Notes

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San Antonio, Texas

audience: 1st row of lower arena, dead center (feet kicked up on the rail)

Fast forward to the present and original keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger are risking it all by unlocking "The Doors: 21st Century" and inviting a new era to break on through to the other side where original drummer John Densmore is replaced by Ty Dennis and former Cult vocalist Ian Astbury is squeezed into Morrison's sacred shoes. The new Doors swing open at Freeman Coliseum on Sunday and make no apologies for their motives.
"I guess the motive for resurrecting the Doors couldn't be for the joy of making music, could it?" cracked the ever-jovial Manzarek, calling from Los Angeles. "The sheer power of the music is what it's all about for me. I get a charge and a rush of energy out of it. That's why we're doing it.
"And we get paid for it. If each person would bring a ham or a sack of potatoes or a dozen eggs, we could do barter, but the way it works in our monetary society is we exchange a couple of bucks."
Since forming in Los Angeles in 1965, the Doors have remained a musically and culturally revered institution on a par with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. In Morrison, the band had a hair-trigger front man with brooding good looks, darkly poetic mysticism and lady-killer leather pants.
The band's jazzy, often manic, "Phantom of the Opera"-style keyboards coupled with Morrison's baritone register and soothsayer invocations were in stark contrast to the era's swaying flower sniffers awash in a swirl of tie-dye.
Before Morrison flamed out in a cloud of mushrooms, booze and acid rain, the Doors produced classic radio hits such as "L.A. Woman," "Riders on the Storm," "The End," "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times" and others too numerous to list here. The ride was short and fast, but eventually screeched to a halt at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Manzarek and Krieger decided to reopen the Doors following rousing receptions at an all-star jam on VH-1's "Storytellers" in 2000 and a Harley Davidson event in 2002. Astbury, a formidable singer and stage presence with the Cult, beat the likes of Creed's Scott Stapp, Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland and Perry Farrell to win Morrison's gig.
"Ian was the logical choice, man," Manzarek said. "Then you begin to realize he's got that shaman quality like Morrison. He's got that dark, brooding mysticism. He's cut from the same cloth. (Morrison) would love Ian singing his songs, 'cause Jim Morrison's words are being projected to an audience again, and a poet lives for his words.
"Jim used to always say, 'Listen to the words, man.' For them to be shouted out again in auditoriums, Jim would love it."
Not so for original drummer Densmore, who declined the reunion gig due to failing hearing. He subsequently took legal action to prohibit the use of the Doors name in advertising and promotional materials.
"The guy's got his own agenda," Manzarek said. "We asked him to play and he said he couldn't play because his ears were bad. Then, his ears got better and we repeatedly asked him to play and he said, 'No, I won't play with Ian. I might play if you got David Bowie.'
"God that's weird. Can you imagine David Bowie doing 'When the Music's Over'? I can't. I love Bowie, but ... Densmore has chosen to have his day in court and so be it. God bless."
Densmore's initial replacement was former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Differences of opinion soon iced that arrangement.
"It seemed like a good idea on paper, but stylistically, it just didn't work out," Manzarek said.
Reports that a bicycle wreck left Copeland injured prompted Manzarek to elaborate.
"Well, that didn't help either," he recalled. "We had to cancel gigs, the guy broke his arm and he's got other physical problems. And the Police just played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so he had to take time off for that. It was like, Jesus, he's got a million things to do, he's hurt himself, he's messed up our tour. It's, like, 'Stewart, it just ain't working out, man.'"
Given the band's repertoire and Astbury's vocal ability, it may be hard to knock the Doors.