Ep433: John Densmore of The Doors
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2024
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
50+ years after the passing of Jim Morrison, John Densmore of The Doors continues to honour the wishes of his bandmate when it comes to the commercialism of the music of The Doors. John discusses that journey and many other fascinating memories of the legacy of The Doors.
- Meet Mr Blue Hair
- A moment with John Coltrane & Elvin Jones
- Not selling out the Doors legacy
- Defending the wishes of Jim Morrison
- Visiting Jim Morrison's grave
- Was there a funeral for Jim?
- Being aware of the "Jim is Alive" rumours
- Evolving perspective of substance abuse
- Last conversation with Jim and his state
- All Doors except Jim participated in mixdowns
- Jim's behaviour in the studio
- John's impression of punk early on
- Did Jim dabble in hard drugs?
- How much of LA Woman was played live?
- Multiple live Doors shows being made available
- The live performance that best represents The Doors at their peak
- Memories and recordings of the final Doors show
- Recording of Jimbo and Jimi Hendrix
- John's upcoming projects with Chuck D and Adam Holzman
- Memories of the original Doors demo acetates
- Signing to Columbia – appearing on the "drop list"
- Arrangements for Doors music after John passes
- Involvement with Jim's family after his passing
- The journey of Jim's father
- John's comparison of political environment then and now
- Did John get negative PR from the trial?
- The story of the Buick commercial
- What circumstance or situation would John consider approving Doors music to be made available commercially?
- John was uncomfortable being the centrepiece of the band?
- Bands reforming and touring in the modern era
- Jim's relationship with money
- After Jim passes, was there any closure?
- Names that were floated as potential replacements for Jim
- Is John comfortable with The Doors music so closely associated with Vietnam?
- Preparing for a potential draft and conflict
- We need to find moments and try to be grateful when you can
- Interview wrap up
The book "The Doors Unhinged" available here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Groove Washer, the best record cleaners and protective sleeves for your vinyl collection. |
| 0:05.6 | Ask for the Groove washer from your local shop or go to groove washer.com. |
| 0:09.7 | Discount code, Vinyl Guide 10. |
| 0:12.4 | And now on with the show. |
| 0:15.4 | Welcome to the Vinyl Guide. |
| 0:17.1 | The podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:20.1 | Here's your host. |
| 0:23.5 | The biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:26.8 | Hey, well, hey, everyone, it's Nate. |
| 0:30.8 | Welcome to episode 433 of the Vinyl Guide. |
| 0:33.5 | And look, I'm not going to faf about today. |
| 0:35.1 | I'm going to get right down to it. We have an absolute legend of music on today's show, |
| 0:40.3 | Mr. John Densmore of the Doors. And he and I talk Doors history. He shares Jim Morrison's stories. |
| 0:48.4 | We talk about the complications that arose after Jim's death, the issues of commercialism and music, and John's battles to keep the |
| 0:56.8 | music of the doors from being sold off to advertisers. So, as most of you know, today, so many |
| 1:03.0 | artists are selling off their music catalogs, including the likes of like Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, |
| 1:09.3 | even Devo, The Killers, a bunch of bands. And believe me, |
| 1:13.9 | there's no judgment on artists who choose to do that. They all have their reasons. You know, |
| 1:19.3 | maybe they want to simplify things rather than leave their heirs a mess of music rights to deal |
| 1:25.6 | with. However, several years ago, John was faced with former bandmates |
| 1:30.8 | who wanted to start making their music available for commercials, and he fought quite publicly |
| 1:36.9 | to stick with the original Doors agreement that the band made while Jim was alive. Well, of course, |
... |
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