| Rainer: |
Do
you have any suggestions for the book I am
writing? Anything I could use as a foreword? |
| Ray: |
Aah,
just be as, you know, be as profound as you can
be, you know, write for the ages, you know, write
for the ages, don’t write for today’s
market. Don’t write … don’t be
colored, don’t let your writing and your
interpretation of Jim be colored by the
negativity that this entire
planet is undergoing right now. |
| Rainer: |
That's
exactly what I want to avoid. |
| |
My book on
The Doors. Ray signed it to me when I visited him
a year later.
Photo
© Rainer Moddemann |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
Write … write for the ages, because two or
three years from now we begin another cycle.
Another cycle’s got to begin, you know. Here
in
California we had a big election two or three
weeks ago, and there was a Proposition 128, it
was called “Big Green”, and it was an
environmental,
ecological proposition that was going to just
stop the polluters, stop the cutting of the
forests, stop the pollution of the rivers, stop
poisons of sprays
and artificial chemicals and pesticides being put
on the ground – it lost! 2 to 1, it lost 66%
to 33%! Overwhelmingly, that’s a huge
defeat. It was
defeated. And all it had to do with was cleaning
up our environment here in California. We in
California said, ‘No, we don’t want
this. We do … we
will vote against this.’ So, there is this
madness up loose upon the land, and perhaps upon
the globe in which, we’re coming to the
millennium, too,
you know, it’s the end of the year 2000. A
thousand years ago they thought the Apocalypse
was coming. 990 in that era, in that … 1000
years ago it … |
| Rainer: |
Nostradamus,
yes. |
| Ray: |
…
it was the end, Jesus was coming again, the 2nd
coming was going to happen, it was imminent. And
people were just going crazy, because it was
going to be the end of the world. Well,
we’re coming right now to the same sort of
end, except what we’re coming to is the end
of … the end of the
organized Christian religion, that’s what
we’re coming to. The message of Jesus is the
same message as Jim Morrison, Love! Love! Love is
the
answer. What did Jim say? Love is the …
(sings) love is the answer. Love hides in
mysterious places, love hides behind the rainbow,
love hides in
molecular structures, love is the answer. Jesus,
Dionysis, here we have to give Dionysis his due,
the dying and the resurrecting God, Osiris, the
Egyptians, the ancient Egyptian God, Osiris.
It’s the same tradition, it … you can
smash it, you can push it down, but invariably it
comes back.
The power of the earth comes back. And what is
that power? It’s the power of love. And
that’s what Morrison was all about. Although
everyone
would say, “Ray, that’s ridiculous,
‘cause that’s not …”. |
| Rainer: |
I
think it’s because of the way he sometimes
behaved in public? |
| Ray: |
…
the way he behaved, the way he’s perceived
as behaving, o.k., the man was a wild artist, he
was an artist. In his art is Jim Morrison, Jim
Morrison in his words and in his music.
That’s the real Jim Morrison. Jim Morrison
became intoxicated by success, and ultimately
success
and fame killed Jim Morrison, and that’s the
tragedy. The tragedy is that he died so young.
The great joy is that he created the body of work
that he created. That will always stay with us.
The music, the words, we have his images,
we’ve got, you know, we have The Doors in
… on
film, so that we will always be there. The power
of what The Doors created will always be there. |
| Rainer: |
Hopefully,
interesting, yeah. |
| Ray: |
But
man, look out. Did you read the Val Kilmer
interview? In “Interview” magazine? |
| Rainer: |
I
bought it today but haven’t read it yet. |
| Ray: |
O.K.
“Interview” magazine and another one
called “Exposure” … an interesting
article about Jim is in “Exposure” and
Val Kilmer is in
that magazine, too. |
| Rainer: |
And
what does he say? |
| Ray: |
Read,
read between the lines. Put your philosophical
and psychological cap on when you read these
interviews with the guy who’s playing
Jim Morrison. |
| Rainer: |
I’ll
certainly do. I’ve got a few other
questions, Ray. |
| Ray: |
Go
ahead, sure. |
| Rainer: |
Can
I ask for a few persons, a few names, and you
just tell me, you know, a few comments on them?
