{"id":10307,"date":"2026-04-17T14:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/a-place-where-you-could-start-a-religion-or-plan-a-murder-why-morrison-hotel-presented-an-opportunity-for-unrivalled-creativity-for-the-doors-154167\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:46:14","slug":"a-place-where-you-could-start-a-religion-or-plan-a-murder-why-morrison-hotel-presented-an-opportunity-for-unrivalled-creativity-for-the-doors-154167","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/a-place-where-you-could-start-a-religion-or-plan-a-murder-why-morrison-hotel-presented-an-opportunity-for-unrivalled-creativity-for-the-doors-154167\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA place where you could start a religion or plan a murder\u201d \u2013 why Morrison Hotel presented an opportunity for unrivalled creativity for The Doors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Originally published in Uncut Take 283<\/em> (December 2020 issue)…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Originally published in Uncut Take 283<\/em> (December 2020 issue)\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When The Doors arrived at Elektra Sound Studios in Los Angeles in September 1969, it was a homecoming of sorts. The studio was built in a Mission revival style, with cheerful yellow walls and terracotta roofing. It was just a block from the Alta-Cienega Motel \u2013 where Jim Morrison was living out a bohemian existence \u2013 while Morrison\u2019s girlfriend Pam ran a boutique called Themis just down the road. But the band had spent the summer at the studio labouring through gruelling sessions for The Soft Parade<\/em>, an experience so miserable they nearly split. Would their next album go the same way?<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, most of it was really fun,\u201d recalls Robby Krieger, The Doors\u2019 guitarist, who even now seems surprised to be saying this. \u201cWe still didn\u2019t think of it as work. It could be long hour<\/sup>s and some of it was boring \u2013 getting the right sound from the snare drum for four hours \u2013 b<\/sup>ut once we started playing it was always fun. We were a pretty odd lot, but when you put us all together it made sense.\u201d<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

For The Doors, 1969 had been one disaster after another. In March, a drunken Morrison was alleged to have flashed his penis during a gig in Miami. He was charged with public indecency and many American venues refused to book the band. The threat of imprisonment hung over the Soft Parade<\/em> sessions. Then, just as the band began work on Morrison Hotel<\/em>, Morrison was arrested after getting drunk on a plane on the way to see The Rolling Stones in Phoenix. In a bid to get them to focus, Elektra owner Jac Holzman gave the band a pep talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you deal with it on a day-to-day basis?\u201d says Holzman. \u201cYou support them. You encourage them to go back into the studio to make a terrific album to show the world they are still there. \u2018You don\u2019t let something like this ruin your life. At one point, when you are on trial, it will override everything. But right now, nothing is happening and three of you haven\u2019t been arrested. You all contribute to the music, so let\u2019s keep going.\u2019 I told them that we\u2019d show people that The Doors and Elektra were moving forward by making great music, as we always did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It worked. Although troubled by post-Miami litigation and Morrison\u2019s antics both on stage and off, 1970 was a surprisingly productive period for The Doors. You can get a sense of their creative engagement from the 50th-anniversary reissue of Morrison Hotel<\/em>. Before the first take of \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d, for instance, we find a relaxed Morrison setting the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cGentlemen,\u201d he says, \u201cthe subject of this song is something everybody has known at one time or other. It\u2019s an old roadhouse down South or maybe Midwest, perhaps on the way to Bakersfield, and we\u2019re driving in a 57 Chevy \u2013 dig it? It\u2019s about 1.30 and we\u2019re not driving too fast but we\u2019re not driving too slow either. We\u2019ve a six-pack of beer, a few joints and we\u2019re just listening to the radio on the way to that old roadhouse.\u201d He hardly sounds like a man preoccupied with his own worries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved hearing that stuff again,\u201d says Krieger. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t something Jim did all the time, but it helped us to get the feel he was after and it\u2019s a great reminder of what we were like in the studio for that album. I know that at the back of his mind he would have been worried about going to jail, but he wasn\u2019t going to let it get in the way. Jim was always in the moment no matter what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMorrison Hotel <\/em>was basically about trying to climb up from underneath intense negativity,\u201d says the band\u2019s long-serving engineer, Bruce Botnick. \u201cJim was under terrific stress waiting to hear what the courts were going to do. But they weren\u2019t creatively bust. Morrison Hotel<\/em> was a springboard forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cJim was under terrific stress\u201d \u2013 bruce botnick<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

