stuck to my guns and vetoed
the offer, thinking about the karma if we did it. Manzarek has recently been
battling stomach ulcers. So muster up courage, you capitalists; hoarding
hurts the system - inner as well as outer.

So it's been a lonely road resisting the chants of the rising solicitations:
"Everybody has a price, don't they?" Every time we (or I) resist, they up
the ante. An Internet company recently offered three mil for "Break on
Through." Jim's "pal" (as he portrays himself in his bio) said yes, and
Robby joined me in a resounding no! "We'll give them another half mil, and
throw in a computer!" the prez of Apple pleaded late one night.

Robby stepped up to the plate again the other day, and I was very pleased
that he's been a longtime friend. I was trying to get through to our ivory
tinkler, with the rap that playing Robin Hood is fun, but the "bottom line"
is that our songs have a higher purpose, like keeping the integrity of their
original meaning for our fans. "Many kids have said to me that 'Light My
Fire,' for example, was playing when they first made love, or were fighting
in Nam, or got high - pivotal moments in their lives." Robby jumped in. "If
we're only one of two or three groups who don't do commercials, that will
help the value of our songs in the long run. The publishing will suffer a
little, but we should be proud of our stance." Then Robby hit a home run.
"When I heard from one fan that our songs saved him from committing suicide,
I realized, that's it - we can't sell off these songs."

So, in the spirit of the Bob Dylan line, "Money doesn't talk, it swears," we
have been manipulated, begged, extorted and bribed to make a pact with the
devil. While I was writing this article, Toyota Holland went over the line
and did it for us. They took the opening melodic lines of "Light My Fire" to
sell their cars. We've called up attorneys in the Netherlands to chase them
down, but in the meantime, folks in Amsterdam think we sold out.

Jim loved Amsterdam.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Densmore is a drummer, author, actor, film producer and foundation
member of The Doors. Reprinted with kind permission from the July 8, 2002
issue of The Nation magazine. Portions of each week of Nation magazine can
be accessed at http://www.thenation.com.
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