Brian Gove/Getty ImagesWednesday the city of Los Angeles marked the 50th anniversary of the release of The Doors‘ self-titled debut album with a ceremony in the band’s native Venice neighborhood proclaiming January 4, 2017, “The Day of The Doors.”
Surviving members guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore were in attendance together with family members of late singer Jim Morrison and late keyboard player Ray Manzarek, to hear L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin say the band had “put Venice on the map forever and transformed rock and roll around the world,” and present Krieger and Densmore with a copy of the proclamation.
Densmore pointed out local landmarks in the band’s history, including the location of the soul food restaurant that was the inspiration for “Soul Kitchen.” The pair then threw a switch to light a Doors logo hanging from the famous Venice sign and performed a ramshackle rendition of “L.A. Woman.”
So what would Morrison and Manzarek make of the honor? “I just think they both would be pretty proud of this little band from Venice that somehow tapped into something bigger than the four of us,” Densmore told ABC Radio before the ceremony. “Together some magic came in, you know, the muse. We got blessed.”
“We made the album in about five days,” Kreiger remembered. “All they had to do was turn the tape recorder on ’cause we had played those songs every night for like a year and a half…there wasn’t a whole lot of fiddling around or wasting of time.”
Despite 18-months of honing the material, the success was sudden and life-changing, said Desmore. “What did Jim say? That his life at the time was like a bow being pulled back for 22 years and then, bam, let go,” he remembered.
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