RECORDING MORRISON HOTEL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1968, the writer Joan Didion visited The Doors in the studio while they were recording their third album, Waiting For The Sun<\/em>. Didion later wrote about the encounter in an essay that appeared in her 1979 book The White Album<\/em>: \u201cMorrison sits down on the leather couch again and leans back. He lights a match. He studies the flame for a while, and very slowly, very deliberately, lowers it to the fly of his black vinyl pants. [Keyboardist Ray] Manzarek watches him. There is the sense that no-one is going to leave this room, ever. It will be some weeks before The Doors finish recording this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boredom of sitting around waiting for genius to strike is not an uncommon experience in a recording studio. For The Doors, though, Didion\u2019s essay illustrated the different trajectories the various band members were pursuing. By the time of Morrison Hotel<\/em>, only a year later, the band appeared to present a more unified front. The sessions for Morrison Hotel <\/em>started in November 1969 and continued through the winter. For the most part, the four band members were present \u2013 Morrison, Krieger, Ray Manzarek and drummer John Densmore \u2013 as well as session bassist Ray Neapolitan, producer Paul Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick.<\/p>\n

The main problem was growing tension with Rothchild. He had nursed the band through their early albums, but his painstaking methods were no longer necessary or particularly productive for a band trying to rediscover their sense of fun.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cWe had to do something different,\u201d says Holzman. \u201cSoft Parade<\/em> was more in the Paul Rothchild style \u2013 produce, produce and produce with extra instruments. I was all for trying that and they had been unusually willing to be experimental until it got to Take 159, when it began to fall apart. It was too many takes. They didn\u2019t want that and they didn\u2019t need that.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can get a sense of the growing tension between band and producer on the Morrison Hotel<\/em> outtakes. By Take 44 of \u201cQueen Of The Highway\u201d \u2013 a song that started life during the Soft Parade<\/em> sessions \u2013 Morrison is getting fed up. \u201cLet\u2019s do \u2018Roadhouse Blues\u2019, to shake things up,\u201d he growls at one point, keen to move on.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Rothchild was aware of the problem. The Morrison Hotel<\/em> sessions were, relatively speaking, faster and looser. To spice things up, guest musicians were invited. John Sebastian of The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful played harmonica on \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d. Lonnie Mack was also present. The blues guitarist had left the industry and was selling Bibles until a friend suggested he get a job at Elektra. He played bass on \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d and \u201cMaggie M\u2019Gill\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cwe had to do something different\u201d \u2013 Jac holzman<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPaul felt like that Jim would behave better if I was there,\u201d says Sebastian. \u201cBut my excitement really was about playing with Lonnie Mack. That was the incentive and it turned out to be absolutely as exciting as I imagined it would be. I loved working with Rothchild. He was such a happy pothead guy, but when he suddenly had to become the schoolteacher I think it brought out the more pedantic part of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a rich vocal from Morrison, \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d was one of the album\u2019s standout tracks, a bar-band blues that set the album\u2019s down-and-dirty mood. \u201cShip Of Fools\u201d, \u201cLand Ho!\u201d and serene \u201cQueen Of The Highway\u201d were more stripped back, as the band veered away from pop, psychedelia and the avantgarde, towards bluesy hard rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to get in touch with the first and second albums,\u201d says engineer Bruce Botnick, who also remastered the reissue. \u201cI think it was my suggestion that we mix back at Sunset Sound through the old tube console. That album has a little bit of the old in it and that was a conscious choice. In fact, \u2018Indian Summer\u2019 is actually from the first album. You can hear from the timbre of Jim\u2019s voice how youthful he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the exception of the funky political poem \u201cPeace Frog\u201d, Morrison reined back his more portentous tendencies. He preferred instead to sing about drinking or love affairs, like on schmaltzy ballad \u201cBlue Sunday\u201d and the seedy, slinky \u201cThe Spy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rock was heavy, but the mood was light and the studio chat on the reissue is largely good-humoured. Highlights include a rare studio version of original \u201cI Will Never Be Untrue\u201d, covers of \u201cMoney\u201d and BB King\u2019s \u201cRock Me\u201d, plus multiple takes of \u201cPeace Frog\/Blue Sunday\u201d, \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d and \u201cQueen Of The Highway\u201d.<\/p>\n

