USA: SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE DOORS GATHER AT THE WHISKY A GO-GO NIGHTCLUB IN LOS ANGELES TO UNVEIL THEIR FIRST SONG IN TWO DECADES, "ORANGE COUNTY SUITE"

Record ID: 387264

  • Title: USA: SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE DOORS GATHER AT THE WHISKY A GO-GO NIGHTCLUB IN LOS ANGELES TO UNVEIL THEIR FIRST SONG IN TWO DECADES, "ORANGE COUNTY SUITE"
  • Date: 8th October 1997
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 8, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) JOHN DENSMORE (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) SAYING HEARING THESE SONGS AFTER MANY YEARS OF NOT HEARING THEM, "I WAS TOUCHED BY THE DEPTH OF JIM'S PAIN AND GRIEF AND TALENT, AND IT WAS A REAL PRIVILEGE TO HELP HIM CHANNEL THESE FEELINGS INTO MUSIC." RAY MANZAREK (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) SAYING OF REMEMBERING
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAYCQKIWL7GK5N5YIJ3HDUUVSN
  • Story Text: Hollywood turned back the clock 30 years when the surviving members of The Doors gathered at the famed Whisky a Go-Go nightclub last week.

    The band turned out to unveil the first new Doors song in two decades, "Orange County Suite" and to promote an upcoming boxed set.

    The original billboard used to promote the rock group's self-titled 1967 debut album was installed above the Sunset Strip venue. The marquee in front read simply, "The Doors." Inside, drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robbie Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek draped themselves on a black leather couch to field questions from reporters and fans and recount the old days.

    The only person missing was the group's hard-living mercurial vocalist Jim Morrison, who died of a heart attack in Paris in 1971, at age 27.

    The "Doors Box Set" is made up of three CDs of previously unreleased material and one CD of favourites chosen by the trio.

    "After 30 years of listening to this stuff you kind of get a retrospective," said Krieger, now a 51-year-old with thinning white hair.

    "Looking back you realize the performance is more important than how perfect the music is." The absence of Morrison was a constant topic of discussion at the news conference.

    But Morrison lives on in a "new" track on the boxed set called "Orange County Suite." The trio got together recently to provide instrumentation to a poem Morrison had recorded for his wife, Pamela, who died in 1974 of a suspected heroin overdose.

    The three last played together publicly when the Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, with Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder sitting in for Morrison.

    With the previously unreleased material on the new box set Doors keyboardist Manzarek said it "would be great for young people to hear a quote, unquote, famous band making a lot mistakes." Doors vocalist Morrison was arrested in March 1969 after he allegedly exposed his penis during a show in Miami. He was subsequently found guilty of indecent exposure and profanity.

    He died while the case was still under appeal.

    The "Doors Box Set" will be released at the end of the month.
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