Let’s start with John Haeny. |
| Ray: |
Engineer
on the “An American Prayer” album,
excellent engineer, very intellectual, well-read,
very sensitive man, was a pleasure to work with.
He was able to keep his focus through the whole
thing, which was very difficult, because it was a
lengthy process and he was able to keep this
focus, and I think he did a very, very nice job.
And he really got into the spirit of Jim’s
poetry, and was a pleasure to work with. |
| Rainer: |
Craig
Strete. |
| Ray: |
Aehm,
never knew, you know, if he knew Jim Morrison. I
don’t know Craig Strete, I never saw Craig
Strete, never met him. He’s a person who,
you know, jumped onto the band wagon for
“Burn Down The Night”. Get out of here,
get off, get out. You know how much money he got
for that
book? It was an unbelievable amount of money at
that time, I mean it was ridiculous, it’s
absolutely … it’s totally ridiculous. |
| Rainer: |
Yes,
I’ve heard about that, unbelievable. Some
people did some research, you know, on the book,
and found out that he, you know, all his stories
were taken from Doors songs or from poems and
other stuff that Jim had written, you know. |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
yeah. He made up his own, and as a kid who,
… you know … |
| Rainer: |
Pure
fantasy. |
| Ray: |
Right,
pure fantasy, exactly. I don’t know that he
ever knew Jim. Maybe he met Jim, you know, Jim
met a lot of people. He might have had a
couple of drinks with Jim here and there, and
they might have hung out together for an hour, a
day, a week, so what, you know. But …
that’s
totally absurd. |
| Rainer: |
Frank
Lisciandro. |
| Ray: |
Frank
is a UCLA graduate film school buddy of mine and
Dorothy, and Frank and Kathy and I, we had our
first acid trips together with Frank
and Kathy, and we used to be very good friends,
and I don’t see … I haven’t seen
France since he sued … he sued The Doors, he
didn’t sue
The Doors, he sued Danny for using some of his
photos in “No One Here Gets Out Alive”.
But I assumed that since Frank worked as The
Doors’ photographer, that The Doors owned
the photos and that it were … the photos
that Elektra Records had used, the four
individual shots
of The Doors in “The Soft Parade”
… |
| Dorothy: |
It
was technicality … |
| Ray: |
It
was a technicality … |
| Dorothy: |
…
which he used to benefit himself. |
| Ray: |
And
he sued The Doors, right. And Frank and I are no
longer on speaking terms, and I have nothing to
do with Frank Lisciandro. And, ah, I
guess, I don’t know, you know, Frank is a
real good guy, but I don’t … I’m
not sure whether or not one would classify him as
one of Jim’s
drinking buddies. And Jim’s drinking buddies
… |
| Dorothy: |
Certainly
not Jim’s best friends. |
| Rainer: |
That’s
written in the book, too. |
| Ray: |
Yeah. |
| Dorothy: |
Sure,
if he says, “Well, I was Jim’s best
friend”, somebody else comes along and says,
“If he says he’s really Jim’s best
friend, he must be
Jim’s best friend”. |
| Rainer: |
Or
whatever you call ‘best friend’. |
| Dorothy: |
After
three times, that’s Jim’s best friend! |
| Rainer: |
But
who was Jim’s ‘best friend’? Babe
Hill? |
| Ray: |
I
would say Babe, yeah. I would think that, you
know, if anybody had the right to say he was
Jim’s best friend, as if that mattered, I
would say
that Babe Hill should claim this. You know Babe
and Jim were best friends, you know. So anyway,
Frank sued Danny over the four photos that
were used in the inside of “The Soft
Parade”, and due to a technicality, ah,
… |
| Dorothy: |
You
wanna tell Rainer what the technicality is? |
| Ray: |
The
technicality is that Frank worked for The Doors
as did Kathy. Kathy was The Doors’
secretary, and … |
| Rainer: |
Yeah.
