John Densmore Reflects On The Doors’ Lasting Legacy

The Doors were more than just another band. That’s something that comes through time and time again as you listen to their music today.

“It’s the drumming, man,” John Densmore jokes near the end of a conversation with UCR. “I don’t fucking know. We were just writing these songs. I was hoping I could pay the rent for 10 years. And it’s 60 years [later], I’m still talking about this band. Which is which I’m proud of.”

But the drummer knows it goes deeper than just writing those songs, he can see the magical combination that happened when he played music with vocalist Jim Morrison, guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek. “We thought poetry and rock and roll, wow, that’s new,” he explains. “Jim brought that and we provided the sonic bed for him to lie on, which he loved.”

Fans can revisit the incredible legacy of the Doors with 2009’s When You’re Strange, the documentary by director Tom DiCillo, which returned to theaters for a limited run this week. The initial screenings began Thursday (Dec. 4) and continue Saturday (Dec. 6),  presenting the movie for the first time, freshly remastered in 4k.

Densmore checked in recently via Zoom to look back at the incredible rise and development of the group.

It’s great that When You’re Strange is back in theaters.  What was your reaction when you first saw the film?

I was very pleased. Oliver Stone’s movie was about the tortured artist, which is a great story, but it didn’t have much of the ’60s. When You’re Strange has more of the time and has more of the band. That pleased me very much and also, I was very intrigued by the director, Tom DiCillo. He looked at all our old footage, and he, he took this stuff of Jim with a beard hitchhiking, and he kind of became the narrator, unofficially throughout the film.

What is also special about this screening is that Robby and I did a 10-minute interview talking about the film. And there’s a third element, which is excellent. We [also] did a [new live performance] of “Riders on the Storm” for Playing for Change. We got me and Robby and Willie Nelson’s kids, Micah and Lukas. Don Was played bass and [it also features] this really cool young country singer, Sierra Farrell and so that will be screened as well. It should be a really great evening.

READ MORE: Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’ Movie Finds Truth Battling Myth

You and Robby got to play together back in April at the Whisky. You were his guest during a performance of the L.A. Woman album.

Robby’s had this band of musicians that he’s played with for years, so they’re all pretty tight, but his commitment to play an entire album every month [is really something else]. “The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat,” we had never played live — Robby and I — or his band, nobody had ever played it live. It’s a challenge. Instead of just playing the groove, I played melodically. I played the whole thing like I was a guitar player, even though I’m a drummer. So it was really fun and difficult. A challenge is always good. And it was, you know, very sweet to be in the space that launched our career, the Whisky, with Robby.

Listen to the Doors’ ‘The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)’

It had to be a trip going back to a place like that with so much history.

Yeah, we were the house band, We played with the Byrds, Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison and Them, Frank Zappa….everybody.

A venue like that becomes a character in a band’s story.

It was our pub, as the Brits would say, once you played there, Mario, the door guy would let anyone in free. So we all knew each other. We all came in and heard, well, the Buffalo Springfield is playing. Let’s go see them. And everybody hung out there.

What you were saying about the approach you took to “The WASP,” it’s fun to approach it in a different way like that.

Well, the form of “The WASP” is very specific, so we tried to emulate exactly [how it was on] the record. Songs like “Light My Fire” and “Riders on the Storm” have long improvisational sections so you can stretch out and make it more today and not copy the original.

How did “Riders on the Storm” come together?

We were jamming on an old, weird country song, “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” and it kind of morphed into [a different song] but [it had] the same kind of atmospheric attitude. The song was really organic. All of us [were] there pulling it together, and we had a lot of fun after we recorded it overdubbing rain and thunder and and playing God,

Just generally, it seems like the L.A. Woman album was an interesting time period for the band.

“Riders on the Storm” was the song that kind of ejected Paul Rothschild. He was our old producer, [who] taught us how to make records. He was really great, but Jim’s increasing alcoholism made it more difficult for him to get the vocals. We played him “Riders on the Storm.” He didn’t get it [and] kind of defined it as cocktail music. Then, he said, “You should produce yourself” and left. Bruce [Botnick], our longtime engineer, stepped up and said, “Listen, I’ll produce it with you.”

It empowered the band. We were in more control. We decided to do it in our rehearsal hall rather than a studio. Bruce brought in remote equipment, we were very relaxed and we did the whole thing in a few weeks, very similar to the first album. They’re kind of like bookends to our career. We got back to the garage and the blues and and just went for the feeling, fuck the mistakes.

READ MORE: The Story Behind Each Song on ‘L.A. Woman’

If we look back at the beginnings of the band,  it was probably pretty easy to feel comfortable in your own skin and not feel intimidated by the other players in the room, but that’s my perception. What was the reality?

The Doors were extremely unique, because Jim couldn’t play one chord on any instrument. He had no clue [in that regard] but had these words. To remember the words, he thought of melodies, very complicated, beautiful melodies. This guy was gifted, you know and he would just sing it to us a capella, and we would work it out all together. Therefore, he said, “Hey, let’s not split [the writing credits]. Let’s say all songs by the Doors. Let’s not say lyrics by me. Let’s split all the money.” So it was an incredibly equal democracy, and it it made everybody give 200%.

That takes out the friction and natural tension that seems to drive many bands.

Well, the tension was Jim’s disease, his growing alcoholism. Most bands have, oh, you know, a singer-songwriter or two, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger. They write the songs and teach it to the band and they play it. Although Robby did bring in several completed songs, rather great songs, a lot of it was organic.

READ MORE: Revisiting Jim Morrrison’s Disastrous Last Show With the Doors

With the group’s first album, it’s pretty astounding what you all were able to accomplish with four tracks. It seems like it would have been a process figuring that out.

Yeah, there was a lot of ping-ponging, which is taking track one and two and combining them and putting them on track three, and then you freed up one track, and then you ping-pong again. The trouble is, each time you do that, the sound quality goes down. But it just goes to show that technique is not everything. “The End,” “Light My Fire,” “Break on Through,” they were all on that album and and and unfortunately, in stereo, Ray and Robby are on one side and the bass drums are on the other. It’s ridiculous. That should have been split. This is all technical shit. The songs were gold, so it transcends that stuff.

READ MORE: The Doors’ Historic First Album

What was the experience of watching “The End” start to take shape?

Well, Jim sang it a capella to us and it sounded like a love song, a goodbye love song. Robby and I were going to Ravi Shankar’s school of Indian music and we were very into that. So he started doing Indian tuning on his guitar. And then in clubs, over time, it evolved into this long, epic, poetic thing and [had] this orgasmic climax at the end. It just came together over many months of playing in front of audiences and fooling around, Jim had sections where he could try different poems. I was pleased that, you know, “Light My Fire” was six minutes. And then the next album, “When the Music’s Over” was about 11 minutes, the same as “The End.” We kind of broke the three-minute format.

Listen to the Doors’ ‘The End’

How immediate was “Light My Fire” as far as how that came together?

Robby sang it to us and I thought, immediately, “This is a hit. This is the friggin’ hit.” Once again, over time, like “The End” in clubs, these long jazz solos evolved. Ray’s first organ solo, Robby’s second guitar solo, and actually, the chord changes are the same two that are used in “My Favorite Things” that [John]Coltrane recorded, only that was in 3/4 and this is in 4/4 time. And I was influenced by Latin [so] I kind of have a Latin groove going. The song is emblematic of the entire 60s.