To shoot the cover, Elektra turned to Henry Diltz. Somebody in the Doors camp had spotted a flophouse at 1246 Hope Street called the Morrison Hotel, which seemed too good to be true.<\/p>\n

On December 17, 1969 the band, along with Diltz and his art director Gary Burden, drove down to take a look. The receptionist initially refused to allow them inside, but the band sneaked in and lined up inside the front window. \u201cIt was odd, they knew exactly how to pose,\u201d says Diltz. \u201cJim squatted down and they fell in beside him. I was right up close and my Gary was saying, \u2018Back up! Get the whole thing.\u2019 So I backed across the street with a moderate telephoto lens. When I talked to Ray about it many years later he said, \u201cThe Morrison Hotel<\/em>, where you could start a religion or plan a murder.’\u201d<\/p>\n

After the shoot, Morrison took them to a dive bar in Skid Row called the Hard Rock Caf\u00e9, where Diltz took more photos, one of which made the back cover. This photo directly inspired the name of the burger franchise. Morrison seemed right at home at the Hard Rock. \u201cHe was fascinated by the old guys, he bought them all beers,\u201d says Diltz. \u201cHe loved hearing about their lives. Jim was a very internal guy. He was a poet and a filmmaker and he was interested in the world and loved hearing all those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cthere was a lot of emotion on that stage\u201d \u2013 john sebastian<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

TOURING AND THE FINAL DAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Morrison Hotel<\/em> was released in February 1970, the band returned to the stage, playing shows in New York and San Francisco. Krieger says now that during these shows, they seemed rejuvenated. But by the time The Doors were ready to tour in April, Morrison\u2019s drinking had worsened. He put on weight and grew a beard, regularly hitting the stage full of booze and bitterness. \u201cIn Boston his anger was coming out, all the stuff he\u2019d been through during the enforced layoff,\u201d says Botnick. \u201cHe was angry about what had happened and he was probably angry at himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In New York, they were joined by John Sebastian. He was not used to Morrison\u2019s modus operandi but learnt to adapt. \u201cThe key was that you didn\u2019t watch Jim, you watched Ray,\u201d he says. \u201cJim would be rolling around on the stage and I\u2019d immediately look at Ray and Ray would be, \u2018Yep, here we go.\u2019 Ray would respond to Jim and the music flowed from that. It was starting to get to be like a hurricane and you really didn\u2019t know where Jim was going to go. I felt for the guy. He was a sensitive cat suddenly thrown into this love-god thing and I probably think he just wanted to be a musician. He got isolated by his fame.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The tour was arranged specifically so Elektra could record a live album, Absolutely Live<\/em>. Bruce Botnick was on hand to observe Morrison\u2019s conflicted attitude at close quarters. The audience wanted the drama of \u201cThe Unknown Soldier\u201d or \u201cThe End\u201d and Morrison sometimes complied but on other nights he withdrew, unwilling to perform on demand. The tour ended at the Isle Of Wight Festival in August. The Doors shut off the lights and played in total darkness, Morrison frozen to the mic not moving a muscle \u2013 the opposite of the Jim Morrison the audience expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of artists have told me that it gets to a point where they don\u2019t know who the audience has come to see \u2013 have they come to see them or have they come to see the performer they think they are,\u201d says Botnick. Morrison\u2019s drinking helped him escape this, but it didn\u2019t do much for his stagecraft. Bodyguards were hired to keep Morrison out of trouble, but the charismatic singer just dragged them down with him. Krieger recalls a show in New York when Morrison downed 20 shots of whisky before going on stage just to see what happened. \u201cWill it make it better? Will it make it weird? He was willing to take the chance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The threat of prison hung over Morrison. Once the trial got underway in August, the band testified that the singer had not exposed himself \u2013 but it didn\u2019t help. Even today, Krieger is angered by what he describes as a \u201csham\u201d of a trial. \u201cDon\u2019t you think one of us would have seen it?\u201d says Krieger. \u201cIt was pretty hard to miss!\u201d In September, Morrison was sentenced to six months hard labour but released pending appeal. Morrison was free, but for how long?<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t buy that jim was going to quit\u201d \u2013 robby krieger<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just as The Doors had exorcised the misery of 1969 by working out their frustration in the studio, they did it again at the end of 1970. They started recording what would become LA Woman<\/em> at Sunset Sound before relocating to their rehearsal space at 8512 Santa Monica Boulevard after Paul Rothchild walked out. It was a relief for all parties, not least because Rothchild was devastated by Janis Joplin\u2019s death in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought the same would happen with Jim,\u201d says Krieger. \u201cAfter Hendrix and Janis died, Jim said to me, \u2018Jimi, Janis, I think I\u2019m going to be next.\u2019 I thought he was kidding, but Paul may have seen the writing on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce Botnick was promoted to producer. As sessions got underway in December, The Doors were booked to play warm-up shows in Dallas and New Orleans \u2013 the latter on December 12, 1970. This would be The Doors\u2019 final show. \u201cNew Orleans was even worse than the Isle of Wight,\u201d says Krieger. \u201cIn New Orleans, he didn\u2019t want to be there. At one point he just sat on the drum riser and hung his head and wouldn\u2019t even sing. It was really sad. I have kind of blocked it out of mind. All I can really remember is Jim sitting there on that drum riser, not wanting to be there, not wanting to sing a note.\u201d<\/p>\n

