The Doors Forum

funny you say that Teo.... when I read his thoughts on The Doors, I don't think he's entirely wrong. I mean, sure I love The Doors, and I don't know what their promotional vibe was at the time, but these days if you take The Doors on how they're promoted, or how they were promoted and written about when I was a kid in the middle 90s getting into them for the first time, it's pure wank. Maybe he didn't like the band because they kept a pretty straight 4/4 beat and stuck to A minor a lot. Haha. For all their love of Jazz, The Doors struggled to be genuinely Jazzy. Morrison must have come off as being way too into himself, and the whole calling himself a poet thing is just asking for trouble.

Was Garcia a humble kinda guy? Morrison most certainly would not have appeared humble to a lot of people...

...both were very humble in my opionin ...

lovemygirl wrote:...both were very humble in my opionin ...

Sure, I can see the humble side to Jim (as much as anyone can by listening to the kind of Doors recordings that interest us), but surely you can acknowledge that Morrison may not have always come across that way? I tend to believe he was a very sensitive person who found it hard to play the game, or be phoney, and sometimes acted out (particularly drinking...). Yet at times was charming, sweet, earnest, sincere... and probably had his moments where he was really good at putting on an act. I mean, he was a complicated and contrary kinda human... tough yet vulnerable.

mystery_train67 wrote:

lovemygirl wrote:...both were very humble in my opionin ...

Sure, I can see the humble side to Jim (as much as anyone can by listening to the kind of Doors recordings that interest us), but surely you can acknowledge that Morrison may not have always come across that way? I tend to believe he was a very sensitive person who found it hard to play the game, or be phoney, and sometimes acted out (particularly drinking...). Yet at times was charming, sweet, earnest, sincere... and probably had his moments where he was really good at putting on an act. I mean, he was a complicated and contrary kinda human... tough yet vulnerable.

edit- I could also see Ray being an arrogant or proud kinda guy at times.

mystery_train67 wrote:funny you say that Teo.... when I read his thoughts on The Doors, I don't think he's entirely wrong. I mean, sure I love The Doors, and I don't know what their promotional vibe was at the time, but these days if you take The Doors on how they're promoted, or how they were promoted and written about when I was a kid in the middle 90s getting into them for the first time, it's pure wank. Maybe he didn't like the band because they kept a pretty straight 4/4 beat and stuck to A minor a lot. Haha. For all their love of Jazz, The Doors struggled to be genuinely Jazzy. Morrison must have come off as being way too into himself, and the whole calling himself a poet thing is just asking for trouble.

Was Garcia a humble kinda guy? Morrison most certainly would not have appeared humble to a lot of people...

I am not trying to defend Jim but when did he call himself a poet? I dont recall any moment of Jim struggling to be recognized as a poet. he was very humble and shy about his poetry and he was a genuine poet, his words come out visually in your head. in my opinion he is one of the most underrated poets of the 20th century. first I love his words and the the music the doors played.

I understand all the press trying to compare Mick and Jim but when Jim imitated Mick? they are two different frontmen for two different styles of music, just cause they were both crazy at some times , it doesnt mean they were identical to their stage performance. I have not seen any photo/footage of Jim trying to imitate jagger , their music was not the same to perform to the same way. Maybe he imitated Arthur Lee on his stage appearance and maybe some other acts but definitely not Jagger. Jerry obviously didnt know.

Also Jerry says something that obviously does come off as bragging , something that Jim would never say. he said in the interview that he was ashamed opening for the doors as the dead blew them off the stage. uhmm ok .. the doors performance is way more cinematic than the dead and the music the doors played was definitely more powerful than listening to a dead performance depending on the mood they were at the time.

I think the poet thing was implied... however, we have journalists at the time referring to the doors lyrics as poetry- who can possibly say at this point whether these journalists were influenced by the doors press releases, or if they came to that conclusion independently? I personally have never been fond of Morrisons poetry, but his material works in song form mostly. He's got nothing on Walt Whitman though. I don't think Morrison took his style from Jagger either. Of course Garcia sounds like he's bragging when he says TGD blew them off the stage. I've never liked TGD, but obviously his comment is biased, and subjective in any case. I simply am saying I can see how The Doors may have left a bad impression on some people.

Teo got it right pretty much. Jerry definitely sounds like an envious person certainly in great part because of the Doors' huge success. I respect Garcia and like some of his stuff too but by the time he gave this interview in 1981, I expected lot more honesty and open-mindedness from him at that age, instead of this bullshit, trying to back up his estranged view with such ridiculous and false statements. Jim copying Mick?? I can hardly see any similarities between the two. And for the record, Jim never mentioned or talked about himself as a poet. He mentioned he aspires to become one but that's a pretty different thing.

Strangely suspicious how well the Dead disliked them even when they didn't break big. What else than pure envy can explain this? On the two occasions they shared the bill in the spring of '67, other members of the Dead also felt they have to represent their bullshit San Francisco superiority and behaved like drag queens and wouldn’t let the Doors use their instruments when they arrived from another show empty-handed. Pigpen was probably the biggest asshole of them all, also not letting Ray use his organ, who unusually to himself, was smoking: “Pigpen? Someone named Pigpen won’t let me use his instrument? I could catch cooties from his organ.” Robby was also refused to use an amp. It would be terrific to hear what show the Doors finally put up as I'm sure they delivered, investing their angst into their performance, showing the Dead they just can't fuck with them. Seems that night ultimately sealed their relationship.