Disc Three - The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

Hello To The Cities 0:56

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, 1967 AND AT COBO HALL, DETROIT, 1970

Ray: A strange, phantasmagorical recitation. What does it mean? Are we in all these cities or none? Are we in any of these cities or are we in one city? And which city are we in? Are we here or... where? This is surreal, theater of the absurd. It's Beckett. "Mr. Godot can't come today, but surely tomorrow."

Robby: This was a device that Jim used to keep the audience from becoming too comfortable. He wanted them to have that feeling "something's wrong, something's not quite right."

Break On Through 4:32

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL, ENGLAND, 1970

Ray: The Isle of Wight. This is the last recorded live performance of The Doors. Late summer of 1970. Jim was on trial in Miami. The judge gave us a five day recess to fly to England, play the festival and come back to court. This was to be the first gig of a European tour just as Miami was to be the first gig of a 20-city US tour. We never got beyond the first date of either one.

John: Brazilian Bossa Nova was popular at the time, so I tried to incorporate it into a rock beat.

Rock Me 6:36

Written by Muddy Waters. Published by Waters Toons Music (BMI) (adm. by Bug)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE PNE COLISEUM, VANCOUVER, 1970

Robby: Jim loved Muddy Waters and Ray had an album of Muddy doing 'Rock Me'. We would take acid and listen to that album and John Lee Hooker as well.

Ray: Muddy's version is ambrosia, but we do a pretty damn good job of getting down here with Albert King.

Money 2:59

Written by John Lee Hooker. Published by Boogie One Music (BMI) (adm. By Bug)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE PNE COLISEUM, VANCOUVER, 1970

Robby: 'Rock Me' and 'Money' were done in Canada with Albert King sitting in. This was a great thrill for me to play with one of my idols. He was very nice and I think he realized that groups like The Doors were opening up the blues to a new audience.

John: I can see Jim lighting Albert's huge cigar on the side of the stage just before this one- 1 am proud, anytime we can tip our hats to the blues.

Ray: Vancouver with Albert King. What fun. A giant of a man and a giant blues master. We played our asses off... and loved it.

Someday Soon 3:41

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE SEATTLE CENTER, SEATTLE, 1970

Ray: This was never recorded in the studio. It was still a work in progress. This is the first time its ever been released. 1 always thought of it as a Hollywood Hills hippie pad song. The hippies are lazing about and Jim walks in and lays this happy song about death on them. He "freaks them out" and "blows their minds". He could be such a tongue-in-cheek devil, that Morrison.

Robby: Jim and I worked this one up at my parents' house in the Pacific Palisades. For some reason, it never made it onto a record. Jim loved the song. I think the imagery is very Jim and I always imagined Jim alone on an add trip, with the rugs lashing out their lizard tongues.

John: A cheery little song about death.

Go Insane 2:30

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

DEMO RECORDED AT WORLD PACIFIC STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES, 1965

Ray: From the demo. The plink-plink-plink of the piano and my brother Rick's guitar was an attempt to do an "outer space" sound. That was a popular motif of the time. We always looked upon this song as a silly little ditty fraught with Jungian meaning. I love Jim going "insane" at the end. I got thrown out of Liberty Records because of this song.

Robby: It amazes me the similarity in Jim's voice on the demo version and the version done seven years later at the Aquarius Theater.

John: This being our first demo, i knew from the start that Jim was crazy.

Mental Floss 3:38

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE AQUARIUS THEATER, HOLLYWOOD, 1970

Ray: A spontaneous improvisation. Here's Jim as the "Human Theatricun" as he was sometimes referred to by the rock press. He was capable of many transformations on stage and here's an excellent example of multiple personality creation. He plays a myriad of roles and types and makes us laugh in the bargain. He was always entertaining and we never knew what the hell he was going to do. But we were always right there with him, regardless of whore he wanted to take it. We could follow him from ecstasy to ennui, from paradise to damnation, from the ridiculous to the sublime. And sometimes the band would be the ones to drive Jim Morrison. We could always push him to new depths of emotion, new heights of delight. It was The Doors' communal mind at work. 1 miss those times.

Robby: Not many people realize how funny Jim was. He could keep us in stitches for hours- This was recorded at a sound check.

John: The title says it all!

Summer's Almost Gone 2:17

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

DEMO RECORDED AT WORLD PACIFIC STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES, 1965

Ray: A song about the loss of innocence. One of our very earliest tunes. It's a cool Latino-Bolero kind of thing with a Bach-like bridge. It's about the ephemeral nature of life. A season of Joy and light and laughter is coming to an end. A time of sweet delight is almost over. And where, indeed, will we all be when the summer's gone. Jim lived for the carefree times of summer. And, tragically, his life was one all too brief season. Perhaps this song - written in the summer of 1965 - presages his life. Perhaps he even knew back then. Perhaps.

John: The Doors trying to surf.

Adolph Hitler 0:12

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT BOSTON GARDENS, BOSTON, 1970

Robby: Not many people realize that Jim had a sense of humor. Kind of a weird sense of humor maybe, but still...

Ray: That Jim Morrison, what a cut-up!

Hello, I Love You 2:28

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

DEMO RECORDED AT WORLD PACIFIC STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES, 1965

Robby: We have been accused of ripping off the Kinks song 'All Day and All the Night'. When Ray Davies was asked about this, he had no problem. The truth is, the drum beat on this song was ripped off the Cream song, 'Sunshine of Your Love'. It was my fault. I suggested to John in the studio: "Hey, man, do that 'Sunshine of Your Love' beat." The rest is history.

