Big Picture
Renée Zellweger: Fashion Fun Plus, Nicole Kidman hangs out with her family and Bradley Cooper is a grizzly guy. The latest pics!
MORE PHOTOS +Most Commented
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: Vote in the Final Round! (2036)
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: This Round Is Closed, Please Stand By (972)
- TV's Top Couples Tournament: This Round Is Closed, Please Stand By (686)
- Afternoon Mail! Are Gleeks Having More Sex Than Vamps? (586)
- TV's Top Couple Tournament: And the Winner Is... (400)
- Whitney Houston Dead at 48 (394)
- Beyoncé and Jay-Z Share First Photos of Baby Blue Ivy! (389)
- Morning Mail! Is Lea Michele Ready to Walk Like an Egyptian? (286)
- Twilight Director Talks Kristen Stewart and Ex Michael Angarano: "They Were Such a Great Couple" (261)
- Life After Breaking Dawn?! Maybe, Says Studio Head! (226)
Top 10 Stories
- Chris Brown Tweets to Haters After Grammy Win
- Whitney Houston Tribute: Watch LeAnn Rimes' Emotional Performance of "I Will Always Love You"
- Oprah Twitter Scandal! Winfrey Apologizes After Soliciting Nielsen Viewers to Watch OWN
- Glee Scoop: There's a New Love Triangle Going Down!
- The Voice vs. American Idol: This Is War
- Chris Brown's Grammy Lovefest Slammed by Miranda Lambert, Jack Osbourne, Eric Stonestreet, More
- Janet Jackson Remembers Whitney Houston's "Sweet Soul," Gives Advice to Bobbi Kristina on Coping With Death
- Triplets? Twins? Jennifer Aniston Addresses Pregnancy Rumors, Gets Serenaded by Steven Tyler
- Whitney Houston's Body Arrives at Funeral Home as Burial Plans Formally Announced
- Bruce Jenner Talks Kim Kardashian's Marriage: "The Next Guy's Got to Go Through Me"
Fashion Police
Angelina: Going Grey! Plus, Christina Hendricks, Vanessa Hudgens, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Michelle Williams and Kristen Wiig. Rate the highs and lows!
MORE PHOTOS +
Our Partners
Jim Morrison Lives--on New Doors Tune
For about five minutes Wednesday it was 1966 all over again on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip as Jim Morrison's somber baritone wafted anew through the Whisky a Go-Go, eerily intoning "Orange County Suite"--the first new Doors tune in a quarter of century.
Yes, the Doors are back, and even though lead singer, guiding force and resident shaman Morrison is interred in a Paris cemetery, he's still fronting the band. As the Threetles did with John Lennon, the Doors' three surviving members--keyboardist Ray Manzarek, 62, guitarist Robby Krieger, 51, and drummer John Densmore, 51--unearthed an old demo, featuring a haunting Morrison accompanying himself on piano, and fleshed it out with a new backing track. The trio returned to the Whisky Wednesday to debut the result.
"It was an opportunity to complete the song for Jim, and, quite frankly, we wanted to play together again," said Manzarek. "It's got a mood to it that sort of dark and ominous, yet full of love."
Audio Clip: The Doors, "Orange County Suite"
RealAudio | Install It
The song, which isn't as creaky or thin as the Beatles' recent releases, will be featured on a four-disc box set due October 28 that assembles outtakes, demos, rarities, unreleased concert footage and a selection of the members' favorite songs. A video set is also in the works. "Some of this stuff is less than perfect," noted a gaunt Krieger. "But the perfomance is more important than how perfect the music is. It's like the three of us unzipping our flies and whipping it out for all to see."
And the boys know something about whipping it out. Morrison was arrested following a Miami concert in 1969 for alleging exposing himself to the audience. The taboo-testing singer also cost the group a gig as the Whisky's house band in 1966. The quartet had a steady job opening for the likes of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield until Morrison performed the overtly Oedipal "The End" and the band was fired on the spot.
This is the second time the Doors have resurrected Morrison--who died in a hotel bathtub of heart failure at age 27--for an album. They added background music to An American Prayer, a collection of the singer's spoken-word poetry, released in 1995. (In a solemn aside, the three remaining Doors said if they had it to do over again, they would have put the brakes on Morrison's boozing.)
Each of the band members has pursued their own side projects, with Manzarek, who frequently plays with other 60s-era poets, being the most active. The last time the group played together as the Doors was during their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder sat in for the group. When asked if the Doors would reform with a new vocalist to promote the box set, an agitated Manzarek dismissed such a tour as "tacky."
However, he quickly added that a tour in one to two years is not inconceivable. Who would fill in for Morrison? "How about Chrissie Hynde?" suggested Manzarek.
It's not like they need the money though. The Doors' catalog has sold some 45 million records worldwide.
Digital images provided
by Sony Electronic Photography
Photograph by Trixie Textor
0 Comments
Now loading...