I met you guys in Hamburg in 1978 when you did
your promotion tour for “Prayer”, and
Frank was with you and worked for you … |
| Ray: |
Right,
right, right, … for “An American
Prayer”, yeah, right. And Frank worked on
“An American Prayer”, but then
something got the better of
him and just got he had to sue Danny over that
book, and I don’t know why. The technicality
was that we didn’t buy the film and pay for
the
development. |
| Dorothy: |
Except
I think that The Doors did, in fact. |
| Ray: |
The
Doors did buy the film, because … |
| Dorothy: |
…
because the money obviously came from petty cash. |
| Ray: |
…
it all came out from petty cash. We had a petty
cash in Kathy’s drawer, and if a roll of
film was a buck, two bucks in 68 – 69 –
70 – 71,
whatever, two bucks … |
| Dorothy: |
They
said you had no receipt saying, “The
Doors”. |
| Ray: |
There
were no receipts, and we did not - technically
speaking - say, “That film is purchased by
The Doors, we want a receipt for that, we own
those photographs. You work for The Doors as The
Doors’ photographer, you do not own the
photographs, we own the photographs.” So
when
I read the legal brief I was outraged. I was
absolutely outraged. “You didn’t
pay”, - didn’t pay, man, we paid this
guy an enormous salary, we
paid Kathy an enormous salary, we took them on
the road, we … you know, “It’s
Christmas time, here’s your Christmas
present, how about a
television set, a great big T.V. Set, not a box
of candy or something, give them a big
present”. These were our friends, these were
our psychedelic
friends, and then for Frank to come back with
that “I own the photographs”,
well, fine, I mean the photographs
aren’t any good anyway, quite
frankly, ah, Frank wanted to sell us his
photographs, and he wanted $25.000 for them, and
John Densmore said, “Gee, that’s great,
man, what is
that? 5.000 dollars per usable photograph”,
out of a group of 150 photographs. You get the
point? The point is that the photographs were
unusable
except for … so anyway, that’s my
relationship with Frank Lisciandro, we don’t
have any relationship anymore. After that lawsuit
I said, “I’m
sorry, man, I can’t, you know, …” |
| Rainer: |
What
about Dennis Jacob? |
| Ray: |
Dennis
… Dennis was Jim’s, ah, Jim lived up on
his rooftop, ah, before Jim came down on the
beach to meet me when I said to him, “Where
are
you living”, back in ’65, summer of
’65, and he said, “I’m living on
Dennis’ rooftop”, … |
| Rainer: |
That’s
where he wrote some of his early songs … |
| Ray: |
Right.
And, “What have you been doing?”
“I’ve been writing songs.” And I
said, “Well, come on, you don’t have to
live with Dennis anymore,
you can, you know, we’re gonna set …
we’re gonna get this band going, so
you’d go on and you live with us, man, you
don’t have to live outside.”
And, you know, “I live on a rooftop”,
“Come on, get your stuff, pack up,
you’re moving in with me and Dorothy.” |
| |
Meanwhile
Pooti the parrot had continued walking across the
floor, eating peanuts and climbing onto
Dorothy’s arm where he had been resting
for more than half an hour. Then all of the
sudden he decided to jump onto the table and walk
straight forward into my direction again. He
bowed
his head and looked at some sheets of paper with
my notes lying next to me. |
| Ray: |
(commenting
on Pooti): He loves to eat paper, actually,
especially when it’s important. If
you’ve got anything written on it he’ll
eat it, he’ll tear
it up, man. |
| |
I
quickly hid the paper sheets behind my tape
recorder. Ray smiled at Pooti who jumped down on
the floor again. |
| Ray: |
And
Dennis, ah, Dennis has since gone mad. |
| Dorothy: |
I
think he’s in an insane asylum, isn’t
he? |
| Ray: |
Right.
Dennis has … Dennis was a brilliant mind
from UCLA, he was a brilliant, but the center
would not hold, and ultimately Dennis had this,
has gone mad. |
| Rainer: |
What
about the relationship between you and Danny? |
| Ray: |
Goes
way back! (laughs) |
| Rainer: |
Yeah,
I know, I know. |
| |
Rainer
Moddemann and Danny Sugerman - July, 1989.
