| PERCEPTION OF THE
DOORS
It was back in 1971 that the original lineup
last recorded & released an album, their singer/ songwriter
died the same year, the remaining trio released 2 indifferently
received albums, recorded with a taped voice for “American
Prayer” & then split.
Now, lo & behold, The Doors visit Australia
for the first time to headline the recent Melbourne International
Music Festival. Weird. Even stranger was the fact that the band
actually featured only 2 original members, Manzarek & Kreiger
(drummer John Densmore having litigated unsuccessfully to stop the
tour), 2 session musicians & “ Mr Mojo has risen ”
as Ian Astbury, who was often criticized for his overt Morrison
fixation & derivation, including his obsession with Native American
culture while he was with UK’s The Cult. Now he has a job
as a doppleganger for a dead American singer. Just like Val Kilmer.
Years ago the band announced that Iggy Pop was
to replace Jim, even presenting him with a pair of leather trousers
as worn by the Lizard King himself, Iggy imploded & it never
happened, but it certainly would have been entertaining.
So what was it that we witnessed? A Doors Tribute
band? A Doors covers band? America’s version of The Doors
Show? A facsimile? Well it sort of looked & sounded like The
Doors & ironically, Astbury probably gave a more disciplined
& professional performance than the real Jimbo ever would have
after pouring himself off a 22 hour plane flight.
It got me thinking about what does constitute
a band, the number of original members & what happens when a
singer leaves or dies & the dilemma that that must put the remainder
in?
AC/DC tragically lost their lead singer too, but
promptly replaced him with someone who neither looked or sounded
like Bon & successfully regenerated the band in the process.
Surely Genesis & Van Halen must have pissed off some of their
fan base when they swapped Peter for Phil & Sammy for Dave!
Veterans Deep Purple seem to do it by historically having a revolving
door policy with lead singers & just continuing the process.
Joy Division didn’t bother at all, they simply changed their
name to New Order & got their guitarist to pretend to be able
to sing, successfully.
As the Grim Reaper continues to cut a swathe through
the ranks of ever ageing bands, how many members does it really
take to qualify as a band? Daltrey & Townsend have sensibly
opted for the descriptive Who2 for their future projects, but I
hope the sole remaining original member of the tragically decimated
Ramones, drummer Tommy Ramone resists any temptation. As to what
exactly INXS might have in mind, I couldn’t hazard a guess.
Unfortunately litigation can often be the result of competing sensibilities
& financial interests.
Roger Waters left & sued his band mates suggesting
that without him they could not call themselves Pink Floyd, the
singer songwriters in Little River Band failed in an attempt to
prevent an ex bassist owning the rights to the name & stocking
the lineup with whoever he chooses & touring America, while
at home we have 2 versions of The Angels, the Doc Neeson version
& the “original “ lineup, helped out occasionally
by Angry Anderson.
But does it really matter? After all many in the
audience who burst into applause at the first notes of the trademark
Doors sound at the Music Bowl were not even born 34 years when the
band ceased to be, so it wasn’t a sentimental journey, but
perhaps a near enough to the real thing journey.
This new version of the Doors remains unrecorded,
so what’s the problem with listening to the real thing at
home on your sound system & going out to see the nearest thing
onstage? Or being sampled by people like Fatboy Slim. Perhaps notions
of “authenticity” are generational & the new generation
bought up in world of media overload, download individual songs,
devoid of historical, social & even personnel context, creating
enormous compilations, where the song is king. And now, either so
jaded or simply hopelessly confused, music consumers are being sold
random play! No time. No space. No face.
With songwriting credits attributed to “The
Doors”, rather generously on Jim’s part, no doubt Ray
& Robbie are very wealthy men, so one can assume that money
is not the primary motivator for this late life renaissance, let’s
face it no one plays a song better than those who wrote it, &
perhaps they wanted one last opportunity to play their own material
live & experience the response to it directly, not just as another
royalty cheque in the mail.
Perhaps they’ve decided that they will decide
exactly when the music’s over & turn out the lights.
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