The Doors
X Release Two B-Sides From Last Year’s Alphabetland
In a year of chaos, one of the best things that happened was when L.A. punk veterans X surprise-released a new album with their original members. Alphabetland was the ripping album we needed in the early pandemic days and thankfully, a few new tunes from those sessions have emerged. On Tuesday morning, X revealed B-sides “True Love, Pt. 3” and “Strange Life,” with the latter song featuring none other than the Doors’ Robby Krieger on slide guitar. “Robby came down on our last day in the studio and played on ‘Strange Life’. How fitting and how wondrous! And can there ever be enough ‘True Love’?” Exene Cervenka said in a statement. “Writing this reminds me of how much fun it was being in the studio with Rob Schnapf. He is a great producer and really helped make Alphabetland&nbs...
The 50 Best Albums of 1971
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely wilted; prog was nearing its popularity apex; Motown was still a revolutionizing soul music; the folk-rock movement was in full flight. The possibilities were limitless. You know it’s a banner year when 50 albums don’t begin to scratch the surface — when both John Lennon and Paul McCartney release definitive LPs and neither make the top 10. Was 1971 the greatest album year ever? We’ll save that debate for another time (or maybe another list). For now, we present 50 stone-cold cl...
The Doors’ John Densmore on His New Book About Musical Heroes
In his post-Doors life, drummer John Densmore is as much, if not more, of a writer than a musician. The author of two best-selling books, Riders On The Storm and The Doors Unhinged, he began working on his newest collection, The Seekers: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians (And Other Artists), several years ago. Inspired by the George Gurdjieff book Meetings With Remarkable Men, Densmore’s newest work, out on Nov. 17, focuses on the mentors and musicians he says “fed him” over the years. Each chapter highlights a different musical icon, weaving tales of his relationships with bandmates Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, alongside Bob Marley, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Janis Joplin and many more. The collection is a joyful history lesson for music geeks: Densmore is equ...
Robby Krieger Explores Jazz for His Upcoming Solo Project, But With ‘a Little Zappa, a Little Doors’
The album — the guitarist’s first in a decade — will arrive Aug. 14. One of Neil Young’s best-known lyrics — “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” — can be applied to numerous casualties of ’60s rock n’ roll. Yet despite the turmoil he has experienced over his career, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has neither burned out nor faded away. Krieger wrote some of The Doors’ best songs, including “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me” and “Love Her Madly.” And for the past 10 years, he has written jazz, blues and rock music from his home studio; guested on other people’s albums; formed the charity Art for a Cause to sell prints of his colorful paintings; and performed both Doors tunes and his solo material on tour. Now, a decade since his last album, ...
