@@TheDirtyDoorsDoors must have been the most unlikely band to ever emerge from the 1960's music explosion. They had the biggest impact on me of any rock band. The magical sound of Ray's Fender keyboard bass was a big part of the magic, especially on " Break on Through". My father had an all tube mono system from the 50's. (Dynaco, made in NJ) with aJBL 15 inch co-ax speaker in a huge cabinet. I eventually became a high end loudspeaker designer in Boulder Colorado for 25 years.! Viva the " Sound" .
I'll continue to argue to my dying day, The Doors were arguably the greatest American rock & roll band ever, to this day; their body of work, those 6 magnificent albums, unmatched in beauty, variety, texture, significance, depth and soul searching composition. Forever, The Doors ❤
I never knew that Ray had and played a Fender Rhodes Bass keyboard- wow, a revelation. Never heard of that instrument. Cool 😎 The first record was one of my first albums at 13 in 1970!
Hi buddy, thank you so much~~ I always felt that if Ray played the bass, then he would be too busy：）And the bass tone of LA woman’s entire album is simply amazing. If it comes from a keyboard, it would be incredible @_*~~Jerry Scheff bass work is awesome～～～GREAT the DOORS
I know completely different group but fun fact anyway: The RHCP uses various studio keyboardist on many of their albums as well as various backup vocalist, tenor sax percussionist. As well, if you have ever seen them live a number of times, you can see him usually right side far back on the stage in the shadows. The keyboardist is never mentioned/accredited during live performances. This practice is more common than people realize and is different when a band has a guest musician or vocalist. Some contracts have a clause that you can't ever mention you are on the albums or played live. Other times you maybe maybe accredited on the album if you contribute to the song's development. Having said that, with the internet, it's getting harder to hide these guns for hire and they are getting more recognition. With the Pepper's albums, some have been accredited and some have not. Touring, they only mention the individual if they are temporary standing for one of core members.
Lonnie Mack... I met him at Bent Back Records in Columbus, Ohio the 80s. He told stories about hard times - living in a trailer down by the river, selling Bibles out of the trunk of his car before he lost the car, playing bass on a couple of songs with the Doors, and how Jim Morrison joked about faking his own death so he could live out the rest of his life in peace. Eventually Stevie Ray Vaughn came and dragged him out of his trailer to play some music. It's been many years - I'm not sure if he was living in a trailer or a bus down by the river, or what city it was. It's been a good 40 years ago. He told us that the Flying Vee was supposed to be called the Lonnie Mack, but that Gibson decided when Les Paul and Mary Ford went into divorce court, that there was too much risk of scandal if they put a person's name on a guitar, so they pulled the Les Paul name a for a few years and never put Lonnie's name on the Vee.
Off topic from The Doors, I know, but FYI - Gibson didn't "pull the Les Paul name" - Les Paul wanted his name taken off of the guitars when Gibson changed the body style completely in '60 or '61, and Mr. Paul didn't like the change. So after making the new style "Les Pauls" for a VERY short time, Gibson re-named the guitars "SG" - for "solid guitar", and has kept on making this style (SG) for about 60 years now. The Les Paul name didn't appear on new Gibsons until the later part of the 60's when they re-introduced the single cut-away, heavy-as-a-boulder style that we all know and love. This was mostly because the '59 Pauls were so sought after and hard to get that Gibson saw that they could make a fortune by making guitars again using Les Paul's original design. I know that Lonnie Mack had one of the first few V's that were made, however, I couldn't find any other indication that Gibson seriously considered naming a guitar after him. It seems unlikely that Ted McCarty would have gone for that. Maybe someone just fed Lonnie a load of bull so that he would stick with the V - which had terrible sales and would soon be discontinued.
@@peterb7923 Yeah, I have no idea of the actual facts, just repeating Lonnie's story. I'm sure you've got more dependable historical info than Lonnie's own stories. I'm a believer that eye witness testimony is generally unreliable. However, it's no surprise when someone has a cover story for an embarrassing situation - Les Paul might have said his name came off the guitar "so he could spend more time with his family" as public figures do today. True, the divorce did not occur until 1964, but Paul and Ford's marital problems started much earlier, and neither Les Paul nor Gibson wanted to emphasize scandal. Unlike today, people were ashamed of such things rather than becoming even more famous for them. There's two sides to every story, and the truth is usually somewhere between them.
@@coldacre I didn’t know that… he was one talented dude for sure. I enjoy listening to the Doors stories he tells that are on RU-vid, he had an interesting, very engaging way about him!