Photo
© Rainer Moddemann |
| Ray: |
It
goes way back. All the way back to when I quit
the Doors. When we were in England, and, ah, when
we were in England and Dorothy was
pregnant, and John and Robby said, “We think
it ought to be Hard Rock”, and I said,
“No, I think it ought to be Jazz”, and
two days later I
said, “I quit”. And we came back to the
States, and it was time to put The Doors to bed
anyway, The Doors had finished themselves up.
Time to close The Doors, you know, two albums
without Jim was enough, that was enough. And, you
know, we all mutually agreed that that
was enough. Aah, and Danny was at The Doors'
office, and, I went back to The Doors' office,
and Danny and I talked and started thinking
about music and life and who The Doors were and
what The Doors were all about and what Jim
Morrison was, and we agreed on the fact
that The Doors' music was exceptional and Jim
Morrison was an exceptional poet. And Danny went
to work for me as a publicist at that
time, and we've been working together and he
works for The Doors, and he's been … we've
been together ever since. And, you know,
he's … he loves Jim. He loves Jim,
understands Jim, and, you know, he's … |
| Rainer: |
…
he's a good publicist, you know, … |
| Ray: |
He's
a great publicist. |
| Rainer: |
The
work he did on 'The Illustrated History', you
know, that's amazing. Really. |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
yeah. As a publicist he's absolutely topnotch,
and he's done a wonderful job, you know, The
Doors are, ah, well, we're talking about
The Doors today, you know, if it hadn't have been
for somebody, for Danny or somebody very much
like Danny handling that function, I
certainly couldn't have done it, and John and
Robby couldn't have done it, the three of us
could not have worked with the press, and worked
with MCA Video, and worked with the people at
Elektra to keep The Doors' catalog in print and
all those things that had to be done. And
Danny was very very good at doing all of that
kind of business legwork that had to be done to
keep The Doors alive. |
| Rainer: |
I
forgot to ask you about the films you did at the
UCLA. There was one called 'Evergreen' … |
| Ray: |
'Evergreen'
and 'Induction'. Right. And then I did a design,
a short design film called 'Who and where I
live'. I don't think that exists anymore,
but the other two … the other two films are
still over at UCLA. They show them in, you know,
student classes and stuff and say, you know,
“This guy is from The Doors. Here is his
student movie”. And Jim's movie doesn't
exist anymore either. |
| Rainer: |
What
was this all about? |
| Ray: |
Jim's
movie? Aah, a juxtaposition of images, an
interesting collage of visual images that didn't
necessarily have anything to do with each other,
but went together to make up a very poetic sort
of statement. And it was, you know, youthful
rebellion - a girl standing in ... a girl
standing in her
underwear dancing on top of the television set,
long black garters, actually a German girl, Elke,
and she's up there, John DeBella's film school
buddy, John DeBella's girlfriend, and they're
shooting and she's on top of the TV, dancing on
the TV the best she can. And Jim said,
“Quick!
Turn the TV on, then I'll see what images we
get!” He turns the TV on and it was …
what comes on the TV? Leni Riefenstahl's 'Triumph
of the
Will'. Can you believe it? What? Pure
serendipity, pure chance, just boom! It came on
the TV set. (laughs) So there is this beautiful
German girl
dancing in her underwear, long black stockings,
bra and panties, that's one image. Another image
is throwing darts at an upside-down Playboy
Bunny, and with the light coming from the sides
so as each dart hits the shadow went off to the
side and you couldn't tell which dimension you
were
in, and then there was a bunch of guys getting
high, and the final image is of Jim with a huge
joint, just taking a hit of a big joint and
rolling his eyes,
and then I think there was another shot of an
explosion. And there were a lot of other things ,
too, with a very strange soundtrack, a sort of
industrial
kind of soundtrack, and I can't remember what
exactly was in the soundtrack. Anyway, that was
Jim's movie, it was poetry, it was a poetic, a
poetic
movie. It had nothing to do linear cinema,
story-telling cinema, characters acting, it was
just … it was poetry. And the teachers hated
it, of course.
