“LSD really was a mystical experience for many people,” former Doors guitarist Robby Krieger told an audience at the Berklee Performance Center on Monday. Of course applause ensued, but whether for his frankness or as approval of his admitted use is uncertain.
During a 90-minute panel discussion with four Berklee Internet Radio student DJs and a question-and-answer session with the audience, Krieger chatted about his experience with The Doors.
Following the discussion and a brief, chaotic chance for audience members to have Krieger sign their time-worn Doors LPs, Morrison Crossing, a Doors tribute band comprised of Berklee Students, performed a 45-minute set with Robby Krieger on lead guitar.
The cover band displayed a real passion for The Door’s material. Nadeem Majdalany, the Morrison-for-all-intents-and-purposes, succeeded in channeling the voice, including the bluesy growl on songs such as L.A. Woman. But his attempts to recreate Morrison’s stage antics met with facetious smirks from the audience.
Krieger displayed his prowess during the set, with Morrison Crossing taking a back seat. At 61, Krieger still ripped the blues-tinged, hypnotic licks that gave The Doors their signature sound. Krieger showed great humility, allowing the other members of the band to solo as well and at one point, even engaged in a friendly guitar duel.
Although he spoke of having little interest in today’s music scene, at least the twentysomethings of Morrison Crossing seemed to pique his interest. Krieger and the band played strong right through their final song, “Soul Kitchen,” ending with the lyric “I’d really like to stay here all night.”
On September 17, 1967, The Doors performed an infamous version of “Light My Fire” on the Ed Sullivan Show with the lyric “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher.” Now why on earth didn’t Eddy invite him back?
Krieger, who began learning music on the trumpet, said he caught on to rock ‘n’ roll after he bought an Elvis Presley album. A decade before The Doors performed on Ed Sullivan, Presley played on the same show, complying with the producer’s orders that only his head and torso appear on screen, keeping his signature gyrations out of frame.
At the peak of their creativity, The Doors lived in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, next door to The Mamas and the Pappas and the late Frank Zappa. Between 1967 and 1971, The Doors released six albums together and were a fixture of the American counterculture, gaining infamy principally associated with the larger-than-life persona of front man, Jim Morrison.
Morrison, who died in a Paris hotel room at age 27, wrote most of the band’s lyrics and has a cult-like following that has certainly outlasted his five years in the limelight. While any discussion of The Doors would be lacking without mention of Jim Morrison, Krieger’s own perspective was an introspective chronicle of the era delivered in a down-to-earth manner.