@@loilt5091...But why did no other Rock band use the Fender Key Bass ? It was way cool. ! ...and being Fender, it was available at Fender Dealers nation wide. Mystery.
Harvey Brooks is the only bass player who played live with the band onstage.. For the little ones to learn and the grown-ups to remember..!! ‘68 LA Forum show and Madison Square Garden New York, NY January 24 1969.. Excellent video. Greay job..!! P.S. Trust Alex he is a mastermind..!!
Thanks for watching! Alex makes a good point about L'America. I probably should have mentioned there are questions about when and where it was recorded. As for Twentieth Century Fox, I absolutely hear a bass guitar. It's possible Larry Knechtel played it instead of Robby, but I'll give that one to Robby since it's in his book.
Excellent history. I never knew all of these bassists played with the Doors 🚪 Thank you 🎉 🕉 Lonnie Mack played bass on two tracks! Unreal. And John Sebastián!
As a bass guitar player (started at 50!), a lead and harmony singer (62) and now bass/keys (65, two years now) I really really appreciate the effort that went into this. And Ray's talent. It's not easy, but definitely worth the effort. Our 3-piece band sounds like there are more of us. A very thorough, well researched video.
Wow! I really can't add anything that wasn't already expressed, but many thanks for putting such a well researched and produced video on RU-vid! It was really and truly amazing and fascinating!
Agreed! I had as much (maybe even more) fun identifying the isolated bass tracks to the songs they came from as I did learning what you were teaching me about the musicians who made them! Great video; concise but thorough, great balance!
This is a great video! This is vital information about the band that is rarely fleshed out in such a concise way. Thanks for making this! Very informative!
Ray Manzarek is one of my idols (I'm a piano player now). I've found that nearly all the classic Doors numbers from their first few albums translate directly and very nicely to the piano. I'm quite sure that is the direct result of Ray Manzarek's classical training. A decent baby grand or grand with the top open is fully capable of making numbers like "Light My Fire", "When the Music's Over", "Soul Kitchen", and "Break on Through" sound just fine as solo piano numbers. That left-hand bass drives those numbers even without percussion or guitar. My audiences have always loved my Doors material. Props for an excellent, informative, and very entertaining video.
This is a gem. Always "heard" bass on Doors records, but had only known about Scheff on LA Woman. Didn't know about Doug Lubahn nor his connection to the band Dreams, which was a point early in the careers of Billy Cobham, John Abercrombie, and of course Michael and Randy Brecker. Many thanks for the comprehensive and well-paced coverage!
Leroy Vinnegar! He was a GREAT player and big influence on later titans like Dave Holland. What a list of bassists - for a group that "didn't have a bassist", they sure had a platoon of them!
I used to work in the Bank Tower building in downtown Portland, and I'd see LV in the elevator when he was gigging at the club way at the top. He was on oxygen, and his gear took up most of the car.
As I understand it studio bass player Carol Kaye played bass guitar on "Light My Fire". Perhaps she was mistaken but it is certainly possible since she was a much in demand bass player in that era.
I met Carol Kaye in the 90s and she sad she did some Doors sessions and thought she played on "Light My Fire" but was not 100 percent sure since she was doing so many gigs at that time. Yes, basically what you said, nice job THX
@@TheDirtyDoors Currently reading Ray Manzerak's autobiography. He talks at some length about the recording of 'light my fire'. , no mention at all of Carol Kaye , certainly gives the impression he played the Fender Rhodes Bass Keyboard on the song and no mention of overdubs at all. Interesting read, and having read many years ago John Densmore's memoir , i get the impression , you'd get a different story on everything depending on who your talking to.
@@TheDirtyDoors Just want to add that according to Ray, Strange Days album was the first record where they used a electric bass and that's when the guy from Clear Light was used
Kaye could have been tracked outside of the presence of the band if she tracked to tapes of the other instruments. Dome one should ask her if any of the members of the band were in the studio when she tracked. Also, could have been tracked but not made it into the album mix.
This is Great!!! An early and long time Doors fan here. Thank you for this exhaustive and comprehensive history of the Door's bass players. The first ever.
The Doors had no permanent bass guitar player, but I think Ray's unique (for the time) approach of playing bass keyboard is one of the main things that makes the band special.
In retrospective, most guys weren't fond of playing bass due to heavier strings and usually got less respect then the rest of the band but some have master it.