(laughs) It was good, it was really quite good, I
liked it, a lot of people liked it, but the
teachers hated this piece. “That's not the
kind of films we're
making here, Mr Morrison.” But it was Jim,
it was … it was outrageous, it was
absolutely outrageous, it was … |
| Dorothy: |
Well,
it didn't go through the projector either –
it was really bad. |
| Ray: |
Right.
Technically he wasn't able to make good splices.
He had no technical facility that way. And the
sticky stuff would stick to the splicing tape. |
| Dorothy: |
He
had to go back and re-splice it. And then they
ran it again and went through it the second time,
still hated it. |
| Ray: |
He
really, he was not too happy with the response to
his film, but, you know, I mean, the people that
he liked, his friends and the people that
knew him, you know, to the man liked the movie.
Everyone said, “Ay, good, man, good.”
You know, I told him, “Ay, that is, that's
terrific, it's
terrific. It's very poetic and very artistic. And
very good.” |
| Rainer: |
Does
the same go for 'HWY', the movie everybody wishes
to own? |
| Ray: |
No,
that is, that's cannabinol, yeah, that was, that
was done under the influence of cannabinol, and
the first five minutes – and liquor –
and the
first five minutes are good. That's what they set
out to shoot, but, ah, Paul Ferrara shot that,
and then afterwards it just sort of degenerated
into drunken guys coming back into Los Angeles
and shooting everything, and being high on
cannabinol, some kind of marijuana pill of some
sort, I have no idea exactly what it was, and
it's not really a very good film. But there are
some interesting scenes in it, especially the
first five
minutes. The first five minutes are very good. |
| Rainer: |
I
haven't watched it yet. (Annotation: I couldn't
tell Ray that I actually had already got a VCR
tape with the full movie the night before the
interview and promised not to tell anybody,
including Ray.) |
| Ray: |
Yeah.
Well, you may never. It belongs to the estate, I
have no access to it. I would love to get my
hands on the first five minutes of it, at least,
and definitely put that into a video. 'Cos that's
what they went out to shoot. “Let's go to
the desert and shoot, and here's …”.
This is what they
had in mind, and Jim coming out of the wadi, down
the hill, that was in Palm Springs, and
hitchhiking on the freeway. “We'll get that,
let's just go
out and get that”. And that's what they got.
That's good, that works. Well, what time is it
there? What time does it say on the TV, Rainer?
Under
the … |
| Rainer: |
The
time? TV? Ah, quarter to five. |
| Ray: |
Ok,
quarter to five, one or two more and I gotta go
and get … pump some iron. |
| Rainer: |
Ok,
who was the 'Ashen Lady' in 'Roadhouse Blues'? |
| Ray: |
I
have no idea, no, I have no idea. |
| Rainer: |
The
same question goes for 'Maggie M'Gill'. |
| Ray: |
'Maggie
M'Gill' is a mythical character. 'Maggie M'Gill'
is the mythical quintessential, the mythical
woman. |
| Rainer: |
Aha,
ah yeah. What's your interpretation of 'the blue
bus', as a final question? |
| Ray: |
'The
blue bus', ah, I've always thought of the 'blue
bus' as Jim's version of the Egyptian solar boat.
The solar boat is the boat …, from 'The
Golden Scarab' it is the boat that the pharaohs
and everyone, everyone else rides on through
infinity, through eternity, and 'the blue bus'
was
for me a vehicle that would take you on a
journey, on a voyage into magical places. That's
what I always thought of as 'the blue bus'. Blue,
the color blue, the heavenly blue, the morning
glory, so the blue of the sky, and you're riding
instead of riding a stage coach you're riding a
barque, barque of the pharaoh. Well, what do we
have in contemporary society? The bus. We all,
your friends get on board the bus, and we
start to drive, and eventually we elevate and the
bus takes off into the cosmos. |
| Rainer: |
So
it's more or less …, ah, more an image than
a real bus. 'Cos I noticed there's a blue bus
line from ... |
| Ray: |
…
Santa Monica, right, right. I never … I
don't think that has anything to do with it,
although it could, you know, I mean it could be
that bus. |
| Rainer: |
People
like to interpret your songs … |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
but it's more of a cosmic, it's a cosmic journey,
and blue being the color of the cosmos out there.
