 The Doors Summer's Gone by Harvey Kubernik Otherworld Cottage Industries (2018) I won’t claim to be the world’s biggest Doors fan but it would be a fool who tried to dismiss them out of hand. Their legacy still remains untouched, a band who brought true innovation to their music, inspiring many others who would follow and truly epitomizing the late Sixties, West Coast rock scene of which they were the vanguard. Admittedly, familiarity with their ‘classic’ songs over the years has perhaps dissipated their original impact, but just listen to the original six albums (made in a mere four years !), and you’ll see how remarkable they were. In a way, the music is all you need to know and many of the books that have been published on the subject are almost unnecessary once you know the basic story, but this book really captured my imagination. Instead of just recounting the same old stories, facts and figures, Harvey Kubernik has opted to gather together rare or exclusive interviews and recollections with people who were there at the time, ranging from the band members themselves to original fans and acquaintances, to relate the memories that really capture what made it special for them. This is what makes the book so interesting, as it puts the story in a clearer perspective and makes it easier to relate to. Fans - many of them just kids at the time - tell how they first came across the band and embraced their sound and |
image, while Ray Manzarek, Rob Krieger and John Densmore explain how everything came together in a natural, unpretentious way. Their conversations relay the excitement they felt as their music was created (‘without ego’) in the same way that the fans relate their excitement in seeing the band for the first time. This is something that most, if not all of us can recognise, concerning whatever bands you’ve loved or have been in, and it’s that excitement that still makes rock’n’roll so vital. It made me grab my old Doors albums and spend an evening listening through them again! Of course, much is made of the character and enigma of Jim Morrison and that’s inevitable. Someone who was such an iconic performer, who easily bewitched his audience but at the same time harbored a real desire to challenge them and push them further, is always going to be a focal point. But here, he’s also revealed to be a genuinely cool guy to those he got to know and someone who also felt the excitement of seeing his work come together (a particularly poignant tale comes from the bands’ former minder, Tony Funches, who relates the day when the first batch of Morrisons’ poetry book The Lords and the New Creatures arrived... Jim is described both as being ‘excited’ but also ‘real shy...trying to hide how proud he was.’) It’s these recollections, rather than the tales of his eventual disillusion and decline which so many books have focused-on, which will appeal to the real fans, a real glimpse of Morrison and not the media-projection that is usually portrayed. It’s episodes like this, which capture the real essence of the band, that I enjoyed so much and I’m sure anyone else, from rabid fan to appreciative listener, will do the same. Andy Pearson |