The star of The Doors has never been Morrison for me, rather, the three musicians, whom I would collectively describe as "tasteful". I play bass guitar, and I love Manzarek's hypnotic lines and the lines developed by their guests--for "L.A. Woman", especially. Krieger and Densmore play clean, effective parts, that accentuate the music and add to its mystery. "Riders on the Storm" is perhaps the best example of this. Morrison did some good stuff, but the other three are the reason I listen to The Doors.
Nobody gave a crap about The Doors after Morrison died.....period. I dont remember ANYTHING those others guy did after 1971 because it wasnt any good. SHOCKED to hear they continued as mostly a cover band until Ray died. WOW.
Was at the recording of La woman and just missed Morrison but spoke to Jerry Scheff for a while..3 days later left the country and happened to end up in Paris that August and of course went to Pere-Lachaise…
OMG! In Light My fire at 4:30 bass guitar plays octave A instead of Manzareck's G on Am chord, and, of course, on the next F#m chord - F# instead of E.
The Doors could’ve been such a better, more complete sounding band if they at least hired a bassist for their live shows. Their live sound massively lacked low end and sounded weak.
I love Doug Lubahn's playing with The Doors. The playing on Strange Days really adds dimension and atmosphere to the whole swirl of the mix -- the title track and My Eyes Have Seen You come to mind especially. My favorite of his Doors parts, though, is probably Wishful Sinful. The way he chugs away on arpeggios in the final refrain as the strings play a version of a blues bend just kills me every time.
Yes, all songs on the first album have bass. Five of the songs have only Ray Manzarek playing a Fender Rhodes Piano Bass. The other six also have overdubbed bass guitar.
After Jim Morrison died, the Doors put out an album called Other Voices which I bought. I always have thought that Jim Morrison would make a great Big Band singer.
@@TheDirtyDoorsBig Thanks for putting in the time to research all of this complex of musicians who must have believed in what the Doors meant to the music lovers community. ( Like me ! ).
As a bassist since 14, I've always been interested in who played bass for the Doors as they've some of the best bass lines. I knew all but the first album which has been a mystery... Til now. Also Ray had some guitar chops! Thats refreshing as I've loved the raw guitar sounds of Maggie M'Gill and Been Down So Long. Currently learning the bass to said song.
How can you play bass at the same time you're playing chords and melodies with the left. Can you imagine "Land Ho" (should have been a single) without the bass ? Probably why they never played it live.
Excellent observation! Case in point - millions of people know who Bruce Springsteen is - but I'll bet only a very small percentage of those people know the name of the bassist who has been in the E Street Band from its earliest days to the present - Gary Tallent. Gary's words about his role in the band: "If I'm doing my job right, no one will notice me. But EVERYONE will notice if I stop." Stealth, indeed!
i find it hard to believe that the lovin spoonful was held in higher regard by the music community at the time. i'm sure it's true but the lovin spoonful only has 2 good songs.
Thanx for making this EXCELLENT piece - I really enjoyed the attention to detail and work that went into this. It's a shame that some of the comments here are so uninformed (to put it politely) but that's just to be expected I guess. I'll add a couple thoughts of my own here - I'm quite sure that Larry Knechtel is playing bass on "Break On Through". The reason I say this is because there was a video awhile back with either Bruce Botnick or Paul Rothchild where they isolated all the parts on the song and explained how the song was put together. It's seemingly impossible to hear the part clearly because of the way it was mixed - just like Morrison's whispering on "Riders On the Storm" is buried - but you'd know if it wasn't there. And for about 5 or 6 reasons I could give, I think it's extremely unlikely that Carol Kaye ever played on any Doors recording sessions.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the compliments! But I do have to disagree. Larry Knechtel is definitely not playing bass on Break On Through. The only bass on that song is Ray Manzarek playing the Piano Bass.
@@TheDirtyDoors You are 100% correct about this - Larry Knechtal said this himself as well as Ray and Robbie and John all have said it's Ray's keyboard bass only on 'Break On Through'. In one interview Rothchild said, "Ray's bass was so dominating on that 1st single (Break On Through) but on the other tracks it just didn't come off strong enough on the recording, so we knew we had to get a real bass to play along with Ray's already recorded basslines."
Kind of seems to me like that was a lot of trouble to not have a full time bass player yet at the same time fiddle around with that cumbersome Fender keyboard. Also, seems like it was a lot of trouble to where every time they needed an actual bassist they had to rent one. I’ve played bass before and most of the time I would just noodle around until we found something we liked and I played that.