And then the next line is, 'driver where
are you taking us'. On a trip, man, on a voyage
to some places you have never been before, and
some of them are gonna be scary, some of
them are gonna be a lot of, lot of fun, like 'The
Crystal Ship'. A thousand girls, a thousand
thrills. |
| Rainer: |
Great
and beautiful song. |
| Ray: |
Yeah.
And that's where we're going. That's where Jim is
now. And one of these days we'll all join him.
And we'll have a big rock concert in infinity. |
| Rainer: |
Hopefully
this will take a long time until that happens. |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
right, exactly. Let's stretch that out as long as
possible. |
| Rainer: |
I
know someone who's a, you know, devoted Ray
Manzarek fan. That's her (I'm showing Ray a photo
of my friend Lindsey). Would you please
be so kind and sign this postcard for her? |
| Ray: |
Sure.
What's her name? |
| Rainer: |
Oh,
Lindsey. You know, I'm gonna mail this postcard
to her. |
| Ray: |
Ok. |
| Rainer: |
She's
one of your devoted fans. No photos of Jim … |
| Ray: |
What
a perceptive person! |
| Rainer: |
If
you don't mind, could you also sign a few album
covers? |
| Ray: |
Sure.
Uuh, came out in Germany! (Ray is looking at a
copy of 'Nite City – Golden Days Diamond
Nights') |
| Rainer: |
It
did … why just in Germany? |
| Ray: |
I
don't know. Is it Germans are smart? Copyright
reasons I believe. Is this yours? |
| Rainer: |
Yes,
it is, sure. |
| Ray: |
Sorry!
Can I write it to you then? |
| Rainer: |
Yes,
sure! Here are a few more. (Ray signs my 'Nite
City – Golden Days Diamond Nights' to me) |
| Ray: |
Ok,
I'll just sign them. |
| Rainer: |
Thanks! |
| Ray: |
Oh,
look at that! (Ray is looking at his signature he
has just written with my silver pen on the black
cover of 'The Golden Scarab') |
| Rainer: |
Yeah,
your signature looks great on this album, written
with this silver pen. |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
look at that! Should I put your name on? |
| Rainer: |
Oh
yes, this is my copy, you know, it's a German
pressing, and they used this glossy paper. |
| |
Photo ©
Rainer Moddemann |
| |
Ray
continues signing all covers, labels and photos I
had given to him. Suddenly Pootie the parrot
starts walking across the table again.
Dorothy had taken care of him during our
conversation. |
| Rainer: |
Is
it a 'he' or a 'she'? |
| Dorothy: |
'He'. |
| Rainer: |
You're
sure? |
| Ray: |
Yeah.
The color. |
| Dorothy: |
He
has male colors. This particular type has, ah,
… the female is colored differently from the
male. |
| Ray: |
They
don't have the yellow and the red, they're green,
but that yellow and the red is … |
| Rainer: |
My
mother had a little parrot and she always thought
it was a male, you know, but one morning she
found an egg inside the cage, and she
couldn't believe it. She changed the parrot's
name immediately. |
| Dorothy: |
Well,
actually Pootie has a girl's name. We thought he
was a girl. |
| Ray: |
He
does have a girl's name, we thought he was a girl
at first, too. |
| Rainer: |
Really? |
| Ray: |
Yeah.