Ray: From the demo. The demo was rejected by every record company in L.A. Nobody liked it except for Billy James. He signed us to Columbia Records for six months. They dropped us after two. But... 1 got the Vox Continental organ out of them, free- You'll. notice on the demo it's all piano. We didn't even own an organ yet. Still, this is a hit- Don't you think?

John: I'm sure glad Ray let me talk him into letting Robby join the band, otherwise we might have turned into The Monkees!

The Crystal Ship 2:55

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE MATRIX, SAN FRANCISCO, 1967

John: The Matrix was an echo chamber with no people, but we got to rehearse our songs on this recording. You can finally hear the drums, which are mixed too low on the first album. (A note to you drug addicts: this song is not about methadrine, it's a metaphor for the band's career).

Robby: The Doors live at the Matrix. The Matrix was a club in San Francisco. When an oufof town group came to S.F. to play the Fillmore on a weekend they might play the Matrix during the week, then play the Fillmore or Avalon Ballroom the next weekend.

Ray: From the Matrix in S.F. early 67. Jim's in great voice here. I play a Bach-like solo [my classical training) and this is a good-bye to one of Jim's earlier girlfriends before Pam Courson entered the picture.

I Can't See Your Face In My Mind 3:16

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE AT THE MATRIX, SAN FRANCISCO, 1967

Ray: Holy cow, is this Santana? What a too cool Latino version of one of my favorite Doors' songs. Also from the Matrix. On the studio version we do this as a languid, oriental Bolero. Paper lanterns, full moon, a Kyoto garden. But here... we're in Mexico at a seaside, salsa resort and the night is hot! Muy picante!

Robby: This was the original arrangement of the song. When we recorded it for the Strange Days album, we totally revamped it. I think Carlos Santana may have been at the Matrix that night. Gave him a few ideas'

John: The song which inspired Jim's girlfriend Pam to slip a photo of herself in his casket.

The Soft Parade 10:03

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED LIVE ON PBS TELEVISION, NEW YORK, 1970

John: Our 4th epic, performed live on public television in New York City, at a time when the aftermath of Miami was still hanging in the air. Almost no one would book us live, so it felt womb-like to be in the confines of a public television soundstage, with no audience, playing for ourselves. Seeing the show broadcast later, however, revealed interviews with critics saying how Jim exposed himself (before the trial had even started), and how The Doors' music last. I guess that's why Jim wrote the lyrics for this song: "Can you give me sanctuary, I must find a place to hide, 1 can't make it anymore, the man is at the door."

The main body of the work addresses the era: "The soft parade has now begun" (flower power), the band's career: "successful hills are here to stay, everything must be this way/ what got us this far To this mild Equator," Jim as an artist always pushing ahead: "we need someone, or somethin' new, somethin' else to get us and the bigger questions: "all our lives we sweat and save, building for a shallow grave, must be somethin' else we say, somehow to defend this place, everything must be this way, everything must be this way." In listening to this again, after many years nut hearing it, I am touched by the depth of Jim's pain, grief, and talent. It was a privilege to help him turn those feelings into art.

Ray: The only live performance of The Soft Parade' ever recorded. We did it on a PBS show in New York City, after Miami. We were unable to play anywhere in America. Banned, censored, the dirty Doors! I was shocked that we were actually able to get on television. This is a great performance with all four Doors in perfect simpatico. Jim is really on top of this track and the band moves so smoothly between the very disparate parts that it delights me to hear it again. And the cooking part at the end, well... it's a mother. This is one hot track.

Tightrope Ride 4:17

Written by Robby Krieger & Ray Manzarek. Published by AlChemical Music, Inc.

RECORDED AT THE DOORS' WORKSHOP, LOS ANGELES, 1971

John: My interpretation of the lyrical sub-text is Ray's sadness over Jim's demise. I love the track on this one. We over-dubbed me on top of myself - two drummers before the Allman Brothers! Ray's vocal reminds me of Screamin' Ray Daniels, a guy who sang with Rick and The Ravens, Ray's brothers' band. Ray must have thought Manzarek was too hard to pronounce. One of the main reasons I was pleased to be in a band with Ray is because of the story that Screamin' Ray was belting out 'Louie Louie' with The Ravens, got so into it he banged his front tooth with the microphone, spit out the chip he knocked off, and kept right on singing.

Robby: Ray's words, Robby's arrangement. Jack Conrad, the bass player says to this day that was his? best bass work. I agree. Ray's playing a C3 organ that John and I bought him for his birthday.

Ray: After Jim "leaped upward, into the loam" joining Brian Jones - the three of us did two albums called Other Voices and Full Circle. Then we closed The Doors. This is from Other Voices.

Orange County Suite 5:27

Written by The Doors. Published by Doors Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

RECORDED AT ELEKTRA STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES, 1970

Ray: Jim on piano chords. This was for Pamela who was his Orange County sweetheart. John and Robby and I finished it off fur him as we did with An American Prayer. If only he was still around to do it with us. We all loved him. God rest his soul. He was a good man. I miss him.

Robby: Jim could sometimes be very maudlin, almost to the point of coyness. Pam was from Orange County.

John: Jim's tip of the hat to his mate, Pamela Courson.