Jim Cherry's Blog (78)

High on Jim Morrison’s reading list was Greek Mythology and theater. When Jim Morrison put the Oedipal section in “The End” he entered the song, The Doors and even his life into the purview of Greek tragedy. Annie Herridge, a writer/director with the Golden Goat Productions theater company in Dorset, England saw the connection between Morrison’s life and Greek tragedy and had the idea to do a modern retelling of Euripides, “The Bacchae”, in Morrison’s story, “An American Prayer.”

A…

Some updates on articles that have run in the past few weeks, and a couple of new ones.

Late Friday for the past few weeks has been Jimmy Fallon’s big news day, especially since he did “The Reading Rainbow” in a Doors parody. This week Fallon announced that he has signed with Warner Music Records for a comedy album that will include his rock parodies such as his “Reading Rainbow” cover by “The Doors” as well Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. Warner’s has released comedy albums by other…

Today is The Doors drummer, John Densmore’s birthday, John is 67 today.

Densmore was born in Los Angeles, December 1st 1944. He developed an early interest in jazz drumming and he played in the Santa Monica High School band, he was also an underage visitor to the jazz clubs on the Sunset Strip where he watched the bands and some of the best drummers of the day.

In 1965 Densmore joined the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s third street mediation center in Santa Monica. At the time…

It was Robby’s idea. Jim had been haunting him for a while. Maybe it wasn’t a true haunting in the classic sense or definition but Robby had been having dreams of Jim Morrison reciting his poetry. Robby called engineer, John Haeny, to see if he knew where the tapes were that Jim had recorded on his 27th birthday on December 8th, 1970. Haeny still had the tapes and the first step was taken in what would be an album of Jim Morrison’s poetry that would become “An American…

A Beatles Doors connection has always seemed vague and strangely undocumented. It was an early marker of their success when The Doors learned that The Beatles were listening to “Strange Days.” After The Doors European tour in 1968 Jim Morrison is rumored to have visited Abbey Road studios and even lent his vocal talents to the chorus of “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”

Read the complete article at…

It’s always interesting to be around for the birth of a Hollywood trend. In the 90’s Madonna started adopting orphans from third world countries and soon more celebrities were with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopting a child in just about any foreign country they visited. Now Doors fans may be witnessing the start of a new trend.

Read the whole article at…

A week after Jimmy Fallon did his Jim Morrison/Doors impression with “Reading Rainbow” he’s been getting a lot of mileage with it. Internet news outlet’s have been posting articles and embedding the video in their stories all across the web. Fallon last night was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and talking a little about how he came up with the impression and the impressions of other rock stars he’s done.

Read whole article (and video!) at…

We’re supposed to have six degrees of separation from any other person on the planet (or from Kevin Bacon) but in Los Angeles proximity makes it a lot less than six degrees, and the fact that Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek were film students gives them ties and connections to the Hollywood film industry that came of age in the early 70’s.

It’s fairly widely known by Doors fans that Harrison Ford, before he became famous as Han Solo in “Star Wars” worked on The Doors film “Feast of…

Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger are writing songs that will be included in the movie “Manson Girls” that is being directed by Susanna Lo, and will star Taryn Manning, Tania Raymonde, Monica Keena, Stella Maeve, Estella Warren, Chad Faust, Ron Jeremy (as a porn director, quite a leap there), Eric Balfour, and Bill Moseley. “Manson Girls,” as the title implies focuses on the women of Charles Manson’s followers and how they came under Manson’s influence. The film follows the events leading up to…

The Doors have never been immune from parody. The Kids in the Hall did a skit called “Doors fans aren’t made they’re Born” (see related article below), Weird Al Yankovic has recently done “Craigslist,” and a Youtube video of Jim Morrison Standup Comedian. The Chicago area comedy group Think Tank Comedy has produced a video “The Doors Tribute Band Online University” which Think Tank member Paul Robinson says “a great opportunity to poke fun at those commercials that so blatantly prey on…

Good Afternoon!



The Doors FAQ that includes the foreword I wrote is now out and available! You can buy The Doors FAQ and read my review at Amazon.



The Doors Examiner is about to pass another milestone! The Doors Examiner is within a few…

Last night the Manzarek-Krieger Band played in Alexandria, VA, at the Birchmere Music Hall. Alexandria is, of course, one of the cities Jim Morrison lived in as a teenager.



Despite recent claims by the current occupant of the Morrison’s former house that Jim visits her in his bedroom, Ray and Robby’s Halloween night show didn’t summon a ghostly visitations from Morrison. But there was a visitation from the past during “Maggie M’Gill.” Rick Manzarek, Ray’s brother and former “Rick…

Over the life of The Doors Examiner only a few stories are able to fit into a Halloween theme (or any other holiday theme), but there are a few Jim Morrison stories that fit into the holiday milieu. Let’s start with the ghosts.

The first appearance of Jim Morrison’s ghost in The Doors Examiner happened in the article, Jim Morrison’s ghost appears…again. That article…

Record Store Day in the U.K.! Last week the Record Store Day website announced the release of an “L.A. Woman” 7 inch vinyl boxed set, today U.K. participating announced their Record Store Day featuring release as in the U.S.



The information for The Doors “L.A. Woman” 7 inch vinyl boxed set is the same as the U.S. The Doors Record Store Day release is a 7inch vinyl box set that will include the songs “The Changeling,” “Love Her Madly,” “Riders on the Storm,” each record will include…

With a cover of Joel Brodsky’s Elektra publicity photo of The Doors dressed in unexpectedly warm colors of the sun, Greil Marcus’ “The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years” is an unexpected look at selected songs of The Doors and pop culture.



Marcus’ book is a fans’ book, he says that it started at the Avalon Ballroom with his wife and seeing The Doors and on their way out, took a handbill of the show and after a lifetime they still have them. Marcus, best known for…

Last week Daniel Nester’s essay ("When You're Strange") on whether Jim Morrison was a great American poet or not has been going around the internet, and while I thought it was going to lead to the usual conclusion, that Jim Morrison’s pretensions at being a poet were greater than his ability, it didn‘t, but it still instilled in me the urge for a response.



Naturally, as Doors fans we’re more predisposed than non-Doors fans to consider the poetry of Jim Morrison at least pretty good.…

Google The Doors and you will find any number of Rock ‘n’ Roll websites with rock fans wanting to know more about The Doors or have their questions about the band or Jim Morrison answered. Everything from what books did Jim Morrison read to what really happened in Miami, or what are The Doors doing today? Rich Weidman’s, “The Doors FAQ”, steps into that niche and answers those questions for the casual rock fan all the way to The Doors aficionado.



As soon as you open “The Doors FAQ”…

Hello Classic Rockers Network,

I mentioned the Classic Rockers Network in my recent Doors Examiner article The Doors on New Websites

I hope you check it out! And if you're into The Doors you can subscribe for free and get an email when new articles are published (abt 3-5 a week).

Jim Cherry