Pootie, yes, you! |
| Dorothy: |
Since
he can say his name it's too late to change it. |
| Ray: |
Right. |
| Rainer: |
You're
almost done signing, Ray. This is my copy, please
sign it to me. (I'm giving him a copy of his
12” 'The whole thing started with Rock'n
Roll now it's out of control'. He signs it to
me.) |
| Ray: |
So
what did you hear about the movie, man? |
| Rainer: |
Well,
different things. Not that much at all, you know,
everybody says different things about the movie,
in a positive or negative way. Well, I
guess we should wait until it comes out. |
| Ray: |
Yeah,
I guess so. |
| Rainer: |
Have
you seen a rough cut of it? |
| Ray: |
No. |
| Rainer: |
No?
I was trying to get Oliver on the phone, but he's
not in town they said. |
| Ray: |
Lies,
all lies. They're liars, he is in town. Of course
I don't know that for a fact. |
| Rainer: |
Why
does he make such a total mystery out of this
movie? Nobody I have talked to knows why. Usually
people talk a lot before a movie comes
out. What do you think, will it get an Oscar, or
will it get nominated at least? |
| Ray: |
(laughs) |
| Rainer: |
It
will get nominated, don't you think so? |
| Ray: |
For
what? Best picture? |
| Dorothy: |
Best
costumes designing … |
| Rainer: |
Best
picture, best director, best music … who
knows … |
| Ray: |
Ah,
who knows, man. |
| Rainer: |
Best
actor? |
| Ray: |
I
haven't seen the movie. |
| Dorothy: |
Definitely
not best actor. |
| Rainer: |
No? |
| Ray: |
Ah!
(laughs) (I am giving Ray a promotional 7”
of 'The Solar Boat'. Ray signs the white label
disc.) |
| Rainer: |
I've
bought this one at a second-hand record store
down on Melrose, it cost me 5 bucks. |
| Ray: |
Ay! |
| Rainer: |
Seems
to be pretty rare, this record, huh? |
| Ray: |
I've
never seen one! |
| Rainer: |
No? |
| Ray: |
It's
amazing! |
| Dorothy: |
What
is it? |
| Ray: |
'Solar
Boat', promotional copy. |
| |
Photo
© Rainer Moddemann |
| Rainer: |
I
didn't know that it was out on a single. |
| Ray: |
I
didn't even know it was out on a single. Or if I
did, I don't remember, but Pablo was just born at
the time, so I had other things on my
mind, you know. |
| Rainer: |
Ok,
yeah, I understand. |
| Ray: |
That's
why I put in Didi and Gogo, and little Pablo.
Didi and Gogo are a reference to, ah, 'Waiting
for Godot'. And that's why he can't
come today, that's what they say at the, ah,
“Are you waiting for Mr. Godot? Well, he
can't come today, perhaps he'll come
tomorrow.”
And that's what that's all about. |
| Rainer: |
Lovely
album. Wish you'd put it out on CD. |
| Ray: |
Yeah.
Well, I get around to it one of these days. |
| Rainer: |
What
about The Doors getting a star on the Walk of
Fame? |
| Ray: |
Ah,
I don't know anything about it. |
| Rainer: |
I've
heard there are people working on it … |
| Ray: |
Oh
yeah? |
| Rainer: |
Yeah,
yesterday I met someone who told me that. What do
you think of it? |
| Ray: |
Ok.
Well, maybe after the movie. What do I think
about it? Well, whatever … oh, Oliver Stone,
there you go, ok, well, The Doors'
qualification Oliver Stone, ok, now we're
qualified. We didn't, ah, … |
| Rainer: |
No,
I don't think because of the movie you will get a
star, you know, this girl gave a list to me
yesterday, and she said, “We're trying to
get 10.000 signatures for The Doors getting a
star on Hollywood Boulevard,” you know. They
want The Doors, not Jim Morrison. Which
I think is pretty good. |
| Ray: |
Fine,
if we get one; fine, if we don't get one; fine.
We make peace, let's make peace on the planet-
Make love, not war. That's it! |
| Rainer: |
Thanks
for the interview, Ray! Thanks for the drinks,
Dorothy! |
| Ray: |
You're
welcome, it was fun! |
(very special thanks
to Lindsey McFadyen)
|
|