A drunken Morrison forgot his lyrics, smashed his mic through the floor and told rambling jokes without punchlines. The band gave up and left the stage, eventually returning for an encore where they were joined by the support act, Kansas, astonished to find themselves taking part in The Doors\u2019 last stand. \u201cJim was blotto,\u201d says Kansas drummer Phil Ehart, who stood at the back shaking a tambourine. \u201cBut it was still one of the most incredible musical experiences I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band returned to the studio, emerging with the excellent LA Woman<\/em>. Krieger last saw Morrison sometime early in 1971 during the mixing of \u201cRiders On The Storm\u201d. Morrison said he was going to Paris but the band should continue to write, awaiting his return. What would have happened had he lived? Even those who knew Morrison best are split. Krieger and Botnick think that without the distraction of touring, The Doors would have built on the success of Morrison Hotel <\/em>and LA Woman<\/em>, two of their strongest albums. Morrison had enjoyed the LA Woman<\/em> sessions. As much as anything, it showed he had survived everything that 1970 had thrown at him and was still producing the goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t buy that he was going to quit to become a poet,\u201d says Krieger. \u201cWhen he went to Paris he was still jumping on the stage with bands every chance he got. He was a performer, that\u2019s what he did. We fully expected that Jim would come back from Paris and we would record again. I don\u2019t know about playing. The Beatles had stopped touring and then started pumping out album after album, and that was fine with us. We were prepared for that. It was better than Jim always getting into trouble.<\/p>\n

Jac Holzman, by contrast, thinks that after 1970, Jim Morrison was done with music, with Elektra and with The Doors. He last saw Morrison at a party for the opening of Elektra\u2019s new studio. \u201cJim was there and said, \u2018Hey Jac, I just came to see what my money was being used for.\u2019 He was waiting for me to respond but I just smiled. Then he said he was going to Paris. He started to walk away and I went up to him and said, \u2018What about a hug?\u2019 We had a massive hug that lasted about a minute and then he walked away. I kept looking at him, but he didn\u2019t look back. He kept walking. That\u2019s when I thought that we\u2019re probably not going to see him in a studio again. That was absolutely the end of The Doors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post \u201cA place where you could start a religion or plan a murder\u201d \u2013 why Morrison Hotel presented an opportunity for unrivalled creativity for The Doors<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in Uncut Take 283 (December 2020 issue)… Originally published in Uncut Take 283 (December 2020 issue)\u2026 When The Doors arrived at Elektra Sound Studios in Los Angeles in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-interviews","category-the-doors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}