Aram Saroyan and John Densmore
Touch of the Poet: Poetry and Percussion
Tuesday, June 10, 8:00 p.m.
Skirball
Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California
The joint performance began promptly, with John and Aram taking the stage at 8:05 p.m. to a sizeable crowd in the very comfortable and classy Ahmanson Hall at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California.
John wore black pants and a dark shirt, with a beige or grey vest. The back of his longish salt and pepper hair was tied into a little ponytail, as he often wears. He bowed to the appreciative audience as he crossed the stage before taking the seat at his drums on the left side of the stage, which were surrounded by hand drums, bells, rain stick, tambourine, and other things I don't know the names of. There was also a chair and music stand in front of the drums. We could tell we were in for an interesting and entertaining evening.
Aram was seated on the right side of the stage on a stool with a music stand. The show began with two percussion numbers.
John introduced the next number as an excerpt from his autobiography, the time frame being after the first Doors album was recorded but before its release (and before lawsuits). By way of explanation, this was his wanting to play the new record for his parents, but he was nervous about his folks' reaction to 'The End.' John went through that first album in sequence, sampling each song with some drumming or percussion, and sharing his description of each song as he introduced his parents to the record. (for example: "I Looked At You": a cute little song; "Light My Fire": this one could be a hit; "Back Door Man": we didn't write this one); etc. Of course, this all leads up to sharing "The End" with them, and explaining that Jim used some Greek tragedy story about Oedipus. It's an amusing episode of storytelling; I've heard John do this several other times in performance, and it's always enjoyable.
Aram performed numerous spoken word readings which were meaningful and interesting. I admit that my mind often wanders during poetry readings, but these made sense and held my interest! John's sensitive and effective accentuations brought Aram's words to the forefront. They spoke about wealth, budget deficits, and our economy, and went into what became an audience participatory number that had something to do with Rush Limbaugh and consisted of 'Third World Wants To Be First World' being repeated with different emphases. I guess you had to be there, but it was powerful!
John recited a song called "Anthem" from Leonard Cohen's album, 'The Future'. (thanks, Beverly)
John also performed a Talking Heads song from their 'Remain In Light' album called "Listening Wind." John was on the chair in front of the drum kit, playing one of the hand drums between his knees. He recited the lyrics, and softly sang each chorus. Beautiful!
After a performance of a Thelonius Monk song, which John climaxed with the whistle he had been wearing around his neck, Aram did a rap poem about George Dubya.
Several years ago, there was a bootleg "devil" doll that was out around Valentine's Day; it played 'Light My Fire'. John had one of those propped up against his drums, and at this point he picked it up, pressed the hand which caused the LMF recording to play, and put the doll on a chair between his drums and Aram's stool. The centerpiece! John remarked "we've got our Morrison doll" and then said, "never mind."
After one more number, "Fresh Out Of Tuna", they went offstage at 9:00 and came right back. For their encore, Aram recited a piece which he said was written about the time of JFK Jr.'s death, and was accented by John on various percussion. Aram did another piece, and then John read an excerpt from "An American Prayer" beginning with "... do you know the warm progress ..."
At 9:05 the house lights came on, and the audience was invited to kibitz! John and Aram answered many questions from the audience. This was the third time they had appeared together like this; the other two times were at Beyond Baroque in Venice, and at Fresno State.
In response to a question about his method for playing with Aram, John replied that the rhythm of the words tells him what instruments to use. John said he likes the hip-hop scene, although some of it is over the top. Aram spoke a little about Tupac.
The forthcoming CD with John's band, Tribal Jazz, will be out this fall. Someone asked about Eddie Vedder's performance with The Doors when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. John was very complimentary of Eddie, and then mentioned the Storytellers show they did a few years later with numerous singers. He said he is not supposed to say anything (lawyers!) but that what he is objecting to with what is going on now -- was the reason for several singers -- who is gonna fill Jim's leather pants!
In reply to a question about how he feels about the new generations of fans that the band keeps gaining, and how the music has lasted ... John said he had thought that maybe it would last ten years! And, the reason for the longevity is "the drumming, I guess." :=)
John mentioned that he had written a 300-page novel but it just didn't have it, it just didn't have the flow. However, he recently wrote a lengthy article, and the flow is returning!
When the audience questions ended, they left the stage. Aram sat at a table in the lobby to sign his book, and John's fans circled around to have items signed and to chat. Eventually John re-located to a table that was set up for him in the lobby where it was easier to write and sign items and talk to the fans.
As John was signing my Burning Sky CD insert, which he played on several songs on, he told me that he would be playing with Burning Sky and Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra in Sedona, Arizona on August 2nd. He said that more info will be posted on the official Doors site at a later date, and I'll be sure to list it on this site's calendar, as well.
A terrific evening! Beverly, Mark, Howard, Rachael and I enjoyed it immensely and wish we had more opportunities to enjoy John's inventive and sensitive drumming.
return to Ida's
LA Woman Confidential home pagefor more Doors news and reviews
by Ida
6/11/03