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    The Doors consisted of Jim Morrison – lead vocals, Ray Manzarek – keyboard player, John Densmore – percussion and Robby Krieger – guitar.

     The Doors created many albums from 1967 until Jim’s death in 1971.  These include: The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman.  Lyrics found on Waiting for the Sun but not produced on any studio album are included at Celebration of the Lizard.  Near the end of Jim’s life, a recording was made of his poetry and produced along with music by the surviving Doors as An American Prayer.
 
 

Full Name: James Douglas Morrison

Birthdate and Place: December 8th, 1943, Melbourne, Florida

Personal Data (height, weight and coloring): 5’11”, 145 lbs., brown hair, blue-gray eyes

Family Info (names of parents, brothers or sisters): dead

Home Info (where located and description): Laurel Canyon, L.A. – nice at night

Schools Attended: St. Petersburg Junior College, Florida State University, UCLA

Marriage Info: Single

Instruments Played/Part Sung: lead voice

Favorite Singing Groups: Beach Boys, Kinks, Love

Individual Singers: Sinatra, Presley

Actor and Actress: Jack Palance, Sarah Miles

T.V. Shows: news

Colors: turquoise

Foods: meat

Hobbies: horse races

Sports: Swimming

What Looked for in a Girl: hair, eyes, voice, walk

What Do You Like to Do on a Date?: talk

Plans/Ambitions: make films

     “You could say it’s an accident that I was ideally suited for the work I am doing.  It’s the feeling of a bowstring being pulled back for 22 years and suddenly being let go.  I am primarily an American, second, a Californian, third, a Los Angeles resident.  I’ve always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority.  I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order.  I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder chaos – especially activity that seems to have no meaning.  It seems to me to be the road toward freedom – external revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom.  Rather than staring inside, I start outside – reach the mental through the physical.  I am a Sagittarian – if astrology has anything to do with it – the Centaur – the Archer – the Hunt – But the main thing is that we are The Doors.
     “We are from the West
      The whole thing is like an invitation to the West
      The sunset
      This is the end
      The night
      The sea
     “The world we suggest is of a new wild west.  A sensuous evil world.  Strange and haunting, the path of the sun, you know?  Toward the end.  At least for our first album.  We’re all centered around the end of the zodiac.
     “The Pacific
      Violence and peace
      The way between young and the old.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ray Manzarek

1939-Still Living

Original Elektra Records Biography, 1967

Full Name: Raymond Daniel Manzarek

Birthdate and Place: February 12th, 1939, Chicago, Illinois

Instruments Played: Keyboard

Schools Attended: UCLA Film School

     “I grew up in Chicago and left when I was 21 for Los Angeles.  My parents gave me piano lessons when I was around nine or ten.  I hated it for the first four years – until I learned how to do it – then it became fun, which is about the same time I first heard Negro music.  I was about 12 or 13, playing baseball in a playground; someone had a radio tuned into a Negro station.  From then on I was hooked.  I used to listen to Al Benson and Big Bill Hill – they were disk jockeys in Chicago.  From then on all the music I listened to was on the radio.  My piano playing changed; I became influenced by jazz.  I learned how to play that stride piano with my left hand, and knew that was it: stuff with a beat – jazz, blues, rock.
     “At school I was primarily interested in film.  It seemed to combine my interests in drama, visual art, music and the profit motive.  Before I left Chicago I was in theater.  These days, I think we want our theater, our entertainment to be larger than life.  I think the total environmental thing will come in.  Probably Cinerama will develop further.
     “I think The Doors is a representative American group.  America is a melting pot and so are we.  Our influences spring from a myriad of sources which we have amalgamated, blending divergent styles into our own thing.  We’re like the country itself.  America must seem to be a ridiculous hodgepodge to an outsider.  It’s like The Doors.  We come from different areas, different musical areas.  We’re put together with a lot of sweat, a lot of fighting.  All of the things people say about America can be said about The Doors.
     “All of us have the freedom to explore and improvise within a framework.  Jim is an improviser with words.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

John Densmore

1944-Still Living

Original Elektra Records Biography, 1967

Full Name: John Paul Densmore

Birthdate and Place: December 1, 1944, Santa Monica, California

Schools Attended: Santa Monica City College, California State Northridge

Instruments Played: Percussion

     “I’ve been playing for six years.  I don’t really have too much to say about all of this.  I took piano lessons when I was ten.  They tried to get me to play Bach.  They tried for two years.  When I was in junior high I got my first set of drums.  I played symphonic music in high school (tympani, snaredrum), then I played jazz for three years.  I used to play sessions in Comptonand Topanga Canyon.  Since last year it’s been rock’n’roll and these creeps.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Robby Krieger

1946-Still Living

Original Elektra Records Biography, 1967

Full Name: Robert Alan Krieger

Birthdate and Place: January 8th, 1946, Los Angeles, California

Schools Attended: UCLA

Instruments Played: Guitar

     “The first music I heard that I liked was “Peter and the Wolf”.  I accidentally sat and broke the record ( I was seven).  Then I listened to rock’n’roll – I listened to the radio a lot – Fats Domino, Elvis, The Platters….
     “I started surfing at 14.  There was lots of classical music in my house.  My father liked march music.  There was a piano at home.  I studied trumpet at 10, but nothing came of it.  Then I started playing blues on piano – no lessons though.  When I was 17, I started playing guitar.  I used my friend’s guitar.  I didn’t get my own until I was 18.  It was a Mexican flamenco guitar.  I took flamenco lessons for a few months.  I switched around from folk to flamenco to blues to rock’n’roll.
     “Records got me into the blues.  Some of the newer rock’n’roll, such as the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  If it hadn’t been for the Butterfield going electric, I probably wouldn’t have gone rock’n’roll.
     “I didn’t plan on rock’n’roll.  I wanted to learn jazz; I got to know some people doing rock’n’roll with jazz, and I thought I could make money playing music.  In rock’n’roll you can realize anything that you can in jazz or anything.  There’s no limitation other than the beat.  You have more freedom than you do in anything except jazz – which is dying – as far as making any money is concerned.
     “In The Doors we have both musicians and poets, and both know of each other’s art, so we can effect a synthesis.  In the case of Tim Buckley or Dylan you have one man’s ideas.  Most groups today aren’t groups.  In a true group all the members create the arrangements among themselves.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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